Indiana Expands Work-Based Learning Opportunities for Students

Advanced manufacturing can still bring to mind oil, grease, and heavy equipment. Karen Gardiner walked into the lab at Connecticut State Community College's Asnuntuck campus and found computers and a 3D printer turning out a Star Wars character. High school students and their parents were coming through on a tour, led by the program director, who runs those tours for precisely that reason. What people picture is often wrong. Gardiner is a senior fellow at the Urban Institute who has spent years evaluating federal apprenticeship and job training programs. Her opinion piece in Higher Ed Dive recently makes a narrower argument than the usual one about skills gaps. The pathways already exist. More than 714,000 people are registered as apprentices in the country, up about 80% since 2016. Harper College outside Chicago runs apprenticeships in insurance, graphic design, and finance that finish with an associate degree. What is missing is that families often don't know these options exist, or they file them under a backup plan. She notes that apprenticeships in this country grew up in the building trades. Labor Day has roots there, too. New York's Central Labor Union organized the first Labor Day in 1882, which makes this a fitting day to read an argument about which kinds of work, and which paths into that work, we take seriously. Perception is the first problem. A second one waits behind it. These programs are built for people who are working, raising kids, and studying in the hours left over, and a course that runs eight or twelve weeks has very little room for a remediation pass at the end. There is also a practical case for building accessibility into the course rather than checking for it afterward. A learner who cannot use the material in week two is not waiting for a corrected version to arrive. In a program this short, an access barrier can quickly become the reason a learner falls behind or leaves. Read Gardiner’s piece: https://lnkd.in/eMMQt9YR Labor Day history: https://lnkd.in/dK9ejFj #LaborDay #WorkforceDevelopment #HigherEd #Accessibility #LearningBuiltBetter

Another cutting edge opportunity in Indiana that benefits both employers and students! INCAP creates a stronger connection between Indiana education and Indiana employers. Students gain paid experience, industry credentials, and multiple options after graduation, while employers gain an opportunity to directly influence training and build a skilled workforce pipeline. The model offers a compelling alternative to the traditional “high school, then college, then career” approach by allowing students to explore careers, earn money, build credentials, and begin developing professional skills before they graduate from high school.

Teaching a teenager to drive may be one of the last great apprenticeships between parent and child. Liz Krieger describes an increasingly rare experience: her 16-year-old daughter listening closely, asking questions and genuinely depending on her knowledge while learning to drive. Adolescence naturally shifts authority away from parents. Friends, teachers, social media and the internet increasingly provide information and influence, while teenagers begin establishing independence. Driving temporarily changes that dynamic because experience suddenly matters in immediate and unmistakable ways. Inside a moving car, abstract parental advice becomes practical knowledge. Steering, braking, reversing and anticipating another driver’s behavior cannot be mastered simply by watching a video. They require judgment developed through repetition, mistakes and guidance from someone who has already accumulated years of experience. Key Takeaways: Learning to drive is about more than operating a vehicle. It creates an unusual moment when teenagers willingly become apprentices again and parents can transfer experience rather than simply offer advice. Implications: In an age when young people can instantly access almost any information, lived experience retains enormous value. Driving reminds us that knowledge and judgment are different things, and some of life’s most important lessons still pass from one generation to another through patience, trust and time spent together. Former White House Lead Communications Engineer | Strategic Advisor My content creates 20+ million views annually and growing across defense, AI, quantum, energy, infrastructure, and policy communities. Open to select advisory board and strategic advisory opportunities featuring monthly retainers and meaningful equity participation. K² https://lnkd.in/gxqbnBBb How the Chinese Communist Party uses LinkedIn for Intelligence Gathering https://lnkd.in/g-fNkhUM Source https://lnkd.in/gqNMZ6Xi Make the opening more emotionally compelling

Work-based learning is the future of K-12 and higher education. One of the first, best produced of workforce education advice I ever received was from an expert that had over 30 years in the field and she simply told me. “Phillip, kids don’t go into careers they don’t know” That has why I believe that career education must include WBL. It is not enough anymore for students to just see a career, they must experience it, touch it, understand it from the experience

In this K-12 Dive article, Karen Gardiner, senior fellow in the Work, Education, and Justice division at the Urban Institute, highlights the need to make sure more students and families know about pathways like apprenticeships and other WBL experiences — and understand that these pathways can lead to good jobs while still leaving the door open to continued education.   At Ascend Indiana, we are committed to helping regional partners connect students and employers with WBL opportunities, so more students see the many pathways available to a good career.   Read more from Karen and K-12 Dive:

Grades can show one result. They cannot show the full process behind it. That became clearer when I started university alongside a degree apprenticeship. As someone with ADHD and dyslexia, I’ve had to think more carefully about what “understanding” actually looks like. Reading notes can feel productive without proving that I can explain or use the idea. So I try to measure learning by evidence: Can I explain the idea without looking? Can I apply it to a new example? Can I identify the part I still need to practise? Those questions give me a better signal than another hour of highlighting. They also make the next step visible, which matters when you are balancing university, work and building ApprenticeWizard. This doesn’t mean grades don’t matter. They do. But a grade is one data point from one assessment. It doesn’t capture the adjustments someone made, the skills they developed along the way, or what they can do with the knowledge afterwards. I’m still learning how to build systems that work with my brain instead of against it. That, to me, is a better definition of academic progress than simply chasing the next number. What helps you tell the difference between studying and actually learning?

Just read a piece in Higher Ed Dive by Karen Gardiner at the Urban Institute, and it puts words to something we see constantly in our work with schools. The stat that stuck with me: the U.S. now has over 714,000 registered apprentices, an 80.5% increase since 2016. States and the federal government have invested heavily in these alternative pathways. The programs exist. The outcomes are real. One study found apprentices saw a 49% increase in earnings on average within a year of completing their program. So why do so many students still not know these options exist? Gardiner's argument is that too many students and parents still see apprenticeships, community college programs, and other work-based learning paths as "backup plans" instead of real opportunities, even as the evidence for their effectiveness keeps growing. This is exactly the gap Starteryou solves. Districts want to give students access to internships, apprenticeships, and other work-based learning experiences, but a lot of the infrastructure to track placements, manage employer partnerships, and actually measure outcomes doesn't exist or is stitched together with spreadsheets. If schools can't easily track and report on what's working, it's a lot harder to build the evidence base Gardiner is talking about, and harder for families to trust that these pathways are legitimate. This is the problem we're building toward: giving schools the tools to actually run and prove out work-based learning, not just talk about it. Worth a read if you work in K-12 or workforce development:https://lnkd.in/gj7ZiYXe

I read this piece in Inside Higher Ed this week (https://lnkd.in/dEEbpyEr) and kept coming back to one idea: strong apprenticeship programs begin with a clear understanding of the work, the learners, and the communities they serve. The strongest examples in this article go beyond simply adding coursework to employment. They involve listening to employers and communities, understanding what apprentices actually need, creating flexibility around the realities of work and family, and being willing to adjust the model when the original design doesn't work. That way of thinking has shaped much of my work in workforce education and learning design. Before we design the program or build the learning, we need to understand the work—the tasks, decisions, judgments, conditions, and expectations that define successful performance. For me, that's where workforce development, academic programming, and instructional design intersect. Whether we're building an apprenticeship, revising a curriculum, developing professional learning, or creating workplace training, the questions are remarkably similar: What does the work actually require? Who needs to learn it? What conditions will they be learning and performing in? And what would make the pathway genuinely workable for them? The rural apprenticeship examples in this article are a good reminder that effective program design is not just about creating a pathway. It's about creating one that makes sense in the context where people will actually use it. That's a design challenge I find particularly interesting—and one that requires higher education, employers, and communities to listen to one another before deciding what to build. What are you seeing in apprenticeship or work-based learning that is helping higher education and employers build pathways that truly fit their communities? https://lnkd.in/dEEbpyEr

Arizona has a talent problem and employers continue importing and recruiting talent from out of state. But that’s where we come in. Built for Arizona, by Arizonans, we are focused on keeping talent in Arizona by helping students understand what’s possible in Arizona. When young people explore careers, they often look beyond the state because local options are not always visible, connected, or easy to understand. My Future AZ helps change that by connecting students to Arizona-based pathways, postsecondary programs, training opportunities, and careers. When students can see how their interests connect to real opportunities here, they can make more informed decisions about their future. They can explore CTE, community college, universities, apprenticeships, certifications, skilled trades, and other pathways that support Arizona’s workforce and economy. Pipeline Connects works with partners across the state to make those connections clearer, earlier, and more actionable.

🎯 WBL Student Shout-Out: Tristan Ailor Work-Based Learning provides students with opportunities to build valuable career skills in a wide variety of industries—and for Roosevelt High School student Tristan Ailor, that learning is happening at Rocky Mountain Archery. This summer, Tristan is earning RHS Work-Based Learning credit while gaining hands-on experience in the archery and outdoor recreation industry. His responsibilities have allowed him to develop skills in inventory management, customer service, and bow and arrow customization, while learning the product knowledge and attention to detail required to meet individual customer needs. Just as importantly, Tristan is strengthening skills that transfer across careers—communication, problem-solving, professionalism, responsibility, and a strong work ethic. His supervisor, Stewart King, has shared high praise for Tristan’s work this summer, demonstrating the value of connecting students with employers who are willing to mentor young people and provide meaningful opportunities to learn on the job. A special thank you to Stewart and the entire Rocky Mountain Archery team for investing in Tristan and supporting Work-Based Learning at Roosevelt High School. ❤️🩶 Experiences like this remind us that career preparation doesn’t happen only in the classroom. When schools and employers work together, students have the opportunity to apply their skills, explore industries, and build the experiences that prepare them for what comes next. #WorkBasedLearning #WBLWednesday #CollegeAndCareerPathways #CareerReadiness #StudentSuccess #RHSRoughRiders #WeldRE5J