STW Activity

Activity Description

Suggested Actions

Career Talks

Local Union or Joint Council representatives visit student in the classroom to explain:

• Role of unions
• Benefits of unions
• Specific high wage jobs in growth industries
• Careers in unions

• Prepare and bring handouts about the union.
• Bring materials on specific careers.
• Show audio-visual presentations on the union or union industries.

Career Days/Career Fairs

Special events that are typically held to allow students to meet with postsecondary educators, employers and employees, human resources professionals, and union representatives to learn about education and work opportunities. Many high schools across the United States conduct career days/career fairs each year in an effort to help students think about their interests and abilities in relation to future career opportunities.

• Contact local schools to identify when career days/career fairs are scheduled.
• Request a booth or table for your Local Union or Joint Council at the career day/career fair event.
• Prepare and bring materials about your union and specific careers.
• Students like "giveaways" (hats, buttons, bumper stickers, key chains, posters, etc.)

Workplace and Union Tours

Students visit the workplace, talk with employees and observe workplace activities. Tours can also be conducted within local union or Joint Council offices to permit students to directly observe and discuss the role of unions.

• Meet with school personnel to discuss specific visitation possibilities with business, industry, and/or union offices.
• Identify union member(s) who will lead the tour and provide students information on the business or union work site.

Job Shadowing

Students follow employees at a company location to learn about a particular occupation or industry. Job shadowing can help students explore a range of career objectives and select a career major. Students may also shadow workers at a Local Union or Joint Council offices to learn more about unions, health and benefit programs, negotiation procedures, etc.

• Many schools around the country participate in an annual event on February 2 called "Ground Hog" or "Job Shadowing Day"— connecting with these activities may be a useful first step in providing students job shadowing experiences.
• Work with school personnel to develop specific learning objectives for each job shadowing experience.
• Train union members on how to work with students during their job shadowing experiences in business or union settings.

Shadowing Rotations

At a job shadowing site, students transfer among a number of job positions and tasks requiring different skills and responsibilities to create a product or service. They learn how their effort effects the quality and efficiency of production and customer service and how each part of the organization contributes to productivity.

• Many schools around the country participate in an annual event on February 2 called "Ground Hog" or "Job Shadowing Day"— connecting with these activities may be a useful first step in providing students job shadowing experiences.
• Work with school personnel to develop specific learning objectives for each job shadowing experience.
• Train union members on how to work with students during their job shadowing experiences in business or union settings.

Internships

Students gain work-based experience through an employer for a specified time to learn about a particular industry/occupation. May include special projects, tasks from different jobs, or just one job. This may or may not include financial compensation.

• Meet with school personnel to discuss the types of internship options that should be created within industry or union office settings.
• Negotiate internship sites with employers and union representative to identify specific internship sites.
• Identify specific learning objectives for students at each internship site.
• Identify, recruit, and provide training to work site mentors who will provide student internship experiences.

Cooperative Work-study

Students alternate or coordinate their high school or postsecondary studies with a job in their field related to their academic or occupational objectives. Students and participating businesses develop written training and evaluation plans to guide instruction and students receive course credit for their classroom and work experiences. Credit hours and intensity of placements often vary with the course of study. Work-study or work experience options can also be created within Local Union or Joint Council offices.

• Meet with school personnel to discuss the types of work-study options that should be created within industry or union office settings.
• Negotiate work-study sites with employers and union representative to identify specific internship sites.
• Identify specific learning objectives for students at each work-study site.
• Identify, recruit, and provide training to work site mentors who will provide students work-study experiences.

Youth Apprenticeship

A multi-year program combining school and work based learning in specific occupational areas; must meet standards to safeguard welfare of apprentices. Youth apprenticeships address specific occupational areas or occupational clusters designed to lead directly into either a postsecondary program, entry level job, or registered apprenticeship program. Youth apprenticeship may or may not include financial compensation.

• Meet with school personnel to develop a cooperative learning program that integrates classroom learning with work experience activities.
• Establish summer and after-hours work programs where students have the opportunity to "rotate" in different occupational areas.
• Help students develop individual career plans that link high school courses with youth apprenticeship opportunities.
• Provide youth apprentices who complete the program with "portable" credentials that acknowledge both academic and occupational skill mastery.
• Use an existing registered apprenticeship system as a model for developing youth apprenticeship programs–avoid "reinventing the wheel."
• Identify workplace rights issues or collective bargaining obstacles when establishing a youth apprenticeship program.

Apprenticeship (Registered)

Registered apprenticeship programs meet specific federally-approved standards designed to safeguard the welfare of apprentices. The programs are registered with the Bureau of Apprenticeship and Training (BAT); U.S. Department of Labor; or one of 27 state apprenticeship agencies or councils approved by BAT. Apprenticeships are relationships between an employer and an employee during which the worker or apprentice learns an occupation in a structured program sponsored jointly by employers and labor organizations or operated by employers and employee associations.

• Provide "pre-apprentice" presentations to high school students in classrooms and career day events.
• Develop "articulation agreements" with local schools that allow students to earn credit as a result of their apprenticeship training.
• Develop a joint employer and labor apprenticeship training program that allows students from local schools to participate in shadowing activities.
• Work with school personnel on an ongoing basis to ensure that curricula is updated to meet the demands of apprenticeship training and continuous improvement of journey-level workers.

Work-Based Mentoring

Employees who posses the skill and knowledge to be mastered by a student, and who instruct the student, evaluates the performance of the student, challenges the student to perform well, and works in consultation with teachers and the employer of the student.

• Work with school personnel to develop a mentoring program, including a training program for employees serving as work-based mentors.
• Work with school personnel to identify business and/or union office sites where work-based mentoring can occur.
• Identify Local Union or Joint Council representatives who can serve as work-based mentors and provide training.
• Require some kind of training for all mentors (to prevent issues like child abuse, etc.)

Service Learning

Service learning engages students in service to their community on a voluntary basis. Students typically work in a private non-profit organization providing a community service to other community members. Students specifically receive course credit for their community-based service learning experience. Credit hours and the intensity of the service learning experience is varied.

• Meet with school personnel to identify specific service learning experiences that are currently supported by Local Unions or Joint Councils (i.e., food shelves, child care, and other worker and family support services).
• Meet with school personnel to identify specific learning objectives that students will achieve in relation to the service learning experiences in union support services settings.
• Identify union members who would support students in these service learning experiences and provide training.

Project-Based Learning

The Local Union or Joint Council provides mentors for teachers and collaboration with students to solve real problems and create new programs within a union or business setting. Projects might include meeting the support service needs of a group of recently laid-off workers, developing a strategy for communicating a new health and benefit program option, others.

• Meet with school personnel to a develop a program in which union members serve as mentors to students.
• Encourage high school students to utilize Local Unions as a resource to conduct school projects. Stimulate interest by providing them with specific examples of the range of projects possible (e.g., organizing strategies, negotiations).
• Union mentors can work with teachers and students as team members in the planning and design of a project which involves "authentic" learning.
• Require some kind of training for all members involved in school-to-work activities (to prevent issues like child abuse, etc.).

School-Based Enterprises

The Local Union or Joint Council helps students to establish a student operated business that could be located within the school or community setting. Union members would serve as consultants to guide students as they assess, design, and implement the start-up of a business.

• Meet with school personnel to discuss the possibility of working with students to establish a school-based enterprise.