Results of recent surveys of students, parents, and communities in west-central Minnesota indicate a great desire for vocational education and a perception of vocational education for a job as a basic skill. The rural student needs greater access to vocational programming in order to help break patterns of poverty and open the vision of students who might otherwise view the world from a limited perspective. The goals of vocational education are usually to help students explore occupational fields in depth, to prepare students for entry into full-time or part-time employment generally at the semi-skilled level, and to prepare students to succeed more quickly in related post-secondary occupational programs at a college or technical institute. Generally the governance of secondary vocational education can be described as: (1) comprehensive high schools, which operate secondary programs including vocational and non-vocational subjects; (2) vocational high schools, which offer a full-time program of study in vocational and non-vocational subjects; (3) area vocational technical centers, which serve high school students on a shared-time basis as a part of their regular high school program and usually cover a regional area; and (4) intermediate school districts, special districts which may include vocational education as one of their functions. (AN)