Educating Iowa students for the knowledge economy requires connecting them to future careers through hands-on projects designed by employers and educators.

The Iowa Clearinghouse for Work-Based Learning is a virtual space where business partners will post projects for Iowa K-12 students to gain in-depth work experience, bringing real-world application into the schools. The clearinghouse will launch by July 1.

ABOUT WORK-BASED LEARNINGWork-based learning helps students develop new skills and connections through projects, internships and even apprenticeships that are embedded into classwork. This sets the stage for great job opportunities for young people and builds a pipeline of skilled workers for employers.

The clearinghouse supports the Future Ready Iowa goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce having education or training beyond high school by 2025.

OPPORTUNITIES AND ACCESSThe clearinghouse will make work-based learning opportunities more accessible to more Iowa K-12 students, especially in rural areas.

The clearinghouse will focus on high-demand careers, including those in STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and mathematics).

FOR STUDENTS• Understand how the

classroom and workplace connect

• Buildjob-specificknowledgeand soft skills

• Develop awareness of career options and skills needed

• Find networking opportunities and mentors

FOR BUSINESSES• Grow and develop potential

employees• Gain fresh perspectives from

the next generation• Build brand awareness • Tackle projects and tasks on

the backburner• Build relationships with

schools and communities

BENEFITS OF WORK-BASED LEARNING

CLEARINGHOUSE FOR

WORK-BASED LEARNING

CLEARINGHOUSE FOR

WORK-BASED LEARNING

COMING SOON

LEARN MOREEstablished by Gov. Kim Reynolds through an executive order, the clearinghouse is a partnership between AEA Learning Online, the Iowa Department of Education, and Iowa Workforce Development.

For more information, visit

clearinghouse.futurereadyiowa.gov

or contact Jake Welchans, project manager, at jake.welchans@iowa.gov, or at 515-281-5494.

WORK-BASED LEARNING IN ACTION

ABOUT FUTURE READY IOWAFuture Ready Iowa is an initiative to prepare individuals for dynamic careers and lifelong learning, to meet employer needs, to grow family incomes, and to strengthen communities.

April - New website, blueprint and toolkits for schools and businesses

July - Clearinghouse fully launches

Students in the Ottumwa High School SparkTank program partnered with the Ottumwa Symphony Guild in preparation for the guild’s annual ball. Students designed large palm trees and worked with students in the high school’s Advanced Metals program to fabricate the structures.

Danville Elementary fifth-graders took part in a “Why Robotics in Manufacturing?” project with ABB, an electrical equipment supplier in West Burlington. After learning about careers and the manufacturing cycle, these students planned and created podcasts about why robotics and automation are critical to the industry’s future.

Students in Ankeny’s Orbis program worked with WHO-TV in Des Moines to produce short news stories for distribution on social media, with the goal of building engagement with younger audiences.

The Future Ready Iowa Clearinghouse for work-based learning is almost here! We are excited for our launch in July, and we want you to be a part! Your organization is a key component to our state and a potentially valuable partner for schools to engage in authentic learning. We want to work with you so that your organization can have a presence on the project-board.

What are Authentic Projects? They are student-led projects, done in conjunction with real-world business/community partners, developing real-world skills, done in a real-world setting, delivery a real-world product. They are designed around problems that business/community partners face on a daily basis.

How does the Clearinghouse work?

Partners propose project opportunities to the Clearinghouse. Once those are verified, partners decide when to make their opportunities visible. Students peruse the board looking for a match with their learning goals and (through their cooperating teacher) then apply for a project. From their dashboard, partners can approve or deny the requests. Once projects are complete, partners can close out the project listing, showcasing student work. But, I don’t know how to create a project opportunity! No problem! We are here to support. We have project templates that are available for partners to adopt or adapt. We also have regional think tanks to help you grow your own unique ideas. And most importantly, our Project Manager Jake Welchans can help you 1-on-1 develop your own project to get you started. How long does it take to develop a project opportunity? Though all situations vary, Jake can often work with a partner to develop a project in under two hours. What is the partner commitment once the opportunity is listed? This can vary too. For some, it can be a weekly check-in visit. For some, not as frequent. The visits could be done at the partner’s location, the school, or virtually. And for some, a partner can suggest the idea without committing to further involvement. We can work with you to find your fit.

What if I want to work with just my local school? The Clearinghouse supports this! You can restrict opportunities to specific districts that you would like. As a benefit, your opportunity might serve as a template for a partner in a different part of the state.

What if my project opportunity isn’t chosen? Well… that can happen. Our team of consultants are working with schools to help get generate more interest in work-based learning. But, we can also help you revise an opportunity listing if it isn’t getting traction.

Are projects the only way for partners to get involved? Not at all! You can indicate your interest to work with schools in other capacities as well, including things like job shadowing, career fairs, guest speakers, and internships.

CLEARINGHOUSE

This sounds great! How do I get started? Our website will be going live this April, ahead of the clearinghouse launch in July. Contact Jake Welchans for more information.

jake.welchans@iowa.gov 515-281-5494

INTRODUCTIONThe Iowa Clearinghouse for Work-Based Learning is a virtual tool that will expand access to high-quality, in-depth work-based learning in rural and urban communities for all students, especially traditionally underrepresented students, with a focus on high-demand STEM fields and careers. School-business partnerships will be created and developed through projects that make learning more relevant and authentic for students as well as also meeting the needs of the businesses.

This toolkit has been created with two goals in mind; first, to inform businesses about the importance of, and value in, engaging with students around meaningful work-based learning projects. And second, to provide guidance around creating a project, submitting it to the clearinghouse and managing the project to a successful completion.

Expanding rigorous work-based learning opportunities is in keeping with Future Ready Iowa’s aims. Future Ready Iowa is an initiative to prepare individuals for

dynamic careers and lifelong learning to meet employer needs and to grow family incomes and strengthen communities. It has the goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce to have education or training beyond high school by 2025. Learn more and read all of the recommendations on the Future Ready Iowa site.

Work-Based Learning is a term that covers a range of different activities that begin with career awareness (guest speakers, career fairs), move into exploration activities (job shadowing, mentorship, authentic projects) and can grow into learning on the job site (internships, apprenticeships, etc). Authentic Learning is another term used for this type of work that leads to students developing technical knowledge, soft skills and community connections. The Iowa Department of Education has put out a Work-Based Learning Guide that provides an in-depth look at the continuum of work-based learning experiences, typical roles and responsibilities, and potential legal and safety concerns. The guide can be accessed on the Iowa Department of Education’s Work-Based Learning page.

BUSINESSPARTNER

2019SPRING

TOOLKIT

Business Partner Toolkit Spring 2019

Page 2

TABLE OF CONTENTSWhat Are The Benefits For Businesses? ...............................................3

What Are The Benefits For Students? ....................................................3

What Is The Time Commitment? ...........................................................4

Project Development: What Makes A High-Quality Project? ..................4

Project Development: Brainstorming Project Ideas ................................5

Tips For Success ...................................................................................6

Best Practices For Working With Students ............................................6

Clearinghouse User Guide For Business Partners ................................7

Sources ..................................................................................................8

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WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR BUSINESSES?● Build awareness of business’s role in the community

& local economy

● Increase positive public relations opportunities and gain brand advocates

● Address projects & tasks that would otherwise not get attention

● Find help to fill a gap in your skillset

● Help create a pipeline of talent that is better informed, prepared and motivated

● Strengthen the leadership and supervisory skills of your current workforce

● Derive value from work performed by student partners

● Learn about the knowledge and skills of tomorrow’s employees by working with today’s students

● Contact and observe potential future employees for part-time, summer or eventual full-time jobs in an authentic context

● Gather direct feedback about your products or services from a younger generation

● Expand views and experiences by working with different demographics through virtual connections with students statewide

● Educate young adults about the careers available to them in your company and industry.

WHAT ARE THE BENEFITS FOR STUDENTS?● Build connections between real world expectations

and the classroom

● Pursue education with a greater focus and understanding of relevance to future career goals

● Find out if a career or industry might be a good match before committing time and money

● Interact with positive adult role models in a reduced student-adult ratio

● Build resilience and appreciation for the iterative process and productive failure in pursuit of a long-term goal.

● Pursue an area of interest or passion project

● Realize and explore the industries and career opportunities available in Iowa, while building a network of professional relationships

● Experience a range of opportunities not traditional for their demographic

● Develop essential 21st century skills (Iowa Core Universal Constructs)

● Communication and presentation

● Collaborating as part of a team

● Critical thinking and problem-solving

● Creativity and innovation

● Flexibility and adaptability

● Accountability and productivity

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PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: WHAT MAKES A HIGH-QUALITY PROJECT?The term “projects” can cover a wide range of work for almost every industry. There are, however, a few characteristics every opportunity on the clearinghouse should possess to ensure a mutually beneficial relationship and positive experience for all parties involved. The work needs to be authentic. Real tasks, where students own the work involving real research, real creation and ideally, a tangible service or product delivered to a real audience at the completion.

The following points come from Prepare Rhode Island’s Workforce Guidance and delve deeper into what this work should look like:

● Rigorous: Skill-based, and tied to measurable outcomes. The experience should allow a student to gain measurable skills, whether those be essential skills (also known as professional skills, soft skills, or 21st century skills) or hard technical skills.

● Relevant: Connected to a student’s interests. Projects and tasks should mirror those that exist in a real workplace.

● Reflective: Engages the student in reflection and analysis throughout and after the experience.

● Interactive: Providing multiple opportunities for students to not simply observe, but directly interact with industry professionals, whether as supervisors, mentors, advisors, or collaborators.

● Integrated: Connected with the student’s school-based curriculum. A work-based learning experience is a practical application of academic and/or technical learning and should allow the student to practice the theory learned in the classroom in a real-world setting.

The Buck Institute for Education has an Essential Project Design Elements Checklist that can be a useful resource as your review your project idea.

WHAT IS THE TIME COMMITMENT?As the old adage says, “time is money” and time spent working with and developing our future workforce is a smart investment. That said, we realize that each organization has a different appetite regarding the amount of time they can spend interacting with student groups on these projects. The spectrum ranges from highly involved where the business is closely engaged with the project from kickoff, through frequent meetings, perhaps providing mentoring or skills instruction, all the way to wrap-up. At the other end of the spectrum, a business could create a project opportunity that calls for little to no business involvement. Once they post the project or contest information to the clearinghouse, the schools take it from there and the business isn’t involved again until completion.

Involvement from business partners can happen at the school, at the business site, or it can occur virtually with the business and students connecting via video-conferencing (Skype, FaceTime, Zoom, Google Hangouts, etc.)

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PROJECT DEVELOPMENT: BRAINSTORMING PROJECT IDEAS● Are there projects toward the bottom of your to-do

list that don’t ever seem to get attention?

● Are there ideas that you’ve had but haven’t been able to spare the time or the staff to explore?

● What would you like to know about your next generation of customers? These aspiring professionals might be them!

● Could you use a fresh view from outside your organization? Use the group as consultants and let them provide an unbiased take on things.

● Are there issues or developments coming in your industry that students could begin to explore and address?

● Is there a process or aspect of your business that you would like to change or do differently, but aren’t sure where to start?

● Aren’t two heads better than one? Work with multiple teams at different schools on the same project! Run it as a challenge to find the best solution or have them synthesize their ideas at the finish of the project for a final collaboration exercise.

● Can you sequence several projects together with the same student groups so the experiences build on one another?

● Snowball effect - Don’t be confined to what

you originally wrote up the project as. If more interesting or better fitting ideas come up, let the original project grow and morph into something different and better.

● Competitions & Expos. Find a style that works for you and your project. To remove geographic and logistical scheduling issues, these formats can be carried out digitally as well. Maybe an internship or summer job is the prize!

○ Science fair-style showcase. Student groups display or present their finished projects. A judging committee of professionals can provide feedback and select a winner or winners.

○ “Shark Tank”-style pitchfest. Student groups have a set amount of time to present their ideas, deliver their elevator pitch and try to win over the judges.

○ Hack-a-thon. Student groups come together and are given a common challenge or problem. Then they collaborate, working non-stop, to devise and create solution.

● Check out some examples on these sites:

○ Iowa BIG’s project board

○ Cedar Falls CAPS project request form has lots of project ideas

○ Iowa STEM BEST programs

○ Iowa STEM Externships blogs and testimonials

○ Iowa Authentic Learning Network

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TIPS FOR SUCCESS● Engage in proper planning and preparation.

● Address logistical details.

● Communicate with all parties.

● Maximize learning potential.

● Focus on career preparation.

● Connect to the classroom.

● Promote student reflection.

BEST PRACTICES FOR WORKING WITH STUDENTS● Remember that you will be working with students

on a school calendar. Winter break, summer vacation, snow days, etc will impact the timeline of your project.

● These disclaimers come from the Submit a Project form and ensure that all parties will start off with some key shared expectations:

○ I understand that students may only

participate in legal and safe opportunities in the field.

○ I understand that students will work their best to achieve project success / project fulfillment as agreed upon by the student group and partner. However, I am aware that in some cases projects may not always be successful or fulfilled. In some of these cases students will learn more from these failures.

○ I understand that our partnership requires a certain level of flexibility and mentorship.

○ I understand that this project is bound by the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), meaning that personal student data cannot be shared without the consent of the student’s guardians.

● For guidance on safety and insurance questions, check out the Iowa Work-Based Learning Guide.

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CLEARINGHOUSE USER GUIDE FOR BUSINESS PARTNERS

SHOWING INTERESTWhen you click on the Interest Form link at the bottom of every page of the website, it will gather basic contact information about your business and you will be contacted with your login credentials and guidance on moving forward.

SUBMITTING A PROJECTThere are links to the Submit a Project form throughout the website and at the bottom of every page. This form will gather all the necessary information about your project. A pdf version of the form can be viewed here. Your project will be reviewed and then posted to the clearinghouse.

NOTIFICATION THAT A SCHOOL IS INTERESTEDWhen a teacher or student group is interested in working with you on your project, you will received a notification, both via email and also in your clearinghouse dashboard. You will be able to review the request and approve or deny it.

MAKING A CONNECTIONIf the request sounds good and you approve it, a connection is made and you will be able to communication with the teacher via email to determine the details and logistics for your initial meeting with the student group. Expectations, methods and frequency of meetings, information sharing tools, end date for the project, and many other particulars should be ironed out in that initial communication or first meeting.

Business School Together

Business Identifies Project

ProjectSubmitted

ProjectApproved

ProjectPosted

School Requests Project

Business Approves Request

Initial Consultation

Do ProjectResearch

BuildTimeline& Budget

Estimate ofResources

IdentifyObstacles

Present Proposal to ClientResearch,

Revise,Refine

Project Kickoff

Progress/Status ReportingRevisionsto Scopeor Project

Project Completion

Post-Project Review

Post-Project Review

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SOURCESIowa Work-Based Learning Guide, Iowa Department of Education https://educateiowa.gov/documents/iowa-work-

based-learning/2017/10/iowa-work-based-learning-guide

Quality Work-Based Learning Toolkit, Kansas City Public Schools, http://www.newwaystowork.org/qwbl/tools/kcktoolkit/print_toolkit.pdf

Work-Based Learning Toolkit, New York City Youth and Young Adult Career Pathways http://www.newwaystowork.org/uploads/files/WBL_Toolkit_rv5c_JP_11.13.17_Edits.pdf

Workplace Challenge Fact Sheet, NYC DOE Work-Based Learning Toolkit http://wbltoolkit.cte.nyc/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/13.1.1-Workplace-Challenge-Fact-Sheet.pdf

Work-Based Learning Manual, Succeed2020, North Dakota’s How-To Guide For Work-Based Learning http://wbl.ndsucceed2020.org/introduction-to-work-based-learning/

Workforce Guidance, Prepare Rhode Island, https://www.prepare-ri.org/wbl/

FINISHING A PROJECTAfter your project wraps up you will be sent a reminder to go into the clearinghouse dashboard and formally “complete” the project and fill out the brief feedback survey. This is your chance to log whether the project met your expectations, share additional information about the experience, and upload any photos, videos, or links to the work and the final outcome.

WHAT IF NO ONE SELECTS OUR PROJECT?No takers? That’s totally ok! That just means it’s time to review, rethink, rename, and repost the project. A few thoughtful tweaks and your next version might be your best one yet! We can also work with the Iowa Work-Based Learning Intermediary Network to help find a connection for your project. The Intermediaries assist employers and educators interested in either building new relationships or improving and expanding current work-based learning programs. Rather than attempting to build these complex initiatives from scratch, an Intermediary can be a great resource to leverage existing relationships and local industry experience. Learn more and find your local Intermediary’s contact info here.