At Wake Tech, students have a variety of opportunities for gaining valuable work experience while pursuing educational credentials. One such opportunity is Work-Based Learning, the term used in North Carolina to describe experiential education, including cooperative education, internships and practicums. Internships do not allow students to earn curriculum credit.
Students in Work-Based Learning programs have the opportunity to apply what they have learned in the classroom with paid, supervised, practical work experiences directly related to their fields of study. They typically work part-time, from 10 to 30 hours per week (depending on credit hours to be earned), while attending school and earning academic credit.
This combination is a meaningful way for students to explore career choices and become better prepared for the job market after graduation.
During the work experience and at its completion, employers evaluate students on the established learning objectives and the following employability competencies:
Communication – The ability to effectively exchange ideas and information with others through oral, written or visual means
Interpersonal skills and teamwork – The ability to work effectively with others, especially to analyze situations, establish priorities and apply resources for solving problems or accomplishing tasks
Problem-solving – The ability to identify problems and potential causes while developing and implementing practical action plans for solutions
Information processing – The ability to acquire, evaluate, organize, manage and interpret information
The employer site supervisor will be asked to sign these forms:
Monthly time sheets verifying number of hours student(s) work for the company within the Wake Tech semester dates/per month
Midterm evaluation The site supervisor will be contacted by the student's faculty coordinator, who will arrange a meeting to have site supervisor complete the midterm evaluation and discuss the student's performance.
Final evaluation The final evaluation of the WBL student is a checklist that provides Wake Tech with important information about the student's communication and interpersonal skills. It also allows the site supervisor the opportunity to suggest areas that they feel the student needs to strengthen before entering the workforce.
