South Carolina's evolving economy, new conditions in the workplace, and changing needs of employers combined with the provisions of basic skills remedial programs, increased course requirements, and modernization of equipment require a reassessment of the State's efforts to prepare young people for employment. To assist the General Assembly and the Governor in reviewing the State's vocational education system for grades 9 through 12, the South Carolina Advisory Council on Vocational and Technical Education is directed to conduct an intensive study of how the vocational education system can best prepare young people with skills employers will require between the years 1990 and 2000.

1. (1) data on and analysis of students' use of the vocational education system, delineating among participation in courses, between occupational and non-occupational courses of study, and between students who participate in a complete sequence of courses as opposed to those who take only one or two courses;
2. (2) recommendations for the creation of a new management information system which will provide the General Assembly with more timely, accurate, and useful information about student participation in, completion of, and placement from various vocational education programs, and the effects of students' participation in these programs;
3. (3) a demographic and achievement profile of students who enroll in, complete, and are placed from vocational education courses;
4. (4) a report of employers' expectations of and experiences with the vocational education system, based on interviews with a representative sample of employers in South Carolina;
5. (5) a report of students' perceptions of and experiences with the vocational education system, based on interviews with a representative sample of current and former public school students;
6. (6) recommendations for how the vocational education system can best meet the training and employment needs of low achieving students who do not seek post-secondary education;
7. (7) recommendations for how the programs of the vocational education system can be better coordinated with other state agencies concerned with education, training, and employment to best serve young people who do not seek post-secondary education;

8. (8) report on South Carolina's labor needs between 1990 and 2000 which can be met by students who successfully complete programs provided by the vocational education system.

   The House Education and Public Works Committee and the Senate Education Committee shall designate committee staff to serve as liaisons with the staff of the South Carolina Advisory Council on Vocational and Technical Education to provide advice about how the study can be designed, implemented, and reported so as to be most useful to the General Assembly. Components of the study must be issued serially, as completed. The South Carolina Advisory Council on Vocational and Technical Education is authorized to seek funding from private sources to facilitate the study, and to subcontract with appropriate public and private entities to conduct any of the various components of the study. The study must be completed no later than April, 1986.

This study shall provide the General Assembly with: