States seek ways to expand work-based learning and track it better
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Every Wednesday morning, state leaders in Ohio who touch economic development, education, and the workforce gather to compare notes, chart their course, and act on their vision for connecting students to the workplace.
They call themselves Team Ohio.
“It’s not just a name,” said Cheryl Rice, Ohio vice chancellor of higher education workforce alignment at the Ohio Department of Higher Education. “We work together to support the talent needs and the education and training needs. We’re finding that through these collaborative conversations, we can fill gaps in multiple ways.”
Rice shared Ohio’s vision with dozens of other state leaders who gathered this spring in Washington, D.C., for a State Higher Education Executive Officers Association convening. Throughout the nation, work-based learning has emerged as a proven strategy for improving student readiness for careers, helping to ensure a return on investment in higher education, and easing access to a talent pipeline for employers in need of workers.
Last week SHEEO announced it is supporting the expansion of paid work-based learning by welcoming a 20-state coalition that will participate in a national initiative designed to help states build sustainable, scalable approaches to work-based learning and quality education-to-career coaching.
“State higher education agencies are uniquely positioned to help institutions expand access to high-quality work-based learning,” said John Lane, SHEEO vice president for academic affairs. “By strengthening the connection between education and career pathways, states can help more students engage in meaningful learning experiences and improve outcomes, especially for students who face barriers to high-quality apprenticeships, internships, and additional work-based learning experiences.”
At the convening, delegations of state higher education executive officers and workforce alignment leaders shared information about work-based learning evidence and solutions to support improved career pathway opportunities for students. Among the key pieces of advice they shared with one another:
- Designate work-based learning as an integral part of education after high school.
In Virginia, in pursuit of the state goal of expanding access to paid internships for students in postsecondary education, InternshipsVA provides resources for organizations of every size to strengthen their talent pipeline through internships. The State University of New York, with 64 campuses throughout the state, has a systemwide goal to ensure every undergraduate takes part in a paid internship or other experiential learning opportunity before they graduate.
Indiana, meanwhile, has embedded work-based learning into new high school graduation requirements. Beginning with the Class of 2029, the updated Indiana high school diploma makes internships, job shadowing, and youth apprenticeships a key part of the high school experience and exposes students to key industries and workplaces in the state.
“The diploma is no longer an end,” Paul Ketcham, Indiana assistant secretary of education, said at the SHEEO convening. “It’s a doorway to what’s next in students’ lives.”
- Reimagine connections between employers and education institutions.
One fundamental problem of making work-based learning available to more students is that too few opportunities exist. A Business-Higher Education Forum report, for example, found that in 2023, 8.2 million learners sought internships, but only 44 percent of them found one.
To cultivate more internship opportunities with employers, institutions could benefit from reviewing how they manage their current employer relationships. The Kentucky community college system took on that challenge in 2022, and the process of tracking relationships through a systemwide employer “asset map” sparked some needed operational changes and uncovered some previously unrealized opportunities.
Kentucky also has created its Kentucky Graduate Profile, a framework that defines 10 essential skills such as communication, critical thinking, and adaptability. Identifying these skills has helped students describe to potential employers how their learning translates to these skills.
“No matter a student’s major, no matter what they plan to do after college, these are the skills that set them up for lifelong success,” Miles Feroli, executive director for workforce and economic development at the Kentucky Council for Postsecondary Education, said at the SHEEO convening.
- For help creating new work-based learning opportunities, invest in intermediary organizations.
Employers, particularly at small- to medium-sized companies, often want to offer work-based learning programs but face barriers such as limited staff to manage programs and supervise learners, difficulty designing programs, challenges finding qualified candidates, and obstacles complying with labor laws and rules governing internships and apprenticeships.
Some states have found success in building relationships with employer intermediaries, organizations that bridge the gap between employers and the education and workforce systems. Indiana works with organizations such as Ascend Indiana, the statewide and Indianapolis chambers of commerce, EmployIndy, and other regional intermediaries to increase employer awareness and simplify how employers reach prospective interns.
“We’re not waiting for skilled workers; we’re building them,” said Ketcham, the assistant secretary of education in Indiana. “We’re helping them grow.”
- Measure participation and access at the institutional and state level.
Gathering data that reflect participation is one of the most difficult but essential components of prioritizing work-based learning for a state or institution.
Ohio is collecting data by requiring colleges and universities to submit a report beginning in the 2027-28 academic year. Rice, Ohio’s vice chancellor of higher education workforce alignment, said this report will include “not only how well you do, but how many students were involved? What were the businesses that were involved? How many students eventually got hired because of this relationship?”
The goal is to expand paid work-based learning well beyond the career paths traditionally associated with it, such as engineering and the medical field, to ensure all postsecondary students are benefiting from the opportunities.
“The beauty about this new policy is it’s going to be all sectors, all students moving forward,” Rice said. “The goal is to challenge institutions to increase the work-based learning opportunities that are available to students pursuing a variety of programs.”
Through the SHEEO coalition, funded by Strada, the JPMorganChase Foundation, and Ascendium, seven states and one territory will participate in an intensive learning community and will receive structured assessment, individualized technical assistance and coaching, peer learning, and support developing and advancing state-specific policy agendas. Participants in the learning community are California, Hawaii, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, and Rhode Island.
An additional 12 states — Kentucky, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, New Jersey, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, and Washington — will attend the in-person convening and monthly webinars, and will receive technical assistance in work-based learning and education-to-career guidance strategies.
A new Strada grant aims to test and support the effectiveness of employer intermediaries, which can fill a critical gap between the learners and employers.
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