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Life Ready Skills

Work-Based Learning

Work-Based Learning (WBL) combines traditional classroom instruction with exposure to work in a student’s desired field and/or career path. WBL allows students to explore careers they may want to pursue after they graduate and develop the skillsets they need in the workforce, ultimately preparing them to enter the workforce.  

 

Career Exposure

School to Work offers students exposure to opportunities that allow them to build technical skills in their local communities. Exposure includes entrepreneurship education, internships, career exploration, and other hands-on work experiences. This provides students with career experiences and real-world based learning that prepares them for the workforce.  

 

Skills Building

Skill building is about increasing the skills students need to thrive after they leave school. Research shows that students need a combination of technical, interpersonal, and social skills to transition from school to the workplace and/or college. Research also shows that skill building leads to better opportunities for students and higher earnings overall. Here you will find resources on how schools can build in students different skill sets, including essential skills—such as communication and collaboration—, technical skills, management skills, and leadership skills.  

 

Rural Mentorship

Mentorship programs can drastically improve sense of belonging, academic performance, and social and emotional well-being among participants (both students and their mentors). Research indicates that “youth involved in high-quality, secure relationships are more independent, more persistent and more socially competent” than their peers who did not have access to these stable adult relationships (Herrera, Grossman, Kauh, & McMaken, 2011). Creating a mentorship program seems like a significant undertaking, but according to research conducted by the Child Trends Research Brief, it is well worth it as: 

  • Youth participating in mentoring relationships experience better attendance rates, have a higher chance of reaching higher levels of education, and have better attitudes towards schools.  

  • Mentored students are 46% less likely to initiate drug use while being mentored than similar students in a control group. 

  • Mentored youth were more likely to have positive social attitudes and relationships. Participating youth reported feeling that they trusted their parents more and were able to communicate better with adults. They also reported having more positive and emotionally supportive friend groups compared to their experiences before being mentored.  

To assist with the creation of rural youth mentoring programs, the Youth Collaboratory created a Rural Mentoring Toolkit that addresses the strengths and challenges rural communities face when creating a mentorship program. This toolkit also provides research and resources to help school leaders understand what mentorship can look like in their community and what they can do to create a strong program.  

 

School to Work Curriculum

Street Smarts Program

The purpose of the Street Smarts Program is to have an experience designed exclusively for high school juniors and seniors that will connect motivated students with exciting professional internships that help prepare students for post-high school studies and long-lasting careers. The Smarts Program provides professional mentoring internships in local business settings to enhance students’ grasp of the business world.  

For access to the Street Smarts curriculum, please contact Jennifer Nesselhuf. 

 

LIFT Program

This multi-week program teaches youth the importance of integrity and ethics and how both of those concepts affect them right now and in their futures. The workshop and project-based learning curriculum offers an introduction to business ethics as well as personal character lessons. These lessons focus on topics like responsibility, character, values, and development, and the program concludes with each student presenting their project and signing the LIFT Commitment to Conduct. 

LIFT Curriculum Materials:  

 

Life Ready Skills

The following is a list of School to Work resources to support the development of life ready skills of rural students in Colorado.