1. Guideposts --Quality Work-Based Learning Programs
Training Session #3:
Guideposts --Quality Work-Based Learning Programs

2. MISSION
To ensure that youth with disabilities are provided full access to high quality services in integrated settings in order to maximize their opportunity for employment and independent living
The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth (“The Collaborative”) was formed in 2001
It is funded by the Office of Disability Employment Policy in the Department of Labor.
Work of the Collaborative has started with the end in mind. NCWD/Youth recognizes that to achieve this, it needs to:
1) Improve State & Local Policy
2) Strengthen Workforce Development Service Delivery
3) Improve Knowledge, Skills, & Abilities of Direct Service Workers
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

3. COLLABORATIVE PARTNERS
Center for Workforce Development, the Institute for Educational Leadership       
Disability Studies & Services Center, the Academy for Educational Development
National Conference of State Legislatures
National Youth Employment Coalition
National Association of Workforce Boards
National Center on Secondary Education & Transition, the University of Minnesota
TransCen, Inc.
The Collaborative consists of organizations with expertise in education, disability and workforce development. Each of the partners has specific responsibilities with regard to specific audiences that the Collaborative is trying to reach.
Those audiences include:
Youth service providers (professionals who work directly with youth)
Administrators of programs
Employers
Policymakers
Youth with disabilities and their families
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

4. TYPES OF PRODUCTS AND RESOURCES
How to Guides
Information and Policy Briefs
Backgrounders
Hot Topics Syntheses
Funding Sources
Training Materials
We encourage you to visit our website at to see what is available.
The “Hot Topics” section of the website, for example, contains in-depth examinations of a variety of topics written by the Collaborative’s experts. Each topical area includes analysis, research, references, resources, & answers to key questions for each of our audiences. Topics investigated include youth development and leadership, preparatory experiences, assessment, and work-based learning.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

5. What is in this training session?
Guideposts For Success: Quality Youth Transition Services
School-based Preparatory Experiences
Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences
Youth Development and Leadership
Connecting Activities
Family Involvement and Supports
Resources/Handouts
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

6. Guideposts for Success
Research tells us that certain guideposts are needed for designing programs and supports for:
All youth, including youth with disabilities
To assist with the transition to:
Post-secondary education
Employment
Independence and community living
Adulthood
Economic self-sufficiency
There is a need for a common framework that can be used across the workforce system.
Through a literature review of promising practices for serving youth ages 14 to 25, NCWD/Youth identified a range of opportunities, supports, and services that all youth need in order to meet the higher level of skills discussed above.
A set of common operating principles was developed based upon what all youth need, including youth with disabilities, to transition from adolescence to productive adulthood and citizenship. All youth need the following:
• Access to high quality standards-based education regardless of the setting;
• Information about career options and exposure to the world of work, including structured internships;
• Opportunities to develop social, civic, and leadership skills;
• Strong connections to caring adults;
• Access to safe places to interact with their peers; and
• Support services to allow them to become independent adults.
The following content and service guideposts emerged from the literature review. They are presented based on the needs of all youth followed by supplemental needs of some youth with disabilities.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

7. Key Guideposts Standards-based preparatory experiences
Career development and work-based experiences
Youth development and leadership opportunities
Connecting activities
Family supports and services
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

8. School-based Preparatory Experiences
All youth need:
Academic programs based on clear state standards
Career and technical education programs based on professional and industry standards
Curricular and program options based on universal design of school, work and community-based learning experiences
Learning environments that are small and safe, including extra supports such as tutoring, as necessary
Supports from and by highly qualified staff
Access to an assessment system that includes multiple measures
Graduation standards that include options
In order to perform at optimal levels in all educational settings, all youth need to participate in educational programs grounded in standards, clear performance expectations, and graduation exit options based upon meaningful, accurate, and relevant indicators of student learning and skills.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

9. School-based Preparatory Experiences
Youth with disabilities need to:
Use their individual transition plans to drive their personal instruction, and use strategies to continue the transition process post-schooling
Have access to specific and individual learning accommodations while they are in school
Develop knowledge of reasonable accommodations that they can request and control in educational settings, including assessment accommodations
Be supported by highly qualified transitional support staff that may or may not be school staff
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

10. Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences
All youth need information on career options,
including:
Career assessments to help identify students’ school and post-school preferences and interests
Structured exposure to post-secondary education and other life-long learning opportunities
Exposure to career opportunities that ultimately lead to a living wage, including information about educational requirements, entry requirements, income and benefits potential, and asset accumulation
Training designed to improve job-seeking skills and work-place basic skills (sometimes called “soft skills”)
Career preparation and work-based learning experiences are essential in order for youth to form and develop aspirations and to make informed choices about careers. These experiences can be provided during the school day or through after-school programs, and will require collaborations with other organizations.
includes site visits, job shadowing, and internships as core activities. Also included is information on entrepreneurship. It is important to keep in mind that each of the Guideposts is co-dependent on each of the others. Successful work-based experiences are dependent upon solid preparatory experiences. In addition, youth leadership development and connecting activities (partnership building) also occur simultaneously.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

11. Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences
To identify and attain career goals, all youth need:
Opportunities to engage in a range of work-based exploration activities such as site visits and job shadowing
Multiple on-the-job training experiences, including community service (paid or unpaid) that are linked to the content of a program of study and school credit
Opportunities to learn and practice their work skills (“soft skills”)
Opportunities to learn first-hand about specific occupational skills related to a career pathway
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

12. Career Preparation and Work-Based Learning Experiences
Youth with Disabilities need to:
Understand the relationships between benefits planning and career choices
Learn to communicate their disability-related work support and accommodation needs
Learn to find, formally request, and secure appropriate supports and reasonable accommodations in education, training, and employment settings
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

13. Youth Development and Leadership
All youth need:
Mentoring activities designed to establish strong relationships with adults through formal and informal settings
Peer-to-peer mentoring opportunities
Exposure to role models in a variety of contexts
Training in skills such as self-advocacy and conflict resolution
Exposure to personal leadership and youth development activities, including community service
Opportunities that allow youth to exercise leadership and build self-esteem
Youth Development is a process that prepares young people to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences which help them gain skills and competencies. Youth leadership is part of that process.
All effective youth programs have youth development at their core.
The National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability for Youth (NCWD/Youth) has developed a background paper on youth development and leadership to assist youth service practitioners, administrators, and policy makers in defining, differentiating, and providing youth development and youth leadership programs and activities, which are important components of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA)
Definition of youth development is “is a process which prepares young people to meet the challenges of adolescence and adulthood through a coordinated, progressive series of activities and experiences which help them to become socially, morally, emotionally, physically, and cognitively competent. Positive youth development addresses the broader developmental needs of youth, in contrast to deficit-based models that focus solely on youth problems. “
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

14. Youth Development and Leadership
Youth with Disabilities need to:
Have mentors and role models including persons with and without disabilities
Understand disability history, culture, and disability public policy issues as well as their rights and responsibilities
NCWD/Youth has chosen to adopt a two-part working definition of youth leadership, as follows: youth leadership is (1) “The ability to guide or direct others on a course of action, influence the opinion and behavior of other people, and show the way by going in advance” (Wehmeyer, Agran, & Hughes, 1998); and (2) “the ability to analyze one's own strengths and weaknesses, set personal and vocational goals, and have the self-esteem to carry them out. It includes the ability to identify community resources and use them, not only to live independently, but also to establish support networks to participate in community life and to effect positive social change” (Adolescent Employment Readiness Center, Children’s Hospital, n.d.).
Using these definitions, one can begin to distinguish youth leadership from youth development. Youth development, while including youth leadership competencies, encompasses a broader, more holistic process of developmental growth that occurs during adolescence, one that will determine both adolescent and adult behavior. Although leadership ability is part of the full range of competencies or outcomes achieved through the youth development process, youth leadership is a distinct area of youth development with a primary focus on mastery of certain competencies necessary for effective leadership, including responsibility, teamwork, and vision.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

15. Connecting Activities
All youth may need one or more of the following:
Mental and physical health services
Transportation
Tutoring
Financial planning and management
Post-program supports through structured arrangements in post-secondary institutions and adult service agencies
Connections to other services and opportunities (e.g. recreation)
Young people need to be connected to programs, services, activities, and supports that help them gain access to chosen post-school options.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

16. Connecting Activities
Youth with disabilities may also need:
Acquisition of appropriate assistive technology
Community orientation and mobility training (e.g. accessible transportation, bus routes, housing, health clinics)
Exposure to post-program supports such as independent living centers and other consumer-driven community-based support service agencies
Personal assistance services, including attendants, readers, interpreters, or other such services
Benefits-planning counseling, including information regarding the myriad of benefits available and their interrelationships so that youth may maximize those benefits in transitioning from public assistance to self-sufficiency
The focus is on services and activities requiring support from other individuals or organizations, such as tutors to improve academic performance, mentors to provide supportive adults, assistive technology to address accommodation needs, and transportation.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

17. Family Involvement and Supports
All youth need parents, families, and other caring adults who:
Have high expectations that build upon the young person’s strengths, interests, and needs and that foster each youth’s ability to achieve independence and self-sufficiency
Remain involved in their lives and assist them toward adulthood
Have access to information about employment, further education, and community resources
Take an active role in transition planning with schools and community partners
Have access to medical, professional, and peer support network
Participation and involvement of parents, family members, and/or other caring adults promotes the social, emotional, physical, academic and occupational growth of youth, leading to better post-school outcomes.
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

18. Family Involvement and Supports
Families of youth with disabilities may also need parents, family members, and other caring adults who have:
An understanding of the youth’s disability and how it affects his or her education, employment, and daily living options
Knowledge of rights and responsibilities under various disability-related legislation
Knowledge of and access to programs, services, supports, and accommodations available for young people with disabilities
An understanding of how individualized planning tools can assist youth in achieving transition goals and objectives
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

19. Contact NCWD/Youth 1-877-871-0744 (toll free)
(TTY toll free)
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National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment

20. ANY QUESTIONS ???????
National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability/Youth -- Making the Connection between Youth with Disabilities & Employment