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Preparatory Experiences — Policymaker
Section
Introduction
School-based preparatory experiences are designed to help youth ready themselves for success
in postsecondary education and/or a career. They include the core activities
of career assessments (formal and informal), opportunity awareness (guest speakers,
informational interviews, research-based activities, community mapping, exposures
to postsecondary education), and work readiness skills (soft-skills development,
computer competency, and job search skills). However, our education system does
not provide youth with enough of these school-based preparatory experiences to make informed
choices about careers. This weakness was recognized and addressed through the
School-to-Work Opportunities Act (STWOA) of 1994. An explicit assumption of
STWOA, a systems change initiative, was that schools and organizations connected
to schools needed a new way of doing business. Helping young people make informed
choices became as essential as the basics of education - being able to read,
write, and compute.
The cost of not making informed choices is difficult to calculate but is evident
in its effect on individuals, families, and society. Youth who do not understand
the relevancy to the "real world" of what is being taught in their
classes are likely to become poor performers or drop-outs. Students who lack
an understanding of the skills and knowledge required for pursuing their desired
occupations may make poor course selections, and can often spend a decade or
more wandering around in the secondary labor market before establishing a career
trajectory. These outcomes, along with other similar scenarios, are indicators
of insufficient attention given to helping young people inform themselves about
career options.
The cost of providing these essential services is not prohibitive; however,
no one organization has the capacity to provide the full range of services to
expose youth to, and ensure their participation in, career opportunities. Collaboration
among organizations such as schools (including career and technical education
programs, special education, and transition services), postsecondary institutions,
youth-serving organizations, vocational rehabilitation organizations, One-Stops,
and employers, can ensure comprehensive services and supports for all youth,
and youth with disabilities in particular.
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Education and Employment Outcomes
for People with Disabilities |
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- One third of students with disabilities do not finish
high school;
- Only one third of young people with disabilities who
need job training receive it;
- Only a quarter of young people who need life skills
training, tutoring, interpreting or personal counseling
receive these services;
- More than half of all young people with emotional disabilities
are arrested at least once within three to five years
of exiting school;
- People with disabilities enroll in postsecondary education
at half the rate of the general population;
- Only 26 percent of working age adults with disabilities
have a job or own their own business.
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Youth with disabilities have the same need as all other youth to be exposed
to career options and school-based preparatory experiences. However, these youth too often
encounter low expectations and lack of opportunities that interfere with their
ability to learn about career options and their preparation for careers. Many
leave school without having had opportunities to learn about different careers
or to build the strong academic skills and workplace competencies needed to
succeed in many careers. Coupled with lack of opportunities that build their
knowledge, skills and abilities, and that foster confidence, many youth with
disabilities do not go on to further education and training. As the statistics
above reveal, youth with disabilities, particularly those with significant disabilities,
experience poor education and employment outcomes.
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Core Activities and Services
that Help YWD Make Informed Choices about Career Opportunities
and Pathways |
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- Career assessments (formal and informal);
- Exposure to a variety of career opportunities via guest
speakers and informational interviews;
- Research-based activities that engage youth through
the use of the internet and mapping of community opportunities;
- Exposure to postsecondary education institutions through
visits and guest speakers, and
- Development of work readiness skills (soft and hard
skills, computer competency, and job search skills).
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The above core activities and services can be provided by youth-serving organizations
as part of the school day, as part of a transition curriculum, or through after-school
programs. They should lead to the next level of preparation -- time spent in
a variety of workplaces through site visits, job shadowing, and actual work
experience (paid or unpaid).
As a policymaker, you have the ability to set the process in motion.
By ensuring that organizations focus on helping prepare youth to make informed
choices about career pathways, and by fostering policies that encourage collaboration
among multiple organizations, you ensure that these organizations:
- share information;
- refer consumers appropriately;
- learn what it is each organization does best;
- benefit from these strengths and capacities collectively;
- expand program offerings;
- increase the knowledge and skills of frontline staff; and, ultimately,
- provide more comprehensive services to all youth.
Questions
1. Are there federal resources
to help support school-based preparatory experiences?
No one piece of legislation covers the many activities that comprise preparatory
experience for all youth. The responsibility for fitting the pieces together
falls to policymakers at all levels. Several pieces of federal legislation are
key in helping to prepare young people for the workplace, five are listed below.
Also, NCWD/Youth has gathered and highlighted information about nine of these
acts. Click
here to view this information about disability legislation.
- The No Child Left Behind Act allows dollars appropriated
through this Act to be used to provide a disadvantaged child attending a low
performing school with extra help in reading, language arts, and math, either
before or after school or on weekends. It also gives grants to states for
charter schools.
- The Carl Perkins Career Technical Education Act
recognizes the need for all youth to be exposed to career pathways that build
bridges between high school and postsecondary education. Among the items that
can be paid for through Perkins are vocational curriculum materials, materials
for learning labs, curriculum development or modification, staff development,
career counseling and guidance activities, supplemental services for special
populations, salaries for vocational staff, remedial classes, and expansion
of Tech Prep programs. Tech Prep education is defined as a planned sequence
of study in a technical field beginning as early as the ninth year of school.
The sequence extends through two years of postsecondary occupational education
or an apprenticeship program of at least two years following secondary instruction,
and culminates in an associate degree or certificate.
- The Workforce Investment Act identifies core elements
that promote both positive youth development and occupational preparation.
Young people ages 14 and not more than 21 can receive services if they are
low-income and meet one of the following criteria: have a deficiency in basic
literacy skills; are a school dropout; are homeless, a runaway, or a foster
child; are pregnant or a parent; are an offender, or are an individual who
requires additional assistance to complete an educational program, or to secure
and hold employment. Services include tutoring; study skills training and
instruction leading to completion of secondary school, including dropout prevention
strategies; alternative secondary school services; summer employment opportunities;
paid and unpaid work experiences; occupational skill training; leadership
development opportunities; supportive services; mentoring, and follow up services.
- The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
requires exposing youth with disabilities to curricula based on high standards,
and emphasizes the importance of helping young people participate in planning
for their transition from the protected environment of school into the adult
world. Transition planning is mandated to start by age 14 (or earlier if appropriate)
by focusing on the student's course of study, including planning coursework
and school-based preparatory experiences to reflect postsecondary goals. By age 16 (or
earlier if appropriate), more intensive planning focuses on school and adult-oriented
outcomes, as well as linkages with appropriate agencies and supports that
reflect the student's postsecondary goals.
- The Vocational Rehabilitation Act recognizes the
value of helping young people make wise choices via high quality assessments
and career counseling. Vocational rehabilitation services are provided through
local offices of state agencies and through community-based organizations,
often referred to as community rehabilitation programs, under contractual
arrangements with the state agencies. Transition services are often provided
through cooperative agreements between state and local school and college
systems, and the vocational rehabilitation agency.
Funding opportunities associated with these Acts can be found online:
2. What can policy makers
at the state and local levels do to promote school-based preparatory experiences?
There is a range of actions that policymakers can undertake to promote the
development of school-based preparatory experiences. At the state and local levels those
responsible for coordinating the workforce development system are nicely positioned
to convene key institutions to review the current state of practice and develop
strategic plans that tap all federal, state, and local resources. The State
Workforce Investment Board, the State Youth Council (if one exists), and/or
the mandated youth council of the Local Workforce Investment Board can launch
this effort. Reaching out to related advisory councils that have a special focus
on youth with disabilities will help generate both buy-in and fiscal support.
These related councils and networks at the state level include:
- State Councils on Developmental Disabilities,
- State Rehabilitation Councils,
- Independent Living Councils,
- IDEA Advisory Council, and
- The Business Leadership Network.
Representatives from the state board of Education, Special Education, and Career
and Technical Education Offices, Vocational Rehabilitation, Labor, Mental Health
and Developmental Disabilities need to be included. If a state has launched
a Social Security Ticket-to-Work program, a representative from that program
should be included as well.
At the local level, a Youth Council of a Workforce Investment Board could convene
the local counterparts to the above mentioned state organizations and networks,
and additionally include transition coordinators from local school districts
and career and technical education managers, as well as representatives from:
- One-Stop Centers,
- centers for independent living,
- rehabilitation service organizations,
- local chambers of commerce,
- parent groups,
- postsecondary offices of disability support services, etc.
These advisory networks need not become permanent bodies, but can help by providing
information about the current state of preparatory services and supports, identifying
resources and points for collaboration, and suggesting other steps to ensure
that youth with disabilities have access to school-based preparatory experiences.
Tools that may be useful include:
- Requests for proposals from vendors using pooled resources from more than
one funding stream, and
- Memorandums of understanding between two or more agencies to blend fiscal
resources and/or services, such as sharing information from assessments or
jointly sponsoring guest speakers, work-site visits, joint training of staff,
etc.
No policymaker should ignore the power of the bully pulpit to heighten awareness
of the value of these school-based preparatory experiences. For example, while working with
employer and business and industry associations, policymakers should encourage
them to become guest speakers and active participants in giving informational
interviews to youth.
3. What does research sponsored
by employer associations say about career preparation for youth that can be
used to inform policy?
In the fall of 2001, Ferris State University's Career Institute for Education
and Workforce Development conducted a telephone survey of over 800 high school
juniors and seniors to study their attitudes and career plans. This study, which
was commissioned by three employer associations (the National Association of
Manufacturers, the Precision Metalforming Association Educational Foundation,
and the Associated Equipment Distributors Foundation), revealed the following:
- Most young people are not receiving career guidance in school or the community.
Of the 809 youth surveyed for the study, only 10% said that school personnel
had played a primary role in career guidance. Teachers were credited with
more career influence than guidance counselors were overall. 46% could not
identify anyone outside of parents or schools who had provided them with career
counseling or guidance. 78% of young people said their parents were the greatest
source of career advice, although these same students had spent less than
3 hours in the past few months discussing careers with their parents.
- Most students (94%) planned to attend either a two-year or four-year college
or technical school after graduation, although the study cites research showing
that 42% do not actually participate in post-secondary education. Furthermore,
of those who do enter college, only 28% actually graduate with a bachelor's
degree.
- Career choices by students were largely based on interest rather than perceived
opportunity. 67% of the students surveyed indicated they chose a career or
job based on its match with their likes, interests and abilities, instead
of money, availability or opportunity for advancement.
The study offered the following recommendations for policymakers and practitioners
to improve career guidance and development:
- Fund and provide professional development for K-12 career counselors
- Utilize summer months for quality school-based preparatory experiences involving multiple
stakeholders
- Increase partnerships between education and industry
- Revise and realign career recruitment efforts to reflect students' priorities
- Improve credit transfer among educational institutions to improve "re-careering"
- Integrate career development systems nationwide
- Promote the concept of "career pathways"
To
read the full report, go to Ferris State University's Career Institute for Education
and Workforce Development website at:
http://www.ferris.edu/htmls/administration/president/ci/ncds.htm
4. Are there any examples of how states have
implemented school-based preparatory experiences for youth with disabilities?
In the 2001 report, "Including Youth with Disabilities in Educational
Reform: Lessons Learned From School-to-Work States," the National Transition
Alliance for Youth with Disabilities (NTA) selected nine states (Colorado, Illinois,
Maryland, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island and Vermont)
to illustrate efforts to include youth with disabilities in School-To-Work (STW)
activities. Consideration was given to the number of years of experience the
state had in implementing STW practices, its close relationship with its Transition
System Change Initiative (TSCI), and its willingness to share information with
others.
The NTA report provides many examples, including:
- Writing STW components for all students into the state's education reform
plans.
- Using interagency collaboration and cooperation, linkages and partnerships,
and leadership to effect, strengthen and sustain inclusive STW systems. State
and local procedures were enacted to guarantee that agencies worked together.
- Using the leadership from a variety of stakeholder groups to influence inclusive
STW policy. Inclusive STW policy formation came not only from STW, TSCI, and
the special education community, but also from the grass roots efforts of
advocacy groups and parents.
To read
more about NTA's School to Work study, go to http://www.ed.uiuc.edu/sped/tri/statestories.htm#Introduction.
Resources
Disability
Legislation
http://www.ncwd-youth.info/resources_&_Publications/disability_Legislation/index.html#content
No one piece of legislation defines government services to youth with disabilities
or for that matter, any youth. Instead, there are a number of acts that impact
youth with disabilities. NCWD/Youth has gathered and highlighted information
about nine of these acts.
High School/High Tech (HS/HT)
http://www.ncwd-youth.info/resources_&_Publications/hsht_manual.html
HS/HT is a national program with an emphasis on quality school-based preparatory experiences
for youth with disabilities. With many sites sponsored by the Department of
Labor's Office of Disability Employment Policy (ODEP), and supported by NCWD/Youth,
High School/High Tech exposes students with disabilities to careers in the science,
mathematics and technology fields.
Colorado
School to Career
http://www.cde.state.co.us/schooltocareer/index.htm
The mission of Colorado School-to-Career was to bring students, businesses,
communities, schools and families together to form partnerships. These partnerships
offer many options to students, educators, business leaders and community members
- from job shadowing experiences to curriculum.
Illinois
Education to Careers
http://www.isbe.net/career/pdf/etc_disabilities.pdf
Education-to-Careers (etc) works to improve education to be of better quality
and more relevant to students, with the goal of this translating into a more
reliable workforce. Etc calls this concept of academics relating to the needs
of the workforce “New Generation Education”.
Career
Connections
http://www.careernet.state.md.us/careers.htm
Career Connections is a part of Maryland’s Goal 2000/Schools for Success
long-term plan. This school-to-career system works with community partners with
the creation of a new learning enterprise that will support school reform, workforce
preparation and economic development.
School-to-Work
Online
http://www.emsc.nysed.gov/workforce/stw/
School-To-Work is working toward the goal of providing all students with both
the academic and workforce skills necessary to be productive employees in today’s
changing workforce.
"Preparing
Youth with Disabilities for an Increasingly Technical Workplace" American
Youth Policy Forum Brief, January 26, 2001
http://www.aypf.org/forumbriefs/2001/fb012601.htm
This forum brief reports on the panel discussion regarding the effects of today’s
increasingly technical work place on youth with disabilities. Policymakers listened
to the panelists discuss promising solutions and strategies that could be implemented.
"Family
Role in Career Development" American Association of School Administrators
- Issues and Insights
http://www.cete.org/acve/docgen.asp?tbl=archive&ID=A008
This publication from the American Association of School Administrators focuses
on how the family can influence career development for youth. Topics include:
influences of family background, ethnic minority parents and career development,
negative effects of parental influences, and implications for practice.
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