Externships for Educators

What to do: Invite teachers and other school officials into your company for their own school-to-career experiences, without students. Educators can learn a great deal about today’s workplace — and better communicate it to their students — through externships at your company. Simply, an externship allows an educator to spend time observing and/or participating in the workplace, gaining valuable insights about how academic, technical and employability skills all come together.

Duration: An externship can be as short as several days or as long as a summer vacation; it may even extend to a full year.

Teaching level: Any educator can benefit, but teachers of grades 7 through 12 may benefit the most in applying their workplace experiences to their academic curricula.

Benefits of Externships

Teachers will:

• See and experience for themselves the dynamics of your company and what it takes to work there.
• Expand their horizons of career possibilities.
• Better equip themselves to teach a work-based school-to-career curriculum.

You will:

• Gain from having educators teach about the workplace from positive, meaningful experiences at your company.

Keys for Employers:

• Meet with the visiting educator(s) prior to the externship to outline expectations and establish guidelines.
• Identify an employee who will serve as a mentor or supervisor to the extern.
• Show the extern current business practices, such as what you are doing in total quality management and continuous improvement.
• Expose the educator to your profession and what role it has in today’s economy.
• Work with the educator on how to apply the work-site experience to the classroom.

Educator Externship Guide

CBIA has created an easy-to-use guide for educators on how to execute a successful externship program. The information in the guide can also be useful to employers looking to connect with the educational community.

Programs Involving Students

Career Exploration

Employability Skills Training

Field Trips/ Company Tours

Job Shadowing

Internships

Mentoring

Programs Involving Educators

Externships for Educators

Company Visits

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