The Educator-in-the-Workplace Project
Introduction:
Dedicated teachers and counselors volunteer to “job shadow” for three days at a local business or industry. Through this learning experience, they begin to make important connections between academic standards and business standards. Teachers and counselors then begin to introduce career standards and ideas into their classroom and the curriculum.
Students benefit from the insight and experience of their teachers and counselors who become their advisors, knowledgeable about contacts that provide resources and information regarding pathways for career planning.
An educator-in-the-workplace workshop helps begin the conversations between educators and business hosts. Then educators learn to generate the partnerships that support instruction, introduce career concepts into the classroom, and encourage local community and neighborhood participation in the growth and development of our youth.
Business benefits:
Employers and business representatives have an opportunity to effectively influence and support their business standards and expectations for their future workforce through the educator-in-the-workplace project. Each year businesses are invited to host high school teachers, counselors, or even administrators at their place of work. Under a formal agreement, educators complete a structured Educator-in-the-Workplace Log Book as they follow the agenda set up by the business host. After recording their observations in the log book, teachers are prepared to relate their learning experiences to students.
Results of this project have consistently provided real and relevant learning experiences that have been brought back into the classroom, presented at conferences and local workshops, and improved the workplace understanding of all participants. Educators have arranged their classrooms to simulate some workplace tasks, collaborated with businesses to teach students about environmental or community concerns, and written lesson plans that include continued mentoring experiences from the workplace.
What a teacher knows and believes greatly influences the perceptions, values and world view of our young people as they move from classrooms to our communities. The educator-in-the-workplace project provides the conversations and the introduction to career pathways that must be developed and nurtured for a viable and sustainable workforce in southwestern Pennsylvania.
*Any questions, concerns, or suggestions regarding the Educator in the Workplace project can be addressed to:
Daniel Paul, Director
Allegheny Intermediate Unit, Career Dynamics Program
Youth Workforce Development
412.394-5702
PA CareerLink Administrator
PA CareerLink Downtown Pittsburgh
412.552.7027
