Working education in the USSR prepares students for socially useful and productive work by equipping them with the knowledge, abilities, skills and attitudes necessary for collective activities. Working education does not give students a profession but rather prepares them to master one by including in its curriculum professional knowledge and skills, physical exercise, technical problems, practical training, and lab work, all in a productive setting which uses the students' knowledge and stimulates further learning. The program continues through all ten grades in three increasingly complicated stages: grades 1-3, introduction to productive work; grades 4-8, initial knowledge of various technical, service, and agricultural activities, and contemporary applications of science in industry and agriculture; grades 9-10, training towards a trade specialty and transition to professional work. Many academic subjects are closely related to the productive activities of working education. In one work-study program being tested, rural students' studies and jobs are sex-determinant. Work, further determined by curriculum, focuses on selecting work objectives which have social significance, are age-appropriate, foster a love of work, and closely approximate real working conditions. Students participate in the complete spectrum of rural agricultural activities, guided in part by experienced local workers. (SB)