Lots of high schools around the world are incorporating some form of work-based learning (WBL) into their graduation requirements. Often included in a pathway requirement or an indicator of success according to a portrait of a graduate, WBL is becoming popular because of its many benefits to students. While the variations of WBL are abundant, including internships, service learning, job shadowing, and more, the outcomes of these career experiences are outstanding.
As more schools adopt policies to ensure that all students receive WBL experiences, the outcomes exceed the initial rationale for developing industry partnerships. Students are reaping benefits beyond what schools assumed when they originally imagined what could come from career-connected experiences outside the walls of the school. The following is not an exhaustive list of reasons for mandating work-based learning within a school system, but they offer a compelling case for what future graduates might gain.
Career Exploration
The first reason to implement work-based learning in schools is that it allows students to explore careers that they wouldn’t necessarily otherwise learn about. Whether through exploration, guest speakers, or an immersive on-the-job training, WBL helps students to learn about all kinds of careers and the economic advantages of each. Knowing about options after high school is essential for students as they follow their passions and skills into the workforce. Career exploration helps students to understand everything from the degree program or credential they need to do a job to the types of activities and responsibilities they can expect at work.
Durable Skills
Durable skills--such as executive functions, critical thinking, and communication--are not often practiced or tested in schools. Despite the adoption of 21st century skills in many school systems around the world, the classroom setting is not always conducive for learning these skills. They end up being taught in an unnatural or fabricated way. At fault of well-intentioned educators, durable skills are more suitably taught outside of the class in real world situations where students have to interact with others on the job. Not only are these skills transferable from job-to-job, but they also last a lifetime.
Applied Knowledge
The movement to project-based learning has potential to help students apply their knowledge of a subject in a way that just testing them will not accomplish. But, even a school project has limitations that WBL does not. When students learn to code, build a website, take vital signs, or even summarize non-fiction text, doing so in school is still only a classroom project. Coding for an engineering firm, for example, where the end-user is a real client, provides students with a real-world opportunity to apply the knowledge that they learn in school for a significantly higher purpose than earning a grade. The result is the solidification of their learning and the feeling that their contributions matter—both of which are important for the brain.
The Network Effect
Lots of students are insulated by their school and community. Especially for marginalized students who have smaller networks, WBL offers a platform to expand the connections that students can make outside of their typical circle. In this regard, WBL helps students to do three things:
1. Practice and improve their networking skills.
2. Build their network for after graduation.
3. Increase their options for postsecondary outcomes. WBL is a way for students to meet people, in fields of their interest, who they wouldn’t have met without it.
Community Impact
When schools work with industry partners to place students in WBL scenarios, there’s a greater community impact that happens as a result. Organizations, like a local chamber of commerce, can potentially see the school system in a new light. Students can make a difference through service learning, paid and unpaid internships, and other roles where they get to interact with community members in a positive way. Projects, large and small, that come from WBL experiences have the potential to change lives—students’ lives and those of the people they serve in their WBL roles.
Conclusion
Work-based learning is not just about work experience. Of course, work experience has benefits, but the intangible results are what make WBL truly worth it. There’s nothing more gratifying for educators and their students than to see kids as they learn, grow, and make a difference because of what the school positioned them to do and be.
School leaders who are looking to track work-based learning, make it even more meaningful, or want a thought partner in this space, can set up a time to meet using this link.
