Overview
As part of hopeful transition pathway planning, it is important for every learner to have career-connected experiential learning opportunities to assist in identifying and determining their preferred future.
This guide supports the resource educator to proactively plan for a learner with exceptionalities to achieve success in an experiential community placement. The guide addresses objectives, learner strengths, and necessary supports for consideration before the opportunity occurs. It also serves as a checklist to identify and address daily workplace realities and potential challenges that could impact a placement.
Objectives
Objective 1: to identify targeted objectives for a purposeful placement.
Objective 2: to identify potential supports to ensure a successful experiential learning placement within community.
Objective 3: to identify different options and possible key contacts for community placements.
Objective 4: to consider and identify career-connected skills needed for successful experiential learning placements.
Objective 5: to “pre-teach” and develop necessary skills in advance of a placement.
Instructions
This guide is broken into sections that may be completed at different times in the planning of a community placement. The opening section of the document may actually be the final section to be completed, as it requires specific details (such as names, dates, support needed, etc.) that may not be arranged until the end of the planning process. The guide also assumes that the resource educator has already made initial contact with the community partner or business to establish possible dates and accompanying supportive adults if needed.
The middle section is a good reminder of skills needed for success in a workplace setting. The resource educator can quickly check if the learner is capable of the skill, and if not, what needs to be addressed before the actual placement. This section would be helpful to complete before a specific placement is considered. The resource educator could complete this section in discussion with the learner and could also share this part of the guide with the family if appropriate.
There is a section detailing specific contact information and options for community placements. This section could be used as an ongoing list of options and could be expanded for use over multiple years.
Finally, if there are several people supporting the learner through the experiential opportunity, it would be helpful to share the completed guide with all key partners or supporters.
Key Highlights
– a user friendly checklist that articulates necessary key skills for a community experiential learning placement
– a concise and practical “to do list” for the resource educator to prepare the learner for a community placement
– includes a section to identify possible options and key contact information for community placements
Preparation Guide for Experiential Learning (Word Doc)
Preparation Guide for Experiential Learning (PDF)