Work-Based Learning is a course offered to students at DCHS. Most of our WBL students are seniors who have completed three or more courses in a Career and Technical Education focus area. Students apply for the progam in the spring semester of the previous year. Students are chosen for the program based on the quality of their application, resume, and cover letter as well as recommendations from three faculty members, including their focus area teacher.
Students will spend approximately the first 3-4 weeks training in the classroom before they are permitted to leave campus. We will send a starting date for internships as soon as one is decided. Work-Based Learning is the last two periods of our school day, allowing students to leave campus at approximately 1:30 each day and go to work. Students are expected to work a minimum of six hours per week. Students will work Monday-Thursday of each week. On Fridays, the classroom will be open and teachers will be available to help students with their assignments. If students do not need this time to work on assignments, they will be permitted to work on Fridays as well.
Students must have a mentor and be under the supervision of the mentor any time they are at the job site. The mentor may change from day to day, but students are not to be left unsupervised.
Students must receive ongoing safety training at the job site. This can be as simple as showing them emergency exits, discussion confidentiality, or teaching them to lock the doors, but safety training is a non-negotiable and the WBL Coordinator will ask to see the Safety Training plan at each site visit.
Monthly student evaluations. A link to this evaluation is included below. It should only take about 5 minutes of your time to complete, but we will need one of these for each student each month. Your assessment of their job performance will be included in the calculation of their grade as well as to determine if any additional training is needed from WBL instructors.
Open communication and flexibility. Especially in times such as these, we ask for your patience as we do our best to give our students the best experience possible. We will be communicating with you when there are changes in the school schedule or other situations. We will be checking on the progress of our students and sending out program updates as necessary. We ask for you to respond to us in a prompt manner. We value your time and do not want your participation in our program to be a burden to you.