On March 1, 1997, the Texas Workforce Commission recieved a five-year $61 million federal grant under the School-to-Work Opportunities Act of 1994 (PL 103-239). The purpose of the Act is to assist interested, participating students in preparing for well-paid future careers by giving them timely and accurate career information along with the opportunity to obtain high levels of academic and technical skills in high school and to attend college.
The School-to-Careers (STC) initiative in Texas is neither a client-based welfare program nor an eligibility-based education program. Instead, the TWC funds regional School-to-Careers partnerships that, in turn, typically provide services and funds to educational entities (schools, colleges, and training providers) and may provide services and funds to assist participating employers and labor organizations.
These services and funds most often are used to enhance existing programs by adding School-to-Careers components. For example, a Tech Prep consortium may receive funds to develop work-based components for one or more Tech Prep programs. A school district may receive funds to develop a career information center. A partnership might use its funds to provide professional development training on relevant workforce education topics to teachers, counselors, and/or employers. Funds could also be used to initiate new activities where none had existed previously, such as student or teach job shadowing, business/industry tours, or curriculum revisions based upon employer input.
The Texas School-to-Careers initiative offers three major types of activites to interested, participating youth: school-based activities, work-based activities, and connecting activities. Youth services involving employment, education, and welfare, available through the Perkins III Act (Perkins), the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), and under Welfare Reform, are similar to services offered through STC. This connection reveal potential avenues through which varying youth programs could incorporate many of the best lessons of STC beyond the initiative's sunset.
STC is open to interested, participating youth, regardless of economic status or academic performance. It emphasizes education by providing tools such as school-based mentors, tutoring, and counseling, while simultaneously stressing career preparation thorugh on-the-job training, internship, and job shadowing opportunities. The purpose of the initiative is to assist interested, participating students in preparing for well-paid future careers. Initiatives, administered regionally by designated governing boards (such as the Middle Rio Grande Development Council), provide timely and accurate career information with the opportunity to obtain high levels of academic and technical skills whether participants go immediately into the workplace, military, or to college.
WIA Youth services serve similar age groups as those found in STC provisions with workforce development and workforce education services. The youth population WIA programs serve, however, differ from STC in that it includes specifically 'at-risk' youth. A closer look at Texas STC and WIA youth services reveals a vast amount of relatedness in activities and governing structure. Both offer career awareness and counseling, programs of study designed to meet academic content standards, programs of instruction that integrate academic and vocational learning, as well as mentoring. Youth services provided through WIA, also administered regionally through designated governing boards, differ from those offered by STC mainly due to the populations considered appropriate to receive such services. WIA youth services are available to low-income, at-risk youth. STC, however, is open to all interested, participating youth, in school or out, regardless of their socio-economic situation.
Texas has long been conducting a variety of School-to-Careers type activities through secondary and postsecondary career and technology education programs. Tech Prep, career preparation, and apprenticeship programs predate the passage of the School-to-Careers Opportunities Act. However, the Act goes beyond specific programs by encouraging schools, colleges, training providers, and employers to provide services and conduct activities for interested, participating students without regard to client eligibility or program restrictions.
Every school-to-careers program must contain three core elements known as School-Based Learning. Work-Based Learning and Connecting Activities. School-Based Learning is classroom instruction based on high academic and occupational skill standards. Work-Based Learning is work experience, structured training and mentoring at job sites. Connecting Activities match interested students with work-based learning opportunities provided by employers, develop courses that integrate classroom and on-the-job instruction, match students with participating employers, train job-site mentors and build and maintain bridges between school and work.
Students who participate in a School-to-Careers system will be better prepared to either enter the world of work after graduating from High School, or to choose an appropriate career path through post-secondary education. Some students will have the opportunity to receive a high school diploma or its equivalent in addition to a recognized skill certificate. Some can expect to receive college credit while attending high school. Students who participate in School-to-Careers activities can expect to graduate from high school prepared to enroll in a one or two year apprenticeship program. Others will enroll in a college or university. Students who participate in School-to-Careers activities are well prepared to make decisions about the path that they will follow either in the world of work of in the world of post-secondary education.
The Middle Rio Grande Development Council is an equal opportunity employer/program/service provider. Auxiliary aids and services may be made available upon request to individuals with disabilities. For information please contact Relay Texas at (800) 735-2989, our direct voice telephone number (830) 876-3533 or our TDD telephone number (830) 876-1260. The contents of this web site are the property of the Middle Rio Grande Development Council, please do not reproduce them without the express written consent of the Council - 2008
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