They say It takes a Community to educate a Child HMS is is trying get business to help them teach student workplace experience. Debi Gaard from HMS High School is the Business Teacher at HMS. She is trying to get Workplace Experience out to the public the program was formerly known to most as Work Study. They are looking for businesses who are willing to work with her to get students placed. This would be for One semester. Businesses can email dgaard@hartley-ms.k12.ia.us or you may call 936-671-3470 if interest. Please get ahold of Debi if you have any questions or interest.
According to Forbes Magazine 73% of employers perceive that it is “very or somewhat difficult” to find qualified candidates. 34% of said employers said schools have not properly prepared the students for jobs.
The Rand Corporation has found that 50% of employers do not communicate their workforce planning with educators and 63% of employers offer no educational support.
According to Dale’s Cone of Experience, students remember about 10% of what they read, 20% of what they hear, but 90% of what they do.
Reasons for Workplace Learning

1. Alignment of classroom and workplace learning
   a. Help create a more skilled workforce be creating opportunities for students
   b. Create authentic learning tasks to tie classroom instruction to workplace tasks
   c. Allow for student reflection
2. Apply academic, technical, and employability skills in an actual work setting
   a. Provide students ways to work on and improve skills needed by employers
   b. Allows students to explore work experiences in a safe environment
3. Support from classroom and workplace mentors
   a. Support student engagement while mentoring our youth
   b. Develop relationships with industry and community professional
   c. Provide observation and evaluation by workplace supervisor and classroom instructor
   d. Provide general career and education guidance with real world experience
   e. Allow personal and professional growth for both student and mentor
   Benefits:
4. To Students
   a. Improve student academics
   b. Improve student accountability
   c. Realize correlation of classroom skills and work skills
   d. Understand how work habits affect job performance
5. To School
   a. Improve student motivation
   b. Improve attendance and graduation rates
   c. Improve school and community relationships
6. To Employers
   a. Reduce recruitment and training costs
   b. Helps prepare students to become valuable employees
   c. Teaches students workplace expectations
7. Community benefits
   a. Makes education more relevant
   b. Helps retain work pool in community
   c. Impacts leadership development
   d. Shared responsibility
   What we are looking for:
8. Employer input in the development/improvement process
9. Tailoring the program to meet needs unique to Northwest Iowa
10. To help our students realize their value to our community
    What a quality workplace learning experience includes:
11. Clear guidelines
12. Clear roles and responsibilities
13. Learning objectives
14. Opportunities
15. Assessments