The purpose of the first year's work of a two-year project was to identify education and work program characteristics that are indicators of the normative (work-centered) and personalistic (person-centered) dimensions of eighteen experiential education programs and to determine common characteristics and whether programs can be classified based on resulting data. Procedures included interviews with program participants, coordinators, and on-site workplace personnel. Twelve major indicators of program type, indicating normative and personalistic dimensions, were isolated: (1) program goals, (2) nature of career growth; (3) self-concept development; (4) role of program staff; (5) interpretation and internalization; (6) focus of learning activities in work settings; (7) diversity of work setting experiences; (8) duration of program experiences; (9) relationship of learners to ongoing work and workers; (10) method of supervision employed by resource person; (11) pay; and (12) academic credit. By calculating the proportional relationships of these dimensions, five program types were identified for the typology: normative; personalistic; and transactional: adaptive, reciprocal, and transitional. (Recommendations for the second year of the study and for further research are also given.) (MEK)