Clark State Community College has been selected for the Federal Work-Study (FWS) Experiment under the U.S. Department of Education’s Experimental Sites Initiative. The Department selected institutions to participate in the experiment based on a review of applications and information from our internal systems.
“The new Federal Work-Study program will allow more of our students to gain on-the-job work experiences in their field of study and earn an income while doing so,” said Dr. Theresa Felder, senior vice president of student success at Clark State. “Many of our students have to work while pursuing their education, which makes this program extremely beneficial.”
Felder said with the financial support provided by the Federal Work-Study program, area employers will have an opportunity to hire Clark State students and begin a relationship with the student prior to the student completing their credential. “This program provides a win-win for our students and area employers,” she said.
The goal of the experimental site program aims to allow more students to gain on-the-job experience with employers in their field of study. The selected institutions can use federal work-study funds to support more students working in the private sector and, for the first time, allow them to pay low-income students for work experiences required by their academic programs, such as student teaching and clinical rotations.
The pilot program will help assess whether students are better served when they are paid for work-based learning and allowed access to off-campus federal work-study jobs that align with their program, as measured by student retention, completion and improved job opportunities after graduation, the department said.
Taylor Roberts, grants development coordinator for Clark State said currently the work available for students is most often on-campus work. Federal work-study currently limits the amount of funds a college can spend on external experiences to just 25 percent, with other requirements including spending 7 percent on community service jobs and having at least one reading tutoring job.
“This experiment seeks to waive these requirements, opening up the possibility for the majority of funding to be spent on for-profit, external jobs, and increase the number of hours and/or hourly wage a student can receive through federal work-study,” she said.
According to the Department of Education, the objective is to understand whether increased access to private sector jobs related to a student’s academic major or career aspirations will improve persistence, completion and post-graduation job placements for federal work-study eligible students; and explore whether more students will accept an federal work-study award if given the opportunity to work more than 10-15 hours per week or at a higher hourly wage than typical of most on-campus federal work-study jobs.
“For Clark State, this means that we can explore using federal work-study to provide paid experiential learning opportunities for students,” said Roberts. “While we already do a great job of providing paid internships and co-ops, there are still some barriers; for example, students in certain majors may not be able to receive payment for their experiential learning, and many small businesses do not have the funds to support a paid experiential learning opportunity. Many Clark State students are not in a financial position to decrease their hours at their job to participate in experiential learning. This will make the choice much easier.”