This book is based on six years of research into the workings of the Youth Training Scheme in a town in the South East. It argues that the emphasis of the scheme upon "free market forces" limits its effectiveness as a means of training young workers and providing them with opportunities to improve their personal circumstances through paid work. Society should ensure that young people's early years at work are regulated by some standard of training in useful and marketable skills and the vocational should be given new strength and respectability.