If it is to play a key role in the reindustrialization of the United States, vocational education must be improved. Although vocational education has grown substantially in size in recent years, its quality is spotty, characterized by excellent programs in some communities and poor programs in others. In order to contribute to reindustrialization, vocational education must serve better its three major groups for the work of the future: training young people for work, retraining present employees, and retraining those who are reentering the labor force. Only the first of these components has received serious efforts. There are four keys to quality in vocational education: content, trainees, facilities, and staff. The quality of vocational education is affected most by what is done on the local level. Local programs should pay more attention to updating skills, keeping their teachers up to date, replacing obsolete training equipment, and servicing various populations, such as the handicapped, older workers, and rural residents. At the same time, the improvement of vocational education could be facilitated on the federal level by increased emphasis on vocational education research and development, especially focusing on improvement in teaching methods and programs, rather than maintenance of the status quo. Only if these changes are made will vocational education contribute to the reindustrialization of America without lost time, money, and human resources. (KC)