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By Tom Chorneau
Monday, October 21, 2013
Sometime next year, potentially millions of high school and community college students will begin participating in a new $250 million state program aimed at linking work-based learning with rigorous academic curriculum.
The big problem facing planners today, however, is how to get hundreds – if not thousands – of private businesses to provide those job experiences, a commitment complicated by a recent court case and seemingly unaccommodating labor regulations.
“We will need to build a much, much deeper connection between private industry and schools if we are to deliver the promise of linked learning,” said Anne Stanton, director of youth programs for the James Irvine Foundation, which has been a major financial sponsor of linked learning in California for nearly a decade.
“The question that we need to focus on is: How do we deliver these opportunities to students at scale?” she said. “What do these relationships look like and how do we provide support – not just here in California but also nationally.”
A highlight of the summer agreement between legislative leaders and Gov. Jerry Brown, the California Career Pathway Trust offers competitive grant money that local educational agencies can apply for over the next three years. Although the money can be spent in a variety of ways in support of work-based learning, a key focus of the spending is to build