To deliver FRNYC programming to students, your school will partner with employers, intermediaries, and CUNY/SUNY/Alternate Higher Education Partner. Intermediary partners will support your school with matching students to WBL experiences.
A WBL intermediary is an organization that engages with schools, employer partners, NYCPS, and other stakeholders to provide quality WBL programming. Your intermediary partner will be involved in setting up WBL opportunities, especially paid work experiences for students in the upper grades. For these paid WBL experiences, please consult this breakdown of roles and responsibilities. The key responsibilities for WBL intermediaries include:
- Leading employer recruiting and onboarding
- Checking-in with employers
- Managing student enrollment and payroll in Career Pathways Portal
- Liaising with the school coordinator and students to arrange students' experiences
- Creating training plans for students in Career Pathways Portal
- Interviewing students and matching them to employers
- Leading student orientations/career readiness workshop
- Troubleshoot issues arising between employers, students, and school coordinators and facilitate communication with appropriate stakeholders (including NYCPS)
- Following-up with students and employer partner supervisor for end-of-program evaluation
You will be assigned an intermediary partner by the fall, depending on your pathway, who will contact directly with your school for a kick-off meeting. In that meeting, they will likely:
- Introduce you to key intermediary partner staff members and ask for your school’s point of contact
- Provide an overview and timeline of programs that will take place that year
- Review the Career Pathways Portal where students’ data will be entered
- Discuss the I-9 verification process for paid experiences
- What students need to bring for this process (e.g., working papers, employment verification documents)
The school WBL coordinator should communicate regularly with their intermediary partner so that students may navigate the steps needed to prepare for their paid WBL experiences. The school will be expected to sign off on students’ applications and training plans in the Career Pathways Portal prior to the start of WBL experiences. Please see here for a breakdown of the role and responsibility of the WBL coordinator working with the WBL intermediary.
You should actively engage your intermediary partner as your school plans its WBL sequence and scheduling. Schools play a key role in the process as specified in the work-based learning section.
