This paper synthesizes issues and directions that a review of Australian apprenticeship and traineeship literature suggested. An overview discusses the paper's basis, which was a survey of 125 Australian references from 1985-99. Chapter 2 categorizes issues into seven groups, discusses them, and draws out salient themes. (The groups concerned supply and demand; training policy and system; public training market; private training investment; measuring training market outputs; training pathways, intermediaries, and innovations; and training quality and performance.) Discussion in each section considers the entry-level training issues in the broader context of developments in vocational education and training (VET) policy and the VET market. Chapter 3 draws out possible VET and entry-level training policy and program directions from the combined weight of the issues and their salient themes. Each of eight propositions is illustrated by examples of possible supporting measures: sharpening training investigation and diagnosis; repositioning the trades in the training marketplace; renewing the traineeship consensus; broadening the education and training horizons for new pathways to vocational skills; testing new approaches to training markets; widening the avenues for structured training in enterprises; adding pathways and learning models to the work of training intermediaries; and reviewing and reinforcing priorities for training measurement and quality. (Contains 125 references.) (YLB)