capstone
A project, often including a work portfolio, that participants in work-based learning programs generally complete as their training comes to an end.
Capstones often function as the culmination of work-based learning experiences and are intended to encourage participants to reflect on what they have learned and to demonstrate the knowledge and skills they have acquired.
career advising
A strategy for providing individuals with information and guidance related to career options and related educational pathways on an ongoing basis.
Career advising activities should generally focus on individuals’ stated interests and goals and provide them with information, such as labor market data and information about career ladders, that they will find useful as they assess their employment prospects in particular fields.
Career advising can benefit a wide range of people, from students in the middle grades to incumbent workers.
career engagement
A segment of JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework that includes activities designed to give youth or adult learners opportunities to increase their knowledge of identified fields of interest and gain employability skills and some entry-level technical knowledge or skills.
Activities include internships, pre-apprenticeships (apprenticeship readiness), cooperative education, and service learning.
career experience
A segment of JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework that includes activities designed to give new or incumbent individuals opportunities to work in paying jobs where they will gain skills in a particular industry or occupation in conjunction with related classroom or lab instruction, in a particular industry or occupation.
Activities include apprenticeship (including youth apprenticeship, Registered Apprenticeship, and Industry-Recognized Apprenticeship Programs), transitional jobs, on-the-job training, and work-based courses.
career exploration
Or: career awareness
A segment of JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework that includes activities designed to help individuals build awareness of careers.
Activities do not take place in workplaces and do not constitute work-based learning, but they do provide a foundation for work-based learning and prepare participants to make the most of their opportunities.
Activities include career fairs, industry projects, interest inventories, and mock interviews.
career exposure
A segment of JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework that includes activities in which youth or adult learners visit workplaces for short periods of time as a way to learn about industries and associated occupations.
Activities include job shadows, company tours, mentoring, simulations, student-run enterprise, and informational interviews.
career navigation services
Activities designed to help individuals of any age and at any point in their lives manage their careers and make educational, training, and occupational choices.
Such services may be offered in K-12 schools, colleges, or universities, through training institutions or public employment agencies, in the workplace, or through organizations in the volunteer, community, or private sectors.
Career navigation activities may be one-on-one consultations or group meetings, and they can take place in person, over the phone, or via the internet. Specific services may include providing individuals with career information, assessment and self-assessment tools, counseling interviews, career education programs, internships, work-search programs, and transition services.
coaching
Or: academic coaching, intrusive advising, enhanced advising
An activity designed to help students navigate institutions and programs.
Coaching is a form of case management. It can be as simple as reminding students about important dates, or as involved as referring students to internal and external support services, such as tutoring programs or financial aid plans.
Coaching models vary considerably. Services can be provided by human beings who engage in intense, personalized case management, or by computer-based “nudging” systems that send students alerts and reminders via text message or email.
competencies
The knowledge, skills, and abilities people need in order to perform specific tasks or work in particular occupations.
Work-based learning programs emphasize the workplace as the most logical site for the teaching and learning of those competencies. Competency-based educational (CBE) programs have flexible pacing based not on the number of hours logged in the classroom or on the job but, primarily, on the participants’ ability to demonstrate that they have reached key milestones of learning.
Mastery of competencies can be assessed in multiple ways, including through authentic assessments, also known as performance assessments, that determine what students know, what they can do, and whether they are ready to advance.
Activities such as completing tasks, creating portfolios, or performing simulations are common ways for CBE students to demonstrate competency.
competency-based apprenticeship
An approach to apprenticeship founded on the premise that it’s more important for participants to attain demonstrated, observable, and measurable competencies than it is for them to spend a specific amount of time in training.
Competency-based apprenticeships differ from time-based apprenticeships in that participants in competency-based apprenticeships may adjust their pace and either complete the program ahead of schedule if they achieve competency quickly, or take additional time to master skills.
A competency‐based Registered Apprenticeship must have the same elements as other Registered Apprenticeships, with the exception of required numbers of hours of related instruction and on-the-job learning.
Competency-based apprenticeship is a career experience activity in JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework.
competency-based frameworks
The Urban Institute, with funding from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Office of Apprenticeship, developed a set of competency frameworks that can help fast-track the development of new competency-based Registered Apprenticeship programs.
Employers, apprenticeship sponsors, community colleges, workforce boards and others can use these frameworks for a range of common occupations to fast-track the development of their own apprenticeships. These frameworks were created in consultation with industry leaders and vetted with employers in the field to ensure that they reflect standard practices.
Employers and partner organizations that are developing apprenticeships use these frameworks to provide a time-saving and well-researched baselines for their work and consistency across national programs. The result is a collection of high-quality frameworks that are freely available for all to use.
cooperative education
Academic programs linked with structured work experiences through which participants acquire professional and technical skills.
Participants may earn academic credit or wages for work carried out over a limited period of time under the supervision of a professional mentor.
Cooperative education is a career engagement activity in JFF’s Work-Based Learning Framework.