School-based activities focused on employment can include a career education curriculum, academic coursework, employability skills instruction, career and technical education, on-campus jobs, career counseling, self-determination instruction, school-based enterprises, and vocational assessment (Test, Aspel, & Everson, 2006).
One effective method of providing a simulated work environment on the school’s campus is the development of a school-based enterprise (SBE). While students are developing, planning, and implementing their SBE, they are also learning key academic skills they need to complete high school.
Benefits of School-Based Enterprises:
- Provides leadership opportunities to students
- Provides training in a safe environment
- To assist students in understanding the relevance of academic skills to vocational tasks
- Engages students in starting and operating a business
- Stresses personal responsibility, group problem-solving and decision making
- Teaches work ethic and other soft skills
- Promotes the importance of academics in the work setting
- To provide opportunities to develop integrated school-to-work programs for students with and without disabilities.