Houston ISD Work-Based Learning (WBL)

What is Career Preparation General (Career Prep) and Practicum?

Students are encouraged to participate in career development opportunities through CTE courses such as Career Preparation, Practicums, and Project-based Research that combines classroom academics with industry or community skill development to prepare students for their post-secondary goals. 

• Career Preparation General (Career Prep) is a 19 TAC Chapter 127 course that combines classroom instruction with paid or unpaid field-based work experience.
• Practicum is a 19 TAC Chapter 130 course that appears in most career clusters.  Practicum experiences occur in a paid or unpaid arrangement. They can also be offsite or on campus, which will include the classroom/laboratory hours.
• Project-Based Capstone is a course that combines classroom instruction with supervised research equivalent by a mentor. 

Please call the Career Readiness Office for an overview of the policies and procedures teachers need to be aware of regarding these programs. The phone number is (713)556-6981 or reach out to your Program Specialist Coordinator 2 (Cluster Lead). 

Additional Teacher Training: Coordinators must complete the required Houston ISD Professional Development each school year and submit proof of completion when requested. An additional WBL teacher training is provided by TEA. 

TEA Work-Based Learning Training: Teachers will also need to complete the TEA Work-Based Learning Training every two years.  The training is self-paced and will allow teachers to exit and return later. Once the teacher has completed the training, they will receive a certificate. The teacher will need to submit a copy of this certificate to the Career Readiness Department.  To access the TEA training, please click here to access the website.

Important Student Document:

Paid or Unpaid Training Plan (front and back):

Paid and UnPaid Training Plan

*If you have additional questions concerning the training plans, please click to download the Training plan FAQs. 

Child Labor Laws (Child Labor Laws)

Child Labor In Texas Agriculture (Click here to access PDF)

Work-Based Learning Student Insurance (Click here to access the PDF)

Important Reminder:

• Site Visits By Teachers
  • A teacher assigned to teach courses involving work-based learning experiences, both paid and unpaid, must visit each student training site at least six times each school year. The teacher must be provided time within his or her schedule to visit the training sites. The training site visits must not be conducted during the teacher’s planning and preparation period.TEC, §21.404  Regardless of the length of a grading period, at least one training site visit must be conducted during each grading period to earn contact hours for that reporting period. 
• Signed training plans must be on file for each student on the roster.
  • The Coordinator must upload the documents (click here to upload documents) 
• Career Preparation, Practicum, and Project-Based Research courses must span the entire school year; students may not enroll at mid-semester unless they transfer from a school where they were enrolled in the same course.
  1.  It is a campus decision to withdraw a student at mid-semester. 

Click the link to access a complete overview of the work-based learning guidelines. (Click here to access).