• Korea journal of population studies
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• v.25 no.2
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• pp.231-270
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• 2002

US government and leaders in education have deeply paid an attention to the transition from school to work as we live in an era of globalization and fierce competion between countries. Industrial leaders, on the one hand, stress that schools should be reformed to adapt to changing technical environment. On the other hand, general educators still maintain that school education should strive to educate people to be a good citizen. However, fierce competition between countries under the remarkable development of computer and information technique has led the US government to create new programs of the transition from school to work. However, parents as well as students are still suspicious that diplom of high school with stress in skills is enough to keep a stable job, guarantee a satisfactory salary, and mai lain a social status. Accordingly they are more likely to use the school-to-work program as a supplement to the transition to college than to participate in the program to get a good job after high school. Each state in the US prepares its own program of the school-to-work transition with financial supports from the federal government. But the prospect of the programs in each state is not optimistic as financial supports from the federal government have decreased. The school-to-work transition program is strongly needed not only for those half who do not go to college but also for the US government that requires workers with a high level of skills. Nonetheless, the program is not firmly established in the US yet.