Employer-Based Career Education: The RBS Model.

Overview & Synopsis

Research for Better Schools, Inc., a regional educational laboratory, is proceeding to develop an employer-based career education model in order to provide further definition and meaning to the concept. The model will be a private academic school, the Academy for Career Education, and will serve 100 11th grade students from Philadelphia. It will involve major elements of management, instruction, guidance and counseling, and evaluation; the central model element will be the instructional program, with more than half of the instruction to be conducted by employers. Presently 33 employers have been committed to participate in the program. Instructional activities will be included under three major educational themes: (1) general education (basic skills, core curriculum, and electives); (2) explorative education (career and life skills); (3) specialized education (career and life skills). The preliminary model version is now operational at the Philadelphia site. Employer-based career education, an experiment to determine employer willingness and ability to contribute to education, involves intensive study and active participation in the world of work as well as employer participation in determining educational policy and providing instruction. (A discussion of nine current propositions related to employer-based career education is included in the paper.) (EA)