Purpose. The study was designed to ascertain the initial certification competencies that vocational industrial education teachers entering the vocational education profession "must know and be able to do." Using a questionnaire format, the input of two groups of teachers and vocational education administrators was obtained to determine the competencies that beginning vocational industrial education teachers "must know and be able to do" to be effective teachers during their first three years of teaching. Procedures. The questionnaire used included 105 teacher education competencies and eight questions concerned with demographic information. The instrument was distributed to health occupations education teachers, trade and technical education teachers, and vocational education administrators. Respondents were asked to indicate, on a 4-point Likert-type scale, 1 (strongly disagree) to 4 (strongly agree), their agreement or disagreement as to whether each competency should be part of what beginning vocational industrial education teachers "must know and be able to do" during their first three years of teaching. Data were received from 303 health occupations education teachers, 504 trade and technical education teachers, and 84 vocational education administrators. Conclusions and implications. The following conclusions are based on the data collected and analyzed subject to the limitations of the study. (1) Teachers and administrators of vocational industrial education programs agree on 64 competencies that are needed by beginning teachers during the initial certification experiences. (2) The teachers' and administrator's level of responsibility, secondary, postsecondary, or both, does not greatly influence the perceptions of the competencies needed by beginning teachers. The implications of the study are that both teachers and administrators believe beginning teachers need professional development activities and certification competencies early in their teaching career.