A study was undertaken to describe the job and required competencies of local coordinators of vocational education programs in Minnesota for handicapped and disadvantaged students. The approach taken to the job description was a competency-based training design, calling for the specification of the competencies required by the position. A list of 44 competency statements was developed and submitted to the 33 incumbent coordinators who had responded to a questionnaire asking for a description of their programs and individual characteristics. The ratings of the 44 competency statements as made by the 33 incumbents, presented in tabular form, showed that most of the statements were considered important or essential to the job. It was therefore concluded that the competencies were descriptive of a single job class. The longer-range objective of the study was to provide a base for a proposed inservice training program for this new class of educational personnel, called coordinators of special needs. The competencies required also imply program needs of handicapped and disadvantaged students in vocational education. (MF)