Work-Based Learning
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Work-based learning is an instructional strategy that provides students with a variety of experiences that are designed to bridge the gap between classroom instruction and the world of work.
WBL experiences provide students the opportunity to gain knowledge and develop employability skills leading to better informed career choices and readiness.
Work-based learning activities available to students in OCS:
Apprenticeship - An apprenticeship is a system for training future workers of a trade or profession with on-the-job training and often some accompanying study or course completion requirement.
Business/Industry Field Trips - A group excursion for the purpose of first-hand observation to specific work sites. Students learn about businesses, meet employees, ask questions and observe work in progress.
Clinical Experience - Clinical experience usually refers to any employment, volunteer, or shadowing experience specifically in the medical or science field, and usually involves patients and/or laboratories.
Cooperative Education - Cooperative learning is based on group work, and occurs when students work with one another, but they all have a different task to accomplish or concept to explain. It can also refer to a method of instruction that blends school and work-based learning. Work-based learning is usually defined as experience-based activities or scenarios that engage students in learning and prepare young people for the working world.
Entrepreneurship - A person who undertakes the risk of starting a new business venture is called an entrepreneur. An entrepreneur creates and runs a business or organization in order to produce goods or services, usually for profit or social good.
Informational Interviews - An informational interview is an informal conversation with someone working in a career area/job that interests you, who will give you information and advice. It is an effective research tool in addition to reading books, exploring the Internet and examining job descriptions. It is not a job interview, and the objective is not to find job openings, but rather to learn about a specific occupation or industry.
Internships - An internship is a temporary position with an emphasis on on-the-job training rather than merely employment, and it can be paid or unpaid. An internship is an opportunity to develop specific job-related skills before you are qualified for an actual job.
Job Shadowing - Job shadowing is a popular on-the-job learning, career development, and leadership development intervention. Job shadowing involves working with an employee to observe their day-to-day job functions. Shadowing an employee allows them to informally teach and help the person shadowing to learn new aspects related to the job, work environment, or organization.
Mentorships - A career mentor is one who teaches or provides guidance and advice to a less experienced and often younger person about his or her own career path. They may also provide informal guidance, motivation, emotional support, and role modeling. A mentorship may help one with exploring careers, setting goals, developing contacts, and identifying resources and next steps.
School-Based Enterprises - A school-based enterprise (SBE) is a hands-on learning environment and an entrepreneurial operation located in a school setting. The purpose of a school-based enterprise is to identify, create, and sell goods or services that meet the needs of a specified market or target audience. School-based enterprises operate much like a small business would, in that they identify a need and a target market, establish and write a business plan, make or acquire inventory, engage in marketing of their products or enterprise, and sell the goods or services to generate revenue.
Service Learning - Service-learning is an educational approach that combines learning goals with community service and volunteering. Often, service-learning involves students in service projects to apply classroom learning for local agencies that exist to effect positive change in the community.
*Insurance Protection: The Onslow County Public School System extends coverage to all students involved in officially recognized work-based learning activities. Each student is insured under a liability policy with a coverage limit of $1,000,000.