6 Ways A Work-Based Learning Platform Can Increase Student Engagement

As educators, we know there are multiple reasons why it’s important to get your work-based learning program right because these experiences provide for:

• Economic mobility and agility
• Increased school engagement and school attendance
• That clear sense of purpose and passion for their career
• The ability to realize their full potential
• The network into the professional community that is so critical in our world today

As part of AASA’s Redefining Ready! movement , it is clear that work-based learning experiences are critical to drive the economic engine for our youth, especially at-risk students. We must provide opportunities for our students in the K-12 setting to experience the workforce to determine what they do want to do with the rest of their lives, and more importantly, what they don’t want to do.

But first and foremost (especially for at-risk students), it is about economic mobility. A systemic work-based learning program can guarantee that every individual student has the opportunity to understand their true potential for their future and to understand how to harness their natural skill sets.

Work-based learning cannot scale on paper and spreadsheets because of these items:

• Makes it incredibly challenging and difficult to manage students
• Makes it even more challenging to manage business partners
• Takes so much more time and energy to manage
• Are prone to mistakes and errors

And all this takes you away from the value-add of the experience for the students. Software has advantages for all your stakeholders. The rest of this short article will focus on the benefits for students specifically.

Six Ways a Work-based Learning Platform Can Increase Student Engagement

1.Gives Your Students Control of Their Journey

An online platform places your students in the driver’s seat of their career journey. It starts by allowing them to identify their career area of interest and see how that is connected to the actual coursework they’re taking in class.

They’re also able to assess the career development activities that they’re engaged with and quickly match and access their classwork and interests to all the outside opportunities that are available to them.

2. Makes it Easy for Counselors and Adults to Support Their Individual Students

Counselors, student coaches, and mentors have controlled visibility into a student’s career development activities. This makes it easier to enhance opportunities and recommend new ones to help them continue their journey. Mentoring on a one-to-one basis is also easier.

3. Connects the Student to Their Community

An online platform encourages and allows students to network with the local professional community. Students can learn the soft skills required to network with future employers. They cancan practice these skills in a professional environment where the stakes are not as high because employers understand that growing these skills is part of the experience.

4. Streamlined Management with Dashboards

All communications between the business partner and the student are tracked within the platform with an easy way to verify the hours a student has worked. This eliminates the need for paper forms. Students will have clear, real-time visibility of where they are and what they need to do to complete both individual tasks and their program.

5. Automated Reporting

At the end of that experience, they’re also able to produce a transcript that records the work hours they have completed and all the experiences that have led them up to graduation.

6. 360-Degree View Empowers Students

When a student has engaged in their career journey, they’re graduating into a future and a career of choice, and not just a job.

Throughout their workplace learning program, students have made choices in both coursework and activities, which empowers them to understand their journey and view their progress. The entire experience will help put them on a career path that they’re interested in.

This experience and 360-degree view create some momentum and perspective of what they can become professionally—whether they start their careers the day after they graduate high school or go to college to continue to develop their skills.

Vector Solutions’ Powerful Career and Technical Education Solutions

Vector Solutions’ Career & Technical Education (CTE) Suite helps schools, districts, and CTE centers overcome common challenges such as burdensome administrative work, lack of student engagement, and difficulty showing program effectiveness. Additionally, it helps prepare students for their future workplace.

All-In-One Work-Based Learning Platform

The Vector Pathways platform helps schools and career centers create more work-based learning experiences through streamlined workflows, business partner engagement, and digital experience tracking.

• Simplify & Digitize Your WBL Program 

• Enhance & Streamline Business Partnerships 

• Track WBL Program Metrics & Data to Drive Decision Making 

• Increase Student Engagement & Demonstrate Career Readiness 

Career & Technical Education Training for Students

Vector’s CTE Training provides students with essential skills for safe and effective learning in the classroom and workplace, enhancing employability with critical workplace skills and industry-recognized credentials.

• Integrate Comprehensive Offerings into Your Existing Curriculum 

• Provide a Safe & Health CTE Learning Environment 

• Enhance Workplace Readiness 

• Help Students Earn Industry-Recognized Credentials 

All Vector CTE courses are authored by subject-matter experts, are customizable, and are delivered through Vector’s award-winning training management system which helps administrators track training requirements and progress. They easily integrate with a school or district’s existing CTE programs, and are available in 20 languages.  Courses include pre-and post-course assessments and reporting to help administrators monitor and measure learning.