When it comes to work-based learning (WBL), the quality of the placement makes a world of difference for student outcomes. Simply logging hours doesn’t guarantee that students are gaining transferable skills. While some experiences are true internships, others resemble after school jobs. Imagine the difference between applying for and securing a competitive paid internship versus being placed in an unpaid, low-level role that’s mostly clerical. It’s not that WBL specialists and coordinators ever intend for the placements to lack quality, but building a bank of industry partners who have quality placements isn’t easy, and we’re often working within a timeline that requires students to log hours while we’re also building that bank. That said, it’s best to start with quality placements versus trying to fix poorly designed experiences. The following four tips are meant to help counselors, WBL professionals, school leaders, and others identify high-quality placements from the start. 

Student Interests

One of the first steps to designing quality work-based learning placements is basing each placement on students’ interests. This may sound obvious, but it’s far from simple to execute. The larger the student body, the more data you’ll need to collect and manage–and it’s best to start collecting that data in multiple ways as early in students’ K-12 experience as possible. As students’ interests evolve and they’re exposed to different career options, their postsecondary goals begin to take shape. It’s these refined goals that should drive placement decisions. Ideally, career exposure and exploration, interest assessments and surveys, and goal setting are integrated and synthesized within the same platform. Not only does the process become seamless for students, administrators and counselors can see everything at a glance and schedule students in pathways and WBL accordingly.  

Linked to a Pathway

Placements are most effective when aligned to a career pathway or set of related courses that students have already taken in middle and high school. One reason for this is that students can translate skills they’ve learned in school to the workplace. The benefit is twofold: students gain richer, more authentic experiences, and industry partners receive more capable, prepared contributors. When students bring prior knowledge from their coursework, industry partners are also more inclined to host additional students or offer more advanced tasks.This mutual value strengthens both the school-to-career pipeline and the quality of WBL overall. 

Assigned a Mentor

It’s always a higher quality work-based learning experience when students have an assigned industry mentor. This person may or may not evaluate the student’s performance, but they should work directly within the industry where the student is placed. Mentors add significant value, including teaching students about the industry, providing feedback to students about their work, and connecting students with others to build a professional network. While hands-on experience is essential, mentorship elevates learning by offering guidance, reflection, and connection. Before a placement begins, mentors, supervisors, WBL specialists, counselors, students, and families should all agree on roles, responsibilities, and intended outcomes.

Project-Based

A truly exceptional WBL experience is often project-based, meaning the student works on a real business challenge for the industry partner. Completing day-to-day tasks is valuable, but solving problems, collaborating on a project team, or creating something new makes the experience far more impactful. Students might conduct research and present findings, create marketing materials for a newly released product or service, or design an innovation that solves a natural recurring problem. In return, industry partners benefit from fresh ideas and projects that might not have existed without their collaboration with the school and the student.

Conclusion

We don’t just want to satisfy work-based learning requirements for compliance purposes. We want students to gain access to quality placements to set them up for success in their futures. These four tips have come up regularly from our expert guests on our College & Career Readiness radio show. You can subscribe to the podcast on our site to get more great information about career readiness and college access for students worldwide, including career and technical education and work-based learning thought leadership. 

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