Overview
Across the United States, work-based learning (WBL) provides high school students with strong technical foundations as well as the critical durable skills that employers desire. The goal of high-quality work- based learning is to expose students to new environments and experiences, enabling them to acquire new skills, build a career identity, and chart a path through post-secondary education that aligns with their career goals.
“Work-based learning (WBL) gives students exposure to the world of work through a set of sequenced and coordinated activities. It addresses the shared goal of educators and employers in preparing students with the knowledge and skills necessary for productive careers. When executed correctly, work-based learning enables students to achieve educational outcomes that align with employer requirements — bridging the gap between school and work. Students have the opportunity for applied career exploration which brings job relevance to the educational process. Through exposure and financial support, they gain access to new, attainable career opportunities.”
— GPS Education Partners website
This approach not only enhances student engagement, retention, social capital, and attendance but also provides opportunities for students to earn industry credentials before graduation and develop both technical and interpersonal skills essential for success in the workplace.
This experience creates new connections for students and carves a pathway to a sustainable career.
Nationally, while the call for work-based learning increases, states and districts struggle to implement high-quality work-based learning programs. At least 24 states allow high school students to earn credit for work-based learning, and at least 38 states have policies that either allow or require career exploration starting in middle school. And, while 45 states have defined work-based learning, only 4% of states have developed comprehensive program improvement structures based on work-based learning data. Only Washington has set clear program quality standards for employers.
The funding for these programs often comes from federal sources focused on workforce support and Career Technical Education funding, and some states also provide dedicated state funding, incentives, and other work-based learning initiatives. However, it is noted that very few states effectively communicate the available work-based learning opportunities for high school students.
Even after communication is successful, there are a number of obstacles that make these opportunities additionally difficult to implement and scale effectively. From student readiness and preparation to ongoing support and transportation, these programs benefit from the support of WBL specialists.
Introduction
Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS), a large urban district in Wisconsin enrolls 68,435 students (2022) across 156 schools. Of these students, 13.8% are English language learners, 90.8% are Students of Color, 75.2% are economically disadvantaged, and 19.6% are students identified with disabilities.
At the district level, the Department of College and Career Readiness collaborates with community organizations and postsecondary institutions to provide resources for MPS faculty, families, and students, aiding in college and career planning. This department also coordinates the efforts of career and technical education, extended learning opportunities, and school counseling/academic planning to ensure students in the district have the support they need to find success after high school.
MPS students are offered significant opportunities to pursue internships, work-based learning, apprenticeships, and other career-related programs.
“The benefits of work-based learning are absolutely invaluable. Not only is there value in getting those employability skills, but it also gives students an eye on the future. They can see what they might want to do, but just as valuable, they can also see what they might not want to do. That’s really a time saver and a money saver for a lot of our students.” shares Eric Rodomski, Senior Manager of Career and Technical Education at Milwaukee Public Schools.
At the building level, MPS offers career training programs through NAF at 8 high school campuses. “NAF is a national education non-profit that addresses the economic and social disparities that have marginalized too many high school students and their communities by bringing schools and businesses together to better prepare students for college, career, and future success.”
Students enrolled in NAF academies have the opportunity to earn a NAFTrack Certification — and in 2023, 100 students earned this certification at MPS, the highest on record.
Project Lead the Way (PLTW) curricula in Engineering and BioMedical Science are taught at 11 high schools in the district. MPS students are offered the chance to engage with STEM education — encompassing science, technology, engineering, and mathematics — via PLTW, which provides a comprehensive curriculum designed to spark interest across diverse technological fields.
At MPS, the participation rates of female students in PLTW notably surpass both national and state rates for involvement in STEM education.
In addition to the career training programs, most high schools in the district also have College and Career Centers on site to bolster student engagement with college and career readiness activities. Center advisors provide a large range of services such as college tours, FAFSA assistance, support with college applications and applications for work- based learning, resume writing workshops, and more.
Challenges
Since 2020, district report cards in Wisconsin have included data on work-based learning participation as one metric of a district’s efforts to ensure post- secondary readiness.
Additionally, Wisconsin uses work-based learning as one of the quality indicators for Perkins-V program evaluation.
Despite their robust college and career readiness programs, MPS has routinely struggled to meet state standards for student participation in work- based learning.
When evaluating the issues, two areas of challenge emerged. First, too few students were prepared
for the work-based learning. Fundamentally, the students needed more confidence, a stronger awareness of how personal strengths and interests connect with careers, and general career readiness skills such as interviewing.
Second, with a district the size of MPS, robust alignment of schools and business partners was beyond the reach of existing school staff. MPS tried to drive students to an online job board but struggled to gain traction with student engagement.
Intermediaries Increase
the Success of School District
Work-Based Learning Initiatives by:
Building systems and processes to support the program
Recruiting and supporting employer partners
Increasing access for all student populations
Implementation
In June of 2023, the board of education for MPS approved a 5-year strategic plan that had a renewed focus on graduation and post-secondary readiness.
As part of this initiative, MPS invested dollars into a new building-level staff role: work-based learning specialists. Work-based learning specialists introduce students to career awareness and exploration activities. Additionally, they assist students with job searches and oversee work-based learning experiences such as internships and youth apprenticeships.
Heather Harper, a work-based learning specialist supporting both Barack Obama School of Career and Technical Education (Obama High School) and Harold S. Vincent School of Agricultural Science (Vincent High School) describes her work this way,
“The goal (of my role) is to increase paid internships and apprenticeships and overall work-based learning. Being able to explore those opportunities and get hands-on experience while getting paid for it, is ideal.”
This shift initiated a new phase in MPS’s enduring partnership with the local nonprofit GPS Education Partners (GPS Ed). Serving as a work-based learning intermediary, GPS Ed has been supporting MPS students since 2013 through their Education Center & Youth Apprenticeship Program that focuses
on pathways in manufacturing, automotive and construction. In 2018 GPS Ed began offering career awareness and career readiness programming as well.
“In all my time working with MPS students, none of them have lost a job because they aren’t smart enough or don’t have enough skills. The addition of career readiness programming was never designed to ‘fix’ students.
“Our MPS students frequently come from low-income families where their exposure to careers is often limited to jobs where work is a grind. Why would they ever think that work could be aligned with your dreams and
make you happy when the adults in their world don’t have that experience?
“This programming was created to help MPS students see that the working world can mean upward mobility. We want students to see how you can leverage the working world to climb.” states Andrea Roberts, Program Administrator at GPS Ed.
From the 2018-19 school year through the 2021-2022 school year, GPS Ed staff entered MPS classrooms bringing curriculum and activities to nearly 600 students to build career awareness and readiness skills. When college and career centers opened on MPS campuses, GPS Ed shifted to running programming in partnership with center advisors serving 250 students between four partnering high schools.
Before the start of the 2023-2024 school year, the addition of work-based learning specialists to the MPS college and career readiness team didn’t negate the necessity of the career awareness and readiness programming provided by GPS Ed. However,
both MPS district staff and GPS Ed intermediary staff recognized an opportunity to enhance collaboration.
The new vision maximized the strengths of each partner. GPS Ed — with more than two decades worth of business and community partnerships in Milwaukee and with proven experience delivering career awareness and readiness programming — would coordinate and plan student engagement activities.
MPS College and Career Center advisors would support scheduling and student recruitment for events. Then, the MPS work-based learning specialists would take the hand-off of students ready to apply for the internship and youth apprenticeship opportunities presented.
This collaboration built an explicit web of support around MPS students to improve student confidence and interest in work-based learning. These career talks were offered monthly at participating high schools.
“Students at some point have at least heard one thing that really intrigued them and we have had a great turnout with students that would introduce themselves and say, ‘Hey, I’m interested in this company.’” shares Alex Erdmann, College and Career Center Advisor at Obama and Vincent High Schools.
Additionally, GPS Ed redesigned programming to address three recurring issues. First, to help students better connect with the information shared by guest speakers, GPS Ed developed tools that assisted students in comparing their interests and personal preferences to the speaker’s career.
Second, to ensure students saw the career talk as
a stepping stone to a personal goal and not just a disconnected event, all career talks were designed to
have a next step for students wanting to learn more. At each career talk, students could complete an exit ticket with three options for possible next steps. All options included support from GPS Ed staff, their school college and career center advisor, and their school’s work-based learning specialist.
Third, GPS Ed trained career speakers to include as part of their presentations lessons on applications, interviews, and how to leverage experiences to impress employers. This feature meant students would hear directly from those hiring interns and youth apprentices how to succeed in the hiring process.
“It’s very useful and beneficial when I can go back to [GPS Ed] who sends out those exit tickets and say, hey, these students seem like they’re interested in this or these students didn’t seem interested in this today, but they said they were interested in this,” says work-based learning specialist Heather Harper who was on the receiving end of student interest surveys.
24 Years of Expertise
Since 2000, GPS Ed, a work- based learning intermediary, has offered youth apprenticeship programs in Wisconsin. The Education Center and Youth Apprenticeship Program provides disengaged youth with 900 hours of work-based learning and academic coursework.
This leads to a state youth apprenticeship certificate and a national Certified Production Technician (CPT) credential.
Braided Funding Model
The career awareness programming was paid for through building-career and technical education budgets and local grant providers.
As part of its work-based learning intermediary services, GPS Ed also helps school partners identify and secure braided funding to offset district expenses.
Vision
This new program design specifically addressed the major issues impacting work-based learning engagement at MPS: student readiness and student awareness. Erdmann identified the design as a solution to a challenge he has faced in engaging students with business partners: “…getting high school students to get acclimated to more of the professional world and also finding partners that are more understanding of high school students.”
Erdmann shared, “GPS Ed has done a lot to really build those bridges and be a great advocate
in between. They can advise those business partners to say, hey, these are high school students and no, they’re not to the level that you are yet.”
In addition to serving students at Obama and Vincent High Schools, GPS Ed provides career awareness services to Bay View High School and Washington High School of Information Technology.
With programming running to the end of the 2023-2024 school year, GPS Ed is on track to serve more students in a single year than ever before. Nearly 800 MPS students attended GPS Ed events, gaining exposure to 13 local companies, 15 different career fields, and more than 10 organizations offering work-based learning to high school students.
Conclusion
College and career readiness programming within
school walls is no longer the benchmark for strong post- secondary outcomes for high school students. Work- based learning is quickly emerging as a best practice and a leading indicator of success.
For large districts, the infrastructure and human capital needed to both support students in developing career awareness and professional skills and to cultivate and nurture business partnerships can be overwhelming.
Partnering with intermediaries to build systems of collaboration and efficiency leads to better outcomes for students.
Next Steps
Students around the nation need access to high-quality WBL experiences to support the economy at large and to connect each individual to a secure and sustaining job.
Evaluate existing college and career programs within your district and build a comprehensive list of opportunities for students and existing business partnerships.
Reflect on any existing or potential WBL program. What are the barriers to success or implementation? Which students do not have access? What would it take to provide access for every interested student?
Partner with an intermediary such as GPS Education Partners to build a high-quality and sustainable community-based WBL initiative.
Why GPS Ed’s ACO Process Works
GPS Ed’s ACO process is a strategic framework designed to bridge the gap between businesses, schools, and students, accelerating career readiness and technical skill development. This process emphasizes three core principles: Accelerated, Customized, and Outcomes-Based. By focusing on these areas, GPS Ed ensures that all stakeholders — businesses, schools, and students — benefit from a streamlined and effective approach to education and workforce preparation.
A. ACCELERATED
Businesses get an accelerated process for developing high-level technical skills in future workforce.
Schools get an accelerated process for partnering with businesses to provide pathways for technical careers.
Students are prepared for technical careers faster than traditional pathways.
C. CUSTOMIZED
Businesses specific needs are addressed, ie. hard and soft skill development as well as the future high-tech needs of industry.
Schools receive customization to the specific district or schools needs, ie. credentials, courses, and training. Can build or augment current programs.
Students personalized training develops around demonstrated interests and competencies.
O. OUTCOME-BASED
Businesses receive the outcomes that matter most, ie. Youth Apprentices become Registered Apprentices, employment, pipeline development, local economic impacts.
Schools see improvements on students career and college readiness and overcome barriers to providing access and equity for all students to succeed.
Students have more opportunities to enter family sustaining careers and post- secondary education while minimizing higher-ed debt.
Have questions about the Case Study or want to learn more about the power of work-based learning?
If this case study inspired you to take the next steps, we recommend the following:
- Evaluate the workforce needs in your community. How are local high schools supporting this need?
- Reflect on any existing or potential WBL program. What are the barriers to success or implementation?
- Partner with an intermediary such as GPS Education Partners to build a high-quality and sustainable community-based WBL ecosystem.
