Work-based learning lets students build their own futures

MOSES LAKE — Work-based learning provides education opportunities for the workforce to receive hands-on training and technical education and prepare themselves to enter various industries. 

Educators and workforce development professionals from Eastern Washington discussed some the training they offer and the benefits of their programs. 

Next Generation Zone, an affiliate of WorkSource based in Spokane, provides job training opportunities for youth and young adults ages 16 to 24. Program Coordinator Kate Martin said there are multiple benefits to the program.

“One of them is a paid work experience, and that’s where we reach out to area employers who are willing to take a young person and train them,” she said. “This is a short-term learning experience, so it’s typically about 240 hours; sometimes it could be longer or shorter. We’re the actual employer; we cover all of their wages, taxes, the L&I, and the employer just agrees to give them the experience and train them in whatever field it is that they’re wanting to go into.”

Those experiences help those entering the workforce by giving them practical experience which gives them advantages in starting a career, she said.

“It really helps,” she said. “It provides like a springboard for a young person, so they get that initial work experience, they have something to put on a resume, and they also get to try out a career field and see if it’s the right fit for them.”

Much of Next Generation Zone’s work bridges the gap between employers and potential employees.

“I would say 99.9% of the feedback we get from employers is, ‘This is an awesome program,’ and, ‘When can you send us the next person?’” Martin said.

The participants can be in unique situations, as well.

“So for a lot of our young adults that we do work with, they’ve got some pretty significant things going on in their life, and so we’re here to get them on a pathway to self-sufficiency,” Martin said. “I think there’s a lot of benefits. I think one of them is they learn very quickly what they do and don’t like. So instead of going to college for two to four years and getting your degree in a career, and then starting your career and realizing this is not for me, they can actually go into a workplace environment and check out that career and decide whether or not this is something they want to pursue long term.”

Technical workplace knowledge is one aspect of the training, but soft skills are another factor.

“For a young person with really limited or no work experience, to get that hands-on work-based learning, it teaches them a lot of things that employers tell us every day that they’re looking for,” Martin said. “That is people who have good communication skills, know how to navigate a workplace, know what is appropriate work attire for their business. They know to show up on time and come back on time from breaks and they’re learning all of those skills that they may not learn somewhere else.”

Associate Professor of Marketing and Director of Lifelong Learning at Washington State University Tri-Cities Joan Giese said work-based learning and the hands-on aspect of business development at WSU Tri-Cities offers advantages.

“The first course that we launched with was a course for the wine industry, and it’s called Wine Tasting Room Server training,” she said. “At this point, servers have been through that course all across the state, from the farthest northwest corner to the farthest southeast corner … We work closely with industry to make sure that it’s hitting the mark.”

Giese said WSU Tri-Cities has another course that falls under the label of workforce training that covers the fundamentals of business. 

“It’s really just an overview. It’s for those who don’t have a business degree, or they’re just interested in knowing more about businesses; in some cases maybe they want to start a business,” she said. “And so it’s a five-module course that, again, they can take online, on-demand, to have a much better understanding of what the business world is all about.”

Columbia Basin Job Corps Liaison Specialist Susan Mann also talked about what her program offers.

“Our credential-based training is extremely important. So Job Corps is unique in that the vast majority of our students live on campus, and we are truly a 24/7 job training program. So they’re not only getting trained in the credentialing like OSHA 10 or Pharmacy Tech Certifications, but they’re also learning the soft skills, which is the most in-demand ask of our employer partners,” she said, “that students are being taught interpersonal communication, how to show up to work on time, work ethic, all of that kind of good stuff, and then they can practice it on at the work-based learning site.”

Rosendo Alvarado, Sila Nanotechnologies’ plant manager for their Moses Lake location, said forging partnerships with local educational institutions helps fill important roles at the facility.

“The goal is to start providing the development for manufacturing and provide the skill set so that it could either be a student coming straight out of high school would have basic skills for these entry-level positions, or the operations positions, or if they want, with Big Bend (Community College) we’re working on the implementation of programs with them,” he said.

Currently, the programs are at the schools and through the school’s curriculum.

“We’ll develop a curriculum that’s basically going to be taught there at the school with the help of our staff,” Alvarado said. “So we have staff that has been working with the schools right now.”

Alvarado said the program is planned to eventually expand to include hands-on training at the Sila plant. 

“There will be a Sila certification, meaning they meet the standard that we would want as a minimum, and certification is not tied to any of the schools,” he said. “We’re not calling it a Big Bend degree, it’s just that Big Bend is offering the programs, and Sila is providing curriculum and training, and so they can gain a certificate that basically certifies them in the basic training that we provide for manufacturing operations.”

    Exterior of the Washington State University Tri-Cities campus, which hosts hands-on business training and courses.
 COURTESY PHOTO/WESTERN WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY TRI-CITIES