As educators, we know there are multiple reasons why it’s important to get your work-based learning program right. But first and foremost (especially for at risk students), it is really about economic mobility. A systemic work-based learning program can guarantee that every individual student has the opportunity to understand their true potential for their future and to understand how to harness their natural skill sets. A well-executed workplace learning program allows students to tie those skills to their career interests so that they have a purpose and a drive for their future. A work-based learning program creates a momentum.
That momentum is critical to helping students become self-motivated to access opportunities post-high school, so that they can engage with their learning and see not just a job but a career in their future. Once this occurs, it also increases their engagement with their own education and the school itself on a day-to-day basis.
If a student actually sees the connection and reason why they wake up every day, they will realize their full potential. We know that if students can’t see it, they can’t dream it, and if they can’t dream it, they can’t be it. This is why it’s so important to get this work-based learning right.
Why Work-Based Learning Programs are Critical for Students
Award winning Associate Superintendent Dr. Lazaro Lopez manages over 3,000 student internships annually. In this interview he discusses why work-based learning is critical and how it benefits students.
The Benefits of Work-Based Learning
- By embedding career development experiences and jobs in your schools, you’re able to jumpstart students’ ability to network and create a cadre of adults in your surrounding communities that are going to support that student.
- Research shows that many students actually remain in the communities in which they grew up. For us, it’s as high as 80% of the students that grew up in our communities. It is in everyone’s interest to invest in these students because we know those are going to be our neighbors and our talent pipeline for our businesses. We want to make sure that students build relationships early that are going to help them reach that level of success and be a contributing member and then mentor the next generation of students.
- Many students that live in our communities don’t know what’s beyond their neighborhood. As public educators, we have to open the doors to ensure that they realize what’s possible for them to even have a shot at reaching their potential. Unless students know what the opportunities are, they can’t dream. They can’t imagine themselves in those roles. That’s why it’s essential to have a fully-realized jobs program and career development experiences in K12 education.
- Students find their passion faster. You want school to be a place of exploration so students can figure out as much as they can what they do and don’t want as what they do want. It helps the students navigate and go through the discovery process of what is their real passion and interests. The reality is that we want every student to realize their full potential. The only way they can do that is by having an understanding of their options.
- Work-based learning increases school attendance. Once students can contextualize the classroom work to those skills that you are delivering, they will tie them directly to their future. They will wake up every day wanting to go to school because they know it’s about their own future and they know that they’re going to be driven to realize their own full potential. They see hope and they see what’s possible.
- For students that go straight from high school into a career, work-based learning means better employment outcomes and higher lifetime wages (especially for students that have engaged in apprenticeships prior to graduation).
- For students that go to college, work-based learning results in a higher post-secondary GPA. They see their path more clearly and this in turn increases their focus.
What Motivates Transeo to Empower Educators
Award-winning superintendent and co-founder of Transeo, Dr. Dave Schuler, explains the drive and passion behind our cloud-based software.
About PATHWAYos
Transeo is a suite of cloud-based educational solutions that helps students and staff connect to each other in a more effective way. We make community service tracking and internship reporting easy. We help schools and districts move away from paper-based processes so counselors, advisors, and administrators can invest more quality time with the people who matter the most: students.
Transeo Jobs helps students focus on becoming career ready by putting opportunities, classes, and experiences in one dashboard. We help schools keep track of complex information and complicated interactions in our user-friendly platform that manages key contacts and service providers. Check out some more educational content below to learn more about how to get Work-Based Learning right.