Self-efficacy is mediated by individuals' beliefs or expectations about their capacity to accomplish certain tasks successfully or demonstrate certain behaviors. When individuals have low self-efficacy expectations regarding their behavior, they limit the extent to which they participate in an endeavor and are more apt to give up at the first sign of difficulty. Self-efficacy is learned and self-efficacy expectations are acquired in the following ways: performance accomplishments, vicarious learning, verbal persuasion, and physical/affective status. Examination of these four variables and their influence on self-efficacy expectations suggests that efficacy-based interventions must increase the range of students' experiences and promote the personal and contextual factors that lead to high levels of self-efficacy. The literature has identified three strategies for helping students develop positive self-efficacy expectations and outcomes that are connected to occupational interests, linked to career-related goals, translated into action, reflected in skill development, and realized through proper coaching and mentoring. These three strategies are as follows: contextual learning (application of knowledge and skills in the context of real-life experiences, problems, and events); problem-based learning (investigation of problem situations for which no right or wrong answers exist); and community-based learning (engagement in community-based learning projects connecting school work with career goals). (Contains 13 references.) (MN)