Work, Learn, Grow: Cultivating Lifelong Development and Opportunity

Introduction

The phrase "work, learn, grow" encapsulates a holistic approach to personal and professional development, emphasizing the interconnectedness of practical experience, continuous learning, and ongoing growth. This philosophy recognizes that true advancement stems not only from formal education or on-the-job training, but from a synergistic combination of both, fostering a mindset of continuous improvement and adaptation.

The Power of Experiential Learning

Work-integrated learning (WIL) is an approach to education that allows students to obtain work experiences related to what they are learning in a classroom setting. Ferns, Campbell, and Zegwaard (2014) describe WIL as “a diverse concept designed to blend theoretical concepts with practice-based learning”. WIL experiences within higher education enable students to have opportunities to actively participate in their desired careers, ultimately preparing for professional employment.

Internships allow students to be supervised by a professional in their field of study and are typically one-term work agreements that resemble what a traditional job might look like. Practicums place students in a work setting to gain skills and competencies that are evaluated by a supervisor within that setting. Students are required to have some form of training before completing the experience and often are required to take a specific course simultaneously with the experience. Cooperative education is a work experience used for course credit, is specifically aligned with a student’s career goals, and maintains a focus on theory and practice. Fieldwork allows students to observe and participate in work settings and has a focus on enhancing what the student is currently learning in the classroom.

WIL, as a field of knowledge, sees students as creative, social, and scholarly beings. In WIL, learning can be recognized as situated because what students learn depends on where they are and what tools are available for them to act and reflect on their experiences.

Benefits of Work-Integrated Learning

WIL experiences create opportunities for students to make connections with professionals in their industry of interest. Creating connections through WIL experiences justifies their learning and education and also helps students build faith in their own expertise. WIL experiences positively impact students the most when they are given opportunities to reflect on what they learned and how they will apply that new knowledge to their future.

Read also: Comprehensive Work-Study Info

Structured Programs for Youth Development

Many programs are designed to provide young individuals with opportunities to work, learn, and grow, fostering their personal and professional development.

Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP)

The Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP), sponsored by the New York City Department of Youth & Community Development, is the nation’s largest youth employment program, with providers in all five boroughs. Through SYEP, New Yorkers ages 14-24 receive opportunities for career exploration and paid work experience.

LaGuardia Community College/CUNY has shaped the lives and careers of thousands of young adults across New York City through its Summer Youth Employment Program (SYEP) for more than 35 years. Over 125,000 individuals have been served by LaGuardia’s SYEP since it was started at the college in 1988, according to Claudia Baldonedo, Ed.D., executive director of Youth Workforce Development Initiatives and an adjunct associate professor of business technology at LaGuardia.

In 2023, LaGuardia’s SYEP is expected to serve nearly 4,000 New Yorkers ages 14-24. Participants ages 16-24, selected by lottery, will be placed in six-week paid summer internships in either private companies or public institutions, including LaGuardia Community College and community-based organizations. Participants ages 14 and 15 will receive stipends for project-based learning, where they will aim to complete a project or build a product within a six-week timeframe in July and August.

Additional SYEP programs are designed for specific populations, such as the Emerging Leaders Program, which serves youth ages 14-24 who are homeless, living in shelters, in or have aged out of the foster care system, or were formerly incarcerated. The program aims to empower youth and help them navigate life’s challenges through project-based learning and paid internships. SYEP CareerREADY serves students at International and Middle College High Schools, Chelsea Career, and Technical Education High School in Manhattan.

Work, Learn & Grow (WLG)

Work, Learn & Grow programs run over six weeks and is a work-based learning opportunity for high school students who are exploring their early career options. WLG helps students strengthen their work readiness skills, explore careers, and receive academic support. Many participants have skills in areas such as Microsoft Office or social media and have access to professional and technical development opportunities during the program. Employers large and small can participate in WLG. Jobs and internships can take place across the five boroughs or remotely.

Employers can hire Work, Learn & Grow (WLG) participants for jobs and internships after school and on weekends at no cost. Students are matched into roles based on their age, skills, and interests and paid directly by the City of New York. Internships typically occur for up to 12 hours per week when school is in session and up to 20 hours per week during school breaks, over the course of 3 to 4 months in the winter and spring.

United States Youth Conservation Corps (YCC)

The United States Youth Conservation Corps (YCC) is a federal youth employment program that engages young people in meaningful work experiences at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges, and fish hatcheries while developing an ethic of public land stewardship and civic responsibility.

YCC programs are generally 8 to 10 weeks (but can go up to 18 weeks), and members are paid at least the state or federal minimum wage (whichever is higher), typically for a 40-hour work week. YCC opportunities provide paid daytime work activities with members who commute to the Federal unit daily. Youth, 15 through 18 years of age, who are permanent residents of the United States, are eligible.

Youth Conservation Corps members work in a healthful outdoor setting on a variety of projects including building trails, maintaining fences, cleaning up campgrounds, improving wildlife habitat, place-based STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), stream restoration, historic building preservation, and more!

Cultivating a Culture of Learning

Growth doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when learning becomes part of the way people work. That’s what a culture of learning does. It creates space for people to improve, where they can ask questions. Many organizations say they value learning, but in practice, training gets pushed to the side. Development of a culture of learning changes that. It makes learning part of the rhythm, part of the mindset.

A culture of learning starts with purpose. If training is just a box to check, employees won’t engage. People want to learn, but they don’t want to fight for it. It doesn’t have to replace the classroom. It just has to support it. If leaders don’t learn, others won’t either. That’s why leaders must go first. It doesn’t take much. A leader who shares a new insight in a team meeting. A manager who reflects on what they would do differently next time. These simple actions send a clear message: learning is not a weakness.

A culture of learning values effort, progress, and reflection. It praises people who explore new ideas. Learning isn’t something people should have to “make time for.” It should be part of how work gets done. That means thinking differently about how development happens. These moments don’t need to be formal.

In a culture of learning, feedback isn’t a one-time event. It’s a normal part of how people work together. That means encouraging quick, respectful feedback every day. A note after a meeting. A suggestion during a project. Keep feedback timely, keep it specific, then it becomes more effective.

Cultures aren’t built in a day. They’re built through small actions, repeated often. If you want learning to last, keep it visible, keep it valued, keep it real. Celebrate growth, share stories, ask people what they’re learning, and don’t wait for a perfect plan. A culture of learning doesn’t replace the classroom. It extends it. It shifts how people think about work. It builds habits that make formal training more effective. When learning becomes part of the job, growth becomes sustainable.

Key Elements of Effective Learning

Fostering significant student investment and effort.
Facilitating relationships and building networks.
Offering connections to broader contexts and real-world applications of learning.
Including opportunities for reflection and feedback.

Best Practices for Implementing WIL Programs

Effective WIL design requires careful consideration of many factors and is widely acknowledged as both difficult and costly to implement for higher education institutions.

Preparation: Emphasis should be placed on preparing WIL partners and students by addressing administrative tasks, ensuring smooth communication, and creating awareness of requirements and expectations of both sides.
Learning: The alignment of teaching and student activities with experiential components is necessary, so that students can apply academic learning to real-world settings and gain important industry and behavioral skills.
Authenticity: Authenticity calls for ensuring that students be involved in an experience that replicates a real workplace setting, with equivalent requirements and expectations, appropriate levels of autonomy and responsibility, and meaningful consequences.
Flexibility: Institutions must seek diverse relationships with local employers to have opportunities for multiple fields of study, allow student some choice in the location and scope of the placement to best fit their daily lives, and support students’ professional development.
Broaden/advance skill set: Professional skills, effective communication, cooperation and teamwork, time management, and problem-solving are all skills that are considered essential to any profession and should be taught in WIL programs.
Partnerships: Industry partners often are responsible for the workplace environment and introducing disciplinary innovations; institutions maintain accreditation and provide access to resources; and students negotiate intended outcomes for their work, particularly in “learner-led” partnerships.
Supervision: Each WIL experience should have some sort of supervision from both the university and the workplace. Supervision provides a point of reference for the student at the university where they can turn for advice, support, and oversight, as well as a way to gain a responsive, nurturing, and educational relationship.
Assessment: Assessments should reflect the complexity of the learning outcomes within an authentic workplace environment that promotes theory to practice learning.
Reflection: Reflection is a vital practice that should be incorporated before, during (through learning circles and journaling), and after the experience, ideally in formats that allows students to look back and make sense of their journey.

Addressing Challenges and Promoting Equity

Scholars and practitioners agree that WIL experiences benefit all students, and underserved and underrepresented students often experience even greater gains from these opportunities. Some student populations are more likely to encounter barriers to participating in WIL, though. For example, students with families often are not only balancing student and worker roles, but also extra family-care responsibilities. Many universities have begun to search for more equitable means for providing WIL opportunities.

Another potential limitation may be the reason a program is created; while the goal is for WIL opportunities to be created for the benefit of the students, companies or organizations that register for or implement WIL programs often need the labor and sometimes may not prioritize professional development and learning for the student over their need to produce or function at low costs. Unpaid opportunities for students to engage in WIL are common but inherently inequitable.

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