What’s Ahead for Work-Based Learning in CTE Programs: Insight From ACTE’s 2026 WBL Conference
By Britt Fennessy
Logistics have always been a big part of secondary work-based learning programs. Schools need to find placements, track hours, collect forms, and make sure students meet state requirements. That’s all still part of the conversation, but it’s not what attendees of the 2026 ACTE Work-Based Learning Conference were talking about. Instead, the halls were abuzz with discussions about what students are actually learning from those experiences, and how schools are building more impactful CTE programs.
Here are seven ideas that stood out.
1. Early Career Exploration Keeps More Doors Open
By junior or senior year, many students are coming to conclusions about what they believe is possible for them. Those who have had limited exposure to certain industries, or who don’t see people like themselves represented in certain fields, are at risk of ruling out pathways they might have considered if they had seen them earlier.
No one expects a middle school student to choose a career, but younger students can benefit greatly from low-pressure opportunities to learn what different jobs look like, what skills they require, and how those options connect to what they’re learning at school. Several WBL Conference presentations focused on this.
2. Community Anchors Should Be the Top Focus
School staff are often managing dozens of employer relationships at once, and that can become overwhelming. Conference presenters recommended starting with a major local partner or “alpha employer,” such as a hospital system, public agency, utility provider, or large employer, and inviting them to pilot an internship.
Not only will this enable them to test the model, but it will improve the student experience and create a structure that other employers can join later on. It can also build credibility; when one respected employer finds success with work-based learning programs, it’s easy for others to see the value and look into replicating it.
3. There’s Opportunity Beyond the Obvious
It’s tempting to search for work-based learning opportunities by industry category. Health care students go to clinics. Engineering students go to manufacturing firms. Business students go to offices. But a narrow approach can miss a wide range of options inside large local organizations that sustain the community.
For instance, a hospital isn’t only a health care site. It also fills roles in information technology, finance, marketing, human resources, facilities, and operations. A utility company may offer exposure to engineering, customer service, data, public relations, and environmental work. Schools can also create meaningful opportunities within their own systems. Looking inside those pillar organizations can make it easier to expand access and broaden experiences.
4. Employers Are Equal Partners in Talent Development
Many districts still approach employers as if they are asking for a favor: Can you take a student? Can you offer a few hours? Can you help us meet a requirement? Strong work-based learning programs are a true partnership that include local industry in a shared effort to build the talent pipeline.
For employers, the value goes beyond goodwill. They get a chance to strengthen ties with schools, while helping students understand the skills that are needed in their community. A one-time placement can easily turn into a longer-term partnership that benefits everyone.
5. Students Need a Runway Before They Take Off
Many students find professional settings intimidating, and even a strong placement can fall short if the student arrives unsure of what to expect.
WBL Conference sessions called for an approach that prepares students with things like workplace expectations, safety basics, and communication practice. Then they need guided exposure, such as job shadowing or mentor-supported experiences. That helps students build confidence before they enter the workplace, and it also helps employers understand how to support them.
Several sessions connected this progression to a familiar gradual-release model: schools set the foundation, students work alongside professionals, then students take on real work with clear direction.
6. Reflection Is More Than a Compliance Tool
Many districts are required to collect work-based learning data, tracking hours and keeping records for audits or state reporting. However, a resounding theme at the conference was that the most useful information often comes from the student’s own reflection:
What did the student enjoy? What felt difficult? What skills did they use? What surprised them? What do they want to explore next?
When that information is put to good use, it can inform future course selection and placements, moving students closer to the pathways that fit. When reflection data is stored away and never revisited, districts do a disservice to those students.
Dr. Timberly Monaghan of MGT summed it up succinctly: “Data that we don’t use is useless.”
7. Sometimes a Bad Fit is a Great Outcome
Not every work-based learning experience will confirm a student’s interest in a field, and that’s a good thing. Discovering what a student doesn’t want to do is one of the most useful outcomes of work-based learning. A student who enjoys hands-on problem-solving may learn that a particular work environment is not right for them. Another might discover that a career they’ve always wanted to pursue is nothing like what they’d imagined.
A student panelist emphasized the value of ruling things out: “Find your passion as early as possible. There’s power in learning what you don’t like as you find what you do.”
Those lessons are especially useful when they happen early on, while students still have counselors, teachers, and family members helping them think through their next steps. After all, the purpose of work-based learning is to help learners make better decisions, not to validate their initial plans.
Embedding That Advice Into District Practice
Schools, employers, students, and families all need to all share a definition of success from the start, said Kristy Volesky, author of CTE Reimagined. Of course it’s possible for students to complete placements without gaining much clarity, but when they begin work-based learning feeling prepared, supported, and able to reflect on the experiences, it can become a pivotal part of their academic and career journey.
MajorClarity by Edmentum supports that process, helping students start career exploration before high school, capture their reflections, and use that information to optimize planning, moving each student onto a clear path toward a promising future.
Britt Fennessy is the Career Solutions Director at Edmentum, where she partners with school districts across the country to expand college, career, and life readiness for students. She came up as an educator and school leader before moving into ed-tech, and she’s spent more than a decade building programs that connect what happens in the classroom to what comes after it. Her work runs on a simple conviction: you can’t be what you can’t see. She’s focused on getting real career exploration in front of every student, in every district, no matter the zip code.