Center for School, Family, and Community

Career Development: Products

Connections is a comprehensive set of products and services designed to help you integrate academic and community-based learning. Connections is grounded in the belief that for all youth to achieve their full potential, they need a solid educational foundation consisting of academic, career development, and life survival skills.

Balancing Life & Work, Volume II
As teachers help students see connections between career applications and traditional subjects like English, the arts, science, and social studies, students may discover careers they may have never before considered. This site tells stories from six schools where career-related learning creates an engaging and rigorous learning experience for students. Also please visit Balancing Life & Work, Volume I.
Teens Working: Turning Earning into LearningTeens Working: Turning Earning into Learning
A toolkit loaded with activities, Teens Working: Turning Earning into Learning is designed to show young people the connection between what they do at work and what they learn at school.
Everyone's Guide to Successful Project PlanningEveryone's Guide to Successful Project Planning: Tools for Youth
A new resource to guide young people through the many stages of project planning and to tie what young people are learning through projects back to academics.
Career Exploration GuideCareer Exploration Guide
Career explorations immerse students in all aspects of a career, as students spend 10-30 hours working with the pros, acquiring new skills, and solving problems. For staff, the guide provides strategies and logistical details in setting up the process. [student and staff versions available]
Employer Recruitment and Orientation GuideEmployer Recruitment and Orientation Guide
Providing strategies for involving employers in work-based learning, this guide includes the nuts and bolts of recruiting and orienting employers, roles and responsibilities of partners, and a handy glossary of terms.
Integrated Workplace Learning ProjectIntegrated Workplace Learning Project
This guide consists of a step-by-step planning tool to help you and your students plan rigorous projects that connect school- and work-based learning. Also included is a tool box of ideas on how to design projects that integrate students' interests, worksite skills and knowledge, and learning objectives.
Job Shadow GuideJob Shadow Guide
A job shadow can help young people make the connection between learning and earning. These guides assist students in getting the most from the three to six hours they spend in the "real world" workplace on a job shadow and guide staff in setting up the process. [student and staff versions available]
Learning in the Community: From A to ZLearning in the Community: From A to Z
This quick reference guide introduces the basic concepts and issues associated with community-based learning. While defining current buzz words and acronyms in everyday language, the guide also provides the big picture of successful ways students of all ages can use community resources in their learning.
Learning Site Analysis FormLearning Site Analysis Form
Designed for use by school staff and employers, this easy-to-use tool can help you identify the learning potential at workplaces and other locations throughout the community.
Survival Skills: A Guide to Making It on Your OwnSurvival Skills: A Guide to Making It on Your Own
To become independent and resourceful citizens, students need skills, such as how to register to vote, open a checking account, apply for a loan, and more. This guide not only helps school staff and students identify which skills are critical, but involves community experts in "certifying" students who master individual life skills. [Spanish version available]
Teachers Learning in the Community: A Field GuideTeachers Learning in the Community: A Field Guide
This guide provides a framework for structuring your professional development activities, including job shadows, internships, telementoring, and learning site analyses. It also outlines strategies to ensure that activities are beneficial for students, teachers, employers, schools, and communities.