Increasing shortages of skilled workers have resulted in numerous changes and innovations in vocational-technical education (VTE). The overriding objective of these changes/innovations is to improve youths' work readiness. At the secondary level, school systems have adopted business-sponsored programs and integrated them into curricula. Efforts to improve education and make it more responsive to business and industry needs are evident in all of the following elements of the U.S. VTE system: high schools, community and technical colleges, apprenticeship programs, private and technical schools, and federal job training programs. Numerous new organizations and programs have been established to accomplish one or more of the following goals: improve integration of secondary and postsecondary VTE and integration of academic education and VTE; promote consistency, quality, and state-of-the-art currency in VTE curricula; and develop new and stronger connections between business and VTE institutions. Central among such efforts are tech prep or "2+2 articulation" programs and curriculum improvement/coordination efforts to increase employer participation in explicating changing job skill needs and eliminating duplication and waste in existing VTE programs. Legislation to facilitate these reform efforts by changing funding formulas, supporting tech prep, and increasing integration of academic education and VTE is now under consideration. (MN)