OBJECTIVES OF THIS STUDY WERE TO ASSESS THE OVERALL EFFECT OF VOCATIONAL AND BASIC EDUCATION ON DISADVANTAGED YOUTH AND TO IDENTIFY THE PATTERNS OF CHANGE TAKING PLACE IN DIFFERENT CATEGORIES OF DISADVANTAGED TRAINEES. AN EXPERIMENTAL GROUP OF 189 TRAINEES IN THE MUSKEGON AREA SKILL TRAINING CENTER WAS COMPARED WITH A CONTROL GROUP OF 89 NONTRAINEES OR EARLY DROPOUTS. PRE- AND POST-TESTS WERE USED TO MEASURE CHANGES IN INTELLIGENCE AND APTITUDES, BASIC SKILL ACHIEVEMENT, AND PERSONALITY CHARACTERISTICS, AND OCCUPATIONAL STATUS WAS COMPARED. USING PRETRAINING SCORES AS A BASE, THE MEAN SCORES FOR TRAINEES WERE SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER AFTER TRAINING WHEN ACHIEVEMENT, INTELLIGENCE, OCCUPATIONAL STATUS, PERSONALITY, INTERPERSONAL RELATIONS, AND APTITUDE WERE MEASURED. TRAINEES SHOWED A SIGNIFICANTLY HIGHER RATE OF IMPROVEMENT THAN NONTRAINEES IN ACHIEVEMENT, INTELLIGENCE, OCCUPATIONAL STATUS, AND PERSONALITY. GIRLS, OLDER TRAINEES, TRAINEES WITH HIGHER FORMAL EDUCATION, TRAINEES WITH A HIGH ORIGINAL I.Q., AND TRAINEES WITH DEPENDENTS DID NOT SHOW A GREATER IMPROVEMENT THAN THEIR OPPOSITES. THE APPENDIX INCLUDES (1) A DESCRIPTION OF MEASUREMENT PROCEDURES AND INSTRUMENTS, (2) COURSE OUTLINES FROM THE TRAINING CENTER, AND (3) TABLES OF RAW DATA. (EM)