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Work Education: Meaning, Importance, Skills, Objectives

Pallavi Pradeep Purbey ,

Mar 4, 2024

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Work education provides students with exposure to social and economic activities inside and outside the classroom. It helps them understand and build skills related to work education which will help them uplift themselves and be independent.

Work Education comprises activities consisting of services, foods, and community development in various areas of human needs such as health and hygiene, food, clothing, recreation, and social service in accordance with the mental abilities and manual skills of children at various stages of education.

Work education results in services valuable to the community, besides the gratification of self-fulfillment. It focuses on building manual characters. The main objective of work education is to ensure a greater sense of worldly knowledge and develop respect for workers among the students.

Table of Contents

What is Work Education?

Why work education, objectives of work education, importance of work education, advantages of work education, list of activities in work education.

Work education is the nature of knowledge that provides an identical significance to the community and social services by creating consciousness for the wellbeing of the people and society. An essential concept of work education is that it has a manual spirit. Therefore, work education plays an emphasis on learning while working in any field.

Below are some features of Work Education.

• Work education provides both knowledge and skills through understandable and graded programs and helps people enter into a world of work.
• It acts as a different curricular area for offering children opportunities for participating in social and economic activities inside and outside the classroom.
• The prolific manual work situations are drawn from health and hygiene, food, shelter, clothing, recreation, and community service.
• The skills to be developed in this field should comprise knowledge, understanding, practical skills, and values throughout need-based life activities.
• Pre-vocational education should get a prominent place at work education to let students choose various activities according to their interests.

Also Read:  10 Problem Solving Courses You Must Enrol Into Right Now

Work Experience has been named as Work Education and thus makes it a fundamental part of education. It develops;

• Personality.
• Positive work values.
• Constructive habits.

Moreover, work education conveys crucial knowledge related to career and develops proper work skills which can help the children to become productive in meeting their day to day activities.

Work Education helps students develop skills like work values, productivity, and self-reliance. In addition, work education allows students to identify their natural interests and aptitudes in selecting suitable courses of study.

Also Read:  What is a Junior College? Here's What to Know

Work education has specific objectives, which are very important to give the right direction to people and the community. It acts as a vital part of the learning process resulting in goods or services considered valuable to the community. Work education focuses on teaching various socially desirable values such as;

Below is the list of objectives of work education.

• Identify the needs of every individual and their family and community concerning food, health, and hygiene to understand the working environment.
• Familiarize oneself with productive activities in the community in various sectors. It helps in gathering information about various activities in society.
• Know the sources of raw materials and understand the use of tools and equipment to produce goods and services by workers. It helps in gathering essential information.
• Develop skills for the assortment, procurement, arrangement, and utilization of tools and materials for different forms of productive work. It also helps in incorporating new skills.
• Develop self-esteem and confidence through accomplishment in productive work and services.
• Develop a deeper opinion for the environment and wisdom of belonging, responsibility, and commitment to society. It helps in developing a sense of belongingness within people.
• Develop reverence for manual work and regard for manual workers in the community to give them the utmost respect.
• Develop work habits such as punctuality, honesty, discipline, efficiency, and dedication to duty.
• Develop self-esteem and self-assurance through achievements in productive works and services in various fields.
• Develop a deeper apprehension for the environment and a sense of belongingness, responsibility, and commitment to society to ensure the community's welfare.
• Develop alertness of socio-economic problems of the society to ensure people about the changes if made.

Also Read: Buddhist Education System in India: Meaning, Objectives, Subjects

Work education is regarded as very important, meaningful, and the ongoing manual work is organized as a vital part of teaching-learning procedures that are functional to society and the satisfaction of doing work. It is essential for all education segments, i.e., primary, secondary, higher secondary, and higher education. Work education can be granted through a well-developed, channeled, and structured program.

Work education is an integral part of education as,

• It helps to bridge the gap between manual workers and white-collar workers in society.
• Work education gives respect to all types of workers in all sectors, and also creates social awareness for the welfare of society.
• It builds coordination in hand actions and brain activities.
• Work education promotes socially useful physical labor by inheriting educational activities in various fields.
• It acts as a necessary and significant factor in learning different activities and the processes to pursue a particular objective.
• Work education is discernible in the form of valuable services and productive work for the community.
• It is associated as a necessary factor with all the aspects of knowledge in a multi-level education system.
• Work education is based on the principle of learning by doing and practicing.

Also Read:  Importance of Adult Education

Work education aids in various factors to the students and the people who are looking to work in varied areas. Students gain a plethora of knowledge about almost every field, and strategies are built on understanding and practicing such education. In addition, students are involved in activities that help them understand the concept of work education.

Below is the list of advantages of work education.

• Work education links classroom learning to the real world and makes students practice various activities.
• Work education gives opportunities to perform skills in real-world scenarios beyond theoretical learning.
• Work education helps students develop soft skills for the better manifestation of gifts.
• Work education gives students a chance to watch professionals in action entitled to work in various activities.
• It helps students associate with potential employers to broaden their network. And it leads to increased student enrollment with varied skills.
• Motivates students to understand and comprehend working areas.
• Work education provides opportunities for individualized instruction to perform skill-based activities. And it gets the community involved by providing an array of exciting work.
• Work education builds a pool of skilled workers to make the empire rise.
• Teaches soft skills that help in maintaining patience while working.
• Work education lowers recruitment costs for employers as there are people who would be highly skilled in a limited number of activities.

Also Read:  What is Quality Education? Meaning and Importance

Work education includes activities of services, foods, and community development. It focused on health and hygiene sectors, food, clothing, recreation, and social service in harmony with children's mental abilities and manual skills related to work education. Below is the list of activities any person can enroll themselves in.

• Computer Education
• Drawing and Painting
• Work Experience
• Western Music
• Vocal Music
• Knitting and Stitching
• Gadgets learning
• Western Dance
• Creative Thinking
• General Assembly
• Sports and Games
• English Lab
• Smart Class
• Classical Dance
• Instrumental Music

Work education encourages children to know the needs of themselves, their families, and society. The aim is to build students' personalities to have a successful life by having moral values in their pocket of energy.

Also Read:  Top 10 Benefits of Environmental Education 2024

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What Is Work-Based Learning?

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July 1st, 2019 | 12 min. read

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Work-based learning is a federally-supported program in career and technical education (CTE) that connects workplaces to the classroom to prepare students for real-world careers .

While every state has its own variations of work-based learning and what it entails, the goal of every program is the same —   to prepare the next generation of the American workforce .

It’s an ambitious project, and it’s one that gets its momentum, power, and energy from its alliance of teachers, administrators, and business owners.

These three groups of professionals work together to create systems and scenarios that help students thrive in terms of professional development.

Nationwide, states are prepping their CTE students to enter the workforce with actual career experience under their belts! This is especially true for younger students like   middle schoolers in career readiness courses . 

While the results have yet to be seen, the   US Department of Education has plenty of data   on student success, communications, participation, and more.

So how can you define a federal program that has so much participation and variation throughout the United States?

It’s a challenge — but we’re going to do it here!

Defining Work-Based Learning

On paper,   work-based learning is any program that places students both in the classroom and the workplace .

But because it’s a government-run program, it has stringent requirements.

These requirements place a strong emphasis on   activities , among other concepts.

A successful work-based learning program has to include activities that meet individual states’ definitions of appropriate instruction.

The DOE uses   Virginia as an example . Virginia has seven “types” of work-based learning strategies that are grouped into career exploration, pre-professional development, and career preparation.

Your state may use a similar model. It could also be completely different!

In addition to activities, work-based learning requires states to develop a unique   framework   that comes with an implementation guide.

The DOE uses   Tennessee as an example for this quality . Tennessee goes above and beyond in this area by providing resources that tell educators what they need to know before, during, and after students get placed in work-based learning programs.

Third, all work-based programs must receive   input   from local employers.

That means the state is responsible for coordinating meetings with local employers and educators to verify the quality of work-based learning.

These meetings are run by separate organizations, like   Colorado’s Workforce Development Council .

Meetings can cover student experiences in a work-based learning program, employer ideas for future changes, and even credentials that participants may earn for their time!

Professional Development

Finally, all states must provide   professional development   to teachers, administrators, and other participants involved in work-based learning.

Essentially, that means states have to give educators the tools and knowledge they need to make work-based learning programs successful.

States accomplish this in different ways.

Once again, the DOE uses Tennessee as an example because it offers credits and certifications for its educators. 

Virginia, on the other hand, makes it possible for teachers to visit specific employers throughout the state.

Your state may have an entirely different system in place.

But at the end of the day, they all ensure teachers, administrators, and employers are all on the same page for work-based learning! 

All of that information leads us to another big question, though. If work-based learning is a federally-sanctioned activity, but every state can customize its own programs, then what types of work-based learning systems exist? 

Qualities of Work-Based Learning

Work-based learning is supported at the federal level through Perkins funding, the Every Student Succeeds Act, and the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.

However, that support from the federal level doesn’t make every single state’s work-based learning programs the same.

Different states have different economies and occupational needs. As a result, the   work-based learning program in Georgia   will look different from the one in Alaska.

Still, you’ll find three primary qualities in all work-based learning programs, regardless of the state. 

According to the   US Department of Education , any work-based learning program must exhibit these three qualities to be successful:

• Alignment between classroom and the workplace
• Application of academic, technical, and employability skills
• Support from classroom and workplace mentors

Let’s take a look at all of these qualities in-depth.

Alignment   is all about correlating industry demands, state standards, student training, and skills-based experience.

That means students who enter work-based learning programs can’t get paired with some random company that’s looking to farm out cheap labor.

Similarly, employers have indicated that they’re willing to train and develop students’ professional skills, meaning they’re not interested in students looking to “coast” through an education program. 

Alignment also means that workplaces have to create a map of tasks and show how they relate to academic information and / or classroom instruction.

Students who enter those programs need time to reflect on their learning and experiences as well.

Finally, teachers can track a student’s progress by going through a training program that helps them match work-based learning experiences to a curriculum. 

Application

Application   brings academic, technical, and employability skills into the same area.

A full-fledged work-based learning program will have “rigorous academic and employability skill requirements,” meaning that students have to qualify to participate in such a program.

In addition, work-based learning must also include hands-on experiences with additional activities around career awareness, exploration, preparation, and readiness. 

Support   means that both instructors and workplaces keep the student as their top priority.

This requires work-based learning programs must provide mentorship for students through instructors, supervisors, and coordinators.

On top of that, students must be allowed to develop relationships within a company, throughout their program, and in their local communities.

Still, every student must also be monitored to ensure that they’re truly participating in the work-based learning program to the best of their abilities.

To top it off, every company participant in work-based learning programs receives training on how to train students, foster their professional growth, and help them thrive professionally.

So this all sounds great, right?

Where does work-based learning apply in the United States?

Where Does Work-Based Learning Apply?

Technically speaking, work-based learning has opportunities for all students nationwide.

But as we established previously, different states have different systems that work independently of one another.

So if you’re wondering if work-based learning programs apply to you, the answer is yes.

You just have to figure out how your state’s program works!

You can research information on your state by using  the DoE’s website  and scrolling to the bottom of the page.

There, you’ll see a section of the page entitled Resources:

By using the drop-down menus, you can navigate to different kinds of information that correspond to different states.

But what if you can’t find work-based learning information about your state?

Even more jarring, what if your state doesn’t have a work-based learning program?

How Do You Start Work-Based Learning?

You have three different avenues you can pursue — namely the state level, local level, and student level. 

This is a tricky question to answer for the state level.

That’s because states differ so wildly when it comes to education funding, priorities, and follow-through.

The best way to jumpstart work-based learning in your state is to get in touch with your state’s department of education.

Then, you can use the federal   DOE’s work-based learning toolkit   to guide your actions and discussions with other key individuals.

In general, you’ll have to look into five main areas of interest to create a program:

• Define work-based learning for the state
• Identify activities that fit the state’s definition
• Develop the work-based learning framework
• Obtain employer input for components and quality in work-based learning
• Establish professional development for administrators and teachers

That may seem like a lot of work, but it’s possible! Many states in the US have already created successful work-based learning programs, some of which dovetail with other   career readiness priorities   that the state set years ago.

But that’s big-picture stuff! Besides, a lot of state governments already took care of those steps anyway.

What if you want to set up work-based learning in your school district?

When you start creating a work-based learning program in your local area, you don’t have to worry quite so much about the major parts of the system or how it works.

Instead, it’s more important that you look into the details.

Those details include:

• Addressing employer liability concerns
• Vouching for your students to participating employers
• Offering different levels of participation for different companies
• Networking with companies, managers, and employees

These finer details are concerned with getting employers on the same page as you and your administration for a work-based learning program.

It also requires you to vouch for the character of your participating students, which places you on the line for their behavior in the workplace.

That’s why it’s important for you to be clear, conscientious, and selective with your students.

This is the area where you have the most discretion as a teacher in work-based learning.

You get to decide how you present the program to your students and how to get them on board.

The sky is the limit when it comes to   how   you do this. If you want a few ideas, we have some ideas you can use to start some traction:

• Appeal to a student’s desire to get out of the classroom
• Emphasize that students can earn money and experience at the same time
• Bring previous students into the classroom to talk about work-based learning, if available
• Bring employers into the classroom to talk about their companies
• Incentivize non-traditional students with grades based on their workplace performance instead of traditional classroom performance

These five ideas are just starting points, and you may have some ideas that completely differ.

And you should!

After all, you know your students best.

Using that knowledge will help drive you to the perfect way to present   work-based learning   to your classes — no matter their age!

How to Accomplish Work-Based Learning with a Comprehensive CTE Curriculum

With work-based learning becoming more common in CTE programs, teachers and administrators are scrambling for curriculum.

In fact, many educators have asked if AES’s CTE curriculum can help with work-based learning.

The short answer is  yes ! But you need more than just a one-word answer.

When teachers ask us this question, they  really  want to know exactly  how  AES helps teachers and students have success with work-based learning!

Read the article below to learn how you can support work-based learning using digital curriculum :

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Center for Engaged Learning

What is work-integrated learning.

by Julia Bleakney

September 13, 2019

Work-Integrated Learning (WIL) is a well-theorized pedagogical practice that facilitates students’ learning through connecting or integrating experiences across academic and workplace contexts (Billett, 2009).  Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario’s 2016  Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning  offers a helpful introduction and resources for mentors .

[Also see our Work-Integrated Learning Resource Page !]

Various versions of WIL are in place in post-secondary educational contexts in Canada, Australia, South Africa, the U.K., and Europe, and WIL functions as an umbrella category for some types of experiential learning common in the U.S. and other contexts. Examples of this learning-practice integration include work placements, work-terms, internships, practica, cooperative education (co-op), fieldwork, work-related projects/competitions, service learning, entrepreneurships, student-led enterprises, applied projects, simulations (including virtual WIL), etc. (International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning; see Figure 1 below, from HEQCO 2016, 34).

Universities support WIL pedagogy in ways that are similar to support for service learning in US-based universities; for example, Murdoch University in Perth, Australia , provides support to staff with: (a) designing WIL learning activities and assessment items; (b) managing some of the processes associated with internships; (c) student preparation workshops and online modules; (d) a resource library; and by (e) facilitating a community of practice. In another example, at the University of Wollongong, the Careers Central office offers a variety of credit-bearing courses and programs in career-readiness tailored to different student populations or work contexts. Despite the wide variety of different WIL models, many are grounded in a focus on intention and integration–intentional approaches to blending workplace and curricular learning, and the integration of theory and practice ( Sachs, Rowe, and Wilson 2016 , 10).

Forms of WIL (HEQCO 2016, 34; based on O’Shea 2014)

Elements of WIL

Sattler (2011) identified three approaches or models for WIL: the first is what she terms systematic training , in which the workplace is “the central piece of the learning” (such as an apprenticeship); the second is structured work experience , in which students are familiarized with the world of work within a postsecondary education program (e.g., field experience, professional practice, co-op, internship); and the third is institutional partnerships , which refer to “education activities [designed] to achieve industry or community goals” (e.g., service learning) (Sattler 2011, 29; HEQCO 2016, 6). 

Dimensions of WIL (Ontario 2010, 6)

Cooper, Orwell, and Bowden (2010) developed the outer nodes on this Dimensions of WIL wheel (see above), highlighting dimensions that help with the planning and success of WIL. To these dimensions, Cantalini-Williams (2015) added the “CANWILL” framework for developing effective work-integrated learning experiences: CANWILL (curriculum, assessment, networking, workplace, integration, learning, and logistics) focuses on the delivery of WIL experiences. 

WIL and Learning Theories

Researchers have identified several theories of student learning that help explain the benefit of WIL and that also provide a framework for assessing its learning outcomes. Summarized by Sattler (2011) and Keating (2006), these include situated learning theory, action theory and boundary crossing, pedagogy of the workplace, and critical education theory. Additional theories include action learning, transformational learning theory, and the “Turning Experience into Learning Framework” (Boud, Keogh, and Walker 1985). Finally, Ontario uses Kolb’s modes of experiential learning. 

WIL and Writing

Based on a key-word search of articles published in the International Journal of Work-Integrated Learning (until 2016 titled Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education ), I found that writing intersects with WIL in a couple of key ways. First, reflection is often used as a tool for students to process learning; while students can use different modes for reflection, reflective writing is one important mode (see Edgar, Francis-Coad, and Connaughton 2013, who examine whether reflective writing is relevant for professional practice). In addition, writing is identified as a key competency in studies of employer expectations (e.g., Hodges and Burchell 2003). Finally, case study articles of an institution’s WIL that focus on student learning outcomes will often include written communication as an outcome (e.g., Alanson and Robles 2016). 

Opportunities for Future Research

As an institutional practice, WIL provides an established framework grounded in learning theory to support students’ learning in and through workplace settings. The WIL scholarship has not drawn from studies of workplace writing or writing knowledge transfer that have emerged from writing studies contexts, although of course the writing studies field has focused on internships and other workplace writing contexts (e.g. Anson and Forsberg 1990; Baird and Dilger 2017). However, case study assessments of WIL initiatives or studies of employer expectations that focus specifically on writing may provide important insights into how writing is both a tool for learning in – and a competency of – WIL.

Works Cited

• Alanson, Erik R, and Richard A Robles. 2016. “Using Electronic Portfolios to Explore Essential Student Learning Outcomes in a Professional Development Course.”  Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education  17, no. 4: 387–97.
• Anson, Chris M., and L. Lee Forsberg. 1990. “Moving Beyond the Academic Community: Transitional Stages in Professional Writing.” Written Communication 7 , no. 2: 200–231.
• Baird, Neil, and Bradley Dilger. 2017. “How Students Perceive Transitions: Dispositions And Transfer In Internships.” College Composition and Communication 68, no 4: 684-712
• Billett, Stephen. 2009. “Realising the Educational Worth of Integrating Work Experiences in Higher Education.” Studies in Higher Education 827-843.
• Boud, D., Keogh, R., & Walker, D. (1985). Reflection: Turning Learning into Experience . New York: Routledge.
• Cantalini-Williams, M. 2015. “Teacher Candidates’ Experiences in Non-traditional Practicum Placements: Developing Dimensions for Innovative Work-integrated Learning Models.” In The Complexity of Hiring, Supporting, and Retaining New Teachers Across Canada , by N Maynes and B E Hatt, Canadian Association.
• Cooper, Lesley, Janice Orrell, and Margaret Bowden. 2010. Work Integrated Learning: A Guide to Effective Practice. London: Routledge.
• Edgar, Susan, Jaqueline Francis-Coad, Joanne Connaughton. 2013. “Undergraduate Reflective Journaling in Work Integrated Learning: Is it Relevant to Professional Practice?”  Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education 14 no. 3: 147-156.
• Hodges, Dave, and Noel Burchell. 2003. “Business Graduate Competencies: Employers’ Views on Importance and Performance.” Asia-Pacific Journal of Cooperative Education 16–22.
• Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario (“HEQCO”). 2016. A Practical Guide for Work-Integrated Learning: Effective Practices to Enhance the Educational Quality of Structured Work Experiences Offered through Colleges and Universities. Ontario: Queen’s Printer for Ontario.
• Keating, S. 2006. Learning in the workplace: a literature review. Victoria University. Retrieved from http://tls.vu.edu.au/PEC/PEC_docs/PEC%20LIW%20literature%20review%20final.pdf 
• Murdoch University. “Work Integrated Learning.” Accessed June 27, 2019. https://www.murdoch.edu.au/Work-Integrated-Learning/Staff/.
• O’Shea, Annissa. 2014. “Models of WIL.” In Work integrated learning in the Curriculum. Higher Education Research and Development Society of Australia guide , by Sonia Ferris, 7-14. Australia Collaboration Education Network Ltd.
• Sachs, Judyth, Anna Rowe, and Michael Wilson. 2016. “2016 Good Practice Report–Work Integrated Learning.” Australian Government Department of Education and Training. Accessed July 23, 2019. https://research-management.mq.edu.au/ws/portalfiles/portal/3559753 4
• Sattler, Peggy. 2011. Work-Integrated Learning in Ontario’s Postsecondary Sector. Toronto: Higher Education Quality Council of Ontario.
• University of Wollongong. “Work Integrated Subjects.” Accessed July 23, 2019. https://www.uow.edu.au/student/careers/work-integrated-learning/

Julia Bleakney is director of The Writing Center in the Center for Writing Excellence and assistant professor of English at Elon University. She is co-leading the 2019-2021 research seminar on Writing Beyond the University: Fostering Writers’ Lifelong Learning and Agency.

How to cite this post:

Bleakney, Julia. 2019, September 13. What is Work-Integrated Learning? [Blog Post]. Retrieved from https://www.centerforengagedlearning.org/what-is-work-integrated-learning/

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Why We Must Connect Education and the Future of Work

A lack of alignment among K–12, higher education, and the world of work threatens to compromise our resilience and success as a country. Education leaders at the Corporation argue that we must redesign our educational systems to reach a broader set of students

Fundamental goals for American public education are to ensure that each student is prepared to be an active participant in a robust democracy and to be successful in the global economy. This requires coordinated efforts among government, philanthropy, the business community, and the education sector. However, as our nation’s economic and labor market opportunities evolve, the lack of alignment among K–12, higher education, and the world of work is further exposed and compromises our resilience and success. Our institutions are working to meet the opportunities and demands of the future of work in relative isolation. We must encourage systematic connections that reach across the educational, political, and economic domains to holistically prepare students for life, work, and citizenship. This demands a redesign of educational and employment options for all students. We must ask tough questions about what contributions are needed from each sphere today to prepare the workforce of tomorrow. 

Today’s high school students are arriving at college underprepared: 40 percent fail to graduate from four-year institutions, and 68 percent fail to graduate from two-year institutions. [1] Yet the future of work will require higher — not lower — college graduation rates. Already, our economy has 16 million recession-and automation-resistant middle-income jobs that require some postsecondary credential, as well as 35 million jobs that require a bachelor’s degree or higher. [2] Nearly half of American employers say they are struggling to fill positions — the highest number in more than a decade — citing dearths of applicants, experience, and both technical and soft skills as their biggest challenges. [3]

As our nation’s economic and labor market opportunities evolve, this lack of alignment among K–12, higher education, and the world of work will become further exposed and will compromise our resilience and success as a country. At present, students without access to higher education already experience less mobility and lower lifetime salaries. [4] Looking forward, if K–12 and higher education do not redesign their approaches to reach a broader set of students, we might experience even greater labor shortages and income disparities. If we want to alleviate these issues and prepare students for the careers of the future, it is imperative that we close the chasm between K–12 and higher education. 

Those attempting to reform the education system are familiar with the ways in which it is fragmented. Many have experienced the unintended consequences that come from working in isolation and proceeding with untested assumptions, especially during efforts to scale innovations or foster long-term sustainability. We believe the solution is to work more integratively: to resist the temptation to tackle siloed, singular components and instead collaborate on large-scale transformations designed around a unified vision. 

Looking for­ward, if K–12 and higher education do not redesign their approaches to reach a broader set of students, we might experience even greater labor shortages and income disparities.

That vision, when considering American public education, is to prepare each student for active participation in a robust democracy and success in an advanced global economy. Accomplishing this demands an approach that reaches across educational, political, and economic domains to seamlessly prepare students for life, work, and citizenship. It demands the redesign of educational and career pathways to allow for cross-pollination among all sectors, from business to government to philanthropy — and it demands asking tough questions about what each sphere must contribute today to prepare the workforce of tomorrow. 

Higher education can play a unique role because it has the ability to reach in several directions: toward both K–12 schools and educators, and businesses and future employers. Since it is often under the control of the state, higher education can also reach across to the governor, mayor, and other decision- and policymakers. As such, higher education can do more than effect change within a single institution; instead, it can help to enact networks and policies across an entire city or state. In short, to prepare students to become citizens of the world — who also have economic opportunities in the future workplace — stakeholders must abandon their traditional silos and work together to achieve coherence. 

The Case for Coherence 

Linear, laser-focused strategies are appropriate when consequences are predictable, contexts are similar, and results are easily measured and few in number. But in the world of education, where contexts are diverse, the level of transformation needed is enormous, and the number of stakeholders is high, linear approaches to change do not work. They accomplish superficial, rather than meaningful, improvements and can lead to missteps and frustration. 

To create longer-term solutions at scale, we must accept that education is a complex social system, and design strategies for change around that fundamental fact. If our goal is to move toward 21st-century teaching and learning that better prepares young people for the dynamic world of work, traditional top-down, isolated, programmatic approaches will not succeed. Rather, to effect broad change, we must be thoughtful, flexible, and inclusive, and we must consider myriad factors, including the vantage points and resources of all stakeholders. 

Three Design Principles for Coherence 

In one attempt to catalyze this shift, Carnegie Corporation of New York launched the Integration Design Consortium in 2017. The corporation extended grants to five organizations to design and implement two-year projects aimed at reducing fragmentation in education and advancing equity. During our collaboration with these initiatives — each focused on different disciplines, such as human-centered design, systems thinking, and change management — we saw several themes emerge again and again. Irrespective of the project or context, these principles seemed to be influential in making progress toward coherence. For those striving for educational change, we believe these three principles can serve as a foundation upon which to design innovative solutions, and a lens through which to envision ways of thinking and working differently.

Cultivating a Shared Purpose  Rather than assuming that everyone engaged in educational improvement has similar priorities, deliberate attempts must be made to develop a shared understanding of what students need most during their journeys through the system. The work of defining this purpose cannot be done in an isolated manner; instead, a collective vision should be cocreated by various stakeholders, then anchored by thoughtful implementation planning. Developing a cohesive vision has multiple benefits, including increasing broad buy-in and helping individuals understand how their actions can lead to change at scale. 

One promising initiative that exemplifies this approach is the Cowen Institute at Tulane University, which shares its purpose of advancing youth success with a multitude of stakeholders in its home city of New Orleans. In addition to disseminating salient research and implementing several direct service programs, the Cowen Institute develops and leads citywide collaboratives focused on promoting access to and persistence in college and careers. These include the New Orleans College Persistence Collaborative and the College and Career Counseling Collaborative, bringing together counselors and practitioners from high schools and community-based organizations across New Orleans under the common goal of increasing students’ access to and persistence in college and careers. 

Rather than assuming that everyone engaged in educational improvement has similar priorities, deliberate attempts must be made to develop a shared understanding of what students need most during their journeys through the system.

By engaging in a shared review and understanding of data centered on the needs of all students, these communities of learning play an important role in cultivating a shared sense of purpose across a diversity of organizations and institutions. At the same time, they provide members with professional development, the opportunity to share best practices, and a means of engaging in collective problem-solving centered on improving college and career success for New Orleans youth. 

Cocreating Inclusive Environments  This principle, which has its roots in user-centered design, encourages the consideration of various points of view when developing policies, prioritizing input from those who will be directly affected by the outcome. It also urges individuals to assess their own beliefs before creating policies that reverberate through the entire system, and advocates the shifting of power structures so that those most affected have the opportunity to share their perspectives and play a role in the decision-making process. It is only by identifying the actors in the system, understanding their perspectives, and using their input that we can create inclusive and effective programs. 

Transforming Postsecondary Education in Mathematics (TPSE Math) is one example of a movement to create an inclusive postsecondary environment. It focuses on a discipline that has traditionally been a barrier to student success: math. 

In one study of 57 community colleges across several states, 59 percent of students were assigned to remedial math courses upon enrollment, and, of those, only 20 percent completed a college-level math course within three years. [5] Through TPSE Math, leading mathematicians have convened stakeholders across the country to change mathematics education at community colleges, four-year colleges, and research universities so that it better meets the needs of a diverse student body and their diverse future careers. 

For example, TPSE has provided significant support in the national movement to develop multiple mathematics pathways for students. The goal is for every student to have the opportunity to take a rigorous entry-level mathematics course relevant to his or her field of study and future career and to significantly reduce the time for underprepared students to complete their first college-level math course. This results in more inclusive math departments and courses that focus on success for all students, not only those who will go on to be math majors or to remain in academia. 

TPSE has also promoted cross-sector engagement by facilitating conversations about effective and innovative practices — including the connections between college mathematics and the world of work — and then sharing those learnings across institutions. These math departments are supporting a rich set of interdisciplinary academic experiences and pathways designed to prepare students with the mathematical knowledge and skills needed for engagement in society and the workforce. 

Building Capacity That Is Responsive to Change  To create infrastructure and processes that will be effective over the long term, it is crucial to acknowledge and accept the dynamic nature of the education system. This means prioritizing relationships and trust, and viewing a project’s initial implementation as the first of multiple iterations and trials, each of which considers the potential impact on different stakeholders. This is crucial because achieving broader coherence across the education system can seem daunting, so it is more manageable to identify a specific gap or disconnect to address, such as the transition from college to career.

Focusing on particular barriers and trying out solutions before prescribing them at scale acknowledges the dynamism of the sector and the complexities of coherence, while making meaningful progress on issues that matter. 

The University Innovation Alliance (UIA), for instance, takes an agile, human-centered approach to increasing the number and diversity of college graduates in the United States. Since its founding in 2014, this national coalition of 11 public research universities has produced 29.6 percent more low-income bachelor’s degree graduates per year, amounting to nearly 13,000 graduates annually. The UIA estimates that the total will reach 100,000 by the 2022–2023 academic year. [6] *

True to the nature of the research institutions leading the work, the UIA accomplishes this through experimentation and iteration. One area of focus for the network has been ensuring student success beyond graduation through redesigning college-to-career supports to better ensure students find gainful employment upon graduation. The project uses design thinking, with its rapid prototyping of ideas and short feedback cycles, in service of reimagining career services to better support low-income students, first-generation students, and students of color. 

The process of innovation starts with understanding the perspective of students and the current practices on campuses; providing career services professionals with the capacity, time, and connections they need to generate new campus solutions; and engaging employers and other stakeholders in the redesign. This approach is consistent with the vision of the UIA, that “by piloting new interventions, sharing insights about their relative cost and effectiveness, and scaling those interventions that are successful [,] . . . [its] collaborative work will catalyze systemic changes in the entire higher education sector. [7]

An Integrative Pathway to the Future 

Strides in educational coherence are being made on a regional level, too. Tennessee and Colorado, for example, have adopted holistic cradle-to-career solutions that intentionally plan for the duration of their residents’ lifetimes, and the Central Ohio Compact has mobilized K–12, higher education, community-based organizations, and local industry with the goal of helping 65 percent of local adults earn a postsecondary credential by 2025. [8] Each of these initiatives exemplifies the design principles described earlier, by considering the experiences of key actors and employing a multistakeholder approach that includes policymakers — factors crucial to enacting change on a systemic level.

In most of the country, education, employment, and economic reform remain isolated in both policy and practice. If we continue down this path, limiting ourselves to what is possible within each of our silos, our mutual interests will soon be consumed by our differences.

Though these projects are promising, they are not enough. In most of the country, education, employment, and economic reform remain isolated in both policy and practice. If we continue down this path, limiting ourselves to what is possible within each of our silos, our mutual interests will soon be consumed by our differences. For the revolutionary changes that the future demands, we must move beyond this fragmented way of thinking and working, and accept that history’s boundaries no longer apply. We must take a coherent approach to connecting education and the future of work, harnessing integrative design principles to foster progress, flexibility, and inclusivity. To improve today and prepare for the future, we must build on these ideas together. We must embrace a user-centered approach that is designed around our ultimate goal: empowering and preparing our nation’s youth for fulfilling, engaged lives and productive careers, now and for decades to come.

[1] National Center for Education Statistics, “Undergraduate Retention and Graduation Rates,” May 2019, https://nces.ed.gov/programs/coe/indicator_ctr.asp .

[2] Anthony P. Carnevale, Jeff Strohl, Neil Ridley, and Artem Gulish, “Three Educational Pathways to Good Jobs,” Georgetown University, 2018, https://cew.georgetown.edu/cew-reports/3pathways/ , 10.

[3] Manpower Group, “Solving the Talent Shortage: Build, Buy, Borrow and Bridge,” 2018, https://go.manpowergroup.com/talent-shortage-2018#thereport , 5–7.

[4] Jennifer Ma, Matea Penda, and Meredith Welch, “Education Pays 2016: The Benefits of Higher Education for Individuals and Society,” College Board, 2016, https://trends.collegeboard.org/sites/default/files/education-pays-2016-full-report.pdf , 3–4.

[5] T. Bailey, D. W. Jeong, and S. W. Cho, “Referral, Enrollment, and Completion in Developmental Education Sequences in Community Colleges, Economics of Education Review 29, no. 2 (2010): 255–70.

[6] The University Innovation Alliance, “Our Results,” http://www.theuia.org/#about .

[7] The University Innovation Alliance, “Vision and Prospectus,” http://www.theuia.org/sites/default/files/UIA-Vision-Prospectus.pdf .

[8] Central Ohio Compact, “Central Ohio’s Most Critical Challenge,” http://centralohiocompact.org/what-is-the-compact/our-challenge/ .

Excerpted from The Great Skills Gap: Optimizing Talent for the Future of Work (Stanford Business Books, 2021), edited by Jason Wingard, Dean Emeritus and Professor of Human Capital Management at Columbia University School of Professional Studies. Reprinted with permission.

*Note: Since the publication of the book, UIA reports an increase of annual degrees to low-income students by 46 percent since launch. Overall annual bachelor's degrees have increased 30 percent, and annual bachelor's degrees to students of color have increased 85 percent. They have exceeded 100,000 degrees.

LaVerne Srinivasan is vice president of Carnegie Corporation of New York’s National Program and program director of Education, Farhad Asghar is the Education program officer of the Pathways to Postsecondary Success portfolio, and Elise Henson is a former program analyst at the Corporation.

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Andrew Carnegie Fellow Marcia Chatelain calls for innovative and inclusive ways to teach and support first-generation students across the U.S.

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Vocational education.

• Stephen Billett Stephen Billett Griffith University, School of Education and Professional Studies
• https://doi.org/10.1093/acrefore/9780190264093.013.1739
• Published online: 18 July 2022

This chapter aims to discuss what constitutes the project of vocational education through the elaboration of its key purposes. Although taking many and diverse institutional forms, and being perhaps the least unitary of educational sectors, vocational education stands as a distinct and long-standing educational provision premised on its own specific set of purposes. It has long been central to generating the occupational capacities that societies, communities, and workplaces need, contributing to individuals’ initial and ongoing occupational advancement and their sense of selves as working age adults. It also has the potential to be, and often is, the most inclusive of educational sectors by virtue of engaging the widest range of learners within its programs and institutions. Yet, because its manifestations are shaped by country-specific institutional arrangements and historical developments, it defies attempts to easily and crisply define or capture the singularity of its purposes, forms, and contributions. In some countries it is a distinct educational sector, quite separate from both schools and universities. This can include having industry-experienced teachers. In others, it is mainly enacted in high schools in the form of a broadly based technology education, mainly intended for students not progressing educationally beyond schooling, which promotes and reinforces its low standing. In others again, it comprises in postsecondary institutions that combine general and occupational education. These distinctions, such as being either more or less general or occupational educational provision, also change across time as policy imperatives arise and decline. Much of vocational education provisions are associated with initial occupational preparation, but some are also seen more generally as preparation for engaging in working life, and then others have focuses on continuing education and training and employability across working lives. Sometimes it is enacted wholly within educational institutions, but others can include, and even largely comprise, experiences in workplaces. So, whereas the institutions and provisions of primary, secondary, and university education have relatively common characteristics and profiles, this is far less the case with what is labeled vocational education. Indeed, because of the diversity of its forms and purposes, it is often the least distinguishable of the educational sectors within and across countries. In seeking to advance what constitutes vocational education, the approach adopted here is to focus on its four key educational purposes. These comprise of (a) preparation for the world of work, (b) identifying a preferred occupation, (c) occupational preparation, and (d) ongoing development across working life.

• vocational education
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• developing occupational capacities
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What’s the point of education? It’s no longer just about getting a job

Researcher for the University of Queensland Critical Thinking Project; and Online Teacher at Education Queensland's IMPACT Centre, The University of Queensland

Disclosure statement

Luke Zaphir does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Queensland provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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This essay is part of a series of articles on the future of education.

For much of human history, education has served an important purpose, ensuring we have the tools to survive. People need jobs to eat and to have jobs, they need to learn how to work.

Education has been an essential part of every society. But our world is changing and we’re being forced to change with it. So what is the point of education today?

The ancient Greek model

Some of our oldest accounts of education come from Ancient Greece. In many ways the Greeks modelled a form of education that would endure for thousands of years. It was an incredibly focused system designed for developing statesmen, soldiers and well-informed citizens.

Most boys would have gone to a learning environment similar to a school, although this would have been a place to learn basic literacy until adolescence. At this point, a child would embark on one of two career paths: apprentice or “citizen”.

On the apprentice path, the child would be put under the informal wing of an adult who would teach them a craft. This might be farming, potting or smithing – any career that required training or physical labour.

The path of the full citizen was one of intellectual development. Boys on the path to more academic careers would have private tutors who would foster their knowledge of arts and sciences, as well as develop their thinking skills.

The private tutor-student model of learning would endure for many hundreds of years after this. All male children were expected to go to state-sponsored places called gymnasiums (“school for naked exercise”) with those on a military-citizen career path training in martial arts.

Those on vocational pathways would be strongly encouraged to exercise too, but their training would be simply for good health.

Read more: Guide to the classics: Homer's Iliad

Until this point, there had been little in the way of education for women, the poor and slaves. Women made up half of the population, the poor made up 90% of citizens, and slaves outnumbered citizens 10 or 20 times over .

These marginalised groups would have undergone some education but likely only physical – strong bodies were important for childbearing and manual labour. So, we can safely say education in civilisations like Ancient Greece or Rome was only for rich men.

While we’ve taken a lot from this model, and evolved along the way, we live in a peaceful time compared to the Greeks. So what is it that we want from education today?

We learn to work – the ‘pragmatic purpose’

Today we largely view education as being there to give us knowledge of our place in the world, and the skills to work in it. This view is underpinned by a specific philosophical framework known as pragmatism. Philosopher Charles Peirce – sometimes known as the “father of pragmatism” – developed this theory in the late 1800s.

There has been a long history of philosophies of knowledge and understanding (also known as epistemology). Many early philosophies were based on the idea of an objective, universal truth. For example, the ancient Greeks believed the world was made of only five elements: earth, water, fire, air and aether .

Read more: Where to start reading philosophy?

Peirce, on the other hand, was concerned with understanding the world as a dynamic place. He viewed all knowledge as fallible. He argued we should reject any ideas about an inherent humanity or metaphysical reality.

Pragmatism sees any concept – belief, science, language, people – as mere components in a set of real-world problems.

In other words, we should believe only what helps us learn about the world and require reasonable justification for our actions. A person might think a ceremony is sacred or has spiritual significance, but the pragmatist would ask: “What effects does this have on the world?”

Education has always served a pragmatic purpose. It is a tool to be used to bring about a specific outcome (or set of outcomes). For the most part, this purpose is economic .

Why go to school? So you can get a job.

Education benefits you personally because you get to have a job, and it benefits society because you contribute to the overall productivity of the country, as well as paying taxes.

But for the economics-based pragmatist, not everyone needs to have the same access to educational opportunities. Societies generally need more farmers than lawyers, or more labourers than politicians, so it’s not important everyone goes to university.

You can, of course, have a pragmatic purpose in solving injustice or creating equality or protecting the environment – but most of these are of secondary importance to making sure we have a strong workforce.

Pragmatism, as a concept, isn’t too difficult to understand, but thinking pragmatically can be tricky. It’s challenging to imagine external perspectives, particularly on problems we deal with ourselves.

How to problem-solve (especially when we are part of the problem) is the purpose of a variant of pragmatism called instrumentalism.

Contemporary society and education

In the early part of the 20th century, John Dewey (a pragmatist philosopher) created a new educational framework. Dewey didn’t believe education was to serve an economic goal. Instead, Dewey argued education should serve an intrinsic purpose : education was a good in itself and children became fully developed as people because of it.

Much of the philosophy of the preceding century – as in the works of Kant, Hegel and Mill – was focused on the duties a person had to themselves and their society. The onus of learning, and fulfilling a citizen’s moral and legal obligations, was on the citizens themselves.

Read more: Explainer: what is inquiry-based learning and how does it help prepare children for the real world?

But in his most famous work, Democracy and Education , Dewey argued our development and citizenship depended on our social environment. This meant a society was responsible for fostering the mental attitudes it wished to see in its citizens.

Dewey’s view was that learning doesn’t just occur with textbooks and timetables. He believed learning happens through interactions with parents, teachers and peers. Learning happens when we talk about movies and discuss our ideas, or when we feel bad for succumbing to peer pressure and reflect on our moral failure.

Learning would still help people get jobs, but this was an incidental outcome in the development of a child’s personhood. So the pragmatic outcome of schools would be to fully develop citizens.

Today’s educational environment is somewhat mixed. One of the two goals of the 2008 Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians is that:

All young Australians become successful learners, confident and creative individuals, and active and informed citizens.

But the Australian Department of Education believes:

By lifting outcomes, the government helps to secure Australia’s economic and social prosperity.

A charitable reading of this is that we still have the economic goal as the pragmatic outcome, but we also want our children to have engaging and meaningful careers. We don’t just want them to work for money but to enjoy what they do. We want them to be fulfilled.

Read more: The Melbourne Declaration on Educational Goals for Young Australians: what it is and why it needs updating

And this means the educational philosophy of Dewey is becoming more important for contemporary society.

Part of being pragmatic is recognising facts and changes in circumstance. Generally, these facts indicate we should change the way we do things.

On a personal scale, that might be recognising we have poor nutrition and may have to change our diet. On a wider scale, it might require us to recognise our conception of the world is incorrect, that the Earth is round instead of flat.

When this change occurs on a huge scale, it’s called a paradigm shift.

The paradigm shift

Our world may not be as clean-cut as we previously thought. We may choose to be vegetarian to lessen our impact on the environment. But this means we buy quinoa sourced from countries where people can no longer afford to buy a staple, because it’s become a “superfood” in Western kitchens.

If you’re a fan of the show The Good Place, you may remember how this is the exact reason the points system in the afterlife is broken – because life is too complicated for any person to have the perfect score of being good.

All of this is not only confronting to us in a moral sense but also seems to demand we fundamentally alter the way we consume goods.

And climate change is forcing us to reassess how we have lived on this planet for the last hundred years, because it’s clear that way of life isn’t sustainable.

Contemporary ethicist Peter Singer has argued that, given the current political climate, we would only be capable of radically altering our collective behaviour when there has been a massive disruption to our way of life.

If a supply chain is broken by a climate-change-induced disaster, there is no choice but to deal with the new reality. But we shouldn’t be waiting for a disaster to kick us into gear.

Making changes includes seeing ourselves as citizens not only of a community or a country, but also of the world.

Read more: Students striking for climate action are showing the exact skills employers look for

As US philosopher Martha Nussbaum argues, many issues need international cooperation to address . Trade, environment, law and conflict require creative thinking and pragmatism, and we need a different focus in our education systems to bring these about.

Education needs to focus on developing the personhood of children, as well as their capability to engage as citizens (even if current political leaders disagree) .

If you’re taking a certain subject at school or university, have you ever been asked: “But how will that get you a job?” If so, the questioner sees economic goals as the most important outcomes for education.

They’re not necessarily wrong, but it’s also clear that jobs are no longer the only (or most important) reason we learn.

Read the essay on what universities must do to survive disruption and remain relevant.

• Ancient Greece
• The future of education

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Work and education

‘Do well at school and you’ll get a good job,’ many a parent has told a child and many a teacher has told a teacher. What they mean is that higher levels of knowledge, skill and qualifications are linked to better-paid employment. They are right: level of education is a reliable predictor of adult earning capacity.

In the modern era of mass, institutionalised education, school performs the social role of sifting and sorting people into different kinds of jobs. One aspect of this role is simply functional: ordinary workers need some literacy and numeracy basics to function effectively in the workplace. Sometimes those basics are no more than rudimentary skills. At other times they reflect a set of dispositions inculcated at school: punctuality, a capacity to understand orders and a willingness to comply. Until recently, a relatively small number of workers also needed to have higher-level knowledge and skills, and so received the additional training required for them to be tradespeople or professionals.

More than providing skills for work, schooling’s promise also goes to the heart of the meaning and purpose of modern society. Education is one of the core commitments of an unequal society. Although not everyone will end up with jobs that are equally good, everybody has a chance to do well at school and get a good job – or so the argument runs among people who are convinced that today’s social arrangements are as good as it gets. Roughly speaking, the kind of job you have reflects how well you have done at school, and if you haven’t done well enough at school to get a good job, you have only yourself to blame. On the other hand, many social scientists would argue that chances are not that evenly balanced – not everybody comes from social circumstances that provide access to equally well-resourced education. In this socially critical view, society and education are not so fair at all (Bowles and Gintis 1976). However, whether you want to rationalise or critique an unequal society, the education-to-work nexus is a critical part of the explanation of how society works to distribute resources.

In this chapter, we examine the connections between education and three paradigms of work. The first two are widely known as Fordism and post-Fordism. The third, which we have named ‘productive diversity’, is the subject of our research and development work into education for the workplace (Cope and Kalantzis 1997). It is an optimistic view of the way work may be organised in the near future, based on emerging trends in work organisation today. Productive diversity is a perspective whose practice also is com- promised by the structures of inequality, but nevertheless attempts to move realistically in the direction of a more equitable society.

All three paradigms of work are alive and well today, depending on the sector of the economy in which an enterprise operates, which part of the world the workplace is located or whether the workplace is a traditional industrial setting. Sometimes the different approaches can be found in different places and at different moments within a single, contemporary workplace. At different times and in different places, the earlier Fordist or post-Fordist approaches still seem to make a certain kind of sense, even if at times that sense can be explained in terms of institutional inertia or uneven development. At other times they seem anachronistic or unjust.

In each of the three sections of this chapter, we explore the connections between work and education according to the following dimensions:

• dimension 1: technology
• dimension 2: management
• dimension 3: workers’ education and skills
• dimension 4: markets and society.

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Development of "non-cognitive" skills (soft skills) play an important part in college and career success. Non-cognitive factors featured in WEE include motivation, time management, perseverance, and self-regulation.

Students will develop ready-to-work attitudes/interview skills; financial literacy; knowledge of workplace safety and rights as workers; business operations; how to read an earnings statement and know what payroll deductions to expect; career decision making; making a career goal plan and much more.

The WEE is a course of study which may be established by the governing board of any school district or charter school, or other specified local educational agency (LEA) in accordance with the provisions of the California Education Code Section 51760 and the California Code of Regulations (CCR) , Title 5, Section 10070-75. Each LEA that elects to conduct a WEE program must submit a Secondary District plan for WEE to the California Department of Education for approval.

The operational plan of the WEE program combines an on-the-job component with related classroom instruction designed to maximize the value of on-the-job experiences. Students' success in WEE programs depends on the quality of classroom instruction, effective collaboration between employers and the WEE coordinators, and the degree of involvement by the students and their parents or legal guardians.

The WEE program is an integrated educational process that: (1) helps students to choose a career path based on their interests and aptitudes; (2) prepares them for college and career success; and (3) affords students the opportunity to learn to work with others in ways that are successful and rewarding. The WEE program connects inputs from teachers, counselors, students, parents, and employers to achieve the following purposes:

• Link the academic core curriculum with the world of work and promote students' school-to-career transitions.
• Help students develop skills, habits, and attitudes conducive to job success and personal growth.
• Assist students in career exploration and forging rewarding relationships with employers.
• Develop a positive work ethic and acquire or refine work related skills and job performance in actual work settings.

Program Types

The WEE includes both paid and non-paid experiences. The LEA may offer one or more of the following types of WEE programs authorized by the CCR, Title 5, Section 10071:

Exploratory Work Experience Education (EWEE)

The objective of EWEE is to provide career guidance to students and ascertain their interests and aptitudes for specific careers through opportunities to observe and sample a variety of conditions of work. The EWEE includes a combination of job observations and related classroom instruction in WEE. The student may be required to perform non-paid work activities while exploring the occupation on a limited, periodic, and sampling basis. The length of exploratory assignment may vary, depending on the aptitude of the student, the occupation being explored, the facilities of the work station, and the job classification. Students may not participate in EWEE programs if pay is received for similar work at the same work station or a similar job during hours when not assigned to the EWEE program. (The student cannot replace a paid employee.) The LEA must provide Workers' Compensation Insurance for the student. Students enrolled in EWEE may be as young as 12 years of age. Students participating in EWEE do not need a work permit.

General Work Experience Education (GWEE)

The purpose of GWEE is to provide students with opportunities for applying the basic skills of reading, writing, and computation through a combination of supervised employment in any occupational field and related classroom instruction. Students participating in GWEE typically require a work permit. (Visit Work Permits for Students to learn more about work permits.)

Career Technical Work Experience Education (CTWEE)

The intent of CTWEE is to reinforce and extend vocational learning opportunities for students through a combination of related classroom instruction and supervised paid employment. The CTWEE is to develop and refine occupational competencies necessary to acquire paid employment to adapt to the employment environment, and to advance in an occupation. Students enrolled in CTWEE must have a worksite placement or employment that is related to a previous or concurrently enrolled Career Technical Education course of study.

• WEE Secondary District Plan and Application (DOC)
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• Frequently Asked Questions: Work Permits
• CTE Model Curriculum Standards
• Perkins Career and Technical Education
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About education

UNESCO believes that education is a human right for all throughout life and that access must be matched by quality. The Organization is the only United Nations agency with a mandate to cover all aspects of education. It has been entrusted to lead the Global Education 2030 Agenda through  Sustainable Development Goal 4 . The roadmap to achieve this is the  Education 2030 Framework for Action  (FFA).

UNESCO provides global and regional leadership in education, strengthens education systems worldwide and responds to contemporary global challenges through education with gender equality an underlying principle.

Its work encompasses educational development from pre-school to higher education and beyond. Themes include global citizenship and sustainable development, human rights and gender equality, health and HIV and AIDS, as well as technical and vocational skills development.

How we work

UNESCO leads the coordination and monitoring of the  Global Education 2030 Agenda  through Sustainable Development Goal 4  and using the  Education 2030 Framework for Action  as a roadmap.

The  UNESCO Education Strategy 2014-2021  has three strategic objectives:

The education sector is shifting and evolving towards a more explicit, active commitment to addressing gender-related barriers within and beyond the education system. This shift is being accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic with more NGOs, local governments as well as national governments recognizing the role education has in promoting gender-transformative change. Many are responding to this shift with innovations that aim to address the persistent challenges faced by girls and women in education. By highlighting these key practices through the Prize, we can contribute to inspiring more action for girls and women.

We speak about the importance of gender-transformative change both in and beyond education. Can you define what this means for you?

Gender-transformative education aims not only to respond to gender disparities within the education system but also to harness the full potential of education to transform attitudes, practices and discriminatory gender norms. Education can support critical changes for gender equality, such as promoting women’s leadership, preventing gender-based violence, and catalyzing boys' and men's engagement to embrace gender equality.

I have been very impressed by the capacity shown by many organizations and individuals nominated to adapt to the COVID-19 pandemic to ensure they could maintain the delivery of their programmes. We know that fewer girls and women have access to and use the internet, and the digital gender gap is growing, particularly in developing countries. Many found new ways of delivering educational content and finding solutions to conduct fully online or blended approaches to learning, often in low-resource settings where access to the internet is extremely limited.  

Related items

• SDG: SDG 4 - Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all

School Resource Officers (SROs), Explained

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The topic of school policing remains difficult and contested—from viral videos of police and student encounters gone wrong, to a seeming surge in violence that’s causing some districts to consider adding more cops in schools, to perennial fears about school shootings.

Our explainer outlines the definition of school resource officers, how they differ from other police and school safety personnel in schools, research on their effectiveness, and some of the difficult tradeoffs district officials and others must contend with as they examine their school policing programs.

What is a school resource officer? Are SROs armed?

A school resource officer is a sworn law-enforcement officer with arrest powers who works, either full or part time, in a school setting. Nearly all SROs are armed (about 91 percent, according to federal data), and most carry other restraints like handcuffs as well.

What does school resource officer training look like?

The main difference separating an SRO from other police officers is that, in theory, they have had some special training on how to work with youths. A membership group for SROs, the National Association of School Resource Officers, offers several such courses. NASRO’s basic 40-hour training includes some content on the adolescent brain, cyber safety, and violence prevention in schools, among other topics.

In practice, it’s not clear how many school police actually have had this training or similar types. States set different requirements for what training SROs need to have before working in schools, and some SROs report feeling unprepared for the job. In a 2018 Education Week Research Survey of SROs, about 1 in 5 respondents said they didn’t have sufficient training to work in a school environment, only 39 percent said they had training on child trauma, and about half said they hadn’t been trained to work with special education students.

What do school resource officers do?

As for daily duties, NASRO indicates that officers play a tripartite role of law enforcement, informal mentoring and counseling, and some in-person teaching. In this sense, the theory of school-based policing is aligned with that of community policing: using local partnerships with other public entities to bring more resources to bear on safety.

Similar to the debate about whether community policing truly improves trust in law enforcement and safety—or merely increases surveillance—critics question whether it’s possible for the same officers to play all those roles at once.

A recent NASRO survey underscores this potential tension. It found that two-thirds of SROs responding said they most identified with law enforcement, and just over a quarter most identified with being a mentor. (These findings are generally consistent with prior research on school police officers’ own perception of their roles. ) Yet the officers also reported that they spent the greatest amount of their time—48 percent of it—on mentoring activities.

School resource officer statistics: How many SROs are there?

SROs are not required to register in any kind of national database, so there are only estimates of their numbers—no firm tally.

Federal data estimate that in the 2015-16 school year, there were some 52,000 full or part-time SROs in schools at least once a week, plus another 15,500 sworn law enforcement officers in schools who were not SROs.

Another way to examine this picture is to look at the proportion of schools that employ an SRO.

The most recent federal data available, from the 2017-18 school year, show that about 45 percent of schools had an SRO in place at least once a week. (Another 13 percent of schools reported hosting police who were not SROs.)

This represents a steady growth over the last few decades; only 32 percent of schools reported having an SRO in 2005-06.

As these data suggest, an SRO may not be stationed in just one school; some are responsible for several campuses. The Maryland Center for School Safety found , for instance, that there were 439 SROs serving schools in that state as of 2020, but only 328 were assigned to just one school.

Why has the number of school resource officers grown?

Although school policing has been around since at least the late 1950s, it expanded notably in the 1990s due to three major factors: concerns about rising rates of juvenile crime in the 1990s, the federal government’s funding of community policing programs beginning with the 1994 crime bill and its establishment of the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) hiring program, and the 1999 Columbine shooting in Littleton, Colo.

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Justice began specifically making grants to increase the number of SROs in schools through the COPS in Schools program, resulting by some estimates more than $700 million being granted to districts to hire SROs between 1999 and 2005. That grant has ended but districts can still receive federal grants through the broader COPS funding.

Traditionally, SROs have been more common in secondary schools than in elementary schools, but there are indications that the proportion working in elementary schools has risen. This appears to be a relatively recent phenomenon caused by several high-profile school shootings in the late 2010s, as states began to pass laws requiring SROs or other armed personnel in schools.

The end result is that more districts have added SROs in lower grades. Florida saw a dramatic increase in police presence between 2017-18 and 2018-19 after passing legislation developed in response to the 2018 school shootings in Parkland, with much of that due to increases in the the elementary grades .

Besides school resource officers, are there other police officers or armed individuals who work in and around schools?

Yes. These can be campus security officers, regular beat cops who are assigned to school areas, and even laypeople.

A 2018 Maryland law, for example, requires schools to have SROs or “adequate police coverage,” which can include sheriff’s deputies, patrol officers, or others who can access school grounds in response to calls or to conduct other business.

And a Florida law passed the same year required all schools to hire either an SRO or to have an armed guardian, a layperson who carries a firearm and participates in a state training program.

Do districts get to select school resource officers?

This depends on the arrangement that school districts have with law-enforcement agencies. Some have little say in selecting the officers, while in other districts, central office administrators or even principals can interview the officers and select or reject candidates.

A handful of large districts, including Miami-Dade, Los Angeles, Dallas, and Houston, among others, have their own in-house police forces, presumably because they can more directly control hiring and train them for the nuances of their own schools, though there is little to suggest that an in-house police force yields different outcomes for safety. Other districts, including Shelby County, Tenn., are expressing new interest in these arrangements.

What is an MOU? What do they govern?

A memorandum of understanding or MOU is an interagency agreement that theoretically documents how SROs are selected and trained, prescribes their duties and limitations, details how the agreement can be renewed or modified, and specifies how costs are apportioned among the agencies.

Only about two-thirds of districts in 2017-18 reported having such a document. And even then many respondents were unsure whether theirs specified their SROs’ role in disciplinary matters, on the use of firearms, or on arrests.

Some districts, including Chicago and New York City, have recently modified these documents to clarify that SROs should not be involved in routine discipline matters (like a student interrupting or refusing to follow directions in class). New York’s also calls on them to use diversionary tactics for low-level crimes and only to arrest in the case of violent crimes or felonies.

It’s not clear how such changes might affect outcomes for students, because researchers haven’t yet attempted to analyze a large sample of MOUs or to correlate specific features of MOUs to things like student safety, behavioral incidents in schools, juvenile-justice referrals, or other outcomes.

What do we know about school resource officers and their effectiveness on schools from research?

Studying SROs is a difficult task. They usually aren’t managed by schools, but by police departments, which makes it difficult to track which schools have officers. Until this decade, cause-and-effect research on SROs was virtually nonexistent, despite the millions of dollars spent hiring, training, and placing them in schools.

Now that’s starting to change. Newer studies have used complex statistical methods to link the presence of SROs to both student behavior patterns and their consequences. The emerging picture suggests that while school police do mitigate some types of violence in schools, their presence also increases certain kinds of disciplinary outcomes, including suspensions and expulsions, as well as arrests. (See the next header for details.)

Despite these advances, many holes remain in the research. For one thing, even the best empirical studies don’t offer a lot of insight into what happens in the black box of school culture. Principals, for example, are the ones who ultimately make decisions about school discipline and suspensions, suggesting some of these patterns are not merely due to police officers’ presence but because educators are asking them to intervene. The findings point, in other words, to a larger problem of the cultural context of schools. (In its own survey of SROs, for example, NASRO officers reported that more than a third of arrests they made were referred to them by school staff.)

We also know less about how other differences in SRO characteristics shape school policing. For example, how does an SRO’s age, experience, type or intensity of training, or other factor influence how they work with principals, teachers, and educators?

Case studies, observations and interviews of SROs paint a more qualitative picture of SROs’ beliefs and attitudes about their roles. These tend to be based on non-nationally representative samples, though, which could introduce bias into the results.

Some advocates, including Black Lives Matter activists, argue that school resource officers contribute to a ‘school to prison pipeline.’ Why?

Analyses of federal education data by the EdWeek Research Center and other news organizations have detailed large, persistent disparities in arrests at schools by student race .

Education Week found, for instance, that in 43 states and the District of Columbia, Black students were arrested at school at disproportionately high levels—sometimes at shockingly high rates. In 10 states, it found that the share of arrested Black students was 20 percentage points higher than these students’ share of enrollment. (These figures were most disproportionate for Black students, but, to a lesser extent, also show up for other students of color.)

Such patterns have long been highlighted by civil rights advocates as a product of systemic racism in schools. Those advocates have also pointed to larger structural problems affecting Black students including higher suspension and disciplinary rates, as well as to reduced access to quality teachers and advanced coursetaking.

Research on implicit bias shows that, for example, Black boys and girls as young as 10 are viewed as older, more worldly, and more likely to be perceived as guilty by police than other students. Thus advocates for Black students argue that the police presence tends to subject these students to harsher discipline and to funnel more of them into the penal system.

While suggestive, these data weren’t conclusive evidence that police in schools were directly responsible for these patterns; perhaps SROs were simply more likely to work in schools with more problems.

But now a growing body of new empirical research shows a consistent link between the presence of police officers in schools and these discipline patterns. Most of this research is based on analyses of districts that have participated in the COPS grant program. Researchers have found ways to compare discipline outcomes between schools in districts that received the grants to those that didn’t, while controlling for demographics. Some of these analyses focus on student-level outcomes.

In one study released just this year, for example, researchers found that the presence of SROs in schools that received those grants saw a higher proportion number of suspensions, expulsions, police referrals, and arrests of students compared to those that missed out on the grants; the effects were two times larger for Black than for white students. This study inches closer to a cause-and-effect model than most prior research.

It’s consistent with some other recent studies, one of which found that adding police led to more arrests among children under age 15 as a result of the grants. A study in Texas, found that middle school disciplinary rates rose by 6 percent after schools received the grants and that the increases were concentrated among Black and Hispanic students.

Recent research based on structured interviews with several dozen SROs have found that race was a key factor in their perception of threatening behavior. Those working in an urban, diverse district tended to see students themselves as the greatest threat to safety, citing fights, bullying, and aggression, while those working in a suburban, majority white district tended to view intruders from outside the school as the greatest threat to safety.

Do school resource officers help make schools safer?

In a sense, the answer to this question truly depends on how communities defines a “safe school.” Is a safe school one that has few or no violent incidents? One replete with bulletproof glass and metal detectors? One that values strong, warm relationships among faculty and students? Opinions differ, school communities prioritize different ideas about safety, and not all of the different notions are easily compatible.

That said, by at least one definition, they do appear to make a difference in one dimension of safety. A series of recent studies conclude that the presence of SROs does appear to lead to declines in violent incidents in schools, such as rape, robbery, and physical attacks.

On the other hand, it is far from clear that SROs do much to prevent school shootings—the very phenomenon that prompted a large increase in their numbers in the past decade.

In fact, one recent study found some preliminary though not conclusive evidence that the presence of SROs increased , rather than decreased, the odds of firearm-related incidents on campuses. This could be because having SROs, by definition, increases the number of guns at school. (The researchers urge caution about the finding because the number of school shootings in the sample was so small.)

These safety improvements seem to come at a significant cost for some students, as discussed in the previous section.

Have any districts taken steps to remove school resource officers?

Yes. EdWeek published a database of districts that have either cut funding to their school police programs or removed SROs from buildings.

Even in those cases, though, police may be called in the case of a violent incident or may work with schools in other arrangements.

How are we supposed to interpret these findings overall?

That’s the huge challenge facing school district leaders, school boards, and principals.

One way is to consider whether the safety benefits of SROs still justify the cost, given the documented harms of exclusionary discipline, suspensions, and juvenile justice referrals. In general, violence and crime rates in schools have declined over the past 20 years, raising questions about salience: Is it still necessary to have so many police officers in schools?

High profile school shootings, including Sandy Hook, Conn., in 2014 and Parkland, Fla. in 2018 have complicated the discussion—though there’s little to suggest that the presence or absence of school police might have prevented these.

Thus the larger question seems to be sociological. Uniformed officers and panda cars, along with metal detectors and bulletproof glass, are powerful signifiers for parents and community members that something’s being done to address safety regardless of whether they actually make students safer.

And there remains much uncertainty—as well as considerable doubt from advocates—about whether tweaks, including better-written MOUs and more district control over SRO programs can fundamentally reshape the school policing conversation.

Many research studies and white papers examine the role and impact of school resource officers. Here are some of the most important to get you started.

Fisher, Benjamin W., Ethan M. Higgins, Aaron Kupchik, Samantha Viano, F. Chris Curran, Suzanne Overtreet, Bryant Plumlee, Brandon Coffey. “Protecting the Flock or Policing the Sheep? Differences in School Resource Officers’ Perceptions of Threats by School Racial Composition.” (2020). Social Problems, 00, 1-19. Meister, Craig, and Jeyan Jebari, “Annual School Resource officers/Adequate Coverage Report.” (2020). Maryland Center for School Safety. Mielke, Frank J., Jeremy Phillips, and Beth Sanborn. Measuring the Strategic Fit of the School Resource Officer with Law Enforcement Leaders, the Education System, the Community and Other Interested Parties. (2021). National Association of School Resource Officers. Musu-Gillette, L., Zhang, A., Wang, K., Zhang, J., Kemp, J., Diliberti, M., and Oudekerk, B.A. (2018). “Indicators of School Crime and Safety: 2017" (NCES 2018-036/NCJ 251413). National Center for Education Statistics, U.S. Department of Education, and Bureau of Justice Statistics, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Washington, DC. Na, C. & Gottfredson, D. C. “Police Officers in Schools: Effects on School Crime and the Processing of Offending Behaviors.” (2011). Justice Quarterly, 30(4), 1-32. Sorensen, Lucy C., Yinzhi Shen, and Shawn D. Bushway. “Making Schools Safer and/or Escalating Disciplinary Response: A Study of Police Officers in North Carolina Schools.” (2021). Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis. Petrosino, Anthony, Trevor Fronius, and Darius Taylor. “Research in Brief: School-Based Law Enforcement.” (2021). WestEd Justice & Prevention Research Center. Sorensen, Lucy C., Montserrat Avila Acosta, John Engberg, and Shawn D. Bushway. The Thin Blue Line in Schools: New Evidence on School-Based Policing Across the U.S. (2021). Annenberg Institute at Brown University. Stern, Alexis, and Anthony Petrosino. “What Do we Know About the Effects of School-Based Law Enforcement on School Safety?” (2018). WestEd Justice & Prevention Center. Weisburst, Emily K. Patrolling Public Schools: The Impact of Funding for School Police on Student Discipline and Long-term Education Outcomes. (2019). Journal of Policy Analysis and Management.

A version of this article appeared in the December 01, 2021 edition of Education Week as School Resource Officers Explained

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What the New Overtime Rule Means for Workers

One of the basic principles of the American workplace is that a hard day’s work deserves a fair day’s pay. Simply put, every worker’s time has value. A cornerstone of that promise is the  Fair Labor Standards Act ’s (FLSA) requirement that when most workers work more than 40 hours in a week, they get paid more. The  Department of Labor ’s new overtime regulation is restoring and extending this promise for millions more lower-paid salaried workers in the U.S.

Overtime protections have been a critical part of the FLSA since 1938 and were established to protect workers from exploitation and to benefit workers, their families and our communities. Strong overtime protections help build America’s middle class and ensure that workers are not overworked and underpaid.

Some workers are specifically exempt from the FLSA’s minimum wage and overtime protections, including bona fide executive, administrative or professional employees. This exemption, typically referred to as the “EAP” exemption, applies when: 

1. An employee is paid a salary,  

2. The salary is not less than a minimum salary threshold amount, and 

3. The employee primarily performs executive, administrative or professional duties.

While the department increased the minimum salary required for the EAP exemption from overtime pay every 5 to 9 years between 1938 and 1975, long periods between increases to the salary requirement after 1975 have caused an erosion of the real value of the salary threshold, lessening its effectiveness in helping to identify exempt EAP employees.

The department’s new overtime rule was developed based on almost 30 listening sessions across the country and the final rule was issued after reviewing over 33,000 written comments. We heard from a wide variety of members of the public who shared valuable insights to help us develop this Administration’s overtime rule, including from workers who told us: “I would love the opportunity to...be compensated for time worked beyond 40 hours, or alternately be given a raise,” and “I make around $40,000 a year and most week[s] work well over 40 hours (likely in the 45-50 range). This rule change would benefit me greatly and ensure that my time is paid for!” and “Please, I would love to be paid for the extra hours I work!”

The department’s final rule, which will go into effect on July 1, 2024, will increase the standard salary level that helps define and delimit which salaried workers are entitled to overtime pay protections under the FLSA. 

Starting July 1, most salaried workers who earn less than $844 per week will become eligible for overtime pay under the final rule. And on Jan. 1, 2025, most salaried workers who make less than $1,128 per week will become eligible for overtime pay. As these changes occur, job duties will continue to determine overtime exemption status for most salaried employees.

The rule will also increase the total annual compensation requirement for highly compensated employees (who are not entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA if certain requirements are met) from $107,432 per year to $132,964 per year on July 1, 2024, and then set it equal to $151,164 per year on Jan. 1, 2025.

Starting July 1, 2027, these earnings thresholds will be updated every three years so they keep pace with changes in worker salaries, ensuring that employers can adapt more easily because they’ll know when salary updates will happen and how they’ll be calculated.

The final rule will restore and extend the right to overtime pay to many salaried workers, including workers who historically were entitled to overtime pay under the FLSA because of their lower pay or the type of work they performed. 

We urge workers and employers to visit  our website to learn more about the final rule.

Jessica Looman is the administrator for the U.S. Department of Labor’s Wage and Hour Division. Follow the Wage and Hour Division on Twitter at  @WHD_DOL  and  LinkedIn .  Editor's note: This blog was edited to correct a typo (changing "administrator" to "administrative.")

• Wage and Hour Division (WHD)
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• overtime rule

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Gender pay gap in U.S. hasn’t changed much in two decades

The gender gap in pay has remained relatively stable in the United States over the past 20 years or so. In 2022, women earned an average of 82% of what men earned, according to a new Pew Research Center analysis of median hourly earnings of both full- and part-time workers. These results are similar to where the pay gap stood in 2002, when women earned 80% as much as men.

As has long been the case, the wage gap is smaller for workers ages 25 to 34 than for all workers 16 and older. In 2022, women ages 25 to 34 earned an average of 92 cents for every dollar earned by a man in the same age group – an 8-cent gap. By comparison, the gender pay gap among workers of all ages that year was 18 cents.

While the gender pay gap has not changed much in the last two decades, it has narrowed considerably when looking at the longer term, both among all workers ages 16 and older and among those ages 25 to 34. The estimated 18-cent gender pay gap among all workers in 2022 was down from 35 cents in 1982. And the 8-cent gap among workers ages 25 to 34 in 2022 was down from a 26-cent gap four decades earlier.

The gender pay gap measures the difference in median hourly earnings between men and women who work full or part time in the United States. Pew Research Center’s estimate of the pay gap is based on an analysis of Current Population Survey (CPS) monthly outgoing rotation group files ( IPUMS ) from January 1982 to December 2022, combined to create annual files. To understand how we calculate the gender pay gap, read our 2013 post, “How Pew Research Center measured the gender pay gap.”

The COVID-19 outbreak affected data collection efforts by the U.S. government in its surveys, especially in 2020 and 2021, limiting in-person data collection and affecting response rates. It is possible that some measures of economic outcomes and how they vary across demographic groups are affected by these changes in data collection.

In addition to findings about the gender wage gap, this analysis includes information from a Pew Research Center survey about the perceived reasons for the pay gap, as well as the pressures and career goals of U.S. men and women. The survey was conducted among 5,098 adults and includes a subset of questions asked only for 2,048 adults who are employed part time or full time, from Oct. 10-16, 2022. Everyone who took part is a member of the Center’s American Trends Panel (ATP), an online survey panel that is recruited through national, random sampling of residential addresses. This way nearly all U.S. adults have a chance of selection. The survey is weighted to be representative of the U.S. adult population by gender, race, ethnicity, partisan affiliation, education and other categories. Read more about the ATP’s methodology .

Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

The  U.S. Census Bureau has also analyzed the gender pay gap, though its analysis looks only at full-time workers (as opposed to full- and part-time workers). In 2021, full-time, year-round working women earned 84% of what their male counterparts earned, on average, according to the Census Bureau’s most recent analysis.

Much of the gender pay gap has been explained by measurable factors such as educational attainment, occupational segregation and work experience. The narrowing of the gap over the long term is attributable in large part to gains women have made in each of these dimensions.

Related: The Enduring Grip of the Gender Pay Gap

Even though women have increased their presence in higher-paying jobs traditionally dominated by men, such as professional and managerial positions, women as a whole continue to be overrepresented in lower-paying occupations relative to their share of the workforce. This may contribute to gender differences in pay.

Other factors that are difficult to measure, including gender discrimination, may also contribute to the ongoing wage discrepancy.

Perceived reasons for the gender wage gap

When asked about the factors that may play a role in the gender wage gap, half of U.S. adults point to women being treated differently by employers as a major reason, according to a Pew Research Center survey conducted in October 2022. Smaller shares point to women making different choices about how to balance work and family (42%) and working in jobs that pay less (34%).

There are some notable differences between men and women in views of what’s behind the gender wage gap. Women are much more likely than men (61% vs. 37%) to say a major reason for the gap is that employers treat women differently. And while 45% of women say a major factor is that women make different choices about how to balance work and family, men are slightly less likely to hold that view (40% say this).

Parents with children younger than 18 in the household are more likely than those who don’t have young kids at home (48% vs. 40%) to say a major reason for the pay gap is the choices that women make about how to balance family and work. On this question, differences by parental status are evident among both men and women.

Views about reasons for the gender wage gap also differ by party. About two-thirds of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents (68%) say a major factor behind wage differences is that employers treat women differently, but far fewer Republicans and Republican leaners (30%) say the same. Conversely, Republicans are more likely than Democrats to say women’s choices about how to balance family and work (50% vs. 36%) and their tendency to work in jobs that pay less (39% vs. 30%) are major reasons why women earn less than men.

Democratic and Republican women are more likely than their male counterparts in the same party to say a major reason for the gender wage gap is that employers treat women differently. About three-quarters of Democratic women (76%) say this, compared with 59% of Democratic men. And while 43% of Republican women say unequal treatment by employers is a major reason for the gender wage gap, just 18% of GOP men share that view.

Pressures facing working women and men

Family caregiving responsibilities bring different pressures for working women and men, and research has shown that being a mother can reduce women’s earnings , while fatherhood can increase men’s earnings .

Employed women and men are about equally likely to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially and to be successful in their jobs and careers, according to the Center’s October survey. But women, and particularly working mothers, are more likely than men to say they feel a great deal of pressure to focus on responsibilities at home.

About half of employed women (48%) report feeling a great deal of pressure to focus on their responsibilities at home, compared with 35% of employed men. Among working mothers with children younger than 18 in the household, two-thirds (67%) say the same, compared with 45% of working dads.

When it comes to supporting their family financially, similar shares of working moms and dads (57% vs. 62%) report they feel a great deal of pressure, but this is driven mainly by the large share of unmarried working mothers who say they feel a great deal of pressure in this regard (77%). Among those who are married, working dads are far more likely than working moms (60% vs. 43%) to say they feel a great deal of pressure to support their family financially. (There were not enough unmarried working fathers in the sample to analyze separately.)

About four-in-ten working parents say they feel a great deal of pressure to be successful at their job or career. These findings don’t differ by gender.

Gender differences in job roles, aspirations

Overall, a quarter of employed U.S. adults say they are currently the boss or one of the top managers where they work, according to the Center’s survey. Another 33% say they are not currently the boss but would like to be in the future, while 41% are not and do not aspire to be the boss or one of the top managers.

Men are more likely than women to be a boss or a top manager where they work (28% vs. 21%). This is especially the case among employed fathers, 35% of whom say they are the boss or one of the top managers where they work. (The varying attitudes between fathers and men without children at least partly reflect differences in marital status and educational attainment between the two groups.)

In addition to being less likely than men to say they are currently the boss or a top manager at work, women are also more likely to say they wouldn’t want to be in this type of position in the future. More than four-in-ten employed women (46%) say this, compared with 37% of men. Similar shares of men (35%) and women (31%) say they are not currently the boss but would like to be one day. These patterns are similar among parents.

Note: This is an update of a post originally published on March 22, 2019. Anna Brown and former Pew Research Center writer/editor Amanda Barroso contributed to an earlier version of this analysis. Here are the questions used in this analysis, along with responses, and its methodology .

What is the gender wage gap in your metropolitan area? Find out with our pay gap calculator

• Gender & Work
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Carolina Aragão is a research associate focusing on social and demographic trends at Pew Research Center

Women have gained ground in the nation’s highest-paying occupations, but still lag behind men

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https://educationhub.blog.gov.uk/2024/01/02/when-apply-for-15-hours-free-childcare/

When can I apply for 15 hours free childcare?

We’re expanding free government-funded childcare so that thousands more parents won’t have to choose between a career and a family.

Currently, parents who work and earn the equivalent of 16 hours a week at the National Minimum Wage, and earn less than £100,000 adjusted net income per year, are entitled to 30 hours government funded childcare  a week for children aged three to four.

We’re now expanding the scheme so that eligible working parents are also entitled to 30 hours of government funded  childcare for children from age 9 months. This will be rolled out in stages, starting in April 2024.

It's worth noting that some providers may ask for charges in addition to the government funded childcare. Visit childcarechoices.gov.uk for further information.

When can I apply for free childcare?

The first stage of the roll out will see eligible working parents of two-year-olds receive 15 hours government funded childcare per week starting from April 2024.

Applications for this first stage of the roll out opened on 2 January 2024 . Parents will be asked to reconfirm that they are still eligible for the support every 3 months.

We recommend those eligible apply between mid-January and the end of February so that parents won’t need to reconfirm eligibility before taking up a place. Parents can apply via Childcare Choices .

From  September 2024 , 15 hours of government funded childcare will be extended to all children from the age of nine months.

From  September 2025, working parents of children under the age of five will be entitled to 30 hours government funded childcare per week.

Application for these offers will be available in the coming months.

You may already be entitled to government funded childcare. You can find out more on Childcare Choices .

What do you mean when you say free childcare is for ‘working’ parents? 

Working parents who individually earn more than £8,670 but less than £100,000 adjusted net income per year are eligible.

For couples, the rules apply to both parents, so both must earn at least £8,670 and neither can earn more than £100,000.

There’s more information available on the exact criteria on the  Childcare Choices  website, for example if parents work irregular hours or are receiving certain benefits.

How are we supporting nurseries to make sure there are enough places?

To make sure there are enough places available, we’re investing over £400 million in 2024-25 to increase the hourly rates paid to local authorities.

For 2024-25, national average hourly rates paid by the government will be £11.22 for under twos, £8.28 for two-year-olds, and £5.88 for three- and four-year-olds.

Start-up grants will also be available for new or returning childminders who have:

• completed their registration on or after 15th March 2023.
• [for returning childminders] registered at least 12 months after the cancellation of a previous registration.

Childminders will receive grants of:

• £600 for those who choose to register with Ofsted.
• £1,200 for those who choose to register with a childminder agency.

How to sign into your government childcare account

To apply for 30 hours government funded childcare, you can sign into your account at this link .

You’ll need your Government Gateway user ID to login.

You may also be interested in:

• Before and after school childcare: Everything you need to know about wraparound care
• How to apply for 30 hours free childcare and find out if you’re eligible
• Budget 2023: Everything you need to know about childcare support

Tags: 15 hours free childcare , 30 hours free childcare , Apply free childcare , Childcare Choices , free childcare , Free childcare for two-year-olds , Two-year-old 15 hours free childcare

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More From Forbes

2 major student loan forgiveness application deadlines are just days away.

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WASHINGTON, DC June 30, 2023: United States Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona during US ... [+] President Joe Biden remarks on the student loan forgiveness in the Roosevelt Room of the White House on Friday, June 30, 2023. (Photo by Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

Two highly significant student loan forgiveness application deadlines are rapidly approaching. Some borrowers may have to take certain steps by April 30th in order to qualify for any student loan relief, or at least minimize risks of significant delays.

So far, the Biden administration has approved more than $150 billion in student loan cancellation through a variety of separate initiatives, including temporary programs and waivers. Relief under one of those waivers, called the IDR Account Adjustment, already represents more than a third of that total, making it one of the most significant of President Biden’s student loan forgiveness initiatives. But the account adjustment is set to end this summer, and certain borrowers may need to apply to consolidate their loans before April 30th in order to benefit.

Meanwhile, the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program — which also represents a significant portion of the $150 billion in debt relief approved by the Biden administration — faces a major upcoming deadline on the same date. PSLF is about to undergo an extended processing suspension , during which no PSLF applications will be reviewed. Advocates are encouraging borrowers to submit PSLF forms and take other important steps prior to April 30th.

Here are the details.

April 30th Is Key Student Loan Forgiveness Application Deadline For IDR Account Adjustment

The IDR Account Adjustment is a temporary Biden administration program designed to “fix” longstanding problems with income-driven repayment plans by temporarily waiving certain requirements.

IDR can allow borrowers to get student loan forgiveness after 20 or 25 years in repayment. But administrative problems, confusing rules, forbearance-steering practices, and poor oversight led to many issues that have served as a barrier to relief. The account adjustment is designed to address this by crediting borrowers with time toward their IDR loan forgiveness term for periods that may not have previously counted, such as payments made on other repayment plans, as well as certain periods of deferment and forbearance.The account adjustment has already been a resounding success, with more $49 billion in loan forgiveness approved for nearly a million borrowers.

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But the initiative is temporary, and it is winding down this summer. While borrowers with Direct loans and other Education Department-owned federal student loans can benefit from the adjustment automatically, those who have other types of federal loans must apply to consolidate them through the Direct loan program by April 30th.

“If you have commercially held FFEL or any Perkins or HEAL loans, we encourage you to consolidate them by April 30, 2024, to benefit from the payment count adjustment,” according to the department. While the consolidation process can take around 60 days, the application itself must be submitted prior to the deadline for the borrower to receive the benefits associated with the IDR Account Adjustment.

Consolidating loans can also allow borrowers to maximize IDR credit under the account adjustment, because the department says it will credit the new consolidation loan with the highest amount of loan forgiveness “time” based on the underlying loan that has the longest repayment history. Consolidation may also be necessary for non-Direct loan borrowers to receive PSLF credit (which is possible under the adjustment, as well).

“Submitting a consolidation application alone does not guarantee any benefits under the payment count adjustment,” notes the department. “In general, it takes at least 60 days to process a Direct Consolidation Loan application and to disburse the new loan. This means that if you want to consolidate your loan(s) in order to get the benefit of the adjustment, you should submit a loan consolidation application by April 30, 2024.”

April 30th Is Also Key Student Loan Forgiveness Date For PSLF

Separately from the IDR Account Adjustment, the PSLF program is about to undergo a lengthy processing pause. Starting on May 1, no student loan forgiveness applications or employment certifications associated with PSLF will be reviewed or processed until at least July, as the department transitions the PSLF servicing interface from MOHELA to StudentAid.gov

Borrowers may want to submit a PSLF application — either to request loan forgiveness, or to simply update their PSLF qualifying payment count — by April 30th so that it is in the system before the pause begins. While the forms will be highly unlikely to get reviewed or processed prior to August, it could allow for faster processing once the suspension ends, given the anticipated backlog and associated delays that will likely occur once the program gets back up and running again.

“We anticipate substantial PSLF processing delays after the pause ends,” said the National Consumer Law Center in a new blog post covering the suspension. “Borrowers should be prepared for significant delays in processing Employment Certification Forms (ECF), updating PSLF payment counts, and processing loan forgiveness applications for eligible borrowers.”

In addition, borrowers may want to download their current PSLF records from MOHELA before the suspension goes into effect, because they will lose access to their current PSLF information starting on May 1. This includes qualifying employment periods, PSLF payment counts, and month-by-month breakdowns of eligible and ineligible payments.

“It is very likely that some borrowers’ account information, including qualifying payment counts, may be inaccurately reported on studentaid.gov or may not be reported at all for some time after the processing pause,” warned NCLC in the blog post. “We strongly advise borrowers to download all PSLF payment count and tracking information from MOHELA by April 30th, as that information may not be available or accessible on MOHELA’s website during and after the processing pause.”

Additional Key Student Loan Forgiveness Deadline On May 17th

Meanwhile, earlier this week the Biden administration released draft regulations governing a brand new student loan forgiveness plan. This program, if enacted, could provide debt relief to 25 million borrowers through multiple avenues.

With the draft rules formally published, the public now has a 30-day period to submit comments , with a deadline of May 17th. The Education Department “will carefully consider comments received and aims to finalize these rules in time to start delivering relief,” which the administration anticipates happening by the fall, according to a department statement earlier this week.

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Sunak accused of making mental illness ‘another front in the culture wars’

Charities say high rates of people signed off work are caused by crumbling public services after years of underinvestment

Rishi Sunak has been accused of making mental ill health “another front in the culture wars”, as critics warned his plan to curb benefits for some with anxiety and depression was an assault on disabled people.

In a speech on welfare , the prime minister said he wanted to explore withdrawing a major cash benefit claimed by people living with mental health problems and replacing it with treatment.

However, charities said treatment was not available now for many, with 1.9 million on the NHS waiting list for mental health services and some experiencing worsening conditions while they remain without help.

Scope, the disability equality charity, said the proposals were “dangerous and risk leaving disabled people destitute”, as well as making people’s ill – health worse by increasing their anxiety. James Taylor, the charity’s director of strategy, said the speech “feels like a full-on assault on disabled people”.

Launching a review of the personal independence payment (Pip), a non-means-tested benefit helping disabled people with the extra costs of their health problems, Sunak said Britain was suffering from a “sicknote culture”.

He added the review would consider asking for more medical evidence before awarding the benefit, look at whether some payments should be one-off rather than ongoing, and examine whether to stop cash payments for some mental health conditions.

The prime minister said it would seek to be “more precise about the type and severity of mental health conditions that should be eligible for Pip”, and that it was “not clear they have the same degree of increased living costs as those with physical conditions”.

Sunak added: “When you look at the numbers, half of people becoming inactive over the last year citing depression and anxiety, tripling in the number of people that have been signed off as sick in the last decade, that doesn’t quite strike us as right.”

The announcement led to an outcry from disability charities, which said the rates of people being signed off work and claiming benefits were caused by crumbling public services, poor quality jobs and high rates of poverty among disabled households.

Charities also raised the alarm about Sunak’s rhetoric on mental ill health, after the prime minister said there was a “risk of over-medicalising what are essentially the everyday worries and challenges of life” in the welfare system.

Dr Sarah Hughes, the chief executive of the mental health charity Mind, said rhetoric that conjures up the image of a “mental health culture that has gone too far … is harmful, inaccurate and contrary to the reality for people up and down the country”.

“The truth is that mental health services are at breaking point following years of underinvestment, with many people getting increasingly unwell while they wait to receive support,” she said.

Labour said people were already crying out for NHS mental health support, and there was an “unprecedented crisis in mental health care”.

Wes Streeting, the shadow health secretary, said: “For the Conservatives to be attempting to make mental ill health another front for their culture wars is not just tone deaf, it’s shameless and irresponsible. Instead of attempting to cover up the scale of the problem, the next Labour government will give people the support they desperately need.”

Sunak set out his proposed changes to disability benefits at the Centre for Social Justice thinktank in London. He said “something has gone wrong” since the pandemic to increase the number of economically inactive people who are long-term sick, especially with mental health conditions.

“Most worrying, the biggest proportion of long-term sickness came from young people … parked on welfare,” Sunak said.

He said the country could not afford the “spiralling” disability welfare bill of £69bn, which was now more than the core schools budget, and claimed the Pip budget was forecast to increase by 50% in the next four years.

Other measures he set out included:

Shifting responsibility for issuing fit notes, formerly known as sicknotes, away from GPs to other “work and health professionals” in order to encourage more people to return to work.

Confirming plans to legislate “in the next parliament” to close benefit claims for anyone who has been claiming for 12 months but is not complying with conditions on accepting available work.

Asking more people on universal credit working part-time to look for more work by increasing the earnings threshold from £743 a month to £892 a month, so people paid below this amount have to seek extra hours.

Confirming plans to tighten the work capability assessment to require more people with “less severe conditions” to seek some form of employment.

Mel Stride, the work and pensions secretary, told Sky News on Friday: “If you go to the GP and say you are feeling a little bit depressed, and you’re signed off, in 94% of occasions, a box is ticked that says you’re not capable of work whatsoever.

“What we want to do is change the system so that that individual will be referred to – the government is setting up something called Work Well – where they will get both the healthcare support they need, but also a work coach who will be involved to either help them stay in work if they are in employment, or to help them get into work if they’re not.”

Trade unions for doctors and nurses expressed concerns about Sunak’s suggestion that there was a risk of “over-medicalising” mental health conditions, although he insisted that clinical decisions about diagnoses were always a matter for professionals.

The British Medical Association said the prime minister should focus on getting people access to the medical help they needed to get back to work rather than “pushing a hostile rhetoric on ‘sicknote culture’”.

Prof Pat Cullen, the general secretary of the Royal College of Nursing, said: “Nursing staff are the largest single workforce in health and care, but they themselves are suffering from increasingly poor long-term health.

“The prime minister’s overtures about ‘sicknote culture’ will be deeply offensive to a profession hit hard by long Covid and a spiralling mental health crisis. Issues of population health are not ones that a government can simply instruct away.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies said the current and next government would have to find a way of either funding the rising bill for disability benefits or cutting them but that it was still unclear what was behind the increase in claims.

Sam Ray-Chaudhuri, an economist at the IFS, said: “A year or so ago, it seemed plausible that the rapid rise in numbers claiming health-related benefits was a transitory pandemic-related phenomenon. That explanation now appears unlikely, and today’s new forecasts reflect this fact.

“The rising cost of these benefits, and what might be done in response, will be a pressing concern for the next government and make the already tough fiscal situation harder still. Unfortunately, designing the right policy response is made much more difficult by the lack of clarity on what is fuelling the rise.”

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Sunak accused of launching ‘full-on assault on disabled people’

Half a million unpaid carers in UK not claiming £4,200 a year benefit

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UK state pensions and benefits: what do the changes in April mean for you?

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• Open access
• Published: 15 April 2024

Implementing spiritual care education into the teaching of palliative medicine: an outcome evaluation

• Yann-Nicolas Batzler 1 ,
• Nicola Stricker 2 , 3 ,
• Simone Bakus 4 ,
• Manuela Schallenburger 1 , 6 ,
• Jacqueline Schwartz 1 &
• Martin Neukirchen 1 , 5  

BMC Medical Education volume  24 , Article number:  411 ( 2024 ) Cite this article

358 Accesses

Metrics details

The concept of “total pain” plays an important role in palliative care; it means that pain is not solely experienced on a physical level, but also within a psychological, social and spiritual dimension. Understanding what spirituality entails, however, is a challenge for health care professionals, as is screening for the spiritual needs of patients.

This is a novel, interprofessional approach in teaching undergraduate medical students about spiritual care in the format of a seminar. The aim of this study is to assess if an increase in knowledge about spiritual care in the clinical context is achievable with this format.

In a mandatory seminar within the palliative care curriculum at our university, both a physician and a hospital chaplain teach strategies in symptom control from different perspectives (somatic domain – spiritual domain). For evaluation purposes of the content taught on the spiritual domain, we conducted a questionnaire consisting of two parts: specific outcome evaluation making use of the comparative self-assessment (CSA) gain and overall perception of the seminar using Likert scale.

In total, 52 students participated. Regarding specific outcome evaluation, the greatest gain was achieved in the ability to define total pain (84.8%) and in realizing its relevance in clinical settings (77.4%). The lowest, but still fairly high improvement was achieved in the ability to identify patients who might benefit from spiritual counselling (60.9%). The learning benefits were all significant as confirmed by confidence intervals. Overall, students were satisfied with the structure of the seminar. The content was delivered clearly and comprehensibly reaching a mean score of 4.3 on Likert scale (4 = agree). The content was perceived as overall relevant to the later work in medicine (mean 4.3). Most students do not opt for a seminar solely revolving around spiritual care (mean 2.6).

Conclusions

We conclude that implementing spiritual care education following an interprofessional approach into existing medical curricula, e.g. palliative medicine, is feasible and well perceived among medical students. Students do not wish for a seminar which solely revolves around spiritual care but prefer a close link to clinical practice and strategies.

Peer Review reports

Introduction

Education in palliative care was introduced in 2009 as a compulsory subject in German medical curricula. In the 1960s, Dame Cicely Saunders established palliative medicine and hospices as we know them today. Back then, Cicely Saunders propagated the concept of “total pain”, which means that pain or suffering in general is not solely experienced on a physical level, but also within a psychological, social and spiritual dimension (see. Fig.  1 ) [ 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 ]. Understanding the importance of spirituality in everyday clinical practice and what it entails, however, is a challenge for health care professionals (HCP) in all medical disciplines across the world [ 5 , 6 ]. Palliative care is a relatively young medical discipline which oftentimes is not sufficiently taught in medical curricula [ 1 , 7 ] and, therefore, knowledge regarding the importance of spirituality, which at many faculties is integrated into palliative care education, is scarce [ 1 , 7 ]. As a result, HCP tend to neglect the spiritual needs of patients [ 7 , 8 ]. But, if there is no fundamental knowledge in regards of spirituality and spiritual care among physicians, how can they target total pain adequately?

The European Association of palliative care (EAPC) describes spirituality as following:

“Spirituality is the dynamic dimension of human life that relates to the way persons (individual and community) experience, express and/or seek meaning, purpose and transcendence, and the way they connect to the moment, to self, to others, to nature, to the significant and/or the sacred.” [ 1 , 9 ].

It must be clear to all HCP that spirituality is a unique and subjective phenomenon that differs substantially from patient to patient [ 2 , 10 ]. Furthermore, to fully address the spiritual needs of patients, self-reflection, thorough consideration of one’s own attitude towards death, and finding meaning in life, are essential [ 8 , 9 ]. Several studies have shown the impact which the addressing of spiritual needs in the context of total pain can have on ameliorating the symptoms of patients, leading to a better quality of life and care [ 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16 , 17 , 18 ]. Thus, once spiritual needs become imminent, it is necessary to engage in an interdisciplinary and multi-professional collaboration with specially trained professionals in the field of spiritual care [ 8 , 10 , 14 , 15 , 19 ]. Summing up, it is very important to raise awareness about the positive impact of spiritual care among HCPs [ 8 , 15 ]. To increase such knowledge and accrue such skills, the teaching of spiritual care in medical curricula is essential [ 20 ]. Throughout different regions in the world, in-person didactic teaching on spiritual care is the most commonly used technique [ 5 ]. Usually, the teaching is based on case studies and many include screening strategies assessing spiritual needs [ 5 ]. Often, education on spirituality and spiritual care is part of curricula in palliative care [ 5 , 21 ]. In German medical curricula, there is no compulsory subject solely revolving around spiritual care [ 22 ]. However, regarding the concept of total pain, implementing spiritual care into palliative care teaching, however, seems like a plausible proposition.

This study was conducted in order to assess the way medical students perceive the concept of implementing spiritual care into the teaching on symptom control in palliative care. Furthermore, we aimed to determine whether an actual increase of knowledge about spiritual care in the clinical context was achievable within this seminar.

Material and methods

This study is a single-centre prospective study conducted at University Hospital Duesseldorf, Germany. Ethical approval was obtained by the local ethics committee (reference number 2022–2274).

Curricular structure

At our facility, palliative care education is structured as followed: Five lectures (somatic symptoms, psychological symptoms, social symptoms and advance care planning, spiritual symptoms and end-of-life care and care for relatives, clinical ethics) and four seminars (symptom control, breaking bad news, clinical ethics I and II). Since 2022, the lecture on spiritual symptoms and end-of-life-care is held by both a physician and a hospital chaplain within the palliative care curriculum at Düsseldorf medical faculty. Beforehand, this lecture was solely held by a hospital chaplain. As internal evaluations implied, this concept was not well perceived by medical students as the relevance to daily clinical work was not apparent to them. They did not understand how spiritual care can support somatic strategies of symptom control and how both approaches are intertwined. Furthermore, they were unsure of how to assess patients’ spiritual needs. We therefore opted for the above-mentioned approach which allows lecturing relevant medical implications alongside spiritual care. As evaluations showed, this embeds spiritual care in a more clinical and tangible manner and students seem to better realize the relevance that spiritual care has in daily clinical practice. For example, students repeatedly stated that they were now able to understand the importance of ongoing collaborations for patients’ comfort care, e.g., in more sufficiently relieving anxiety or social distress.

Since this novel concept was perceived positively by medical students, we transposed it to our seminar titled “symptom control” which is now also held by a hospital chaplain and a physician. In the seminars, content from the lectures is further deepened and there is more room for discussions, e.g. concerning assessment of spiritual needs, possibilities of spiritual care, and inter-professional collaboration. There is also an emphasis on determining which patients might benefit from spiritual care making use of the SPIR tool (patient’s self-description as a S piritual person— P lace of spirituality in patient’s life – patient’s I ntegration in a spiritual community – R ole of health care professional in the domain of spirituality), which tackles different dimensions of spirituality [ 23 ].

In the seminar, a 33-year-old fictitious patient (inspired by a real patient) served as an example case. Her situation is used to address strategies for symptom control on both somatic and spiritual domains. To achieve this, a reflective question is discussed with the students followed by a joint development of possible therapeutic strategies on both the somatic and spiritual domain (see Fig.  2 ).

Case discussion in the seminar

Our approach can be described as novel, since training in spiritual care often involves the mere shadowing of chaplains [ 5 , 24 , 25 , 26 ]. An interprofessional, educational approach was mainly used with physicians or nurses in training [ 5 , 27 , 28 , 29 ], but not with medical students.

Evaluation methods

A structured, paper-based questionnaire was developed in repeated interdisciplinary and multi-professional discussions in the Interdisciplinary Centre for Palliative Care Medicine, University Hospital Düsseldorf, Germany. The basis for the questionnaire were the learning goals that are to be achieved within the seminar, as well as a didactic evaluation. The questionnaire was pretested among medical students, and unclear statements were altered. The questionnaire consists of two parts. The first part is made up of five statements regarding knowledge about total pain, assessing spiritual needs, and defining spiritual care (see Table  1 ) on both the knowledge and skills level. These statements cover the field of specific outcome evaluation. Making use of the comparative self-assessment (CSA) method to determine if a gain in knowledge was achieved, each student evaluated their knowledge before and after the seminar using the German school grading system (1 = “excellent” to 6 = “unsatisfactory”). The CSA gain is a well described and implemented method in evaluating actual knowledge gains in education [ 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 ]. This evaluation tool has the benefit of not taking into account experiences made beforehand as they are not contributing to the effect size [ 31 ]. CSA gain is calculated as followed:

Furthermore, CSA gain was calculated with a 95% confidence interval and standard error using individual learning gain (ILG) values. These values were calculated using the following formulas:

ILG = 0 if pre = post and

ILG = (pre − post)/(pre − 1) × 100 if pre > post [ 31 ].

The second part of the questionnaire consists of four questions regarding the perception of the seminar (structure, teaching spiritual care alongside symptom control in palliative care). A 5-Point-Likert scale was used for evaluation (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree).

Study participation and analysis

Participation in the study was anonymous, voluntary, and could be withdrawn at any time without explanation. Eligible participants were undergraduate medical students at the beginning of their fifth year of medical education (Germany: total of min. six years), who completed the mandatory palliative care course. The purpose and content of the study were presented orally, and, furthermore, written information and consent documents were handed out. After completion of the seminar, the questionnaire was handed out making use of a post-then design in which the students were asked to retrospectively rate their knowledge before and after the seminar. There were no exclusion criteria other than refusing to participate. Due to the small number of students per seminar ( n  = 15–20), no demographic characteristics besides sex were assessed.

Data analysis was performed using Microsoft Excel 2020 (version 16.42, Microsoft Corp., Redmond, WA, USA) and IBM SPSS Statistic version 28.0.1.1 (IBM, Armonk, NY, USA).

Throughout the course of one semester in 2023, the questionnaires were rolled out in each of six separate seminars. Out of 108 eligible attending students, 52 students participated in total (48.1%). 25% ( n  = 13) of the participants were of female, 75% ( n  = 39) of male sex. Within the answered questionnaires, there was no missing data.

Regarding the specific outcome evaluation, CSA gains showed a relevant increase especially in the field of knowledge (see Table  2 and Fig.  3 ). The greatest improvement (84.8%) was achieved in the ability of defining total pain and realizing its importance in clinical settings (77.4%). After the seminar, medical students were increasingly able to name tools such as SPIR in order to engage in spiritual needs assessment (CSA gain 68,8%). A lower increase in knowledge was achieved in realizing how spiritual care itself can benefit patients’ needs (66.7%). The lowest gain was detected in actually identifying patients who might benefit from spiritual care (60.9%), which represents a skill to be learned rather than knowledge to be gained.

CSA gains for each item

Statistical analysis using 95% confidence intervals confirmed the gains in knowledge, which were significant for all items (Table  2 ).

In regard to the second part of the questionnaire, students were overall satisfied with the new structure of the seminar (Table  3 and Fig.  4 ). The content was comprehensible and delivered clearly gaining a mean score of 4.3 (median 4, SD 0.6, min. 2, max. 5). The content was perceived as overall relevant to the later work in medicine (mean 4.3, median 4, SD 0.6, min. 3, max. 5). It seems as if medical students regard the implementation of spiritual care education into the seminar “symptom control”, which focuses on alleviating symptoms on multidimensional levels, as expedient. They feel that implementing education on spiritual care into this seminar makes sense (mean 4.2, median 4, SD 0.8, min. 1, max. 5). Furthermore, most students do not opt for a seminar solely revolving around spiritual care (mean 2.6, median 2, SD 1.3, min. 1, max. 5).

Perception of the seminar, Likert scale (1 = strongly disagree, 2 = disagree, 3 = neither, 4 = agree, 5 = strongly agree)

Our data show that implementing spiritual care education into existing medical curricula, in our example palliative care, is feasible and well perceived among medical students. The timing of our seminar is in accordance to other studies that found that spiritual care should be implemented in mandatory undergraduate courses [ 6 ]. Students do not wish for a seminar solely revolving around spiritual care but prefer a connection to clinical practice and strategies in symptom management. This enables them to understand the relevance of spiritual care in a daily clinical setting.

To evaluate training programs, Kirkpatrick proposed a four-level approach (level 1: reaction, level 2: learning, level 3: behaviour, level 4: results) [ 35 ]. We followed levels 1 (reaction—satisfaction) and 2 (learning—gains in knowledge) making use of the conducted questionnaire. Level 3 (change in behaviour – acquired skills) was briefly addressed with item 5 in the first part of the questionnaire. As level 4 is an indicator of direct results of the training at an organizational level, we were not able to incorporate items on this level. A different study among undergraduate nursing students assessed the effectiveness of teaching spiritual care in mandatory classes: There was an increase in knowledge, e.g., in defining spirituality, compared to students who obtained no information on spiritual care [ 36 ]. This is comparable to our study, as there were gains in knowledge after completing the mandatory seminar. We reached higher individual learning gains on the knowledge level than on the skills level, as was also the case in a number of other studies we conducted [ 31 ]. This is mainly because, due to the format of the seminar, no bedside teaching takes place and scenarios that might occur in everyday clinical practice can only be discussed and serve as examples.

The concept of total pain is essential in palliative care; however, it should not only be taken into consideration in a palliative setting, but whenever patients experience high burdens on various dimensions such as pain, anxiety, grief or existential distress [ 2 , 4 , 17 , 37 , 38 ]. We were able to thoroughly educate students on total pain and its relevance in clinical settings. Spirituality plays an important role in a holistic approach. However, literature shows that HCP often don’t know how to implement spiritual assessments and how to deal with spiritual needs [ 1 , 5 , 6 , 8 ]. A systematic review on teaching methods found the usage of practical tools and the involvement of chaplains to be effective facilitators in the teaching of spiritual care [ 5 ]. A scoping review found that spiritual care should be taught in both mono- and multi-disciplinary educational settings [ 6 ]. With our multi-professional approach, we were able to introduce students to tools in assessing spiritual needs, such as SPIR [ 23 ]. Within this item, there was a definite gain in knowledge of these tools which make assessing spiritual needs of patients more feasible. This is in accordance with findings of a number other studies [ 5 ]. In our study, however, students are still unsure if they are fully able to determine which patients might actually benefit from spiritual care, even though this item still reached a learning gain of 60.9%. As concluded by other authors, there is need for ongoing education [ 5 ].

Even though our seminar entails many different aspects of the total pain concept (somatic symptom management, spirituality, and spiritual care) medical students found the content to be clearly structured and comprehensible. More importantly, they understood the relevance of spirituality for their future clinical work and perceived the multi-professional teaching as highly satisfactory. In sensitizing them in this, we hope that they keep in mind the importance of ongoing collaborations between different professions.

Our study has some limitations. Even though the questionnaire was pretested among medical students before the actual study, no validated questionnaire was used. The response rate of almost 50% is relatively low and it can be assumed that those who participated were mostly students who were interested in the topic. This might have led to bias as positive effects might have been overestimated. Due to the small study population and to protect the privacy of participating students, no demographic data besides sex was collected. Demographic data, however, might contribute to a better understanding of spirituality or palliative medicine beforehand such as age, professional expertise, or own spiritual resources. This also meant that adjusting for confounding factors was not possible. This study solely dealt with medical students and no patients were involved. It would be of interest to assess as to whether the content taught in this seminar ultimately impacts the wellbeing or stress levels of patients in everyday clinical practice. A study focusing on patients would complement the findings of this study, as suggested by other researchers [ 5 ]. Furthermore, the study was only performed in one centre; therefore, it can only serve as an example on how spiritual care education might be successfully implemented into medical curricula.

Spirituality plays an important role for many people and should always be taken into consideration when treating patients. This especially applies to palliative care where the addressing of spiritual needs is of crucial importance [ 18 ]. However, many HCP don’t know how to address topics revolving around spirituality which makes it hard to determine which patients might benefit from spiritual care. Therefore, education on the nature of spiritual care, on what it entails and on how it can support patients in everyday clinical practice should be thoroughly integrated into medical curricula. We opted to implement spirituality and spiritual care into an existing seminar and lecture within the medical curriculum at our faculty. This was well received among students. As a result, we found a clear increase in knowledge about total pain and about the tools one might use to assess spiritual needs. This knowledge needs to be further strengthened in practical clinical scenarios.

Availability of data and materials

All data and materials are available within this publication.

Abbreviations

Health care professional

European Association of palliative care

• Spiritual care

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We thank Dr Jessica JT Fischer for excellent English language editing.

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YB, NS, MS, JS, MN designed the study. YB analysed and interpreted the data. YB drafted the first version of the manuscript, which was critically revised by NS, MS, JS, and MN in several rounds of feedback. All authors have approved the submitted version and have agreed to be accountable for their contributions as well as for accuracy and integrity for any part of the work.

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Ethical approval was obtained from the Ethics Committee of Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf (Study No. 2022–2274). Written informed consent was obtained from all participants, which were all over 18 years and informed about the study before starting the questionnaire. Researchers assured participants that the contents of the surveys would be used solely for research purposes.

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Batzler, YN., Stricker, N., Bakus, S. et al. Implementing spiritual care education into the teaching of palliative medicine: an outcome evaluation. BMC Med Educ 24 , 411 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05415-0

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DOI : https://doi.org/10.1186/s12909-024-05415-0

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