Learning Well at Work:

Choices for Quality

Mary Agnes Hamilton

Stephen F. Hamilton

April 1997

School to Work Opportunities

Cornell Youth and Work Program
This report describes a research and development Participating Employers 

project of the Department of Human 

Development and Family Studies, College of

Human Ecology, Cornell University. The project

has been supported by two grants from The Pew

Charitable Trusts. Additional support was

provided by an initiative of the New York State

legislature sponsored by former assembly majority

leader James R. Tallon, Jr., and by grants from the

Charles Stewart Mott Foundation and the Dr. G.

Clifford and Florence B. Decker Foundation. Dean

Francille Firebaugh's unwavering confidence and

support have been crucial to the project's

continuation.

Far too many people have participated in the

development of this project to make a comprehensive list possible. We owe our sincere thanks to

all of them. The following people worked with us

as staff or students.

Staff: Amy Tietjen Smith, Cynthia Miller,

Jennifer Jameson, Haya Novak, Renée Ferrari,

Lynn Okagaki, Jeff Claus, Peg Kelly, Ami Kadar,

Debbie Stayer Kelly

Graduate students: Craig Nicholls, Tina

Rosenblum, Starr Niego, Mary Ann Erickson,

Kaori Ueki, Mark Seng

Undergraduate students: Colleen Akehurst,

Andrea Aronoff, Margaret Ayala, Clara Bang,

Jennifer Blum, Ebony Bridwell-Mitchell, Wendy

Castro, Jennifer Choi, Tamar Duvdevani, Rachel

Fremder, Luis Garcia, Annette Gifford, Alexandra

Hernandez, Lou Horvath, Tara Howard, Matt

Kangas, Kerri-Ann Kiniorski, Jonathan Larsen,

Dawn Longobardi, Melinda Mechur, Nisheeth

Ranjan, Andrea Rubio, Peguy Saintil, Purvi Sevak,

Janet Soeffing, Stephanie Sneed, Linda Thomas,

Lisa Wong

The adults named in the body of the report

represent several hundred teachers, counselors,

administrators, coaches, mentors, managers, and

coordinators whose dedication and skill made

apprenticeship work. We appreciate and respect

their efforts and those of the young people and

their parents.

Cornell University is an equal opportunity, affirmative

action educator and employer.

Produced by Media Services at Cornell University

Edited by Trudie Calvert

Illustrations by Annie Campbell

Designed by Wendy Kenigsberg

Photography by Cornell University Photography: Robert

Barker, Charles Harrington, Chris Hildreth, Adriana

Rovers, Bruce Wang

Printed on recycled paper

4/97 GPO/DCP 15M MS50295

Anitec, Imaging Products Division of International Paper

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York

Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Company

Doron Precision Systems, Inc.

Good Shepherd Fairview Home

IBM Corporation at Endicott

Lourdes Hospital

Maines Paper and Food Service, Inc.

The Raymond Corporation

Security Mutual Life Insurance Company of New

York

United Health Services Hospitals: Binghamton

General Hospital, Wilson Medical Center

Participating Schools

Binghamton High School

Greene Central High School

Seton Catholic Central High School

Susquehanna Valley High School

Union-Endicott High School

Whitney Point High School

Windsor Central High School

Broome Community College

Coordinating Organizations

Cornell Cooperative Extension of Broome

County provided the project's initial base in the

community. Ben Wood helped to get it started

with support from Penny Corino and Sue Bair.

Responsibility for youth apprenticeship was

transferred to the School and Business Alliance of

Broome and Tioga counties during the fourth

year, under the leadership of Alicia Terry Boyce

and Ruth Henneman.

Acknowledgements

The following people read and commented on an

earlier draft. We are grateful for their constructive

suggestions: Mary Ellen Bavaro, Gene Bottoms,

Heidi Bowne, Ivan Charner, Badi Foster, Sam

Halperin, Richard Kazis, Dawn Krusemark,

Glenda Partee, Chris Powers, and staff at the

National School-to-Work Office.
Introduction ...................................... 1

The Demonstration Project

Types of Work-Based Learning

Principles

1. Technical Competence ........................... 10

Getting Started

Designing a Multi-Year Program

Conclusion

2. Breadth ....................................... 16

Why Teach All Aspects of the Industry?

Why Rotate?

Why Support Projects and Complex Activities?

What Makes a Good Project?

Conclusion

3. Personal and Social Competence ................... 24

What Should Youth Learn?

When Is Case Management Necessary?

Conclusion

4. Expectations and Feedback ........................ 33

Stating Mutually Clear Expectations

Evaluating Learning

Credentials and Portfolios

Conclusion

5. Teaching Roles ................................. 40

Coordinating Work-Based Learning Programs

Managing Work-Based Learning Programs in Departments

Coaching Youth on Technical Skills

Mentoring Youth on Personal and Social Behaviors

How to Support Teaching Roles

Conclusion

6. Academic Achievement .......................... 52

Promoting Higher Standards

Who Advises Youth?

How Can Teachers Link School-Based Learning to Work-Based Learning?

Why Allow Flexible Schedules?

Conclusion

7. Career Paths ................................... 60

Career Paths after High School and Work-Based Learning

Helping Youth Find a Direction

Conclusion

Next Steps ....................................... 71

Restructure Schools and Workplaces

Form Partnerships Build a School-to-Work System

Notes .......................................... 76

Appendix ....................................... 79
Introduction 1

Introduction

Learning and working are increasingly interdependent throughout life. Rather

than learning during childhood and adolescence and working during

adulthood, people must continue learning over their entire lifetime.

Workplaces are joining schools as significant learning environments for youth

as well as for adults. Along with schools, homes, playgrounds, libraries, cyberspace, and other locations, workplaces are part of the education system of the

future.

This guide is written for people in workplaces and schools who plan,

direct, or evaluate work-based learning opportunities for youth. The choices

that determine the quality of work-based learning provide the guide’s

framework. It is grounded in a four-year demonstration project that adapted

elements of European apprenticeship in the United States and emphasized

opportunities for youth to learn at work. We used the terms “youth

apprenticeship” and “apprentice” to communicate our intention to create a

multi-year sequence of work-based and school-based learning opportunities

providing formal certification of participants’ competence. 

The Cornell Youth Apprenticeship Demonstration Project was one of

several initiatives in the early 1990s that used the term “youth

apprenticeship.” The School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 was inspired

in part by “the time honored apprenticeship concept” and identified youth

apprenticeship as one of the promising school-to-work activities that should

be expanded. To avoid overlap with existing programs, we selected

occupational areas that did not have registered apprenticeships. We sought

advice from leaders of organized labor and representatives of the New York

State Department of Labor. Our long-term plan was to register the programs

we created once they had been tested. Because this report addresses the whole

range of work-based learning opportunities, we refer in most cases to “youth,”

“students,” or “participants” rather than apprentices and to “the program” or

“the demonstration project” rather than apprenticeship. 

The demonstration project tested approaches that can be adapted to other

communities and incorporated into more comprehensive systems. But the

general lessons we learned are more important than the specific details of the

project. Both the project and this guide were motivated by the belief that

lessons about creating high-quality youth apprenticeship programs can be

applied to create, expand, and strengthen all types of work-based learning. 
2 Learning Well at Work

The Demonstration Project

Planning for the Cornell Youth

Apprenticeship Demonstration Project

began in July 1990. After exploring

potential sites in central New York, we

selected Broome County because of its

economic diversity, the strength and

support of its local institutions, and the

support of community leaders.1

Participants in the demonstration

project began as high school juniors.

They were employed 10 to 20 hours per

week in one of three occupational areas:

health care, administration and office

technology, and manufacturing and

engineering technology. They remained

enrolled in school full-time and received

credit for their work experience, which

they fit into their schedules either at the

beginning or the end of the school day.2

Occupational Areas

We selected the occupational areas in

which students would be placed based

on labor market projections from the

regional office of the New York State

Department of Labor. The three

occupational areas offer employment at

the technician level, which requires

postsecondary education and specialized

knowledge and skills. People in these

occupations are increasingly expected to

have multiple skills and, in many cases,

to work in cross-trained teams.

Health Care (HC) differs from most

other occupational fields in the United

States because it has sharply defined job

titles and specific qualifications. Professional organizations and state health

departments establish requirements and

assess individuals’ qualifications. Anyone wishing to become a physical therapist, for example, can readily learn

what steps to take to become certified.

An advantage of placing youth in health

care is that workers in hospitals view

teaching as a legitimate function and are

accustomed to offering internships and

practica. 

One challenge posed by health care

occupations is that the specialties can be

too narrow and sometimes constitute

dead ends. For example, one physical

therapist warned that the two-year

college program leading to certification

as a physical therapy assistant did not

include the required courses for physical

therapists so that someone wishing to

move from being an assistant to being a

physical ther-apist must begin with the

first year of college. 

National debates about health care

policy, cost containment efforts, and

approaches such as health maintenance

organizations and home care have

created uncertainties in the health care

scene that impeded hospitals’ capacity

to take more youth. Ultimately, however, the need for health care technicians

like those in the demonstration project

is likely to increase.
Introduction 3

In contrast to health care, Adminis- The metropolitan region around

tration and Office Technology (AOT) is a Binghamton, New York, is heavily

relatively fluid and open occupational industrial, making it an excellent locale

area. The most sharply defined specialties for Manufacturing and Engineering Techare in accounting and computer pro- nology (MET) placements. The multigramming; most other subfields are national firm Asea Brown Boveri (ABB),

broad, requiring general communication, which we visited in Switzerland,

organization, and social skills. Adminis- provides a model apprenticeship in this

trative work is available in a variety of occupational area. It combines formerly

organizations, including hospitals, separate apprenticeships in drafting,

factories, public and private nonprofit machining, and electronics to produce

organizations, and financial services electro-mechanical technicians capable

institutions. We had two models for of performing many tasks and

apprenticeship in this area. One was the collaborating with specialists in related

training of German “merchants,” a term fields. We hoped to achieve comparable

that encompasses a wide range of middle- breadth, giving youth multiple skills and

level office jobs, including secretary, career options. Even more than in the

bookkeeper, personnel officer, account other two occupational areas, employexecutive, and inventory control spec- ment prospects were limited because

ialist. The other model comes from consolidation and downsizing reduced

American firms employing multiskilled the number of jobs in manufacturing.

workers in self-managed work teams. For Nevertheless, some firms with shrinking

example, some insurance companies have workforces participated because they

changed their procedures and retrained had a growing need for the kinds of

their workers for “once and done” opera- workers the program was designed to

tions so that a customer can call in with a produce. And some manufacturing firms

series of questions about a policy and get defied the general trend and expanded.

answers from the same person— Furthermore, employers agreed to teach

equipped with a computer—who is also youth not only to meet their own needs

prepared to sell additional products based but to help strengthen the community’s

on an assessment of the customer’s economy and educational system while

needs. Such employees need more educa- furthering their own development as

tion and training than do those who pro- learning organizations. 

cess one part of one form. Despite the

need for people in AOT with more

advanced and more diverse skills, downsizing and buyouts restricted the number

of AOT positions because functions

were eliminated or shifted to home

offices in other locations.
4 Learning Well at Work

Workplace Participation

Four firms took part in the first year of

the demonstration project; eleven were

involved by the fourth year. Youth

enrollment grew steadily, if modestly:

there were 22 in the first year, 41 in the

second, 47 in the third, and 59 in the

fourth. A total of 100 youth participated

during four years (see Table 1 in Appendix, p. 79).

We would have preferred a larger

number of employers, each enrolling 3

larger numbers of youth. In the fourth

program year, three of the original firms

had 10 placements each, three firms had

5 to 6, one had 4, another 3, two had 2,

and one had a single placement. Money

to pay youth was not the key resource

required of employers. Most found that

within six weeks or less, youth were

productive enough to earn their wages.

As youth became more competent, their

productivity substantially exceeded their

earnings. Far more serious than wage

costs were the costs of a coordinator’s

time and that of other adult employees

for

supervising youth.

communicating with school and parents.

planning and coordinating within and

across workplaces.

orienting, training, and supporting

coaches and mentors.

designing a learning plan and assessing

performance.

These costs are not easily quantified, but

they are real and substantial. They vary

considerably among employers. Econ- 4 

omies of scale result when workplaces

take larger numbers of youth because

the costs do not increase proportionately with each added participant.

Employers can reduce some costs by

collaborating within a regional partnership, a state, or an industry, for example,

and sharing the costs of planning a

learning program.

School Participation

Most high schools in the region wished

to participate in the project, but we

limited the number to five the first year

and later to seven so we could concentrate and develop resources within those

schools. Each high school designated one

faculty member as coordinator to

communicate with workplaces.

involve a school committee in program

development, recruiting and evaluation,

and developing academic connections to

work-based learning (curriculum, senior

projects, staff development) and a

school-based advising system led by

faculty members.

Broome Community College was

represented on the project’s advisory

committee; six youth enrolled there

while continuing their participation; and

representatives from the college served

on education committees related to each

occupational area.
Introduction 5

Participants and Their

Characteristics

Active recruiting generated literally

hundreds of applicants for placements.

We advocated the recruitment of

“middle students” even though we

strongly believe all young people can

benefit. Those already bound for fouryear colleges have less need for apprenticeship; those with severe problems are

best served by preapprenticeship

programs. Entering grade point averages

(GPA) of participants were in the C+/Brange, indicating that employers chose

mostly middle students. Inclusion of

students with a range of GPAs helped to

avoid the stigma often attached to special

programs (see Table 2 in Appendix, p.

79).

A high school diploma or less was the

highest education level attained by either

parent in 54 percent of the families. In 43

percent of the families one parent had

two or more years of college (see Table 3

in Appendix, p. 80).

The female majority among participants (59 percent) reflects the predominance of traditionally female

occupations in health care and in

administration and office technology (see

Table 4 in Appendix, p. 80). Male participants clustered in manufacturing and

engineering technology, which

accounted for only 28 percent of the

positions. Employers worked with us to

try to break gender stereotypes and

enrolled youth across traditional gender

lines.

Young people from minority groups

participated in the program at twice their 

proportion of the population (13 percent

compared to 6 percent of 15- to 19-yearolds in Broome County; see Table 5 in

Appendix, p. 80). This reflected

employers’ commitment to affirmative

action and their view of this project as a

means of “filling the pipeline” with

qualified potential applicants. Teachers

and counselors also encouraged

applications from minority youth.

Governance

The demonstration project was intended

to have a limited lifetime. If it succeeded,

it would become part of the local

educational and employment systems

under local control. We planned for this

eventuality from the beginning, forming

a local advisory committee, committees

of coordinators from schools and firms,

and education committees for each

occupational area, seeking collaboration

with other educational institutions, and,

most important, trying always to

empower our partners in the schools and

work places so that they would be able

to continue without us. A coordinating

or intermediary organization was also

needed to support further development.5

Responsibility for the project was 

transferred from Cornell to the

community partners in planned steps

during the fourth year.
6 Learning Well at Work

Types of Work-Based Learning

Apprenticeship is the epitome of workbased learning, but work-based learning

encompasses a wider range of learning

opportunities. The issues we

encountered in the demonstration

project apply to all types of work-based

learning. Choices must be made about

the same issues, though the most

appropriate choices vary among

different types of work-based learning.

We define work-based learning as

occurring intentionally in a location

where the primary activity is producing

goods or services.

The School-to-Work Opportunities

Act was inspired by apprenticeship but

wisely supports many types of workbased learning occurring from

kindergarten through college, as

indicated in Figure 1. Eight major types

of work-based learning may be grouped

into three categories.

Types of Work-Based Learning

Visits to Workplaces

Field trips—onetime visits to observe

Job shadowing—longer-term, sometimes multiple

visits to observe by following a worker

Worklike Experience

Service learning and unpaid internships—

voluntary service, not necessarily with a 

career focus

Youth-run enterprises—workplaces created

 to give youth employment and management experience

Employment

Youth jobs—jobs ordinarily open to 

teenagers but often not learning 

opportunities

Subsidized employment training—paid 

work as part of a training program

Cooperative education and paid internships—schoolrelated work

 experience

Youth apprenticeship—long-term 

(over several years) work and learning 

program leading to certification

Figure 1.

See Types of Work-Based Learning at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/types.htm
Introduction 7

Work-based learning can occur in Work-based learning opportunities

schools if students are actively engaged may be differentiated along several dimenin producing goods or services. If stud- sions: their purposes, the activities particients perform services such as cleaning pants engage in, the nature of their conrooms or serving food in the cafeteria, if nections with school, and the investment

they work in school-based enterprises of time, money, and other resources by

that produce goods or services for sale, if the employer and the youth. Figure 2

they serve as assistants or apprentices to defines these four dimensions. The three

teachers, librarians, or other staff mem- levels indicate shifts toward increasingly

bers, and if these activities are designed as intensive experiences. Those shifts are

learning opportunities, then they are cumulative, that is, each level incorpodoing work-based learning even though rates and supersedes the preceding one.

they are located in a school building. We Work-based learning experiences at Level

define “work” as employment-related 1 provide a found ation for experiences at

activity rather than in its broader Levels 2 and 3. For example, cooperative

meaning as purposeful activity that education ideally builds on previous exincludes schoolwork, working out at a ploration gained through field trips.

sport, and so on. By our definition, When it teaches technical competence

studying about work, learning how to (Level 3), cooperative education will at

work, or simulating a workplace are all the same time provide opportunities for

school-based learning, not work-based. more extensive career exploration than is

available through field trips at Level 1. In

addition, cooperative education at Level 3

will continue to nurture personal and

social competence (Level 2). Higher-level

work-based learning tends to require

more investment.

Purposes Activities School Investment

connections

Level

 3

Technical Planning, Integrated More

competence performing and

evaluating complex

tasks

Level

2

Personal and social Performing routine Interdependent

competence tasks

Level

1

Exploration Observation Related Less

Figure 2. Dimensions of Work-Based Learning (http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/dimens.htm)
8 Learning Well at Work

Field trips are typical of Level 1, youth programs may range from summer job

apprenticeship of Level 3. However, programs that teach few if any

the levels of all types of work-based technical skills to programs such as

learning may vary depending on how Job Corps and Youthbuild that teach

they are designed. For example, advanced technical skills.

students in Level 2 service learning The framework in Figure 2 may be

might engage in a low-intensity used to situate a program using a

activity for a brief period, such as particular type of work-based learning

picking up trash on Earth Day, where within a comprehensive school-toas participants in an intensive service- work system, to compare it along

learning project at Level 3 might learn these dimensions with other programs,

and perform complex tasks over an and to assess the match between its

extended time, as in national service purposes and partici-pants’ needs. But

and conservation corps programs. a program’s place along these

Assigning any work-based learn-ing dimensions does not determine

opportunity to a particular level is whether it is better or worse than

complicated. For example, even another program. Exploratory field

though the activities involved in a field trips for elementary school children

trip are, by definition, limited to will appropriately be less intensive and

observation (Level 1), the purpose less comprehensive than cooperative

might be gaining highly technical education placements for high school

knowledge (Level 3), as when a students studying marketing. Because

structural engineering class visits a youth apprenticeship, cooperative

bridge during a windstorm to learn education, and subsidized employment

about stress. Another example of levels training all require rather high

varying across dimensions is a youth- investment, less intensive and less

run enterprise that teaches technical expensive types of work-based learning

competence (Level 3) but is sponsored are essential if all young people are to

by a community organiza-tion with no be served. Furthermore, participants in

direct connection to school. the more intensive types will gain

Variation occurs within levels too. more if they have previously

For example, work-based learning experienced less intensive, more

opportunities at Level 3 may diverge exploratory types of work-based

widely in the depth and breadth of the learning.

technical competence they teach;

subsidized employment training 
Introduction 9

We realized when we began the counseling to make strong commitdemonstration project that we were ments. Youth apprenticeship would be

trying to create independently one a capstone experience following

part of what would ideally be an entire participation in a range of work-based

system. In a comprehensive system, learning opportunities, each

young people would choose an contributing knowledge about the

occupational area based on adequate work world to help young people

knowledge, experience, and choose a career path. 

Principles

In the following pages we state seven principles to guide the practice of workbased learning. Each principle addresses a set of choices that employers and

educators planning and maintaining work-based learning opportunities must

make. By positing principles and choices rather than constructing a model, we

emphasize that diverse approaches can be effective.6

Principles for Work-Based Learning

1. Technical Competence. Youth gain basic and high-level technical competence

through challenging work.

2. Breadth. Youth gain broad technical competence and understand all aspects of the

industry through rotation and projects. 

3. Personal and Social Competence. Youth gain personal and social competence in the

workplace.

4. Expectations and Feedback. Workplace teachers convey clear expectations to youth

and assess progress toward achieving them.

5. Teaching Roles. Youth learn from adults with formally assigned teaching roles.

6. Academic Achievement. Youth achieve high academic standards.

7. Career Paths. Youth identify and follow career paths.

We developed some of these principles before the demonstration project began,

albeit in different terms. Others emerged from the project, reflecting the active 7

contributions of many partners in the enterprise. We hope they will prove useful

to all who are engaged in work-based learning, especially as a tool to assess

program development needs and set priorities. See rating form in Appendix, p. 81.
10 Learning Well at Work

1. Technical Competence

Youth gain basic and high-level technical competence through

challenging work. 

1. Identify work tasks that teach technical competence.

2. Organize learning objectives as modules in core and elective

units.

3. Design a multi-year learning plan that is increasingly 

challenging.

Work-based learning teaches young foundation of knowledge and skills,

people how to perform work tasks. appreciation for expertise, confi-dence

They begin by learning basic technical in their own ability, and underskills that nearly anyone can learn standing that learning continues for a

quickly. Basic technical skills serve as lifetime. They must learn specific

building blocks for acquiring high- work skills, but those skills should be

level skills. Training over a period of understood as a foundation for

years leads to high-level technical continuous learning, not as ultimate

competence. Technical competence or sufficient. Through work-based

includes not only mastering learning, youth prepare to function in

procedures but also understanding learning organizations.

fundamental principles and concepts

underlying procedures, increasing

capacity for analytical judgment, and,

in most occupational areas, becoming

computer literate. Less intensive types

of work-based learning teach less

technical competence but may be

improved by enhancing their technical

content.

In addition to learning how to

perform work tasks, youth learn how

to learn. They acquire a firm
1. Technical Competence 11

All the evidence we examined revealed their appreciation for the

indicated strongly that youth in the centrality of technical competence;

demonstration project gained tech- without further prompting they spoke

nical competence. We observed them of what they had learned.

performing complex tasks. Their

coaches praised their competence and

recorded their acquisition of specific

skills over time. When asked at the

end of each year, “What stands out for

you in your experience as an

apprentice,” they 

8

“Miss Accounts Payable”

Lisa Black described how she learned technical procedures, 

including computer use. Although some of her work was routine, she 

conveyed great pride in her contributions.

I do a booking procedure. I put the invoices in the computer, and then the

checks get run from that. I do the little [routine] work that no one else wants

to do, like stuff the envelopes, seal them, run them through the mail machine,

and file all the paperwork from the checks. I was basically Miss Accounts

Payable while the lady I work with was on maternity leave because I knew

what was going on. When I went on vacation, everything went crazy. I came

back and the treasurer said, ‘We missed you so much.’ It makes me feel

important that I am doing something that’s beneficial to the company. I’m not

just there to file.9

Lisa Black 

Doron Precision Systems, Inc., and Binghamton High School
12 Learning Well at Work

Getting Started

To foster the acquisition of technical and safety (see Appendix, p. 84). 

competence, designers of work-based Modules are like building blocks.

learning programs use the same They can be put together in different

approach as the designers of classroom combinations. For each occupational

instruction; they develop a area, we grouped modules containing

curriculum. A work-based learning the fundamental techniques and

curriculum identifies and sequences concepts that all youth had to master

learning objectives and specifies the and named them the core unit.

tasks, projects, and activities that Elective units contained modules

enable youth to achieve them. related to subdisciplines and to

procedures that might be specific to

Tasks

To begin building a work-based

learning curriculum, managers list

work tasks that youth will perform

and the necessary technical skills,

including computer skills and

principles related to understanding the

procedures (see Appendix, p. 83).

Initially in the demonstration project,

each department listed technical skills

specific to its own area, without

coordination among departments.

Building Blocks

As new firms joined the project and

more departments in each firm participated, the number of learning

objectives expanded exponentially. To

order the objectives, we convened

adults working with youth in the

same occupational area and introduced

the terms: modules, core units, and

elective units. Modules contain a list

of related objectives, such as computer

use, documentation, computer-aided

design (CAD), measurement, welding,

one or a few firms. Firms selected

elective units to teach technical skills

related to their industry and future

workforce needs. Each occupational

area had both a core unit and elective

units. 

Core modules functioned as

components of skill standards for the

occupational areas in which youth

worked. The framework of modules

in core and elective units gave choices

to employers and youth and also

achieved some standardization.

Evaluation notebooks contained units

and modules for technical competence

and served as a record of what participants learned (see a sample log, p. 35).
1. Technical Competence 13

Designing a Multi-Year Program

Ideally, coherent programs of workbased and school-based learning span

secondary and postsecondary education. Employers, employees, and educators in the demonstration project

formed education committees to determine how to relate work-based

learning to high school and college

degree programs. The results of these

deliberations suggest that the following

points need to be addressed in

designing multi-year work-based

learning opportunities.

Link work-based learning to the firm’s

strategic planning for the workforce of

the future.

Connect people engaged in workbased learning to strategic planning. 

Identify positions, including new,

combined, or current positions, for

which youth would qualify upon completion of their multi-year work-based

learning experience.

Identify competencies desired of highly

competitive candidates for these

positions.

Design a multi-year sequence of workbased learning.

Groups of managers or high-level

individuals should decide where youth

are placed; otherwise, their

placements may be a patchwork

rather than a coherent sequence.

Follow a learning plan to determine

what youth do and for how long,

rather than merely using them to meet

production needs.

Prioritize, cluster, and sequence

modules as building blocks for learning.

Design periodic rotations, selecting

placements to achieve both specialization and cross-training and to teach all

aspects of the industry (see Figure 3, p.

18).

Promote multi-year educational

programs and courses that complement work-based learning.

Recommend or require specific high

school courses (e.g., college entry

diploma, four credits of math).

Recommend college programs that

give youth desired qualifications; give

scholarships for postsecondary education.

Engage school leaders at secondary

and postsecondary levels; secure their

commitment to making connections

with work-based learning.

Building a solid multi-year program

requires that coaches and managers

determine long-range goals for their

workers and learning objectives that

match those goals. Coaches and

managers can justify their selection of

everyday work tasks for youth based

on those goals and objectives. 
14 Learning Well at Work

“You get to see the bigger picture.”

Lonni Kint, a manager, coach, and skills, they also debated the content,

mentor at Blue Cross Blue Shield level, and breadth of training to offer,

of Western New York, convened raising the following questions:

an in-house seminar to review

goals and learning objectives for the

demonstration project in her firm.

The group agreed that successful

participants would be competitive

candidates to join customer service

or human resource teams, both of

which require computer skills as

well as communication skills and

analytical judgment. As the

coaches discussed positions and

What should youth learn?

Can they learn this skill in school,

through a computer program, or in

a department at our firm?

What should youth learn during the

first year, the second, in college?

Do we have higher learning

expectations for some youth than for

others? Is that just?

Should all youth be expected to

learn complex tasks?

Lonni reflected in an end-of-the-year interview that working on the regional administration and office technology education committee had expanded her perspective

on learning, enabling her to see issues beyond her immediate department:

 I’m on an administration and office technology education committee and I

think [its goals] are well thought-out. And I would like to see all the coaches

get the chance to be on a committee like that. It really gives them a much

better perspective to see the bigger picture. We get so narrowly focused that

we’re concentrating so much on the business aspect. Then once you start to

meet and network with people from the high school and people from

Broome Community College, people from other companies, you get to see

the bigger picture, and I think it really helps give you better ideas. Maybe

you see where you could be doing things differently and maybe how you can

make corrections at the schools or other businesses to do things a little

differently. Strength in numbers though. It’s a good way to get more

influence where it needs to be. 

Lonni Kint

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York
1. Technical Competence 15

Conclusion

Rapidly changing technology and global

competition have heightened the need

for advanced skills but simultaneously

accelerated the rate at which they are

outmoded. To succeed in the twentyfirst century, workers must be highly

skilled and highly adaptable, both specialized and cross-trained. Work-based

learning can help meet this need, but it

requires that employers identify as well

as they can what skills their workers

will need in the future and then

carefully plan work-based learning programs to teach those skills. Because

education is fundamental to high-level

technical skills, employers must collaborate with high schools and

community colleges, which can provide

the disciplinary base for skills and

further skill learning, but only if they

know what they should be teaching and

set high academic standards. 
16 Learning Well at Work

2. Breadth

Youth gain broad technical competence and understand all aspects of

the industry through rotation and projects.

1. Inform youth about all aspects of the industry.

2. Rotate youth through several departments or placements.

3. Support projects and activities that teach multiple skills 

and broad knowledge.

Along with teaching young people how to continue learning, broad training

reduces the chance that their skills will become obsolete. Multiple skills enable a

worker to move readily from one assignment to another, to participate in flexible

work teams, and to respond to rapid changes in production that result from

changing markets and technology and from short production runs and customized

products. Breadth is a quality of technical learning, but it is so critical that it 10

deserves separate treatment. Teaching youth technical competence in a single,

specialized area is relatively easy compared to achieving broad technical

competence.
2. Breadth 17

Why Teach All Aspects of the Industry?

The phrase "all aspects of the industry" they can aspire to a range of career

denotes the goal of intro-ducing youth possibilities. A stone finisher can do

to the larger context in which they do only one job. A cathedral builder

their work—the economic and might become a foreman, a contractor,

organizational structures surrounding or an architect. Breadth

them. An old story about two should be assured from the beginning

stonemasons responding to the by providing youth with information

question, "What are you doing?" about the employing firm and the

illustrates the point. One replied, "I'm industry. Orientation sessions and

squaring this stone." The second said, literature are one source of such

"I'm building a cathedral." Workers information. Another is participation

who know how their actions in firm-wide events and activities such

contribute to the whole are more as annual meetings or picnics. Youth

motivated than those whose vision is should receive newsletters and any

narrow. They are also able to answer information distributed to other

questions and solve problems that go employees.

beyond their immediate setting. And

“That's how I figure out how that place works.”

When asked what he had learned, Scott Reak explained that his work in

microscopy not only taught him specialized technical skills but also helped

him understand how different departments work together.

How the microscopy department works, why they do things. I learned how to

use the equipment they have–pretty technical stuff. I got to deal with people

from other departments because they submit samples to us and I got to figure out

why they needed the analysis done. And that's how I figure out how that place

works, just from working there.

Scott Reak

Anitec and Susquehanna Valley High School
18 Learning Well at Work

Why Rotate?

Rotation is the most important way Rotation can create tensions for

to assure breadth. Youth should both youth and adults. A coach or

move systematically through several manager may feel that the investment

different placements to acquire a is paying off when the young person

variety of skills but also to learn the can perform tasks competently.

contributions of different units and Youth often develop personal attachhow they function. Some program ments and a sense of security from

coordinators at firms were very being in a place where they know

creative in finding ways to help what to do. As a result, both may

participants become acquainted with oppose rotation. Managers and cotheir organizations. For example, ordinators must attempt to balance

moving patients from one part of the these real and justifiable perspectives

hospital to another via wheelchair, with the need for breadth in workgurney, or walking is an excellent based learning. The key is following a

way for youth in health care to learn sound learning plan rather than

how to deal with patients while also rotating youth at fixed intervals or

learning about the locations and making ad hoc decisions solely to

functions of many different parts of reduce tension.

the hospital. A brief placement in the

mail room can serve the same

purpose for youth in administration

and office technology. The tool room

can help orient youth in

manufacturing and engineering technology. 

Ideally, rotations are planned to

enable youth to learn systematically

the competencies specified in the core

and elective modules. Rotations may

be customized to meet young

people's interests and career paths

and the needs of the firm. Two youth

apprentices in the same occupational

area in the same firm might follow

different rotation patterns.

Figure 3 illustrates one way of 

shifting proportions of time for MET

youth to master core competencies

and specialize in electronics and

electrical engineering.

Figure 3.

See Time Allocation in an MET

Program at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/

youthwork/ptools/rotate.htm
2. Breadth 19

Why Support Projects and Complex Activities?

Youth gain multiple skills and broad firm, and by completing projects.

knowledge by engaging in The case of Brian LaPorte at The

increasingly complex activities, by Raymond Corporation illustrates

rotating through placements in sev- work on both complex activities and

eral different locations within a projects.

"It took me quite a while to get it to where 

I could do it by myself."

Over four years Brian LaPorte rotated through several departments at The

Raymond Corporation, a manufacturer of electrically powered fork lift

trucks, gaining skills in machining, electronics, and engineering design.

During his first year he learned to calibrate the guidance system for two

truck models, to check the microprocessors, and to use variable power

supplies, chart recorders, and multimeters. The procedures he performed

required inductive as well as deductive thinking. Through his work he

discovered an aptitude for and curiosity about electronics. At the end of the

first year, Brian's manager noted on his evaluation that the next step for

him was to master "more hands-on troubleshooting." In an interview at the

end of his second year, Brian described a complex task he learned to

perform:

 

At first I worked with electrical boards. 'Wire guidance,' they called it, for the

trucks. I had to put the circuit board into the fork lift. Then I had to tune it in to

where they go by themselves. They'll steer themselves on this grid on the floor,

and you have to tune it [to stay on the grid]. And, you know, it took me quite a

while to get it to where I could do it by myself.

Brian LaPorte

The Raymond Corporation and Greene Central High School
20 Learning Well at Work

Brian spoke about learning con- Andrew Wolgemuth managed

cepts and principles he was exposed Brian's learning program in the

to by rotating through different manufacturing engineering group

placements: "I got more exposure to during his fourth year while Brian

the hydraulics and learned more was enrolled at Broome Community

about what's going on with a truck. College. Andrew described Brian's

If I see a truck, I can say I've learned work assignments in an interview as

this about it, or this." Furthermore, centered on project work: write

he emphasized that he has acquired plans; work on design and drafting;

an understanding of how the order and process requisitions for

company's final product is made. materials for special material

"I've seen all the steps that the parts handling carts; assemble and weld the

go through in order to become one carts; update a computer database for

piece." He also put tedious tasks in welders and their qualifications;

perspective. He did not like doing complete a time study and product

some menial tasks such as washing flow analysis of various work stations

out housings for the hydraulics, but and present results and

he understood that this was a recommendations; report on active

necessary part of the work: "I guess usage of fixtures to assess storage

that's just part of the deal." He status and recommend dispositions;

appreciated that his manager, John further develop welding and cutting

Niles, awakened his curiosity about torch skills. Andrew recommended

other areas of the shop and taught that coaches regularly establish

him to take more initiative for his learning goals through quarterly

learning. reviews.
2. Breadth 21

What Makes a Good Project?

Project-based learning also assures

breadth and introduces youth to all

aspects of the industry. By their

nature, projects cut across boundaries

and engage youth in aspects of work

beyond their daily assignments. They

foster deeper understanding of some

workplace issues.

Participating seniors completed

projects that were evaluated on the

basis of how well they

 chose a topic and framed an issue 

related to an occupational area.

 planned a complex long-term 

project.

 researched an issue using a range of 

resources.

 benefited others.

applied academic knowledge.

 exhibited findings.

A fall retreat for youth and their

managers featured exemplary senior

projects from previous years and

introduced criteria for producing a

good project, how to make a

timeline, and potential topics and

issues (see Appendix, p. 85).

When asked about their senior

projects during the spring, 22 of 24

participants (in the class of 1995) said

the experience was challenging

because of the depth of knowledge

required, the time commitment, the

need to speak with people and

analyze information, and the public

presentation. For some, sharing their

work with others and trying to make

it useful were particularly inspiring

aspects of the senior project.

“It has opened me to more, given me more 

questions to ask."

It has opened me to more, given me more questions to ask. What this does for

[patients]. Why it is done. Normally, English class and projects, I can whip

through them and get them done in a week. I am working on [my senior project]

every day in school. I spend my lunch time in the library, no study halls, always

working on it. Normally I just [do this type of report for students. I am giving this

project to my] boss and adults more than peers. It makes me nervous. I want it to

be extra special.

Jennifer Arnold

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York and

Susquehanna Valley High School
22 Learning Well at Work

Examples of Senior Projects

Create a Procedure Manual for Overloans

Sharon Laude, when a senior at When this occurs, the company

Windsor Central High School, mustcancel the policy.

discovered that the procedures for

calculating and dealing with overloans

at Columbian Mutual Life Insurance

Company were inconsistent and

difficult to understand. For example,

the term "accumulated dividends" was

abbreviated four different ways, and

important information was recorded

by appending handwritten notes to

forms in paper files. An overloan

occurs when an insurance policy holder

has borrowed against the cash value of

the policy and not repaid so that the

loan exceeds the value of the policy.

For her senior project, Sharon set out

to standardize terms and proce-dures and

to find a secure way of recording actions

taken. Her research included a review of

cases in which policy holders borrowed

more than the value of their policy. Then

she standardized terms. She wrote a procedure manual and set up Lotus spreadsheets and standard letters in Microsoft

Word that all members of the team could

access and personalize. As one member of

the senior project exhibition panel wrote,

she "changed an entire manual to language

any new employee could understand."

Design Electrical Services for a Laboratory

For his senior project at Anitec and the required conduit, wire, circuit

Binghamton High School, Blair breakers, disconnect switches, and so on;

Dury's coach, Robert Kage, gave him and calculating lighting levels. He

an architectural layout for a new silver reviewed all work with the facilities

analysis laboratory and chall-enged project engineer at each stage. 

him to produce a functional design

package for its electrical services. 

Blair gathered information about CAD plan-view drawings with associated

power requirements for the test equip- elevation views, schematics, and single--

ment, for the chemical exhaust fans, line diagrams, a bill of materials, and

and for general room power and standard construction notes and a scope of

lighting by reading equipment spec- work. Panel members who evaluated the

ifications and nameplate data and exhibition commended the depth of his

interviewing lab technicians and knowledge about electrical power requireengineers. Design steps included ments, the numerous skills acquired in

applying the information to size executing the project, the connections to

electrical circuits according to the academic knowledge and skills, and the

National Electrical Code; specifying range of resources used.

The design package he presented at his

exhibition included architectural Auto-
2. Breadth 23

Produce a Videotape on Guillain-Barré Syndrome

As an apprentice in physical She also interviewed the patient

therapy at United Health Services and his spouse. She wrote a paper

Hospitals and a student at on GBS for her health class.

Susquehanna Valley High School,

Stacy Potter worked under the

guidance of a physical therapist,

Jean Marie Haskell, with a patient

recovering from Guillain-Barré

Syndrome (GBS), a progressive

disease of the nervous system that

can result in total paralysis.

For her senior project she chose patients. While showing the tape,

to find out more about the disease, she stopped several times to

its treatment, and the psychosocial explain what was happening and

effects on patients. She read the why. The videotape will be used to

medical literature. She interviewed educate health professionals,

physicians, nurses, occupational patients, and their families about

therapists, and physical therapists. GBS.

Stacy invited the patient and his

wife to her exhibition when she

presented her case study to the

panel and had the patient tell the

story from his viewpoint. She also

showed a videotape portraying

physical therapists, herself

included, working with GBS

Conclusion

Workplaces that increasingly are rotation and projects. Rotation

require broad and deep knowledge through multiple work settings

and skills will find participation in and job assignments enabled

work-based learning a wise apprentices to learn a variety of 

investment. Relatively simple

practices such as including youth

in all-firm events and communications contribute to breadth. Two

key methods of achieving breadth

skills and all aspects of the

industry. Projects challenged them

to broaden their knowledge and to

benefit their communities as well. 
24 Learning Well at Work

3. Personal and Social

Competence

Youth gain personal and social competence in the workplace.

1. Recognize personal and social competencies as key learning

objectives.

2. Systematically teach personal and social competence in

context.

3. Provide extra assistance to youth who lack personal and

social competence through case management.

Bringing young people into a work- and social competence they must

place is quite different from hiring new explicitly determine their standards,

adult employees. Normal hiring pro- then formulate appropriate learning

cesses are designed to assure that new objectives and teach young people to

employees already have most of the achieve them. This is different from

knowledge, skills, and attitudes required using standards to select or dismiss

to fill a particular position. Work-based people or, at the opposite extreme, from

learning programs bring young people misguiding youth by excusing them

who are unqualified for regular employ- from meeting standards. Employers

ment into a workplace and, over an ex- teach youth what their standards are

tended time, qualify them. Employers and how to meet them. Meeting during

frequently say that the qualifications the spring of the demonstration

they value most in entry-level employ- project's second year, workplace

ees are not technical skills but such teachers concluded that personal and

traits as punctuality, reliability, and dili- social competence is generic across all

gence. They claim that people who have industries and collaborated to produce

these personal and social skills can be the Guide to Evaluating Social and

trained in technical skills. Personal Competence, which was used

Before employers can teach personal in all three occupational areas (see

Appendix, p. 86).
3. Personal and Social Competence 25

What Should Youth Learn?

The idea of systematically teaching make sure they do their homework and

personal and social competence is new get to school on time, and some have

and challenging to many people in participated extensively in church,

business. When we interviewed adults community groups, or other

who worked with youth in the organizations. These youth are likely

demonstration project, they said that already to have acquired many of the

teaching personal and social competence personal and social competencies

was more challenging than teaching employers value. Young people who

technical competence. Working with lack these advantages should receive

adolescents raised new issues for special assistance in acquiring them,

managers, but we learned that many both before and during their

middle managers were uncertain about work-based learning experience. Equal

how to handle issues related to personal access to work-based learning entails

and social competence with adult preparation and remedial opportunities

employees too. Some said they became for disadvantaged youth. Most

better managers of adults after learning employers are not prepared to cope

to deal with youth (see section 5). with youth who have serious defiSome young people have parents ciencies in this realm, but employers in

who are regularly employed and who the demonstration project showed great

commitment and resourcefulness in

helping young people become more

mature.

Personal Competence

Personal competence encompasses

self-confidence, initiative, motivation,

commitment to continuous

improvement, and career planning.

Learning to act like an adult was a

common theme in our interviews with

apprentices who spoke of growing

self-confidence and often contrasted

their behavior at work and in school.

Work experience helps youth identify

career paths and steps along them.11
26 Learning Well at Work

"You have to be mature."

You have to be at work on time and [take] responsibility for the job that they give

you, to get it done in time. You have to be mature and polite. You can't act like you

act with your friends at school. When you go to work it's a totally different setting,

and you have to go up to their level. When you're at school it's accepted to act how

you want, but at work it's not acceptable.

Erica Anderson

United Health Services Hospitals and Union-Endicott High School

"The confidence behind the discipline"

You're disciplined in a sort of way that you wouldn't be at school. In school you

run around like you're a child, but there you are acting like an adult. And you get a

lot of discipline from it. I went in as a teenager, with the mind of a teenager.

Coming out I think I've developed my mind to almost adult standard.

Interviewer: And what does that mean for you, adult standard?

Pretty much living up to what is expected of adults, their social and business

manner, the way they think. It has to be almost perfect, not quite, almost perfect.

Interviewer: You said you had developed discipline, and what has that meant for

you?

It's meant I've gotten better at what I do. I'm more focused on what I want. I'm

more focused on what I'm doing. I have become more confident because I know

what I want to do. I know what I'm going to do. I've always had my mind set when

I thought of something, but I've never had the confidence behind the discipline.

Lonnelle Egan

The Raymond Corporation and Greene Central High School
3. Personal and Social Competence 27

"I know more about what physical therapy 

actually is."

During her senior year Dawn McIntyre made rounds with a physical therapist

to work with disabled children at their schools and began to think about a

specialty in pediatrics.

I know more about what physical therapy actually is, so when I go to college, I'm

prepared. Physical therapy is not just working in a big gym. A lot of people think

that's what it is, like training or sports medicine. It's a lot different than that. You're

more involved with the person. There's a wide range. I had to be more professional.

It made me think about my career more. And what I wanted to do in the future.

Dawn McIntyre

Lourdes Hospital and Windsor Central High School

Social Competence

Social competence includes learning Participants learn rules, such as professabout organizational systems, mean- ional ethics, safety, work-space norms, 12

ing the purposes of the organization, schedules, and appropriate dress. They

its structure, how one department also learn communication skills and

connects to another, the roles of people how to work in teams.

in the organization, obligations to

clients and customers, and how to gain

access to information. Work tasks and

projects youth undertake can provide

insights into how the firm operates. 

When youth understand how their

work contributes to the firm as a

whole, they are more enthusiastic and

more productive.

13
28 Learning Well at Work

"This experience made me care 

about the company."

As high school graduation approached, Erin Prindle looked back over the past

year to select an experience that had been particularly important for her.

Interviewing employees from many departments throughout the company for

a newsletter article gave her an opportunity to gain a new perspective on the

organization and her work in it.

When I worked as an apprentice, especially when I worked at Human Resources, I

had a lot of fun. I did articles for The Reporter, the company newsletter, and I was

able to interview a lot of people. It got me to open up with the company and see

what the company was really like. My first assignment was an article about the new

college co-ops. At first I had to locate them. Then I had to find out who they were

working for and call them to arrange time when I could interview them. I came up

with some questions to ask with help from my coach, Valerie Mahar. I had never

interviewed before, and I wasn't really sure what to ask. Then I just interviewed

them!

Two and a half years later, when reviewing her interview comments, Erin

reflected that the boredom she felt during long periods of filing and working

alone during her first year contrasted sharply with her enthusiasm when

undertaking activities such as interviewing for the newsletter. She explained

why her motivation changed dramatically when she undertook research for

her senior project to create an architectural model of the company illustrating

how the different departments interrelate.

I didn't learn much the first year. But that changed in my second year, especially

when the senior project came up and I started interviewing different people from all

over the company. I interviewed the vice-president of engineering and other im

portant people. This really got me to see the different employees of The Raymond

Corporation. I also learned how different departments functioned within the

company. This experience made me care about the company, and I became

interested in how it worked.

Erin Prindle

The Raymond Corporation and Greene Central High School
3. Personal and Social Competence 29

"Being on a team"

In her senior year Carrie Holden worked in the training department at Blue

Cross Blue Shield of Western New York. While she assisted a trainer with

preparing packets for seminars to introduce teamwork to employees in the

company, she learned how teamwork can help promote productivity and

morale.

They're starting a new thing right now at work. It's teamwork, and you think of

your department not as just a bunch of co-workers trying to go out and get a bunch

of money from insurance companies or train other people. You think of them as just

being on a team and there's a goal. You have time in the morning where you

talk—we haven't done this yet but they're working toward it—you have five or ten

minutes in the morning, which they call the 'Morning Huddle,' where everybody

talks about problems they've been having and we get things cleared up. You also

learn how to put your personal feelings aside and just work with the person as a

co-worker and as a team member. Seeing them with different eyes, I guess you

could say. That's a couple of the goals of the teams. And also, just to get people

more interested in their work, so they don't feel like they're the only ones having

those problems if you start sharing problems among your co-workers. I think it's

really cool how everything's changing. I know it's not just our company. It's

becoming a more customer-service-oriented business. That's the competition now,

you know.

Carrie Holden

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Western New York and

Whitney Point High School
30 Learning Well at Work

"He knew we needed him."

One coach, Robert Kage at Anitec, described how a youth who saw the

importance of a project took initiative and became more self-confident,

knowing people depended on him.

Well, I think one of the most important things was that Blair Dury had to learn that

he was important to our group, and that's a critical point. I really was watching for

that. We needed him. He was not just a student here. He's working on jobs and due

dates, and I needed him to be in and get the work done that he said he could get

done. There was a certain point when he realized that he was important, and the

group needed him, and he was part of the group. He was doing panel schedules for

us. We never had a database for panel schedules. We needed panel schedules

desperately. He knew we needed them. And all of a sudden, he just started saying,

well when do you need them by? How do you want this done? And it just

happened. He was part of us and what we did. That was a crucial point, I thought,

with his progress. He knew we needed him.

Robert Kage

Anitec
3. Personal and Social Competence 31

"A good outlook for quality"

As a junior, Donald Tolerson initiated conversations with his firm coordinator and managers at the IBM Corporation at Endicott about his desire to

learn more and be more productive at work. Consequently, they increased the

level of his work on the manufacturing line and in engineering during his

senior year, and he began to see how his personal and social skills would

enable him to do a good job in a high-performance workplace.

Being on a manufacturing line definitely taught me a lot of discipline, about being

to work on time, about how important it is, and getting my job done. Being where I

am now is teaching me to have a good outlook for quality. It's showing me how

well-rounded you have to be to do a certain job sometimes and [how] to interact

with people. I'm always calling up engineers, asking them questions about

blueprints, their quality plans, and it's made my communication better. A lot of it is

knowing how well I have to know my job in order to do a good job.

Donald Tolerson

IBM Corporation at Endicott and Susquehanna Valley High School
32 Learning Well at Work

When Is Case Management Necessary?

Some youth have difficulty meeting managers, and school faculty; clarifying

workplace expectations. For example, expectations and assumptions about

poor health care may result in frequent behavior; clarifying the roles of

absences. Others may simply fail to different adults; accessing medical care;

understand what is expected and why making choices to balance committhey should comply. In such instances, ments, such as a second job and extraconvening a small case management curricular activities, with project parmeeting of advocates for the youth ticipation; and accommodating a

might contribute to understanding the youth's personal problems. One youth

problem and developing strategies to decided to withdraw from the program

resolve it. after such a session; in other cases the

Participants in the demonstration

project's case management meetings

typically included the youth, parents, a

school counselor and teacher, the

firm's program coordinator, and one or

more coaches or mentors. Resolutions

included finding a tutor to help with

course work; opening communication

channels among parents, youth, 

partners found a way for the youth to

continue. When poor health, family

problems, and other factors interfere

with a youth's performance, the adults

involved in managing the case may

need to find additional resources, such

as a community health clinic or a social

agency. Employers' EAP (Employee

Assistance Programs) can be extremely

helpful in such cases.

Conclusion

To become productive workers, young competence such as teamwork,

people need to learn how to do a job responsibility for getting work done

but also how to behave at work. Youth right, communicating clearly and

jobs and other less intensive types of respectfully, and asking questions.

work-based learning can teach such Young people who acquire the

basic behaviors as getting to work on personal and social competence they

time and following instructions. Youth need as workers are also capable of

apprenticeship and other more inten- assuming such adult roles as active

sive types of work-based learning also citizens and responsible parents.

teach higher-level personal and social
4. Expectations and Feedback 33

4. Expectations and Feedback

Workplace teachers convey clear expectations to youth and assess

progress toward achieving them.

1. State expectations in advance for behavior and learning.

2. Regularly monitor and document acquisition of

competence.

3. Provide feedback on progress to youth, school, parents,

and firm.

4. Encourage youth to assemble a portfolio.

5. Eventually use industry-wide standards to provide portable credentials.

Evaluation notebooks, which list technical, personal, and social competencies, are

the most detailed statements of workplace expectations and document their

attainment. But young people need to know what those expectations are before they

enroll in a work-based learning program.
34 Learning Well at Work

Stating Mutually Clear Expectations

Position descriptions explain the After learning that several particinature and conditions of employment pants were working at parttime jobs in

(see Appendix, p. 87) and outline addition to participating in the project,

associated career possibilities and we added specific language to the

educational requirements. Working Mutual Expectations Agreement

with representatives of workplaces and explaining whether and how much

schools, we developed a Mutual additional paid employment they

Expectations Agreement, which would be allowed. This concern flowed

describes in detail the roles of the key from two sources. First, although we

players: employers, schools, appren- found that some participants were able

tices, and parents (see Appendix, p. 88). to work a remarkable number of hours

Ideally all four parties sign the agree- and still maintain both their project

ment at the beginning of the work responsibilities and their grades, some

experience, following a discussion of its experienced high stress as a result and

contents and of other initial expec- began performing poorly at work or in

tations. Workbased learning makes de- school. Second, according to New

mands on employers that they do not York State law, an employer of minors

ordinarily face. An agreement helps to is responsible for preventing excessive

spell out expectations without being hours even if the minor has more than

legalistic. one job. Our employers could find

themselves in legal trouble if youth

worked more hours than the law

allows, even in two separate jobs.
4. Expectations and Feedback 35

Evaluating Learning

In addition to detailing employers' expectations for what youth will learn, notebooks that list technical competencies serve as a record of youths' progress and a

means for coaches to communicate with youth, teachers, and parents.

See Youth Apprenticeship Technical Competence Log at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/notebook/met/core/document.htm
36 Learning Well at Work

Notebooks substantiated the update intended primarily to foster

schools' granting of academic credit to communication.

youth for work experience. Many

coaches and managers added competencies to modules in the notebooks

and drafted new modules when evaluating youth. Cornell staff incorporated these revisions, expanding the

number and content of the electives

and modules. Despite the effort expended on all sides, not all youth were

evaluated regularly. The notebooks

may have seemed cumbersome and

complex to some coaches and

managers. There are trade-offs between

comprehensiveness and ease of use,

between customization and

universality, and between specificity

and brevity. 

Coaches promote learning by monitoring youths' acquisition of competencies and giving feedback. Youth

then know where they stand and how

well they measure up. Monitoring also

promotes steady progress. Sometimes

youth will stay in the same place too

long, working productively and often

happily but not learning anything new.

Lack of progress might indicate a need

for a new placement or for more challenging responsibilities in the current

placement. To address this need,

managers and firm coordinators

designed a Youth Apprentice Interim

Evaluation to provide timely feedback

to apprentices, parents, and the school,

as well as for the next placement

within the firm. Unlike the notebook,

which is a comprehensive permanent

record, the interim evaluation is an

See Youth Apprentice Interim

Evaluation at 

http://www.human.cornell.edu/

youthwork/ptools/int-eval.htm
4. Expectations and Feedback 37

The following excerpts from evaluations illustrate how managers gave positive

feedback and noted areas needing attention.

"Needs to be a little more assertive"

[She] does well with assigned tasks and tasks she's used to. She tends not to seek

other things out when things are slow. I think [she] needs to be a little more assertive.

Health care coach

"An excellent communicator"

[She] is an excellent communicator. She'll stop and ask for help when she isn't sure

but isn't afraid to try things on her own. She does an excellent job of deciding when to

stop in the process, allowing for quick recovery if a problem had occurred.

Manufacturing and engineering technology manager

"Be more spontaneous"

[She] is a friendly but very quiet young lady. Her interest in her surroundings and in

the health care field is evident. She has been conscientious in her approach to

assigned tasks and has accepted responsibility for her actions. [She] should be

encouraged to be more spontaneous in her interactions with her co-workers and

patients (to relax). I feel she has a lot to offer and will 'blossom' when she feels more

comfortable in her surroundings.

Health care manager and coach

Some employers in our demon- designed for experienced adult

stration project preferred to use their workers. 

standard evaluation procedures with

youth. This practice treats youth like

other employees, which is usually

good but runs the risk of evaluating

youth primarily on the basis of job

performance rather than learning. In

one case youth became demoralized

when they received low scores on

performance evaluations that were
38 Learning Well at Work

Credentials and Portfolios

Another reason for documenting currently developing occupational skills

learning is to substantiate credentials, standards, and a National Skills Stanwhich are a critical component of work- dards Board has been established. These

based learning. Yet no institution can efforts are steps in the right direction,

unilaterally issue truly portable cred- but years may pass before widely

entials. Educational and occupational accepted standards and credentials are

credentials open career paths for their available for more than a few occupabearers only when the institutions tional areas. In the meantime, local and

granting them are accepted as legitimate regional standards can communicate to

and the criteria used in granting them young people what it takes to get a job

are well established. Schools and and to educators what employers expect

colleges are reviewed by accreditation of schools.

bodies for this purpose. State and professional certification boards govern the

granting of credentials in medicine, law,

and other professions. Journeyworkers'

papers granted to registered apprentices

testify that they have met criteria established by unions or state or federal

departments of labor. State licenses

attest that barbers, hairdressers,

plumbers, and electricians have proved

their mastery of health and safety issues

in those occupations.

Ultimately, work-based learning folio that will be manageable and conprograms must rely on comparable vincing both to prospective employers

institutions to legitimate the granting of and to postsecondary educational instiportable credentials. A demonstration tutions. Young people could include

program, however, cannot accomplish completed evaluation notebooks, project

this goal because of its small size and reports, letters of recommendation,

limited leverage. Credentials are port- selected work samples, a résumé, and a

able only when they are widely recog- school transcript in their portfolios. A

nized, which nearly always means that "certified résumé," listing experiences

they are developed and approved by a and competencies and signed by a manbroad coalition at the state or national ager, would be useful by itself and as part

level. Several industry groups are of a portfolio.

In the absence of standards and associated credentials, young people are best

advised to build portfolios documenting

their competencies. The use of portfolios

as evidence of learning is gaining momentum in secondary education in reaction

against the limitations of conventional

grades and test scores. Many colleges are

willing to examine students' portfolios

instead of or in addition to their transcripts and SAT scores. The issue for

work-based learning is to create a port-
4. Expectations and Feedback 39

Conclusion

Managers must establish clear expec- Formality and regularity are highly

tations and continuously monitor desirable in expectations and feedback,

young people's performance against but supervisors must be protected from

those expectations. At the same time, overly complex and time-consuming

young people and their parents have a evaluation and reporting forms. For

right to know what to expect from now every program must seek its own

their employers and to demand high- balance. Ultimately, industry-wide

quality work-based learning exper- standards and credentials will be desiriences. Frequent and open communi- able.

cation is the most certain means of

assuring mutual satisfaction, but more

formal devices such as a mutual

expectations agreement, evaluation

notebooks, and interim evaluations are

also essential. Documentation of

progress substantiates the granting of

academic credit and occupational credentials.
40 Learning Well at Work

5. Teaching Roles

Youth learn from adults with formally assigned teaching roles.

1. Assign clear teaching roles and responsibilities to a coordinator,

managers, coaches, and mentors.

2. Authorize teaching roles in job descriptions and performance

assessments.

3. Orient, train, and support adults who teach youth.

The greatest investment that employers make in work-based learning is time

devoted to teaching young people. This would be a substantial investment if adults

and youth were paired off one-to-one, as apprentices historically were with

independent master craftsmen. Work-based learning as conducted in the demonstration project, in which youth rotate among several departments of a sizable firm,

requires that many adults work with each youth. We have records of 251 different

adults in 11 firms who worked extensively with the 100 youth in the project; many

of them taught more than one youth. This is a low estimate of the ratio of adults to

youth because we know many other adults were also involved. All adults engaged in

any type of work-based learning program need some basic information about the

program and the youth, which requires communication, orientation, and continuing

support. 

We labeled four critical teaching roles at the workplace: coordinator, manager,

coach, and mentor. Most adults interviewed (65 of 70) described interacting with

youth in more than one role, such as coaching and mentoring or managing and

mentoring. More than one adult might play the same role for one youth. The point

of distinguishing the four roles is to assure that all are attended to and to promote

appropriate orientation, training, and communication.
5. Teaching Roles 41

Coordinating Work-Based Learning Programs

Design a Multi-Year Plan Recruit, Orient, and

Working with department managers

and the workplace's strategic planning

team, the coordinator designs a multiyear learning plan that delineates a

career path with various branches,

goals and objectives for learning, core

and elective competency units, a rotation plan, and desired academic degrees. 

The coordinator also designs field trips

and job shadowing for potential youth

employees. In some workplaces,

especially in the public service sector,

unpaid internships and service learning

are appropriate forms of preapprenticeship work-based learning.

Link to Strategic Planning

Work-based learning can thrive only if

it is aligned with a workplace's strategic

plan for its workforce. For example,

work-based learning might contribute

to such strategies as increased crosstraining, upgrading workers' skill sets,

establishing self-managed work teams,

and creating a learning organization.14

A coordinator advocates for the

inclusion of work-based learning in the

firm's strategic plan and assures that it

supports that plan.15

Support Adult Participants

The coordinator encourages participation by managers and their departments and provides staff development

opportunities for all the adults who

work with the program.

Oversee Rotation

Following the learning plan, the coordinator schedules youth in participating

departments. The coordinator reviews

young people's learning progress with

managers at each stage.

Facilitate Communication

The coordinator is the hub of a

communication network that includes

the workplace, youth, schools, and

families. The coordinator collects and

distributes young people's evaluation

reports, calls and facilitates case

management meetings as needed, and

maintains communication with the

larger system, participating in planning

and helping with training and program

development.
42 Learning Well at Work

Being a coordinator: "It runs the gamut."

Valerie Mahar described her responsibilities when she was coordinator of the

demonstration project at The Raymond Corporation.

16

 

I oversee the activities of the apprentices, the mentors, and coaches. I work with the

department managers to come up with new ideas, to continually expose the

apprentices to challenging and interesting work assignments. I also assist the youth

with such things as filling out college financial aid forms or helping them with work or

personal issues and recommending they use the EAP [Employee Assistance Program].

So it runs the gamut.

One of the challenges we had this year was that a couple of key departments were not

participating in the rotations--Accounting, Drafting, and Design. And we really felt that

absence. The reason they didn't get involved was because they were making major

systems changes within the departments. As a result the students had to rotate into

departments that collectively were not as challenging, such as the mail room, the

reprographics group, and the electrical subassembly area. And we continued to hear

issues about some of those areas. For example, they were limited in their exposure to

experiences in electrical subassembly; it's very repetitive. So I worked with the

managers to design a program for this last rotation to include two assembly areas in

one rotation, to better link the subassembly production department. Once the youth

learned to build the boards upstairs they would go downstairs and apply the boards to

the bigger subassemblies; that type of change makes it more interesting and helps the

apprentices to make real connections.

Also we designed our first-year rotations to include areas that better serve as a foundation to learning about the company's people, product, and processes. For example, we

include our reprographics group, which prepares the manufacturing blueprints for the

factory, and the Inspection Department, so apprentices can get a sense of 100 percent

accuracy versus 75 percent and how important it is to make it right the first time before

they are assigned to the manufacturing area. The mail room is a very good first-year

rotation because the youth get exposure to the different departments in the company,

and they become familiar with the people and the layout of the organization.

Valerie Mahar 

Formerly of The Raymond Corporation
5. Teaching Roles 43

A multi-year program with a planned learning sequence requires central control

and coordination within the employing firm, in contrast with an ad hoc work

experience for individuals. Valerie Mahar's statement illustrates what coordinators

do and how they must constantly modify program design in response to changing

departmental needs yet at the same time adhere to the basic goals of providing

breadth and depth.

Managing Work-Based Learning Programs

in Departments

Supervise Learning in a Assign Coaches

Department or Unit

In a decentralized structure, which we

found to be nearly universal in our

eleven firms, department managers

make many of the critical decisions

about what youth do and who works

closely with them. The manager and

coaches decide what youth will learn

within a department (or comparable

unit), which work tasks will enhance

their learning, and in what order the

tasks should be presented. Managers

also review the learning progress of

youth and whether the assigned tasks

enable them to achieve learning objectives, to contribute to the team's

productivity, and to experience continuous learning and challenge.

The manager may coach directly or

assign other adults in the department as

coaches. The manager chooses adults

who are sensitive to and interested in

youth and makes sure that they

understand the program. Coaches must

grasp the principles underlying a

work-based learning program. They

must also be competent workers. 

Organize Assessment

The manager coordinates assessment of

youth within the department,

especially in cases where youth have

several coaches.
44 Learning Well at Work

"A development tool"

Robert Jensen described his management role as supervising a coach and using

the demonstration project as a tool for staff development.

I actually find it very challenging. I wish I could have been a coach. I would have

liked to have been one step closer, but in my position it's becoming more and more

difficult. So I've been working through Kevin McMahon, who's a coach. Kevin has

adapted to the program very well. He's certainly a very busy person. I give him a lot of

work to do, and this adds to his workload, particularly when a new apprentice starts

with the program. But he's also come to appreciate the other things he gets out of it,

for example, an extra pair of hands, if you will. I don't mean that in a negative sense.

Kevin's able to concentrate on, let's say, a more creative problem, one that requires his

expertise, and he can count on the apprentice helping him with some of the routine

things, getting samples prepared for the next step. So it helps his productivity. It's a

development tool for Kevin in working with other people. And I think it strengthens

his technical ability because, as you well know, the best way to learn something is to

teach it. So Kevin is forced to really know what he's talking about, because now he has

to teach young people what's in his head. I have seen a change in Kevin's personality

and knowledge and confidence in his knowledge as he's gone through the program.

So as a manager I have been rewarded that way. That was part of my plan, and it

worked as a development tool for Kevin.

Robert Jensen

Anitec
5. Teaching Roles 45

Coaching Youth on Technical Skills

Demonstrate How to Do a Monitor and Critique the

Task While a Youth Watches Youth's Performance

While performing the task, the coach While monitoring the youth's performpoints out important features and ance, the coach gives clear and

checks the youth's understanding by immediate feedback. Although

asking questions and encouraging the monitoring and feedback are continual,

youth to ask questions. (Reciprocal the interval between instances increases 17

questioning is also part of the other as the youth gains competence, and the

functions.) coach encourages the youth to monitor

Explain How to Perform the

Task Correctly

Coaches may explain while demonstrating or at another time. The explanation sets out performance criteria,

points out what problems are likely to

occur, and indicates possible

problem-solving strategies.

Explain Why a Task is

Performed in a Certain Way

Coaches explain why the task is

performed according to certain specifications, provide information about

the business management or scientific

principles underlying the procedure,

and explain how the task relates to

other tasks.

his or her own performance and to

seek help when difficulties arise.

Model Problem Solving

Coaches are responsible for teaching

youth to perform routine tasks and for

fostering their understanding of what

they are doing and why and their

capacity to cope with nonroutine

events. "Thinking out loud" is the best

example of modeling problem solving.
46 Learning Well at Work

Mentoring Youth on Personal and

Social Behaviors

Initiate Youth to the Help Resolve Problems

Workplace Culture

When they engage in work-based

learning, young people enter a new

culture with its own rules, conventions, and norms. A mentor's explanations about the culture of the

workplace facilitate the young person's

adjustment to the work setting.

Advise Youth on Career

Directions and Opportunities

A mentor might describe the hierarchy

in an occupational area and explain the

educational requirements associated

with each step. 

A mentor might help a youth resolve a

problem with a manager, with school,

with family, or with peers. 

The term mentor is widely used for

the role we call coach. We prefer to

reserve mentor for someone in a

quasi-parental relationship with a

youth. By this definition, a coach can 18

be assigned, but a mentor must be

discovered. Coaches and mentors are

often the same people, but the coaching

usually comes first, with mentoring

evolving as the relationship deepens.

One reason for distinguishing the roles

is that studies of mentoring in business

have demonstrated the advantages of

having a mentor who is not one's

supervisor.
5. Teaching Roles 47

"I've learned how to word things."

Kathy Rothemeyer, a coach in a hospital laboratory, described how she tried to

improve a young person's demeanor in the workplace and, in the process,

improved her supervisory skills by working on her mentoring techniques with

Barbara Spring, a manager.

I guess I've learned how to word things. It all depends on how you speak to a person

and what choice of words you use as far as them feeling like I'm trying to tell them to

do something or trying to teach them to do something. That's something that I've

learned on the job here.

Kathy explained that she had a problem when she corrected the behavior of

one youth, who then seemed to be upset. She conferred with her supervisor,

Barbara, who assured her that she was right in correcting the behavior but

suggested that her choice of words and the way they were presented might have

been irritating and proposed a different way of speaking with the youth.

It's important because nobody likes to be told what to do. They like to be taught.

They like to feel that they can do their job without somebody over them all the time,

as long as they're doing what they're supposed to be doing. And if they're not, they

need to be told, but in a learning way.

Kathy Rothemeyer

United Health Services Hospitals
48 Learning Well at Work

"I put it on the table and deal with it." 

Earl Lee, a manager at IBM Endicott, explained in his interview how he managed

Don Tolerson's work and learning, and how his coaching evolved into

mentoring. As a manager he designated areas in a large department where Don

would work. As a coach he insisted on high standards in work products. The

intensity of the relationship that resulted led to the apprentice accepting him as a

mentor who could teach him workplace rules and advise him about his career

path and counsel him about his social life.

Managing

When I first brought Don in, one of the key things I wanted to do was expose Don to

as much from an engineer perspective as I could because Don had told me his career

goal was to be an engineer. But he didn't understand whether he wanted to be an

electrical or mechanical engineer. [Earl describes Don's assignments in

computer-aided design and inspection of new purchases.] By the time Don left there

he was actually programming one of our most sophisticated tools down in the

receiving inspection area. It helped him to understand what engineers did from an

electrical standpoint and also the different types of jobs that they could hold after

receiving those degrees. From a management standpoint I wanted to get him to

understand that an engineering manager didn't necessarily deal with math and drafting

boards and that type of stuff all day. I had him follow me around, shadow me around,

to a few meetings to understand that I dealt with the finances of the corporation as well

as I did the engineering stuff. So I think that was an eye-opener. He realizes that it

helps to take a course in accounting also.

Coaching

On Monday mornings we had a one-on-one meeting. I told him what we should try

to do with the project and then I would give Don say a week or so to do some things

with it and he would walk back in with his outline—this was what he thought he

wanted to do. And I basically had Don justify that outline. I could have pretty easily

told Don, 'This is what I want you to do.' But I thought it was important that Don got

out of this being able to rationalize and justify why he made the decision he made.

What I was really trying to get out of him was problem solving, critical thinking.

Whenever he came to me and he was at a road block and didn't know where to go, I

would ask him, ‘What do you think you would do?' And what I wanted from him were
5. Teaching Roles 49

two or three different alternatives because if he understood the problem and he

understood the options he had, then we could go down and jointly evaluate and

analyze each option. And that's the way we went through things.

Mentoring

When Don ran into problems, let's say in school or on the weekends, our

relationship developed to such a point that he was sharing those things with me too.

And I would ask him, 'Why'd you do this and why'd you do that?' I think after we got

through talking there were a lot of cases where Don would say to me, 'Yeah, I know.

Didn't make much sense, did it?' So he was able to determine that. I didn't tell him.

One of the things I saw that Don was somewhat slack on was discipline. When I would

set up a meeting with Don he thought it was okay to show up late. I know one time for

sure he showed up late to a meeting and I couldn't meet with him. I told him he had

lost his slot. I told him, 'We have a time schedule, and you weren't there.' And I said,

'Not only were you not there, you didn't call me.' I think that was the last time he was

late. And I'm hoping that carries over into school, into the next job he might have. 

There were a few times when I would proofread and then I would make corrections.

He brought me the copy the next week and I noticed some of the corrections I had

given him had not been made. And we got into a discussion about why he was

wasting my time.

I put it on the table and deal with it, okay? Because I think if I allow him to get away

with it here he might have felt going to college he could slip, slide, and skate, or do

what I call a Peggy Fleming—try to skate through. And I felt that I needed to be firm

with him but at the same time be fair. For the most part I think Don appreciated it. And

I could tell he appreciated it because as our relationship evolved and the work

relationship evolved I noticed that he was able to share more and more with me some

other things that were going on in his life too. So I know that I did not really turn him

off. I think it strengthened our relationship because the bottom line is that I think he

felt that I had his best interests in mind. I was trying to prepare him for what he had to

deal with in the future.

Earl Lee

IBM Corporation at Endicott
50 Learning Well at Work

How to Support Teaching Roles

Teaching youth is a form of staff young people into a firm and expect

development for adults (see Appendix, adults to make time for them around

p. 90). Adults become more the edges.

self-conscious about their own

knowledge and learning; they gain

experience in managerial roles. In view

of the magnitude of the employers'

investment, this is a critically

important benefit from participation in

work-based learning. If work-based

learning enhances staff development in

addition to yielding highly qualified

future workers, the investment will be

more readily and visibly justified.

Authorize Teaching

Even in small firms, where people

typically perform several roles and

readily share responsibilities, workbased learning must be treated

formally, explicitly assigning teaching

roles and responsibilities to coordinators, managers, and coaches and

authorizing adult workers to perform

these and the mentoring role (see

Appendix, p. 91). Managers should

write the performance of these teaching

roles into job descriptions and specify

that coaches and others devote a certain

percentage of their time to these tasks.

Authorizing these teaching roles in job

descriptions and performance assessments moves the firm forward on the

path toward becoming a learning

organization. It is not enough to bring

Provide Staff Development

Throughout the demonstration

project's four years, coordinators,

managers, coaches, and mentors

participated in workshops that

addressed various issues and challenges.

During the fourth year the

coordinators, under the leadership of

Chris Powers, then coordinator at the

IBM Corporation at Endicott, helped

plan two workshops: a retreat for

participants and a seminar on adult

teaching roles. Issues for coaches,

managers, and mentors involved

boundaries and responsibilities among

these different roles. We wrote fictional

case studies based on reports of

problems encountered at the work sites

(see training section of World Wide

Web: http://www.human.cornell.edu/

youthwork/). We encouraged the adults

who attended the seminar to use the

cases as training tools with colleagues

who were unable to attend. This "train

the trainer" approach seems the only

efficient means to reach the many

different adults who teach youth.

Training is expensive to employers

because it is done during the working

day.
5. Teaching Roles 51

Conclusion

Work-based learning prepares young Work-based learning programs for

people for employment, but it also has youth must be accompanied by

a profound social function: it opportunities for adults to become

reconnects adults with youth. As they competent at teaching youth. Happily,

become adults, young people need role they also become more competent as

models and confidants who managers of adults, providing a double

complement their parents. They learn return on employers' investment in

from performing technical tasks, but human resources. Learning organizathey learn in the context of relations tions for youth are also learning

with significant adults who encourage, organizations for adults.

inspire, and instruct them.

The most satisfying result of our

demonstration project is that it showed

how adults are able and willing to be

coaches and mentors for youth. Some,

like Earl Lee, are naturals; all they need

is an opportunity. Most others are fully

capable of performing the roles with a

modicum of orientation, training, and

support. Recognizing that "natural"

mentors will readily perform some or

all of the responsibilities we have

outlined even in the absence of formal

job descriptions and training, we

believe it is useful to distinguish the

roles of coaching, mentoring,

managing, and coordinating and to

provide orientation, training, and

support for the adults who perform

them. The challenge is to help large

numbers of adults gain the competence

in teaching youth that some already

have. 
52 Learning Well at Work

6. Academic Achievement

Youth achieve high academic standards.

1. Work closely with schools and postsecondary institutions to set

high academic standards.

2. Specify courses and degrees related to the career areas.

3. Open multiple options for postsecondary education.

If the distinction between head and hand, between academic and vocational

education, was ever valid, it is no longer. Increasingly jobs that pay well require a

combination of knowledge, communication, problem solving, and technical skill

that sounds like a classic definition of the well-educated person. Schools, in turn,

must undertake fundamental reforms in at least four areas: setting high academic

standards; creating effective advising systems; linking school-based learning to

work-based learning; and allowing flexible schedules.
7. Career Paths 53

Promoting Higher Standards

Employers can promote higher aca- New York where community college

demic standards as citizens through tuition is high.

membership on school boards and

their committees and through public

advocacy. They can also do so by

clearly stating their expectations

regarding the academic achievement of

their employees, selecting youth for

work-based learning (and other employees) based on those expectations

(especially reviewing transcripts of

applicants), monitoring youths'

progress toward meeting their expectations, advising about courses to take,

and offering tutoring if necessary. At

the postsecondary level, some employers provide scholarships, a benefit

that is especially valuable in states like

High school students hoping to

make rewarding careers without graduating from four-year colleges must

enroll in courses previously considered

appropriate only for those bound for

selective colleges. Social studies and

English courses are required in all four

high school grades. The critical question for participants is whether they

enroll in optional science and math

courses in grades 11 and 12. Youth in

all three occupational areas need college

preparatory mathematics. Those in

health care and manufacturing and

engineering technology also need

science.

"I'm satisfied but not that

satisfied in myself."

Avion Fields started taking higher-level science courses when teachers who knew

he was in the demonstration project urged him to do so. He regretted not doing

it earlier.

I'm satisfied but I'm not that satisfied in myself. I wasn't that focused in the ninth and

tenth grade. I was not taking [my career interest] that seriously. This year I'm taking

Regents [college preparatory] chemistry but I could have been taking Regents physics.

The apprenticeship is good for another reason. It puts me on another level. I have a

couple of sets of friends at school. I have a set of friends that I goof off with and

another set I talk to about going to college. I can also talk to adults and relate to them.

I can talk about work and things. I feel more mature.

Avion Fields 

United Health Services Hospitals and Binghamton High School
54 Learning Well at Work

Work-based learning can thrive as In contrast to Avion Fields and

part of a larger education reform others who were "turned on" to

process only if it fosters high achieve- school, as a group the participants

ment for all. Far from being a less showed no greater improvement in

rigorous mode of learning for the grades and enrollment in nonrequired

academically ungifted, work- based math and science courses than their

learning depends on the movement to classmates. Participants' grades

abolish basic or general courses and to improved modestly from grade 10 to

raise the academic content of grade 12, but no more than their

vocational courses to the level of classmates'. We conclude that neither

college preparatory courses. A few grades nor course enrollments will 19

graduates found they were unprepared improve as an indirect result of

for the courses in community college work-based learning; improved

that would qualify them for technical academic performance must be a

occupations. This demonstrates the central focus of school-to-work systems

need for a systematic approach and specific steps taken to foster it. The

involving employers, educators, and most critical need is for a variety of

parents. More communication and a learning options and instructional

stronger advising system would assure approaches, for explicit links between

that youth know what courses they knowledge and application, and for

should be taking in high school to new school structures.

follow their chosen career path. Work

experience by itself is inadequate to

overcome inertia and lack of

knowledge; high academic performance

has to be part of the design of

work-based learning programs.

Employers can advocate even more

forcefully than educators for higher

academic standards, but they must do

so repeatedly and in many ways to

overcome the inertia of current

practices. They should also recognize

that enabling all students to achieve

higher standards entails changes in

school organization and instructional

methods, changes that cannot be made

without cost.

20

21
7. Career Paths 55

Who Advises Youth?

Employers need to emphasize the lower-level courses because they lack

importance of success in school for the intelligence to succeed in more

successful careers so that youth begin challenging courses, and they, their

to make connections among what they teachers, and their classmates would be

are experiencing at work, their career frustrated if they were asked to do

aspirations, and their school more. Many parents, especially those

performance. who have not graduated from college,

If employers specify the courses

they expect youth to take, they will

send a strong message, but the message

will not be communicated immediately

to everyone who needs to hear it

because it conflicts with deeply

embedded beliefs. Many people,

including some teachers, firmly believe

that students' academic performance

results primarily from inherent and

unchangeable aptitude. By this

reasoning, students enroll in

accept the schools' placements of their

children in lower-level courses. Even

guidance counselors are often unaware

that students who have met no more

than minimum standards for high

school graduation typically need to

take many high school-level courses in

community college before they can

qualify for admission to programs

leading to technical associates' degrees.

"I ask them how school is going."

John Niles regularly asked youth he supervised about their schoolwork.

I try to have a one-on-one every week. I didn't have one this Tuesday because of

conflicts. We didn't meet until last Thursday, and we'll meet again this coming

Tuesday. I ask them how school is going, any problems, did you get your report card.

See, I have a daughter in high school too, so I know about when exams are coming

and when the report card should be out.

John Niles

The Raymond Corporation
56 Learning Well at Work

Students need information and advice Mentors at work can be invaluable

from a range of sources, including but advisers but they also need up-to-date

not limited to school counselors. information and the skill to convey

Parents are and should be their what they know effectively. Classroom

children's most important advisers. To teachers are also important sources of

fulfill that role most of them need advice; they can be more effective

additional information about career when they have better information,

opportunities, including educational adequate time, and authorization to act

possibilities and requirements. as advisers.

"I'm bringing back something."

Teachers spoke about how their students' and their own participation in the

demonstration project had changed their teaching methods and their attitudes

toward teaching and students. Roberta Thomas, an English teacher, spoke

movingly about the revitalization she felt.

I went to where Melissa Storti works in the morning. We arranged a meeting so it

would be close to when she was excused. And we went to a cafe for breakfast. We sat

and chatted about her performance, what she liked, what she wanted to do, and

college. We talked a lot about careers and how a young girl in the medical field is

supposed to act. It was a very personal connection that I was very glad to have with

her, to be able to sit over breakfast with Missy and talk, person-to-person,

adult-to-adult, old adult to young adult. You know, I need to get out of the

constrictions of the building.

This is what makes me want to get up in the morning and go to work. Getting out with

adults, going to the workshops, talking with other teachers, with coaches, with people

in the business world, Cornell people, all of those things make you think that you're

actually a professional. And sitting down to a luncheon, a professional luncheon. That

helps me. I'm bringing back something to my students and to the rest of the teachers.

Roberta Thomas

Windsor Central High School
7. Career Paths 57

Some schools participating in the demonstration project instituted advising groups,

giving participants a time to talk over problems they encountered and to discuss

ways of taking advantage of their opportunities. Scheduling problems and the

absence of a "critical mass" of participants in most schools constrained the

effectiveness of advising groups.

How Can Teachers Link School-Based Learning

to Work-Based Learning?

Some students will be sufficiently more closely with the real world, a

motivated by their work-based learning connection that will benefit not only

experience to adapt to current college- the students in what have been general

preparatory courses. But students with and vocational tracks but also

different learning styles may need college-bound students, many of whom

courses that vary in methods and are adept at learning abstract

duration but teach the same concepts. information for tests but unable to use 22

Work-based learning presented a major what they have "learned" by applying

challenge and a tremendous it to solve real problems.

opportunity for schools to connect

academic learning
58 Learning Well at Work

“It came to life."

Joyce Golden's account of a marginal math student explaining the concept and

use of standard deviation helps illustrate the rationale for work-based learning.

Her opportunity to visit workplaces and meet with people from business

brought a new dimension to her classroom.

When material can be made meaningful to their everyday life as it is in the

workplace, it has some relevance. I had a couple of good examples this year where

apprenticeships were a factor in my classroom instruction, and that would not have

happened if I had not been familiar with the work environment. One was teaching

standard deviation with a student who was doing very poorly in math. I was able to

say, 'Gee, I think we use standard deviation in the workplace. I wonder if someone

could tell us what that means?' And sure enough [finger snap], it came to life and he

explained exactly what a standard deviation was, why it was important to the statistical

research of the company, and how he was using it on a regular basis. No problem

whatsoever because it was in a meaningful context for him. So that was application

for the whole class, but he would not have volunteered if I hadn't known enough to go

for it. It was my familiarity with what they were doing and what he was doing that

made me able to use that kind of knowledge. Unfortunately, few teachers have had

those opportunities.

Joyce Golden

Susquehanna Valley High School

Why Allow Flexible Schedules?

School counselors were very creative and at work. This reduces transabout adjusting participants' schedules portation time, which is a serious

to incorporate substantial work hours. consideration, but entails special classes

If large proportions of any school's for participants. Many schools are

students began to participate in exten- experimenting with more flexible

sive work-based learning, however, schedules, and some of those schemes

conventional scheduling would quickly would accommodate work-based

become a barrier. Some work-based learning much more readily than

learning programs have used the Euro- conventional schedules.

pean approach of full days at school
7. Career Paths 59

Conclusion

Young people should know while they Our demonstration project showed

are in high school what they will have that specific institutional practices are

to do to achieve their career goals. If needed to communicate those standards

their goal is first to graduate from a and help young people meet them.

four-year college, then it is clear what Courses designed to teach high-level

they must do to get in. But if they content in engaging ways are one such

expect to begin full-time employment practice. Schedules must become more

without a four-year degree, most have flexible to enable work-based learning.

little guidance about what courses they Another needed reform is the creation

should take in school and what grades of comprehensive advising systems,

they need to achieve. Teachers and including not only school counselors

counselors who are oriented to four- but also teachers, parents, and mentors

year colleges are of little help. When at the work site. Teachers and counemployers publicly advocate higher selors will be most effective if they are

academic standards and then use those able to learn firsthand about the acastandards to make hiring decisions, demic content of contemporary workthey send a very powerful message. places through visits, meetings, and

When schools reorganize to teach all internships. Finally, curricula and

students, they will help to release instructional practices should stress the

human resources that are currently integration of academic with vocational

wasted when we define half to three- education and school- based with

quarters of our high school students as work-based learning.

unable to learn.
60 Learning Well at Work

7. Career Paths

Youth identify and follow career paths.

1. Provide career exploration opportunities and information on

related careers.

2. Advise youth about career paths, coordinating with high 

school and college advisers and with parents.

3. Pay particular attention to the post-high school transition.

A career path traces a lifelong occupational journey involving both education

and employment, not a single job or even a single occupation. By this definition,

some career paths are smooth and direct while others are rough and full of dead

ends; some lead to well-paid and prestigious employment but others do not. A path

is not a track; it allows for changes in direction and can lead toward several

destinations. 

A good career path provides a sense of direction and a purpose for academic

achievement so that a young person is well prepared even if she or he later chooses a

different path. No one has ever been able to predict precisely where his or her own

or someone else's career will lead, and any certainty about the future is now

inconceivable. But if we can give more young people a better sense of what they can

do in the future and what they have to do to prepare, they will be better able to

make good choices.
7. Career Paths 61

Career Paths after High School and

Work-Based Learning

After high school graduation, young At its best, work-based learning helps

people can follow four distinctive young people set career goals and

career paths related to their previous stimulates and enables them to

work-based learning: continuous, continue the education they need to

redirected, exploratory, or undirected. achieve those goals (see Table 7 in

School-to-work systems help youth Appendix, p. 92). While enrolled in

formulate visions of their career paths community college or four-year

and then take steps to reach their colleges, youth may also engage in

dreams. coherent and increasingly demanding

Continuous

Youth may continue a career path

begun during high school (see Table 6

in Appendix, p. 92). Desirable career

paths increasingly require

postsecondary education; options for

people with no more than a high

school diploma are shrinking.

23

work-based learning related to their

education. Some youth may, however,

secure full-time employment in the

same occupational area directly after

high school, having gained sufficient

knowledge and skills to perform

effectively in jobs that are ordinarily

reserved for older adults.24 
62 Learning Well at Work

Continuing work-based learning in college

Blair Dury is well on his way toward becoming an electrical engineer, having had

many supports and opportunities during four years in manufacturing and

engineering technology at Anitec. He is also a second-year engineering science

student at Broome Community College. He hopes to transfer to a four-year

college to continue his studies. 

Blair progressively improved his grades in academic courses from a C+ grade

level (GPA = 79) in sophomore year to all A's and B's junior (86) and senior (92)

years, including A's in both math and Regents-level physics senior year. He went

from 26 absences sophomore year to 5 in the junior year and only 1 in his senior

year. His firm coordinator noted that in his senior year Blair became more

outgoing and self-confident, in part because he interacted with a variety of

people in his assignments and had become a very dependable, valuable, and

productive employee. The realization that he is an important member of the

organization and that others depend on him has been an important step in his

personal development. He volunteered to play with his co-workers in a company

volleyball league, and his talents led the team to the season championship. He

was selected to attend the White House signing ceremony for the Schoolto-Work Opportunities Act in May 1994. For his senior project he designed the

physical layout for a silver analysis lab, including all electrical units.

At the end of his senior year, Blair explained what work meant for him: “For

me, it means a chance for college, a chance to earn money, a chance to learn

things that I normally wouldn't learn, and a chance to meet new people.” 

After his first year of college we asked Blair to name the most important

adults in his life. He described how each had helped steer him on a career path.

 My parents are two of them. They've always been there when I needed them and

they'll go out of their way to help me out. And I'd say one of my teachers, Mr.

Hauptfleisch, back from Binghamton High School, got me into technical stuff like

engineering and things like that, and I owe a lot to him to get me on track going in the

right direction. And I'd say my boss Robert Kage is another person who really helped

me out. I mean, it's nice to have a boss who can tell you, you know, 'Go to school. Do

the best you can there and then worry about coming to work.

Blair Dury 

Anitec, Binghamton High School, and Broome Community College
7. Career Paths 63

Becoming a professional

In the spring of 1995, Erica Anderson completed her associate's degree in nursing

at Broome Community College, was certified as a registered nurse, and started

full-time employment at United Health Services Hospitals in medical surgery. 

Four years earlier, she had begun her career in health care at United Health

Services Hospitals during her junior year at Union-Endicott High School. Her

two-year program taught her how to form excellent work relationships with

both patients and staff in the outpatient lab for the phlebotomy department, in

physical therapy, and in the main lab for the hospital.

At high school graduation Erica received a nursing scholarship from the

hospital, but she did not qualify for admission to the nursing program at

Broome Community College because of a low chemistry grade. Nevertheless,

because of her background and strong references, she was admitted that fall.

Next spring a faculty member strongly recommended that Erica be sent to

Washington for the White House signing ceremony for the School-to-Work

Opportunities Act and confessed that she had been skeptical about admitting

Erica because of the high dropout rate of students just out of high school, who

often lack the social and personal competence required to work with patients.

But much to her surprise and delight, Erica showed strength and maturity in

dealing with patients and earned a 3.1 grade point average for 18 credits in her

fall semester. As part of her scholarship Erica worked as a nurse's assistant every

other weekend, on breaks, and full-time over the summer at the United Health

Services Hospitals. Erica confided that representing the program at the White

House and elsewhere increased her self-confidence.
64 Learning Well at Work

"We have someone who is fully trained."

After Sharon Laude graduated from Windsor Central High School, she started

work full-time at Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Company. At that time,

Lynn Barsigian, her coordinator, expressed ambivalence about her immediate

entry into the workforce.

Because she's getting married next month, she has elected at this time not to go on to

Broome Community College. So in that respect we're all disappointed. We kind of feel

like the program failed. But on the other hand, it didn't fail because she has really

matured, and now we, as a company, have someone who has been here for two years,

has gone into a full-time slot, and is fully trained.

We hope she'll learn that education requirements are going up, and she'll have to

continue with schooling. That's part of the goal. But it did work for Sharon because she

has matured a lot. She wouldn't be here otherwise. There's still more training that

needs to be done, but she is light years ahead of someone who is just coming off of the

street, even if they have the educational background.

Lynn explained further that one stipulation for her employment has been

Sharon's promise to continue her education by taking courses at the company

and then to enter a program at the college. This meets the firm's need for highly

skilled employees since its restructuring into customer service teams that require

cross-trained employees.

All of our jobs require either an associate's or a bachelor's degree or equivalent work

experience. I can think of only two jobs in the whole company that I would hire

somebody for straight out of high school with no experience. As a matter of fact, for

our customer service jobs, [where Sharon has been placed] we are thinking about

increasing the educational requirement to a bachelor's degree. Mostly the people in

the customer service area juggle not only a lot of work but also working with the

public. Someone straight out of high school would not be as polished as we need them

to be if they didn't have equivalent work experience. The level of technical

knowledge that people have to know has increased. There is a higher level of

computer expertise that they have to have, in addition to a customer service maturity.

Although our insureds and agents are typically friendly, they can be very tough at

times. Therefore, good telephone skills are very important. We are getting to a point

where we need a higher caliber of person. We are willing to train new hires on the

insurance [matters], but the ability to learn, the customer service skills, and telephone

skills-you've got to have that when you come here. If you don't have it when you

come here, you're not going to get it overnight.

Lynn Barsigian

Columbian Mutual Life Insurance Company
7. Career Paths 65

Redirected Undirected

Multiple changes characterize adoles- The School-to-Work Opportunities Act

cence, and redirected career paths are responds to the observation that young

inevitable. Learning what one does not people in the United States who do not

want to do is an important part of graduate from four-year colleges tend to

choosing a career path; it can add con- flounder for several years, moving aimfidence to a new choice. If work-based lessly from one youth job to another, 25

learning helps young people clarify their before finding employment that pays

career plans, it is beneficial to them even more than minimum wage, offers

if they decide to move in a new direc- reasonable security and benefits, and

tion. Furthermore, many of the lessons provides opportunities for upward

young people learn from work, espe- mobility. Young people without

cially the personal and social competen- college degrees often cannot obtain

cies, will serve them well regardless of such employment until they reach their

the career area they pursue. mid-twenties or later. To the extent

Exploratory

A third possibility is that high school

graduates will remain in the exploratory

mode seeking a clear direction even after

participation in work-based learning.

Many parents and career counselors

believe this is the best state for teenagers. Our educational system and labor

markets encourage delaying commitment to a career. Exploration is

common among college students enrolling in the arts and sciences. So long

as young people are taking constructive

steps while exploring, it is a beneficial

state, and getting a solid education is the

most constructive step of all. Ideally,

youth will first take advantage of the

less intensive types of work-based

learning for exploration, for example

field trips and job shadowing, and later

embark on their career paths in high

school through the more intensive

types, such as cooperative education and

apprenticeship, and then continue their

career paths in college.26

27

that participants in work-based learning

engage in the floundering that is typical

for recent high school graduates, they

have not benefited, at least in the near

term. The clearest indicator that a 28

graduate who is not enrolled in postsecondary education lacks direction is

that she or he does nothing to follow a

career path. This person may be

employed only in a job that requires no

special skills and offers no opportunities for advancement, move

frequently from one job to another

without making significant progress

toward a long- term goal, or spend long

periods of time without a job. Having a

child or getting married deflected some

participants from or postponed their

choice of a career path. Illness, family 29

problems, and disabilities also prevented some youth from finding a

direction, at least temporarily. 
66 Learning Well at Work

Helping Youth Find a Direction

Continuous career paths are clearly

advantageous to young people. When

these paths lead back to the training

firm, they are also advantageous to

employers who make substantial

investments in work- based learning.

Representatives of the firms in our

project stated their belief that young

people and the community would

benefit from work-based learning

even if graduates did not work for

them. Nevertheless, employers must

eventually see a reasonable proportion of their trainees moving into

their workforces if they are to earn a

satisfactory return on their investment. We recognized when initiating

the demonstration project that

participants would have to select an

occupational area without an

adequate foundation of information

and exploration. Therefore, we were

pleased that more than half remained

in their occupational areas after

graduation. This proportion should

be much higher in a fully developed

school-to-work opportunities system.

Three components are especially

critical to helping youth find a

direction: exploration and

information; advising; and financial

aid.

Exploration and Information

The different types of work-based

learning described above (see page 6)

can be conceived as progressively

defining a career path. Ideally

employers will join in partnership to

provide a full range of opportunities

for all young people. Over time the

result will be that those applying for

cooperative education, internships,

and youth apprenticeship placements

will have previously visited workplaces for field trips and job

shadowing. They will be making

informed choices based on extensive

information and experience rather

than using intensive work-based

learning for exploration, which is a

low return strategy for employers.

Advising

As described in the previous section

(see page 55) advising is another

critical need that must be made by

parents, teachers, counselors, and

workplace mentors. These advisers,

in turn, need solid information,

authorization to perform this role,

and opportunities to communicate

with each other. Employers who

spell out the academic and nonacademic qualifications they require

of applicants help to convey to

young people the information they

need to make sound choices.
7. Career Paths 67

Financial Aid

High school students need advice

about postsecondary education,

including information on the

courses required for entrance into

specific programs and the dates

applications are due. But financial

need was the most serious barrier

to postsecondary enrollment

among participants in the demonstration project. Community

college tuition in New York State

is unusually high, but even

modest charges can be a barrier to

young people who must earn substantial amounts of money to

help their families. A few

employers gave scholarships to

successful participants, which is a

wonderful incentive and, we

think, a wise investment.

Providing information about the

availability of grants and loans

and the process for filing

applications can be very helpful

for young people whose families

are unfamiliar with these matters. 
68 Learning Well at Work

Conclusion

In 1916 John Dewey wrote,

A vocation means nothing but such a direction of life activities as renders

them perceptibly significant to a person, because of the consequences they

accomplish, and also useful to his associates. The opposite of a career is

neither leisure nor culture, but aimlessness, capriciousness, the absence of

cumulative achievement in experience, on the personal side, and idle

display, parasitic dependence upon the others, on the social side.

Occupation is a concrete term for continuity. It includes the development

of artistic capacity of any kind, of special scientific ability, of effective

citizenship, as well as professional and business occupations, to say

nothing of mechanical labor or engagement in gainful pursuits. 30

“Work is about being one.”

One of our interview questions is posed whimsically to elicit young

people's conceptions of work. We ask them to imagine that one day at

work an alien from outer space appears and asks them to explain what

work is. One young woman, Teresa Shoemaker, replied as follows when

first asked the question in the fall of her junior year at Binghamton High

School, when she was a beginning health care apprentice at Lourdes

Hospital.

Like I want my work to be fun, I want to love my work. Work would be

something that I want to do, something that's gonna get me through life. My

work would be helping people. Work is going to the hospital, hopefully saving

some lives doing what I love.

Teresa went on to say that she looked forward to working in sports

medicine and physical therapy because she was an athlete and physical

therapists had helped her. "So if I can help someone do something that

they love, then I'll love doing that." We asked the same question at the

end of her junior and senior years. The third time, just before high school

graduation, she remembered the question well and responded as follows:
7. Career Paths 69

My answer's going to be so different! Like work is something that you have to

care about. Like in the medical profession you have to care. 'Cause if you don't

care, and you're very removed from it, people know. It shows, and so you

have to care, caring and respect—the other people that you work with, your

patients, respect for yourself.

Work is a challenge. There's things you have to overcome at work. Like if we

had to go up on a floor and do a patient, and then the therapist was scheduled

downstairs too. You have to learn how to work around things and to divide

your time. It's like pieces of a puzzle, and you have to put them all together.

Everything has to come together as one.

Work is about being one. There's so many different departments in the

hospital, but after being in four of them you realize how much they rely and

depend on each other. Like the nursing staff depends on physical therapy to

get their patients up and ambulate them to get them stronger so they can be

released from the hospital. Physical therapy depends on the x-ray department,

say, to tell them what is wrong with the patient. It just all works together. It's

not like individual. Doctors depend on physical therapy and x-ray and the

pharmacy. It's hard to define work in the medical profession. There's just too

many things that go along with it.

Teresa Shoemaker

Lourdes Hospital and Binghamton High School

These two statements reveal commitment to caring. They also show 31

a developmental progression from simple to complex and from a

self-centered view of work as something the youth likes to do toward a

conception of work as an inherently social activity that incorporates

others—patients and co-workers who deserve respect—and is embedded in

a complex, interde-pendent organization characterized by distinct roles

and structures. The shift from work as enjoyment to work as challenge

also seems significant. Reference to the medical profession seems

important too as an indicator that Teresa has come to identify herself

with an institution that is even larger than the hospital. Her ability to

talk like this and her awareness that her ideas have changed suggest a

growing cognitive capacity and an emerging sense of self, both of which

are central to adolescent development.

Without the work-based learning experience, she might have had

other experiences and certainly would have matured in her outlook on

work and other topics, but typical youth jobs in the United States are

unlikely to provide the opportunities for development that her statement

revealed.
70 Learning Well at Work

In our society occupation is Work-based learning opporabsolutely central to identity, now tunities contribute to that lifelong

for women as well as men. All process, especially when they

young people need a sense of what match young people's needs,

they might do to earn a living so as beginning with exploration and

to develop their sense of themselves progressing to gaining technical

as citizens and family members. As competence. Employers who teach

Dewey wrote, "An occupation is youth need to make investments

the only thing which balances the consistent with their goals. If they

distinctive capacity of an individual wish to enhance the quality of their

with his social service. To find out future workforce, then they must

what one is fitted to do and to pay for intensive work-based

secure an opportunity to do it is the learning; offering field trips will not

key to happiness" (p. 308). He went be sufficient. The more intensive

on to warn against the types of work-based learning need

simple-minded belief that one the foundation provided by less

chooses an occupation once and for intensive types, however. Young

all. Rather, he described the process people who participate in

as continuous, lifelong. cooperative education and

apprenticeships will be more likely

to continue in a related career path

if they have previously had the

opportunity to explore careers and

make an informed commitment. 
Next Steps 71

Next Steps

The experience of operating a youth apprenticeship demonstration

project has left us optimistic about the prospects for creating a

more effective system to foster the transition from adolescence

into adulthood in the United States, a system that uses workplaces

as learning environments for youth. The experience has also

revealed the magnitude of the task. Following are the steps we see

as most critical to success.
72 Learning Well at Work

Restructure Schools and Workplaces

Commitment is more than willingness

to participate. An employer, for

example, might join a school- to-work

partnership primarily as a gesture of

support to the community but without

accepting its aims and its guiding

principles. If an employer is motivated

by no more than civic duty, then a

downturn in earnings will quickly

terminate participation. Similarly, if

schools are primarily concerned about

dealing with students who are not

served well by current programs, they

are unlikely to engage in the kind of

restructuring school-to-work requires,

especially enabling all students to meet

high academic standards.

The opposite of commitment is

rejection, but in many ways straightforward rejection is less insidious than

participation without commitment.

The greatest threat to the integrity of

school-to-work is its nominal adoption,

perhaps simply by using the term to

describe current activities, without

attempting the restructuring that true

commitment entails. We see a striking

parallel between the kinds of commitments school-to-work requires of

schools and workplaces. Restructuring

is needed in both schools and

workplaces in the following four areas.

Increase the Breadth and

Depth of Learning

Schools and workplaces need to accept

as a central goal increasing the depth

and breadth of learning available to

everyone. To this end, employers will

promote high-level technical, social,

and personal skills by providing work

and training in broad career areas.

Educators in schools and colleges will

become committed to teaching all

youth how to think and offer them rigorous courses. Teachers should relate

academic learning to the life choices

young people face as citizens and family

members as well as workers.

Assure Equal Access to

Learning

All employees need opportunities to

learn high-level skills. Employers

should provide career ladders and

learning opportunities for all

employees, not just for those with

college degrees. The School-to- Work

Opportunities Act specifies that

schools provide some form of workbased learning to all students and

abandon the tracking systems that

relegate half or more of all students to

undemanding courses and limited career

prospects. Educators must challenge all

youth, advance interdisciplinary

learning, modify schedules, and make

college entry possible for all students.

The new philosophy is that all students

can learn if given appropriate opportunities and adequate support.
Next Steps 73

Assign Staff to Organize and Maintain Learning

Monitor Work-Based Learning

In both institutions staff should be

formally assigned to support young

people's work-based learning. Adequate

scale cannot be achieved if

responsibility for work-based learning

is simply added on to other

responsibilities already carried by

overburdened staff. Employers must

commit human resources to coordinate,

manage, coach, and mentor youth in

the workplace. Schools should expect

every faculty member to advise a group

of students about career paths and

learning and should formally assign a

coordinating role to at least one person.

We have quoted many talented and

dedicated adults who worked with

youth in schools and workplaces. Their

statements and their actions

demonstrate that putting young people

in the company of adult coaches and

mentors can be extremely stimulating

and satisfying to adults—as it is to

young people—if the adults are allowed

to teach what they know, express their

personal concern, and share their

wisdom. Teachers also describe their

involvement with people in business

and industry and with youth as inspiring experiences. These adults and

their counterparts around the country

are the best hope for the success of

work-based learning.

Organizations

Ideally, employees are able to learn and

use multiple skills, to participate in

self-managed teams, and to have access

to internal career ladders. This applies

to schools no less than to young

people's workplaces. Teachers should

be active learners, participating

regularly in high-quality staff

development. Internships in business

and industry are a powerful experience

for teachers, giving them a clear vision

of the academic demands of work.

Similarly, employees who have spent

time in schools gain a sympathetic

understanding of challenges facing

educators and how they can help.
74 Learning Well at Work

Form Partnerships

The demonstration project confirmed and negotiate with each other to

that partnership is essential among resolve their differences. The partner

employers and employees and their organizations and groups have

organizations, educators and school purposes, cultures, and structures that

systems, legislators and government keep them separate from each other.

agencies, parents, youth, and Changing a single institution is

community organizations. Once they daunting enough; creating functional

have committed themselves to the goals partnerships is a challenge of the first

of school-to- work, the partners must magnitude because it requires

define their roles and responsibilities coordinating changes in several

and establish a working relationship institutions. Institutional inertia and

that enables each to contribute. They self-protective tendencies are serious

succeed when the partners are able to barriers. But there is no alternative.

establish a joint strategy, respect each None of the partners can succeed alone.

other's needs and strengths,

Build a School-to-Work System

No single type of work-based learning opportunities. If the investment

is adequate by itself. Field trips, service required by apprenticeship is too great,

learning, youth-run enterprises, and then cooperative education,

other types all increase young people's internships, and other types may

awareness of their own talents and suffice. The goal should be to provide

inclinations and of the opportunities in every community a complement of

available to them. Youth who enter work-based learning opportunities to

apprenticeship programs need meet a range of needs among both

work-based opportunities to explore young people and employers. 

careers beforehand. Employers who Moreover, in addition to work- based

wish to use youth apprenticeship as a learning, a school-to-work

means of improving the quality of their opportunities system includes

workforce will find that their appropriate and effective school-based

investment pays off at a higher rate if learning and multiple connections

they first provide young people with between the two. Although we have

job shadowing and other exploratory not addressed those components
Next Steps 75

separately, the demonstration project We do not yet know how to accomconfirmed that work-based learning plish the goals of school-to-work.

must be supported by changes in Research and development cannot

schools and by an array of connecting answer all the questions that remain,

activities, as the principles and choices but it would be unwise to proceed

described above make clear. without continued monitoring and

A system differs from a

program. A system is

inclusive—it has a place for everyone

who needs one.

comprehensive—it addresses the full

range of relevant issues.

integrated internally—its components

are closely linked (e.g., school-based

learning to work-based learning).

connected externally—it builds on

what comes before and leads on to 

something else (e.g., school-to- work

connects with higher education and

with the labor market).

comprehensible—participants

understand it and can navigate through

it; parents and other advisers can help.

testing. Ideally this will be done in a

manner and on a schedule that informs

practitioners who are designing and

operating systems. We hope the

principles and choices proposed here

will serve as a framework for some of

the needed research and development.

The growing disparity between the well-educated affluent and the inadequately

educated who struggle to maintain a decent standard of living must be reduced if the

United States is to remain a prosperous and secure democracy. Education cannot

reduce that disparity without complementary changes in the economy, particularly

the labor market. But education—in the form of the school-to-work initiative, and

especially work-based learning—is a powerful means of improving the knowledge

and skills of the American workforce, which is, after all, most of our citizens.

Work-based learning that adheres to the principles we have stated will contribute to

but also depend upon never-ending progress toward the promise of freedom and

opportunity that is the American dream.
76 Learning Well at Work

Notes

 1. Although we have often described the demonstration project as a Broome County program, The

Raymond Corporation and the Greene Central School are both located in adjacent Chenango

County.

2. Schools could grant a total of five New York State Regents (college preparatory) credits for

participation in the demonstration project: two credits each junior and senior year earned for

technical, personal, and social competence; one credit for a senior project.

3. We use the term "employer" to mean the work organization that offers work-based learning to

youth. These organizations may be profit-making firms, nonprofit organizations, or government

agencies. They are represented by people who, except in the cases of small firms and voluntary

organizations, are almost always employees. The School-to-Work Opportunities Act requires that

both employers and employees participate in community partnerships, including labor unions and

other employees' organizations, a requirement we strongly support. However, we have not

attempted in this guide to distinguish sharply between the functions of employers and of

employees in creating high-quality work-based learning opportunities.

 4. A compelling analysis of German apprenticeship concludes that small firms receive a net gain by

training apprentices because they contribute more to production than they cost, whereas large

firms invest more in training apprentices and recoup their costs only by retaining apprentices as

regular employees for several years after their training has been completed. See D. Soskice, "The

German Training System: Reconciling Markets and Institutions," in L. Lynch, ed., The

Privatization of Skill Formation: International Comparison (Chicago: University of Chicago Press,

1991).

 5. See S. F. and M. A. Hamilton, Opening Career Paths for Youth: What Needs to Be Done? Who Can

Do It? Cornell Youth and Work Program, Cornell University, American Youth Policy Forum,

Jobs for the Future, 1994, for a description of responsibilities of the partners in building a

school-to-work system.

 6. We chose to write about principles rather than a model in the spirit of Ted Sizer's nine principles

for the Coalition of Essential Schools. Those principles make explicit his beliefs about what

secondary education should accomplish and describe how a high school should operate to achieve

those purposes. He eschewed prescribing a "model" school because he recognized that diversity is

both inevitable and desirable in high-quality education. See Horace's Compromise: The Dilemma of

the American High School, 2d ed. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1985), pp. 225-27.

 7. The original principles were stated in our first progress report, Creating Apprenticeship

Opportunities for Youth (1991).

 8. We started our year-end interview with an open-ended question: "Looking back over the past year,

what stands out for you in your experience as an apprentice at [firm name]?" Without further

prompting, 50 of 59 senior participants responded by describing the technical competencies they

had acquired; 44 mentioned procedures-how to accomplish specific tasks on the job. Almost half

(23) talked about learning to use computers. Technical competence was especially prominent in the

responses of participants in manufacturing and engineering technology (17 of 18) but also among

administration and office technology participants (18 of 20) and health care participants (15 of 21).

Twelve youth talked about learning principles involved in their work, and seven referred to

analytical thinking skills. Participants were much more likely than their classmates who were

employed during the school year to report that their work was meaningful. First-year participants

were more likely to say their work was meaningful when their firm scored high on a rating of
Notes 77

work experience using the seven principles presented here as evaluation criteria.

 9. This and other direct quotations are taken from transcripts of tape-recorded interviews. They are

edited for coherence, and conversational expressions (e.g., "you know") are deleted. Brackets

denote words not spoken by the interviewee, which are substituted or added for clarity.

 10. In their book The Second Industrial Divide (New York: Basic Books, 1984), Michael Piore and

Charles Sabel identified this need and called for "flexible specialization."

 11. Participants who spoke about personal learning discussed career planning most often (44 percent of

juniors, 73 percent of seniors). Presumably career planning became more salient as seniors

approached graduation.

12. Forty-four percent of seniors spontaneously mentioned learning about organizational systems

when asked about their apprenticeship.

13. Thirty-two percent of seniors talked about rules, 29 percent about communication, and 19 percent

about working in teams. 

14. Peter M. Senge, The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of the Learning Organization (New York:

Currency Doubleday, 1990).

15. Heidi Bowne, former vice-president for human resources at The Raymond Corporation, alerted us

to the importance of linking youth apprenticeship with a firm's strategic plan and demonstrated

how that can be done. Heidi made sure that the program contributed to a human resource strategy

that was, in turn, a part of the firm's strategic plan. The Raymond Corporation was committed to

increasing the skill level and flexibility of its employees and designed its youth apprenticeship to

produce highly skilled workers with many competencies.

16. This statement is based on an interview transcript that Valerie Mahar revised.

17. Some programs use the German term Meister (master) for this role. We have not done so for several

reasons. A German Meister is literally a master of a craft, and only a Meister is formally permitted to

train apprentices. In practice, however, most German apprentices spend most of their time

working alongside a journeyworker; the Meister functions more as what we call a manager. In the

United States, coaches are more like what the Swiss call Lehrmeister, who are formally trained and

certified as apprentice trainers without the courses and examinations that would qualify them as

masters of their trade.

18. The original mentor was Odysseus's friend in whose care he left his son, Telemachus, when he left

Ithaca to fight in the Trojan War. Would-be mentors should pause to consider that Mentor was

Athena in disguise. Taking the role of the goddess of wisdom is a daunting challenge!

19. This is the goal of High Schools That Work, a program of the Southern Regional Education

Board.

20. Among the three classes that had completed their senior year at this writing, 47.5 percent enrolled

in math courses during their senior year, and only 30.5 percent enrolled in science courses.

Proportionately more members of the comparison group enrolled in math (64.2 percent) and about

the same proportion (36.5 percent) enrolled in science.

21. We calculated mean grade point average (GPA) for participants, including only academic courses.

Their mean GPA began at the B-/C+ level in grade 10. It moved slightly downward in grade 11

and then moved up in grade 12. Participants' GPAs improved in grade 12 over both previous

years, but GPAs for the comparison group showed a similar pattern. Changes in both groups'

grade levels from one year to the next were statistically significant, but differences between

participants and the comparison group were not (controlling for GPAs in grade 10). Therefore,

even though the participants' grade 12 GPAs were higher than those of the comparison students,

the difference might not be attributable to youth apprenticeship. We used school records to
78 Learning Well at Work

compare the yearly total of absences for participants and the comparison group. Just as GPAs rose,

on average, in grade 12, so did absences. Absence rates were similar in grade 10 for participants and

comparison students. But absences in the comparison group were more numerous than among

participants in grades 11 and 12. Participants' absences decreased slightly in grade 11, while the rate

for comparison students increased, yielding a statistically significant difference between them in

that year. The increase in absences from grade 10 to grade 12 is statistically significant for both

groups. Although participants were absent, on average, almost two fewer days than comparison

students in grade 12, the difference is not statistically significant.

22. Principles of Technology, a course designed by the Center for Occupational Research and

Development and widely used in Tech Prep programs, is an excellent example of such a course. See

Dan Hull, Opening Minds, Opening Doors: The Rebirth of American Education (Waco, TX.: Center

for Occupational Research and Development, 1993).

23. Fifty-six percent of graduates from the classes of '93 and '94 ( n = 36) continued by making

progress toward a college degree related to their occupational area in their first year after high

school; 44 percent did so in their second year after high school.

24. Two youth from the classes of '93 and '94 ( n = 36) continued in their occupational area through

work but not postsecondary education in their first year after high school; one youth did so in the

second year after high school. We included in this category only former participants in positions

they could not have qualified for without their youth apprenticeship.

25. Seventeen percent of participants from the classes of '93 and '94 ( n =36) redirected their career

path via further education in their first year after high school; 22 percent did so in their second

year after high school. One redirected via work during both years.

26. Two youth from the classes of '93 and '94 ( n = 36) explored their career options by entering a

liberal arts program with no career focus their first year in college; one in the second year. One

youth explored options during the first two years after high school in the military.

27. Paul Osterman, Getting Started: The Youth Labor Market (Cambridge, MA.: MIT Press, 1980).

28. Eight percent from the classes of '93 and '94 ( n = 36) were undirected toward a career goal in their

first year after high school; 19 percent in their second year after high school. We counted work as a

cashier as undirected even though a former participant might see it as related to administration and

office technology, because recent high school graduates without training are often hired as cashiers.

Participants' reasons for not enrolling in college include financial (e.g., work to save money for

college, no money, no transportation, work for money for car for transportation, money for

child); personal (e.g., illness, stress, marriage, break before going to school); no plan (e.g., no desire,

not getting application in on time, not sure what will do); academic (e.g., poor grades); family

obligations (e.g., care of child or relative). These reasons also explain why eight participants who

did enroll in college dropped out, stopped out (stopped/dropped out and reenrolled), or enrolled

part-time in college during their first two years after high school.

29. Nine youth from the first three classes ( n = 59) were married or had financial or custodial

responsibilities for a child during the first two years after their high school graduation; eight of

those did not enroll or continue in college full-time for one semester or longer.

30. John Dewey, Democracy and Education (1916; rpt. New York: Free Press, 1966), p. 307.

31. Carol Gilligan, In a Different Voice (Cambridge, MA.: Harvard University Press, 1982).
Appendix 79

Appendix

Table 1

Program Enrollment, 1990-1996

11th grade 12th grade 13th college 14th college 1

______________ _____________ ____________ ___________

Participants Started Finished Started Finished Started Finished Started Finished

Class of '93 22 20 20 20 2 2 2 2

Class of '94 21 19 17 16 3 2 2 -

Class of '95 28 26 25 23 4 3 - -

Class of '96 29 28 27 26 - - - -

Totals 100 93 89 85 9 7 4 4

1 The number enrolled in college is the number of youth who continued the apprenticeship program while enrolled in college.

Note: Dashes indicate that no information was available at the time of the report.

Table 2

10th Grade GPA of All Participants Who Entered the Demonstration Project

 Range

__________________

Participants GPA SD n Min Max 1 2

Class of '93 81.05 6.60 22 70.56 94.25

Class of '94 80.43 4.29 21 68.50 88.25

Class of '95 75.51 7.29 28 54.50 86.25

Class of '96 80.36 5.90 29 68.50 94.60

1 Core GPA: Core courses include all courses taken within each of the four academic core departments, that is, English, math,

science, and social studies. The core Grade Point Average (GPA) for an individual is calculated by multiplying each core grade

by the number of units, summing across all core courses, and dividing by the number of units (i.e., credit hours). The core

GPA for a group (participants or comparison) is calculated by summing all individual core GPAs and dividing by the number

of people in the group. GPAs are reported on a 100-point scale in which 90-100 = A, 80-89 = B, 70-79 = C, etc. 

2 Theoretically, about two-thirds of a population, or 68 percent, are within one Standard Deviation of the mean (above or

below).
80 Learning Well at Work

Table 3

Education Level Attained by Participants' Parents

Highest level of either parent #

1 

4 years of college or more 18

2 years of college 25

High school diploma 52

No high school diploma 2

No information 3

Total 1002

1 Based on 70 parent reports and 27 child reports. (Child reports were used when parent reports were not available.) 

2 Because n = 100, numbers are identical to percentages.

Table 4

Gender of Participants

Gender AOT MET HC Total

Male 7 24 10 41

Female 30 4 25 59

Total 37 28 35 1001

1 Because n = 100, numbers are identical to percentages.

Note: Table 4 gives the gender of participants at the time of enrollment in each of the three occupational areas. Four males

switched occupational area but remained in the program.

Table 5

Race or Ethnicity of Participants

Race or ethnicity AOT MET HC Total

Asian 1 1 0 2

African American 1 4 3 8

Hispanic 1 1 0 2

Native American 1 0 0 1

White 33 22 32 87

Total 37 28 35 1001

1 Because n = 100, numbers are identical to percentages.
Appendix 81

Principles and Choices for High-Quality

Work-Based Learning

This rating form for evaluating work-based learning programs is intended primarily as a diagnostic and

planning tool. Applied to a particular program or plan, the rating form can help to identify strengths

and limitations and to set priorities for program development. Repeated over time, it can also serve as a

progress record.

1. Technical Competence. Youth gain basic and high-level technical competence through

challenging work.

__ Identify work tasks that teach technical competence.

__ Organize learning objectives as modules in core and elective units.

__ Design a multi-year learning plan that is increasingly challenging.

2. Breadth. Youth gain broad technical competence and understand all aspects of the

industry through rotation and projects.

__ Inform youth about all aspects of the industry.

__ Rotate youth through several departments or placements.

__ Support projects and activities that teach multiple skills and broad 

knowledge.

3. Personal and Social Competence.Youth gain personal and social competence in the

workplace.

__ Recognize personal and social competencies as key learning objectives.

__ Systematically teach social and personal competence in context.

__ Provide extra assistance to youth who lack personal and social competence

through case management.

4. Expectations and Feedback.Workplace teachers convey clear expectations to youth

and assess progress toward achieving them.

__ State expectations in advance for behavior and learning.

__ Regularly monitor and document acquisition of competence.

__ Provide feedback on progress to youth, school, parents, and firm.

__ Encourage youth to assemble a portfolio.

__ Eventually use industry-wide standards to provide portable credentials.
82 Learning Well at Work

5. Teaching Roles. Youth learn from adults with formally assigned teaching roles.

__ Assign clear teaching roles and responsibilities to a coordinator, managers, 

coaches, and mentors. 

__ Authorize teaching roles in job descriptions and performance assessments.

__ Orient, train, and support adults who teach youth.

6. Academic Achievement. Youth achieve high academic standards.

__ Work closely with schools and postsecondary institutions to set high 

academic standards.

__ Specify courses and degrees related to the career areas.

__ Open multiple options for postsecondary education.

7. Career Paths. Youth identify and follow career paths.

__ Provide career exploration opportunities and information on related careers.

__ Advise youth about career paths, coordinating with high school and college

advisers and with parents.

__ Pay particular attention to the post-high school transition.

Quality rating

5 = Excellent: nearly always present,

planned, a priority;

done exceptionally

well

4 = Good: between moderate and

excellent

3 = Moderate: present occasionally,

occasionally planned, 

occasionally a priority;

done moderately well

2 = Fair: between moderateand

poor

1 = Poor: absent or rarely

present, rarely planned

or not, rarely a priority

or not; done poorly
Appendix 83

Work Tasks: The Source of Technical Learning

Employers used this process to clarify youth work and learning within each

department. Managers first identified work tasks that the youth would do in

their department. Next, they listed technical learning related to each task. This

worksheet includes examples from a publications department within an

administration and office technology apprenticeship. 

See Work Tasks in a Department at 

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/tasks.htm
84 Learning Well at Work

Building Blocks for MET Programs

Employers decide what youth should learn. Modules are sets of related learning

objectives (see Youth Apprenticeship Technical Competence Log at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/notebook/met/core/document.htm).

Related modules can be grouped into units. The building blocks below illustrate

units and their modules used in manufacturing and engineering technology youth

apprenticeships. Modules and units may be modified and combined in different

ways to meet the needs of youth and employers.

See Apprentice Evaluation Notebooks at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/notebook/
Senior Project Issues

Key Question-Issue

How does the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

conflict with collective bargaining agreements?

How should overloans be calculated and what

procedures should be followed with them?

What are the key developmental points for babies and

what is their impact on moms during the first year?

What resources are available for disabled children

and how can parents have easier access?

What is Guillain-Barré Syndrome? How is it treated?

What is the psychosocial impact on the patient?

What are the electrical power requirements for

equipment in a silver analysis laboratory, along with

the general room power and lighting?

Research Steps Benefits

Read articles and legislation such as the Civil Manual will be available for people who

Rights Act. Interview human resources personnel interview future job candidates.

and building designer. Write up "Do's and don't's"

of ADA. Create manual, including questions you

can and cannot ask job candidates.

Review cases in which policy holders have

borrowed more than the value of their policy.

Standardize terms.

Review pamphlets, videos, readings. Interview

coach. Devise calendar of developmental events,

for example, baby's first tooth.

Identify organizations for parents of children with

disabilities from magazines. Write 26 letters of

inquiry. Do phone interviews. Organize responses

in a computer database. Create a pamphlet.

Read medical literature. Interview physicians,

nurses, occupational therapists, and physical

therapists. Interview patient and his spouse.

Gather information: read equipment specifications

and nameplate data, interview lab technicians and

engineers, and review all work with the facilities

project engineer. Design: apply information to

size electrical circuits per the National Electrical

Code, specify required conduit, wire, circuit

breakers, disconnect switches, etc. Calculate

lighting levels. 

All employees can use the procedure

manual, standard spreadsheets, and form

letters.

Distribute calendar to future moms and new

moms.

Provide parents and teachers with a

pamphlet about activities and options for

children with disabilities.

Produce videotape for educating health

professionals, patients, and their families

about the disease.

Functional design package for electrical

services in a new silver analysis laboratory:

includes architectural plan-view drawing

with associated elevation views, schematics,

and single-line diagrams, bill of materials,

standard construction notes, and scope of

work. All drawing done on AutoCAD.

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwor

k/ptools/learn/
86 Learning Well at Work

Guide to Evaluating Personal and Social Competence

See Guide at http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/gespc.htm
Appendix 87

Youth Apprenticeship Announcement

See Announcement at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/recruit/position/officera.htm
88 Learning Well at Work

Mutual Expectations Agreement

See Agreement at

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/ptools/response/mut-exp.htm
Appendix 89

Page 2 of Mutual Expectations Agreement
90 Learning Well at Work

Impacts of Apprenticeship on Employees

Who Teach Youth

Seventy coaches, coordinators, mentors, and managers were asked the question: "What have you

learned from your involvement with the apprenticeship program about yourself, about youth,

about your workplace?" We interviewed 24 adults at the end of the first program year and 46 at the

end of the fourth. The numbers in parentheses indicate how many interviewees mentioned a

category. Because each person could give more than one response, totals exceed 70.

Improved skills (66) in

 Personal competence (62) learned that I enjoy youth, gained self-confidence, gained self-esteem

Social competence (32) how to work with other people, to value human interactions,

strengthened supervisory skills with peers

Technical competence (17) analytical thinking, understanding of own job, strengthened

technical skills

Improved understanding of youth (56)

Work ethic (36) willingness to work, willingness to be productive, responsible, interest

Learning values (25) questioning attitude, curiosity, willingness to learn

Socioeconomic environment (15) coping/not coping with postponing gratification, health, jobs,

economy, family

Future expectations (13) ability of good program to raise level of achievement (to college)

Builds community relationships (9)

Learning to collaborate with schools and community organizations (7)

Prestige of contributing to a regional, state, and national movement (3)

Positive image for company (2)

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/rtools/intvwcde/impc_cde.htm
Appendix 91

Organizational Supports Needed for Employees

Who Teach Youth

Seventy coaches, coordinators, mentors, and managers were asked three questions about supports

needed to teach youth in the workplace:

1. "What should new coaches (or person in your role as coordinator, mentor, manager) know

before they start?"

2. "What kinds of supports, information, and training do you think would help make people

better coaches (or coordinators, mentors, managers)?"

3. "What other thoughts or ideas do you have for improving the way the program runs?"

We interviewed 24 adults at the end of the first program year and 46 at the end of the fourth. The

numbers in parentheses indicate how many interviewees mentioned a category. Because each

person could give more than one response, totals exceed 70.

Address Issues and Challenges (69)

Secure authorization (48) for

time (38)

management support (20)

Train mentors (41) in

how to make rules and expectations clear (24) about

negative behaviors (e.g., lack of assertiveness, poor attendance, weak

commitment, dislike of work area, poor relationship with coach) (14)

cultural expectations (e.g., dress code, time card) (3)

how to understand teenage perspective and frame of reference (17)

how to build relationships (talk through problems, build good rapport) (12)

how to overcome own prejudices (4)

Build external linkages (40) to improve

communication lines about apprentice development (21)

school schedules (increase time at work, summer preparation, fit into firm's work

flow) (15)

school-based learning (course selection, school performance) (11)

let other companies know of the program's success (5)

Clarify program structures (36), such as

evaluation procedures (expectations of students and adults, frequency, paperwork,

access portfolios) (21)

rotation (when and how often, rationale for department choices and type of work,

breadth) (16)

recruiting youth into the program (8)

Train coaches (31) in

how to give constructive feedback (21)

how to identify work tasks (consider youth's interest, the place of menial and

repetitive tasks, the work pace, how meaningful the tasks are) (20)

Ways to get information and address issues (41)

Meet (33) for training, workshops, committees, and orientation within own firm and outside

Network (15) about ideas that work, anxieties, issues, how to handle problems

Read (11) packets, guides, letters, newsletters

Observe (1) coaches and apprentices in firm and in other firms

http://www.human.cornell.edu/youthwork/rtools/intvwcde/supp_cde/htm
92 Learning Well at Work

Table 6

Relationship of Participants' Post-High School Career Paths to Their

Apprenticeship, Classes of '93 and '94

 

Continuous Redirected Exploratory Undirected Other1

________________________________________ _______

n # % # % # % # % # %

1st year after HS36 22 61.1 7 19.4 3 8.3 3 8.3 1 2.8

2nd year after HS36 17 47.2 9 25.0 2 5.6 7 19.4 1 2.8

The person coded as Other continued in the occupational area but in an unskilled job. 1

Table 7

Participants' Progress toward a Degree after High School Graduation,

Classes of '93 and '94

 

 Progress No Progress Other 1 2

__________________________________________

n Continuous Redirected Exploratory % Continuous Redirected Exploratory Undirected %

1st year after HS 36 20 6 2 77.8 2 1 1 3 19.4 1

2nd year after HS36 16 8 1 69.4 1 1 1 7 27.8 1

No Progress includes youth who did not enroll or enrolled but did not make progress toward a college degree: one youth 1

dropped out during the first year; two youth during their second year.

The person coded as Other continued in the occupational area but in an unskilled job. 2
Reproduced by the National School-to-Work Office

to share important lessons learned

in the school-to-work movement.

This publication was made possible by

The Pew Charitable Trusts

BellSouth Corporation

Ciba Educational Foundation

The IBM Corporation