Introduction | For Students | For Educators | For Employers | For Parents
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EDUCATORS

Job Shadows and Work Site Tours show your students how to apply classroom lessons in a real-world context. You play a vital role in helping students prepare for a day in the working world. Lastly, your influence is critical in maintaining a positive relationship with the company that has opened its doors to your students - please be sure to follow through on the plan so that future youth will have the same opportunity for a very rich learning experience.

Before. . .

• Work with your local Workforce Investment Board to contact area businesses and identify potential hosts. Be creative in finding industries that match your students' personal interests.
• Contact the host site to establish the date, name of participating students, duration of visit, and details about arrival time and lunch options.
• Provide time for students to do research about the company and industry they will visit. Help them formulate questions to ask about their host company's history, product, and services.
• Assist your students in putting together professional-looking resumes.
• Help students practice "office etiquette" and "soft skills," and define appropriate clothing for the business they are visiting.

On the Big Day. . .

• Collect Parent/Guardian consent forms and Medical Authorization Forms required by your school when students travel off-site.
• Review workplace safety policies with the students, and verify details about arrival and departure time, transportation, and lunch options.
• Place a brief phone call to confirm that all students have arrived at the site.

After. . .

• Guide students in an exercise to help them reflect on the experience, and determine ways it influenced their perceptions of that industry, and their own career paths.
• Remind students to write a thank you letter to their hosts.
• Allow the student to demonstrate skills he or she learned "on-the-job," or lead a classroom discussion that relates to a current lesson.
• Guide students in making a list of the skills they observed, and discuss classes they can take at school now to help them acquire those skills.
• Invite students to continue to track the host company's successes and challenges, using such things as stock market reports, local press coverage, annual business reports, or industry newsletters.
• Emphasize that the higher and broader a student's knowledge and skill level, the higher their potential earning power.