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Curriculum Development
Sharing Best Practices
The work-based learning website will facilitate adaptation and implementation by providing best practices with demonstrated effectiveness to community colleges throughout the state, as well as realistic implementation plans to support replication. The website will guide three target audiences: (1) companies, (2) students, and (3) educators (at community colleges) to investigate work-based learning experiences.
Companies will learn the benefits of various work-based learning models, how to become involved, and specific opportunities and contacts at local community colleges. Companies that may benefit from talent-planning support will be linked with the Ohio Talent Development Network, a network of colleges and adult career centers that offer expertise in talent planning and job profiling.
Students will discover the benefits of participation in work-based learning, how to prepare for these experiences, and information about their local community college efforts.
Educators can determine work-based learning best practice models that may fit their institution, learn from the guidance provided for replication, and contact peers who can mentor them in launching their program, including counsel on how to ensure industry-driven decision-making within program design.
Educating Educators
The project supports professional development for educators at both the college and high school levels. For high school, we’ll create a guide for engaging students in work-study models that draws on existing best practices within Ohio as well as surrounding states (such as the Kentucky FAME model). The community colleges will provide a train-the-trainer activity for high school teachers to gain eligibility to teach College Credit Plus content. College faculty will act as mentors for these activities.
For the college faculty, the interchange between the network members will be a key component of this sharing. Information-sharing activities include the symposium, which will be held in the summers of year 2 and year 3 of the project. During the academic year, additional opportunities for sharing through a faculty community of practice will bring participants back together for follow-up events.
Work-Study Model
This deliverable will highlight innovative best practices: Columbus State’s Modern Manufacturing Work-Study, Lorain’s TRAIN OH Earn & Learn model, MAGNET’s Early College Early Career program, and formal statewide initiatives such as the Registered Apprenticeship Consortium and Ohio Means Internships and Co-Ops.
This work-study model is being adapted and expanded from best practices in a previously funded project: Next Generation Multi-craft Manufacturing Support Technician (Award ID: 1400354). This created the Modern Manufacturing Work-Study (MMWS) that includes a five-semester program design that combines college curriculum with part-time paid employment with a partner company. At the end of the five semesters, students walk away with an electro-mechanical associate degree, paid work experience, and potential full-time job offers.
Results from this project have shown that the student’s wages earned during their second-year work-study experience will cover all costs of tuition incurred during the two-year associate’s degree program. While the prior project focused on electro-mechanical engineering, research and previous internships in logistics indicate the ability to match wages and have similar results. Students will earn competitive pay during their work-study experience.
A key to the work-study model’s success is an effective approach that was developed through previous work to effectively and continuously engage employers throughout the year. This leads to a breadth of student work-study assignments across multiple partners. Columbus State will implement the Work-Study model in two other programs – Mechanical Engineering Technology and Logistics Engineering Technology (LET). The LET program is already underway. The EARN project will focus on the replication of this model for the Mechanical Engineering Work-Study.