Designing Statewide Strategies & Programs

National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability For Youth
riences, including internships, as an integral
part of any career development strategy. For
example, Wisconsin’s Department of Workforce
Development has established a thoroughly
articulated apprenticeship model to
provide work-based learning to juniors and
seniors in high school (State of Wisconsin Department
of Workforce Development, n.d.a).
Formal policy agreements with the two-year
technical college system allow students to
obtain college credits for these experiences
(Wisconsin Technical College System, 2012).
The online version of the ILP How-to Guide
developed by NCWD/Youth offers links to
career development activities that are organized
according to three phases of career
development: self-exploration skills, career
exploration skills, and career planning and
management skills (Solberg, Wills, & Osman,
2012). The NCWD/Youth How-to Guide also
offers ideas on how to create grade-based
curriculum that aligns to common core writing
and mathematics standards.
In designing a guide, consideration should
also be given to providing information on
how to identify whether programs and activities
rely on evidence-based practice. The
National Technical Assistance Center on
Transition (NTACT), formerly the National
Secondary Transition Technical Assistance
Center (NSTTAC), offers excellent resources
about evidence-based practices. The NTACT
evaluates the levels of evidence associated
with evidence-based practice through both
a rigorous design and peer reviews. Additionally,
NTACT organizes life skills programs
and activities according to whether they
have established a level of evidence of being
a “promising” practice, a “research-based”
practice that has undergone some level of
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