Vocational Education and the Nation's Economy. Seventh Yearbook of the American Vocational Association.

This book is designed to help readers improve their understanding of the economics of vocational education, encourage them to develop further their competencies in this realm, and to stimulate interest in broadening the scope of vocational education curricula to include content that will upgrade the economic literacy of vocational education recipients. The first of four major sections is a mini-course in the economics of education. It describes the field of economics and explains the concept of human capital, which forms the basis of a procedure for economic analysis and comparison of educational programs. Section 2 takes the reader through sequential steps in the economics of vocational education, beginning with goals and objectives and ending with a discussion of programmatic investments. Section 3 deals with economic literacy and identifies what teachers and workers should know about economics. Section 4 addresses teachers and curriculum specialists in six service areas of vocational education. Each author in this section addresses the economic roles and contributions of the occupational field served and offers suggestions for teaching applied economic understandings and skills. (LRA)