Bay County Kids: Work Based Learning

“Work Based learning covers any interaction between the community, businesses and the students. It could start with early awareness: maybe a guest speaker in the classroom telling them a little bit about their company and what they do or a field trip to the business.

Then there's exploration, where they might be able to dig a little bit deeper, like doing a job shadow so the kids can have a more direct experience.  We have sustained relationships with companies within the community where students work with those companies for a majority of the school year to get experience in different industries. .

10 years ago, the sole focus was just job placements: finding seniors a place to work during their senior year. They would spend a half day at school and then the second half at work. That has changed over the last 10 to 15 years to more of a 9th through 12the grade program where students are doing a lot of foundational work as ninth and 10th graders where they gain career awareness and then build on their experiences to build a resume, moving kids from awareness, to getting ready, to actually doing.

Part of that 'getting ready' is doing things like practicing for job interviews at the high school. The school district has really made a focus on career development in the last few years. The essential skills are important and we have required courses that they have to take as sophomores. Then there's a required course they take as seniors that is career-development specific.

We target the sophomore class coming up for our practice interviews and we have people from all over the community come in and help students with the practice interview. They'll hopefully get two or three in one day, then they get feedback on things that they did well and the things that they need to improve on. Then we also have the career development courses, where they're going from the ground level of the awareness, to building a resume, practicing interview skills and writing cover letters and thank-you letters.

We also have a program that we use called Big Interview. It's an online virtual interviewing preparation program that we've been using for three or four years. It's really made a difference. We show students how to login and create an account, and then use it to get ready. We've heard so much feedback from students that it was a difference maker in going into an interview and made them feel like they were ready."

"We want to make it as easy as possible for the employers. We try to tell them this is no different than hiring any other part-time employee. Then Beth and I are on board to take care of the other things that you don't normally have to do for a part-time employee.

It's pretty simple, a business contacts us and we talk to them about what they're looking for and what they want a student to do. Then we go over the laws about employing minors. There are things they can't do, like drive a forklift, climb a scaffold and they can't drive for their jobs. They can't be a delivery driver. They can't even go to the post office every day and drop mail off or pick mail up. Then, we work through to make sure everything is legal. Then we send them some applicants, they look at the applicants, and go through whatever process they want for the interview process. Sometimes it's, ‘I've got a homerun. You don't need to do anything. I'm just going to send them.’ Or the employer will just say, ‘Hey, use your judgment and send me who you think will be the best.’

Some companies will have requirements and qualifications for their jobs, while other companies will just lean on us. With us being the middle person in this role, it really helps ease some of that hiring process. We will schedule the interviews, we tell them which student will be showing up at which time and that helps with the process.

Every time we make an employer contact, we tell them that we are at their service. The cool thing about our positions is that the school district supports this program, where we don't have classroom responsibility. We are full-time Work Based Learning Coordinators. If we need to go to an employer for a half a day or for two hours, we can. We’re that job coach with the student or if any issues arise, and things happen. There are times when we get a call about something that happened the day before. In that case, we might be there for two or three hours to make sure things work. The other thing is too, the state requires us to make an in-person visit before the student starts and then every nine weeks thereafter to check in.

With anywhere from 60 to 100 students in the program, that can take quite a bit of time. Even if a student is doing great and doesn't need any assistance, sometimes you're there for literally 30 seconds and ask, ‘Hey, everything good?’ Sign the form and see you later. Other times, you're there for an hour."

“We think work-based learning is important for building community. Let’s say a student gets hired in the area as a junior or senior in high school – we want to try to keep them here. We've been losing too many students for too long. That's a big part of it, we want to keep them here. Now that they have roots here, we want them to grow the tree here. So, it’s about building community more so than anything.

A lot of our students do go away, but there are a lot coming back now. They realize, ‘I really liked this small community. I went away, and I did my thing there, but this is where I want to raise a family.’ Hopefully, if they do get those experiences in high school, even if they go away and experience the world outside of Bay City, they want to come back.

Often a student might even come back to that same company. Maybe they left and got their degree or did whatever they needed to do and ended up back with that same company. That's really cool. Also, seniors have to create a LinkedIn profile and we warn them about this as well. Once they create it, they need to keep it and current. It’s so gratifying to see some of these students on LinkedIn now using it, networking and using it to showcase all the cool things they're doing in their industry. Then they'll say, ‘Thanks for making me create this Miss G.’

Those that want to partner can reach out to us. We can help place students from both schools. We have students that travel a lot of times. People think that we only place students within Bay County, but we actually play students in Midland, Saginaw and other counties. Our district is so large geographically and we have students that live in Saginaw, Midland and Pinconning. A lot of times, we'll say, ‘Well, where do you live and we can place you from there?’ to try to help them, especially with gas prices right now.

Students can reach out to either of us. Beth’s email is GehoskiB@BCschools.net and Ed’s email is ClementsE@BCSchools.net or just call the school and get that information as well.

We work together, and if an employer in Midland calls me and I'll refer them to Beth and vice versa. Geography is a big deal right now with gas prices and transportation is one of our biggest hurdles. A lot of students don't have transportation, or don't want to go too far. We work together on a lot of that. We also work year-round. We are in the office at least a day or two a week during the summer. The school district provides both of us with a work cell phone. So, if somebody calls June 20, we take care of it right then and there.

For employers, we'll start the process in February or March for the next school year and honestly, we will take placements all the way up to the beginning of the school year. So, if there is an employer that doesn't make this decision until even August or very early September, we can usually still place a student. Students can start anytime. We try to get them started in May or June, right when the school year is ending, and then they work most of the summer. Then when the school year starts, they come back for the school year.

For their schedule, they're at school for at least half the day. Some students have three classes and some have four. When they're done with their courses, then they go to work.

The bonus for those companies that will start the students in May or June is that the former co-ops often will train the new co-ops coming in. A lot of times those coops from the year before are leaving for college in August, but they have some time in there to train the new co-ops."

– Ed Clements, Central High School’s Work-Based Learning Coordinator and Beth Gehoski, Work-Based Learning Coordinator at Western High School