Like other areas of the curriculum, technological education is changing in response to changing needs. As recently as ten years ago, technology programs focused primarily on teaching students the knowledge and skills they needed to carry out the specialized tasks associated with a particular, well-defined occupation. Recently, however, the nature of the workplace has altered significantly -- partly because of a dramatic increase in the pace of technological change. People's occupations are less likely to fit into neat, easily defined categories, and the lines between different types of work are less rigidly drawn. In order to do their jobs effectively, workers in one field often need to know how developments in other fields affect their own activities, and what impact their work will have upon other people and upon the environment.

As job descriptions become broader and more general, workers will need to be competent in a number of different areas, and be able and willing to learn about and use new procedures and emerging technologies. In short, workers increasingly need both a commitment to lifelong learning and a variety of "transferable skills"-- skills that will allow them to respond to changing conditions by using their existing knowledge and expertise in new ways.

Programs must enable students to understand and apply a range of concepts and to acquire skills that they can use for a variety of purposes. Programs must also ensure that students come to understand the ways in which technology, society, and the environment interact. Programs will continue to include the study of the invention and operation of machines and other design and production procedures; but they must also include the study of human processes, environmental systems, and the impact of technology on society and the environment. In addition, programs must help students to understand that technology is a force for change and enable them to develop the attitudes and values they need to meet the challenges it presents.