One of the cleverest was a restaurant started by students in North Carolina on the interstate to Florida. Usually they're organized with the help of local businesses, which offer on the job experiences. Of all of these options, Berryman sees Tech Prep and magnet schools as the most promising components with which to build a school-to work transition system in this country. Both can include apprenticeships, and both also can incorporate using workplace experts to help with school-based instruction. No matter what pieces are put together, she adds, they all need to emphasize more and more how to deal with abstract thinking and appropriate technologies.
Good examples abound.
The Wisconsin legislature approved a youth apprenticeship program in l991, making it part of a general school reform plan. Students receive dual credit from a technical college and are credentialed statewide by the industry. Maine has set up a Center for Youth Apprenticeship at Southern Maine Technical College in South Portland. Then follows two years of further education and work, with the first year of college at no expense to the student. Its Health and Bioscience Academy, for example, enrolls 175 students chosen because they are at risk but show an interest in health-related careers.