This study investigated the feasibility of developing five vocational education curricula for severely handicapped (i.e., trainable mentally retarded) young people, aged 13 to 21, that would enable them to work in the employment areas of gardening, housekeeping, laundry services, food services, and minor auto maintenance. One goal of the project was to determine whether school staff members think their students have the potential to master the skills needed to work in these occupations. A second aspect of the study was to assess the interest and/or resistance of community business people to hiring severely handicapped students who had completed the appropriate vocational education program. To answer these questions, interviews were conducted with school staff from four programs teaching vocational educational skills to trainable mentally retarded students in Contra Costa County, California, as well as with representative Contra Costa business people. The study showed that there is both a need and a desire to expand and develop the existing vocational education training program for severely handicapped students. The school staff members agreed that their trainable mentally retarded students did have the potential to learn the skills needed to work in the five employment areas; and the community business people seemed receptive to training and hiring these students. (Author/KC)