In my last article, I discussed how work experience is the only thing employers care about when hiring candidates for jobs. Here, I explore how learning-integrated work programs help early talent candidates actually get experience before they graduate college.
In the quest to bridge the educational experience with practical work skills, learning-integrated work programs offer a promising solution. These programs serve both educational institutions and companies, yet they face significant challenges in widespread adoption. This article delves into the intricacies of these programs, their current state, and the role technology could play in enhancing their scalability and impact for students, companies, and universities.
A learning-integrated work experience is essentially an experience that serves both an educational requirement for an institution and a work experience for a company. Examples include for-credit internships, cooperative education programs (co-ops), apprenticeships, and externships.
Today, there are three dominant learning integrated work experiences, but they aren't widespread.
The most well developed of these experiences in universities are Co-ops (cooperative education programs). They are structured methods of combining classroom-based education with practical work experience. A key component of these programs is that they provide academic credit for structured job experience. Co-ops are typically full-time, paid or unpaid positions where students work in a field related to their major, gaining valuable industry experience, often over the course of a semester. Notable examples include Northeastern University, Drexel University, University of Cincinnati and Waterloo University which are renowned for their co-op programs.
Despite their benefits, co-ops are relatively rare in higher education due to several factors: they require significant coordination between universities and companies, can be resource-intensive to manage, and necessitate a flexible curriculum design to accommodate alternating periods of study and work. Additionally, not all academic fields or locations have a sufficient concentration of relevant industries to support co-op programs, limiting their prevalence.
Apprenticeships are a form of structured training program that combines hands-on work experience and mentorship from an employer. Traditionally used in trades fields, apprenticeships are increasingly being used in technology and healthcare. The goal of an apprenticeship is to take a candidate that's not yet experienced for a job and turn them into a skilled entry level worker by the end of the apprenticeship period (typically 12 - 18 months). Notable examples include the United States Department of Labor's Registered Apprenticeship program and newer for profit initiatives like Multiverse out of the United Kingdom.
However, wider adoption of apprenticeships faces challenges, including the perception of being less prestigious than traditional college education, funding and resource requirements, lack of industry engagement, regulatory complexities, and difficulties in aligning with academic curricula. Additionally, ensuring quality and standards across various industries and securing a long term commitment from both parties can be significant barriers. Despite these challenges, there's a growing recognition that internships bring value in bridging skill gaps.
Capstone projects (involving companies) are integrated directly into university coursework by professors, allowing students to work on real-world problems alongside industry partners and gain practical experience. These are most often found in business schools where professors are more likely to form relationships with industry, either because they previously came from industry or do consulting work.
However, capstone projects’ sporadic implementation and lack of standardization across institutions pose challenges. Professors often face significant effort in building and maintaining industry relationships, a process that can be time-consuming and lacks guarantees of long-term partnerships.
In all three of these cases, significant effort is needed by university staff or professors to form relationships with industry, build out programs, and convince companies to contribute time and resources despite the many barriers previously discussed.
Despite these hurdles, learning-integrated work programs have the potential to redefine the transition from education to employment.
The single biggest factor that can help alleviate challenges is technology, which can create a more scalable approach for students, companies, and universities to unite around learning-integrated work. And there is a way to create a win-win-win structure that meets the needs of all three of these stakeholders.
In my next article, I’ll explore how our team at Extern has reimagined learning-integrated work programs with the Remote Externship, offering a promising way forward for early-career aspirants, universities and employers. Read: The Remote Externship is Here to Save the Day
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