School-to-Work is an initiative designed to address the nation’s skill shortage through the creation of partnerships between educators, employers, labor and the community.

These partnerships are being established to bring together state and local efforts to prepare young people for high wage, high skill careers in a dynamic global economy.

The School-to-Work Opportunities Act, signed by President Clinton in 1994 creates a framework for promoting and supporting these broad based partnerships of employers, labor organizations, K-12 educators, post-secondary educational institutions, students and parents and other members of the community.

The Act, jointly administrated by the US Departments of Labor and Education specifically requires that representatives of organized labor be engaged in the development, implementation and governance of school-to-work partnerships nationwide.

The School-to-Work Act is an important step toward the development of an educational system that links a student’s educational attainment and corresponding skill development more closely with career aspirations and job opportunities.

It also reinforces the need to prepare young people with high level of technical skills and related academic competencies.

The Act provides state and local partnerships with principles to design school-to-work systems that address the academic and career development of America’s young people.

While these systems are different, from state to state and from community to community, the Act emphasizes that each school-to-work system needs to provide every student with:

			Relevant Learning — allowing students to explore different careers and see what skills are required in various career fields and work environments;
			Skill Development — obtained from structured school, community and work-based learning experiences, including skills for life-long learning, active citizenship, and workplace success and for particular career areas;
			Valued Credentials — diplomas and skills certificates that are recognized and portable, certifying that the student has demonstrated competency on a core set of content and performance standards related to academic and career requirements.

School-to-Work is intended for all young people, as it is based on the proven fact that people learn best and most effectively when they can apply what they learn to real life and real work situations.

In the end, School-to-Work is about providing young people with opportunities and assisting them in the transition for school to the workplace and life-long learning.