The Georgia Work-Based Learning Program assists businesses with building a highly trained, technologically sophisticated and career oriented young work force. Our goal is to assist in the creation of a strong support structure between local employers, students and schools. Work-Based Learning supplies talent to address industry workforce shortage needs. We promote an industry-driven system where employers set occupational skills standards, collaborate on curriculum, provide work experience and certify mastery of skills. Focus on the future with Georgia Work-Based Learning.
The mission of the Work-Based Learning Program is to assist in providing a highly trained, technologically sophisticated and career oriented young work force. This is accomplished by developing partnerships between business, industry, students, parents, school systems, coordinators, post-secondary institutions, and registered apprenticeships which will lead the participating student into meaningful careers.
Georgia had 19,394 students enrolled in credit bearing Work-Based Learning courses in 2017, which includes 3,219 students in Youth Apprenticeship Placements. The vision of the Work-Based Learning Program includes:
Creating a seamless transition from career oriented courses in High School to post-secondary education, credentials, and a successful career.
Opportunity for students to develop strong employability skills (soft skills) that will make them desired employees.
Application of the technical skills learned in related coursework while working in real life employment situations
Super Lawn Technologies, a manufacturing company in middle Georgia, experiences huge success through the first ever Work Based Learning partnership with local schools. Learn how they have given energetic and smart students a chance to gain valuable work experience while getting paid.
“Without support from the WBL coordinators who really KNOW the kids...we may not have as much success.”
Tony Bass, Founder Super Lawn Technologies
WBL & YAP Coordinators
2020 Students Served
Participating Employers
2020 Wages Earned by WBL Students
Participating Schools
Our local Work Based Learning program provides sharp, professional students who are talented and eager to learn. We use WBL participants as part of our intern program and enjoy how readily they integrate with our team. It is wonderful to have this resource in our community for creating career paths that benefit small businesses with a work-ready work force to recruit locally from.
Work-Based Learning, Lowndes High School, and Community Partners - #InvestingInTheirCommunity
The Work-based Learning (WBL) program at Lowndes High School is designed to place students in employment situations that are specifically tied to the courses that they have studied while on campus at Lowndes High School. A WBL placement is an extension of the Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education (CTAE) pathway classes and often serve as a capstone to the pathway completers. Students in WBL are released from school to go to work, where they can receive school credit for up to three blocks a semester. WBL is designed to be a bridge between the school, employers, and the families within our community! We had a very busy and robust first semester...placing over 50 students at the worksites of over 45 employers. Currently, the program has grown to 123 students this semester, and these students are placed at a variety of businesses and worksites throughout our community.
The WBL program can have a significant impact on our community in two main ways: through Workforce Development and Economic Development. The local workforce can be developed through the pairing of small business, who are in need of specialized labor, with students who possess specialized training but are in need of employment to practically apply the skills that they have acquired in the classroom and labs at Lowndes High School. Secondly, the WBL program can have a substantial Economic impact as it generates wages that are earned and spent in our community, as well as taxes that are collected and used to better our community. Below is a graphic that demonstrates the Labor Income Impact and a Conservative Iteration of an Economic Impact Analysis.
First-semester students enrolled in the Work-based learning program at Lowndes High School earned over $1 above minimum wage, accrued more than 16, 318 hours, and earned over $134,790 in wages. The average earning expectation of a student during the first-semester was $2,642.94. Based on first-semester averages, the second-semester totals will be: 39,356.17 hours worked with total wage earnings over $325,981.96. This places the Lowndes High School Work-Based Learning program at just under half of a million dollars of Labor Income Impact through wages earned.
We are very grateful to all of our partners who help contribute to the dynamic environment of the WBL program at Lowndes High School. Below are some highlighted success stories, but please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @lhs_wbl to see all the great things that are happening in the Work-Based Learning Program and to see all of our amazing partners who have employed our students this year!