The rapidly changing economy is raising the stakes on states to address the skilled workforce needs of employers and to expand economic opportunity to more people and places. To guide the policy actions of states, Jobs for the Future (JFF) designed a comprehensive policy agenda for increasing attainment of postsecondary credentials valued in the…

Surveys of New England employers, college academic officers, and graduates find that many consider today's college graduates inadequately prepared for the world of work. In 2017, the New England Board of Higher Education convened the Commission on Higher Education & Employability, under the leadership of Rhode Island Governor Gina M. Raimondo.…

Focuses on school-based enterprises as a school-to-work option. These programs provide hands-on training for students with mild disabilities in for-profit ventures with the structure and supervision available in a school setting. Program development for operating for-profit enterprises is discussed and steps for getting the business started are…

This handbook is for persons, especially teachers, who collect, evaluate, and apply vocational assessment information for handicapped students in the Department of Defense Dependents Schools (DoDDS). The approach used is a developmental curriculum-based assessment process which responds to the career/vocational programming sequence through the…

A blind individual offers career education guidelines concerning helping blind children make realistic vocational choices, providing job awareness, setting up work-experience programs, and developing special job-seeking skills. (DB)

The guide, developed by the Secondary Transition and Employment Project (STEP) in Idaho, is intended to provide students with mild, moderate, or severe handicaps with hands-on community work experience in order to determine vocational preferences and to provide instruction in work-related skills, functional academics, and job-seeking skills. Work…

The guide, developed by the Secondary Transition and Employment Project (STEP) in Idaho, provides an overview of its sequential vocational curriculum intended to help students with mild, moderate, and severe handicaps to: (1) identify their vocational preferences and aptitudes; (2) use community resources to find out about jobs; (3) observe and…

The Community Observation Project in Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania) has helped more than 100 secondary students with disabilities to learn prevocational skills and behaviors through observation and hands-on experience at 20 local businesses. Details of program implementation, including recordkeeping forms, are provided. (DB)

School-supervised work experience is suggested as part of the Wisconsin school-to-work program. This booklet is designed to inform school administrators, coordinating teachers, other educators, and parents about essential ingredients of high quality work-based education. It covers the following: (1) an introduction to workplace learning; (2) a…

To help with the curriculum development of college broadcasting programs, a survey was administered to 375 radio station managers in major, medium, and small midwest markets. Designed to establish the vocational needs of radio stations, determine and prioritize entry level broadcasting skills, and identify characteristics of success for long-term…

Written for practitioners rather than policymakers, this document is intended for those who seek to relate educational and training opportunities to local and individual needs; use fresh approaches to integrated services for young people trapped by unemployment, social and economic change, and poor living conditions; and achieve high quality…

A core component of the School-to-Work Opportunities Act, work-based learning refers to programs that provide students with exposure to or actual experiences in workplaces. Typical work-based learning programs include youth apprenticeship, internship, job shadowing, cooperative education, and mentoring. This document contains reprints of seven…

The simplicity and "common-sense" quality of school-to-work's (STW) basic concepts are the greatest threats to the full implementation of STW. Implementation requires a fundamental restructuring of secondary education and far greater involvement of employers in the preparation of young people for work. A synthesis of findings from eight…

This document contains the materials necessary to set up and implement the "School to Work Internship for Learning a Living" program. The guide is organized in four sections. The first section contains information about the following: participating businesses, program objective, job shadowing, paid internships, recruitment of teachers and…

This guide identifies the key steps that any work/education partnership program should take to achieve success and patterns of critical issues that such collaborations must address if they are to survive. It is rooted in the experiences of "The Partnership Projects," a network of 21 work/education partnership programs in cities around the country.…