Companies have high expectations of the 440 colleges of further education, which will be the largest source of the skilled middle-range staff on whom industrial efficiency and innovation depend. Colleges look to employers to play four distinct roles--as customers, as places of learning, as advisors, and as joint planners in the regional or local economy. The strategic role of Training and Enterprise Councils (TECs) in the partnership is to speak for companies taken together as a regional sector and to suggest the pattern and demands of jobs likely to be available to college-qualified people. Research points to four distinct objectives for improved and better defined college/employer interaction: to draw a wide range of employed people into continuing education and training; to continue developing a high-quality "applied" mode of education; to guide students towards those choices of study and ways of learning most likely to be of use to them and the economy; and to help the colleges adopt a marketing approach that creates a demand for learning. To undertake their interactive mission, the colleges must extend the scope and develop methods of "applied" education, upgrade marketing, and support staff in interacting with the working world. Employers must be willing to help employees undertake college learning and understand the role of workplaces and activities as the context and material of applied education. TECs must act as brokers between colleges and companies. (YLB)