Learn & Earn

Build programs that meet industry needs.
Implement earn and learn education models, such as on-the-job training, clinical or cooperative education, paid internships, and/or registered apprenticeships.
Develop partnerships with employers that may include validation of curricula, use of equipment and facilities, and/or agreements to hire students following successful program completion.
Develop entrepreneurship training, including mentoring and peer-to-peer training.

Learn and Earn Design Principles

Strategic Alignment

Value equally learning and working relationships that fundamentally change markets, business models and delivery channels.
Form a single community of practice in PK-20, including community colleges, a continuously learning labor market, and Career Technical Education, identified and driven by industry partners.
Form nationally portable, industry-recognized credentials as part of the education pathway.
Synchronize colleges and employers resulting in structured, clear and flexible credentialing pathways.

Career Exploration

Recognize and leverage 11th and 12th grade as a gateway to postsecondary education and employment.
Identify opportunities for students to learn early if they are suited for a particular profession.
Build in opportunities for student self-assessment, faculty assessment of students, and student assessment of faculty and training received.

Rigor

Provide academically rigorous, college-ready/ work-ready, competency-based curricula that are both scalable and sustainable.
Drive scalable and sustainable innovation that simultaneously lower recruiting and training costs.
Anchor in clearly defined learning competencies for acceleration and quality.

Relevant Work Experiences

Ground all decisions in real-time, industry driven, economic focused data.
Make STEM literacy desirable and attainable for all students.
Accelerate portable career rewards by including interim certificates and certifications by employers with wage increases and/or promotions.
Ensure work experience is both pay- and credit-worthy.

Financial & Non-Financial Support

Coordinate resources from government and nongovernment agencies, education institutions and businesses to support Learn and Earn.
Make sure Learn and Earn systems overcome the financial barriers that prevent college- qualified, low-income high school students from participating.

Projects

Department of Labor TAACCCT Learn and Earn Technical SupportThe work of TIES includes a coordinated reach into PK-20 education to help build the structures and points of connection with the college system and with industry to provide students with a navigable ecosystem, rather than separate silos.
Ohio Means Internships - From Real-World Experience to Jobs:TIES supported Ohio Board of Regents in the design phase of the Ohio Co-Op and Internship Program. Money from state casino licensing will be released to fund the program

Grants

AACC Announce STEM Mentoring Grants: MentorLinks is designed for community colleges seeking to improve technician education programs in the science, technology, engineering, or mathematics fields.
NSF Advanced Technological Education (ATE) Grants: With an emphasis on two-year colleges, the Advanced Technological Education (ATE) program focuses on the education of technicians for the high-technology fields that drive our nation's economy.
Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training Grants Program: February 24: Department of Labor announce second round of TAACCCT grants
Health Professions Pathway Consortium (H2P): TIES is providing technical support for nine community colleges who received a TAACCCT Department of Labor Grant in 2011. TIES is supporting the consortium to galvanize a national movement to dramatically redesign health professions education and training through national curricula reform, industry engagement, innovative practices and programs and intensive usage of data and accountability student success and program excellence.

Publications

An Analysis of U.S. Learn and Earn Programs by Louis Gardner: Learn-and-earn programs can play an important role in preparing students for successful careers. The academic curriculum and relevant work experience reflect the â€œlearnâ€ component; student financial assistance.
ATE Student Success: Building a Diverse and Entrepreneurial Workforce: ATE Principle Investigatorsidentified community colleges key challenges to developing workplace and entrepreneurial skills
Center for American Progress: Delivering Innovation Economy Skills While Wisely Using Public Funds: Educating Today's Working Learners to Meet Tomorrow's Demands by Louis Soares March 2011
Center on Education and the Workforce: What's it Worth: The Economic Value of College Majors: The report finds that different undergraduate majors result in very different earnings
Corporate Voices: From an 'Ill-Prepared to a Well-Prepared Workforce: Employers have taken on the challenge of workforce readiness training as workers enter their employment without the necessary skills and competencies to be fully productive.
Georgetown University Center on Education and the Workforce: STEM: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations are critical to our continued economic competitiveness because of their direct ties to innovation, economic growth, and productivity, even though they will only be 5 percent of all jobs in the U.S. economy by 2018.
Jobs for the Future: EMPLOYER-PAID TUITION ADVANCEMENT FOR LOW-INCOME WORKERS: Children's Hospital Boston introduced a new â€œtuition advancement policy: the hospital prepays college tuition for low-income, entry-level workers who are seeking degrees within a defined set of high-growth, high-demand jobs
NGA Degrees for What Jobs? Raising Expectations for Universities and Colleges in a Global Economy: States are taking steps to.strengthen their universities and colleges as agents of workforce preparation and sources of more opportunity, growth, and competitive advantage
NGA: Using Community Colleges to Build a STEM-Skilled Workforce.: Community colleges are uniquely positioned to grow the pipeline of STEM professionals and produce more STEM-skilled workers.
U.S. Department of Commerce: STEM: Good Jobs Now and for the Future: STEM workers drive our nation's innovation and competitiveness by generating new ideas, new companies and new industries. However, U.S. businesses frequently voice concerns over the supply and availability of STEM workers

Resources

Business Higher Education Forum: Learn and Earn Model:Â The Business-Higher Education Forum (BHEF) has released a new system dynamics model designed to explore the effect of employer and postsecondary education partnerships, also known as "Learn and Earn" programs, on workforce outcomes, along with a case study describing the project.
Community College Research Center:Â The Community College Research Center (CCRC) is the leading independent authority on the nationâ€™s nearly 1,200 two-year colleges.
CORD: Advancing Career Pathways:Â The Adult Career Pathways (ACP) model is an extension of Career Pathways that focuses on adult learners whose educational backgrounds are varied, whose need for support services is considerable, and whose lack of academic preparation for college-level work is often extensive.
Corporate Voices: Learn and Earn Micro-Business Cases:Â Corporate Voices recently published a set of new Learn and Earn micro-business cases with support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation under its Postsecondary Completion Initiative.
Learn and Earn Deck: Postsecondary Success: Parminder Jassal:Â The Bill & Melinda Gates Postsecondary strategy aims to â€œdouble the rateâ€ of low-income young adults who, by age 26, earn a postsecondary credential with labor market value
Made in Florida: Engineering Technology Educations:Â The Engineering Technology (ET) degree program was developed by the Florida Advanced Technological Education (FLATE) Center with Community Colleges and industries across the state and in close partnership with the Florida Department of Education Division of Adult and Career Education to address a growing need to supply manufacturers and high technology industries with qualified, highly skilled workers in the foreseeable future.
National Council for Workforce Development:Â The National Council for Workforce Education is committed to promoting excellence and growth in workforce education. As an affiliate council of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), NCWE provides a national forum for administrators and faculty in workforce education and basic skills, as well as representatives of business, labor, military, and government, to affect and direct the future role of two-year and other post-secondary institutions in workforce education and economic development.
National Skills Coalition:Â National Skills Coalition is a broad-based coalition working toward a vision of an America that grows its economy by investing in its people so that every worker and every industry has the skills to compete and prosper.