Recognizing the difficult time most youths face in finding a good job after high school graduation, the Austin (Texas) Independent School District developed strategies to improve the transition. A high level of collaborative activity was already underway in Austin between the school district and the community, but most programs had been started without linkage to each other or to the curriculum or instructional practices. Recommendations were made to design a system that would do the following: (1) improve career foundations (enhanced basic skills, thinking skills, personal traits, and career awareness and exploration for all youth; to develop learning and training records and career passports to document and signal career foundations, achievements, and experience); and (2) develop learning and training paths from high school into career opportunities in the workplace. Key principles underlying this strategy are to improve communication between industry and school personnel and to link work opportunities to effort and achievement in school, thereby strengthening incentives for students to learn. A proposal was made to implement the program with one school feeder school system in the district as a model. (Contains 189 references.) (KC)