Prince William County Public Schools
EMPLOY Program
All PWCS high schools offer EMPLOY, which is a career and technical education program for students with an Individual Education Program (IEP). EMPLOY aligns with Virginia’s 21st-century workplace readiness skills, which are a set of personal qualities, people skills, and professional abilities identified by Virginia employers and educators as essential for employee success in the workplace. EMPLOY offers students the opportunity to participate in class and work-based learning opportunities where they learn about their interests and aptitudes and related career opportunities. Students develop the skills that will support their successful entry into the workplace, including job search and retention skills. The importance of being self-determined is reinforced throughout the EMPLOY curriculum, which promotes students’ acquisition of self-advocacy skills that will empower them to realize their potential and achieve their postsecondary goals. The EMPLOY curriculum is for any student, regardless of the diploma sought, whose IEP team determines the need for specialized instruction on career awareness, exploration, and preparation for obtaining/maintaining employment. Completion of EMPLOY courses and the achievement of related competencies can fulfill the sequential elective requirement of the Standard and Advanced Studies Diploma. Students who complete these two courses and earn either of these diplomas are awarded the Board of Education’s Career & Technical Seal.
Spotlight on Schools
Students at Patriot High School enrolled in the EMPLOY courses participate in school-based work readiness activities such as the Patriot EMPLOY apparel shop. The apparel shop provides students with 21st-century, hands-on opportunities to further their job skill development in vocational training. While students learn and practice these skills within the school building, they are then able to transfer these skills out into the community when participating in our EMPLOY 3 internships and EMPLOY 4 paid job courses
EMPLOY 1
Through career awareness activities, students gain an initial understanding of work and the various career pathways. Career awareness activities ideally lead to high-quality, work-based learning experiences where students can deepen their understanding of the world of work and apply the skills learned in the classroom. Examples of career awareness activities include guest speakers, career days, or college and career fairs, workplace tours, videos or presentations about various professions, and opportunities to conduct mock interviews.
EMPLOY 2
*Career exploration experiences encourage students to learn about themselves, research options, try new experiences, and create a plan to reach their postsecondary goals. Specialized instruction through EMPLOY 2 is often delivered through student participation in a school-based enterprise. A school-based enterprise is a simulated or actual business operated within the school where students produce goods and/or provide a service for use by people other than themselves. This enables the student to develop both soft and hard skills that they can transfer to community-based, high-quality, work-based learning through EMPLOY 3 or the world of work through EMPLOY 4.
EMPLOY 3
This course is taught during a double-blocked class that provides students the opportunity to participate for up to three hours in high-quality, work-based learning community-based internships at local businesses that are aligned with their career interests and postsecondary employment goal(s). Internships are unpaid at the entry level and will not replace a current employee of the business.
EMPLOY 4
This course allows students to earn credit by applying Virginia’s 21st-century workplace readiness skills while completing a minimum of 396 hours in a position of competitive employment