The health care student doesn’t want to be a nurse after all. And the business student chose their CTE pathway because they love learning for learning’s sake. The truth is always more complex than it seems. A student’s enrollment decision is rarely a definitive statement about their long-term career path.
This makes student-centered work-based learning essential. Educators can give students the freedom to confirm, refine or completely redirect their interests. Student-centered WBL provides real-world engagement opportunities with industry professionals, offering unique insights into workplace culture, roles and expectations.
A report from the ECMC Group (2023) revealed that only 13% of Gen Z students feel prepared to choose their path right after high school, and 48% want more guidance on career paths available to them after graduation. These findings underscore a critical gap: Students are seeking direction and preparation, but traditional program-driven approaches may not be meeting their individual exploration needs.
A developmental framework
Effective student-centered WBL follows a developmental continuum that recognizes students’ varying levels of career awareness and readiness.
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- Career awareness introduces students to careers and pathways through activities like guest speakers, career fairs and worksite tours. These experiences help students explore a variety of careers and determine potential interests.
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- Career exploration moves students into one-on-one or smaller group settings with industry professionals through informational interviews, job shadows, mock interviews and skills workshops. These deeper engagements allow students to continue exploring career interests while building both technical and durable skills.
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- Career preparation provides immersive industry-based experiences through internships, health science clinicals, mentored industry projects and apprenticeships. These longer experiences give students opportunities to do work of value for companies while building substantial skills and powerful professional connections.
The beauty of this continuum lies in its flexibility. Students don’t move through it in a linear fashion, and the variety of activity types ensures that different learning styles and career interests can be accommodated.
Outcomes-driven WBL
Since 2023, NAF has utilized an outcomes-driven approach to work-based learning with a student-centered focus on goal setting, aspirations, transferable work skills and meaningful professional relationships. This approach produces students who are more confident and better prepared to navigate life after high school.
1. Start with student voice and choice.
Begin each school year with career interest inventories but use them as conversation starters rather than definitive answers. Encourage students to explore careers online through free platforms like Leap Nation, Futurescape and EvolveMe to help them discover options that align with their goals, interests and abilities. Have students map out their existing networks to identify who they might know or who might know someone in a potential career of interest.
2. Expand WBL activities beyond traditional approaches.
Move beyond standard guest speakers to create engaging skills workshops that focus on cross-cutting industry activities like project management, human-centered design and data analysis. Transform worksite tours by incorporating micro job shadows with various departments. Don’t overlook the power of family-connected WBL; encourage students to conduct informational interviews or career chats with family members and friends. Many students don’t know what their family members actually do at work, and these conversations provide insights into various career options while helping them see people as multi-dimensional professionals.
3. Create choice-driven project opportunities.
Develop partner engagement projects that allow students to choose areas of focus that align with their career interests rather than their program enrollment. These projects should build teamwork skills while exposing students to different career functions and industry sectors. Organizations like District C can help your students learn how to work together in a “teamship” while also helping to coordinate projects with your local business community.
If you’re looking for a ready-to-use option, KnoPro offers free, authentic project-based work-based learning capital Challenges in partnership with employers across the country. Students can select challenges that spark their interests, collaborate to develop solutions, and compete for recognition and prizes. It’s a simple way to give every student access to meaningful, career-connected experiences without needing to design projects from scratch.
4. Measure impact through student reflection.
Implement regular surveys and reflection activities that capture how WBL experiences are supporting your students. NAF uses a comprehensive WBL tracker to monitor student participation and perceptions across their network. But educators can adapt this approach by administering simple surveys. Ask students to reflect on how each WBL activity impacted their career thinking, skill development, and professional network growth.
5. Empower students as WBL co-creators.
Allow students the opportunity to become active participants in planning their own WBL experiences. Teach them how to research potential mentors, prepare thoughtful questions for informational interviews and follow up professionally with industry contacts.
6. Prepare industry partners for meaningful engagement.
Provide resources and templates to help industry partners understand how to engage effectively with students. Share preparation materials with industry partners before student visits that outline learning objectives. Suggest meaningful tasks students can complete, and provide conversation starters. Resources like those available at NAF or experience.work offer templates and guidance for creating profession-based learning experiences that go beyond traditional job shadows or guest speaking.
The shift to student-centered WBL requires educators to challenge their assumptions about student interests and career goals. Creating systems that capture student voice, provide choice in learning experiences, and measure impact through student feedback — rather than participation numbers alone — becomes essential for student success.
As we prepare students for careers in an increasingly complex and rapidly changing economy, our WBL programs must evolve to match this complexity. By personalizing work-based learning experiences, we honor student individuality, expand career horizons, and build the durable skills and professional networks that will serve students throughout their careers.
Brooke Rice, Ed.D., is vice president of curriculum and learning at NAF.
