Lowndes High School - #InvestingInTheirCommunity
Work-Based Learning, Lowndes High School, and Community Partners - #InvestingInTheirCommunity
The Work-based Learning (WBL) program at Lowndes High School is designed to place students in employment situations that are specifically tied to the courses that they have studied while on campus at Lowndes High School. A WBL placement is an extension of the Career, Technical, and Agriculture Education (CTAE) pathway classes and often serve as a capstone to the pathway completers. Students in WBL are released from school to go to work, where they can receive school credit for up to three blocks a semester. WBL is designed to be a bridge between the school, employers, and the families within our community! We had a very busy and robust first semester...placing over 50 students at the worksites of over 45 employers. Currently, the program has grown to 123 students this semester, and these students are placed at a variety of businesses and worksites throughout our community.
The WBL program can have a significant impact on our community in two main ways: through Workforce Development and Economic Development. The local workforce can be developed through the pairing of small business, who are in need of specialized labor, with students who possess specialized training but are in need of employment to practically apply the skills that they have acquired in the classroom and labs at Lowndes High School. Secondly, the WBL program can have a substantial Economic impact as it generates wages that are earned and spent in our community, as well as taxes that are collected and used to better our community. Below is a graphic that demonstrates the Labor Income Impact and a Conservative Iteration of an Economic Impact Analysis.
First-semester students enrolled in the Work-based learning program at Lowndes High School earned over $1 above minimum wage, accrued more than 16, 318 hours, and earned over $134,790 in wages. The average earning expectation of a student during the first-semester was $2,642.94. Based on first-semester averages, the second-semester totals will be: 39,356.17 hours worked with total wage earnings over $325,981.96. This places the Lowndes High School Work-Based Learning program at just under half of a million dollars of Labor Income Impact through wages earned.
We are very grateful to all of our partners who help contribute to the dynamic environment of the WBL program at Lowndes High School. Below are some highlighted success stories, but please follow us on Instagram and Twitter @lhs_wbl to see all the great things that are happening in the Work-Based Learning Program and to see all of our amazing partners who have employed our students this year!