"Youth apprenticeship and work-based learning programs of all kinds require
unique public/private partnerships. Unlike the situation in many educational
initiatives, employers, business, labor and community members are active
participants in youth apprenticeship programs, not just advisors. These new
programs take education outside the classroom walls and into the community and
workplace. Extending educational responsibility to the worksite impacts on
education, business and the community in totally new ways, necessitating new
roles for all the partners.
Successful work-based learning and youth apprenticeship programs become
community efforts involving parents, students, educators and business,
industry, labor and community representatives in all aspects of program
development from planning and implementation to evaluation. The integration of
school- and work-based learning involves restructuring curriculum, courses,
schedules, teacher and counselor workloads, and administrative responsibility
in the schools. At the workplace, student employees require additional time,
personnel and resource commitments. Successful efforts will require long-term
commitment on the part of all key partners and participants. Also roles and
responsibilities will have to be well-defined and accepted at the outset.
. . .Commitment to the program comes from a shared sense of ownership and
responsibility which begins in the earliest stages of the planning process.
Other partners will also be more likely to maintain involvement and support if
they are regularly included in the decision-making process and are consistently
responsible for tasks. The inclusion of
diverse representatives with diverse interests in all stages of program
development makes for unique demands of working partnerships." (p. 53)
References