About This Toolkit

This toolkit was developed by New Ways to Work and a team of Earn & Learn leaders, team members and work-based learning connectors. It draws heavily on original material from New Ways to Work and the toolkit developed with Earn & learn East Bay in 2017/18 (Updated in 2020) as well as versions adapted for the New York City Department of Education and P-TECH New York State.

The audience for this toolkit is primarily Earn & Learn work-based learning connectors, school and partner agency staff, and teachers or faculty and program staff responsible for designing and delivering work-based learning opportunities to learners in the Earn & Learn community.

Participation in enhanced WBL activities will increase teacher/faculty and school/college awareness of the issues facing industry and facilitate a robust and practical connection between the Earn & Learn community and an expanded base of employer partners. Employers will be able to effectively engage with education and help support the development of their future workforce, and an increased number of learners will be aware of, have experience in and be prepared for the careers of the future.

Four documents lay the groundwork for creating and implementing high-quality Work-Based Learning activities for learners. WBL Connectors and leadership can use these documents to ensure that the school and college community understand the basic tenets of Quality Work-Based Learning and how it is defined, supported and documented.

The Overview includes the following documents.

The toolkit includes WBL activity implementation guides to help the Earn & Learn community and their employer partners design, structure and support effective and learning rich work-based learning activities for learners. Each guide includes an activity fact sheet, plus checklists for connectors and learners, tipsheets for teachers, faculty and employer volunteers, as well as a fact sheet for employer decision-makers. A set of sample implementation tools are also provided for each activity.

Activity Guides are provided for the following Work-Based Learning types:

• Guest Speaker – A group of learners listen to a presentation to learn about the speaker’s organization, careers and industry and ask questions to help them consider whether they might like to pursue an opportunity in the industry.
• Career Day – Business partners from a variety of companies come together at a school to share information about their company, their job and the education and skills required for success in careers in the industry.
• Career Mentoring – A learner is matched one-on-one or in small groups with an adult professional to explore potential careers and related educational issues.
• Workplace Tour – Small groups of learners visit a workplace, learn about the business, meet employees, ask questions and observe work in progress.
• Informational Interview – A learner formally interviews an employer partner about his or her industry, educational and career path and profession.
• Job Shadowing – A learner is paired with an employee of a host company and follows that employee during much of a regular workday.
• Mock Interview – Learners are paired one-on-one with a business partner who interviews them as if he/she were being interviewed by an employer for a paid internship or job.
• Workplace Challenge – Small groups of /learners (four to six per team) are engaged in a problem-solving exercise issued by an employer in consultation with a teacher or faculty member.
• Internship – A learner has the opportunity to learn by doing real work and being productively engaged in the workplace. Learners may work individually, in teams, work on a project, or rotate through a number of departments and job functions.
• Work Experience – An opportunity for a learner to develop and demonstrate professional and occupational skills by addressing a core business function and doing productive work with an employer.

The toolkit includes a section on employer participation options, designed to help employer partners select the activities that make the most sense for their organization. The section includes fact sheets and tip sheets designed to assist employers and their volunteers in supporting specific work-based learning activities.

The toolkit also includes a collection of universal WBL tools and Program Fact Sheets to support effective Work-Based Learning programs.

Each Activity Guide includes tips and options for conducting remote or virtual versions of the activity.

A Special Section of the Toolkit is devoted to providing ideas, tools and optional approaches to the provision of remote or virtual Work-Based Learning opportunities for learners.