Performance Metrics

Programs in the public and nonprofit sectors are increasingly aware of the need to pay attention to measurable results as well as the overall number of people engaged in program activities. For Connecting Activities, this has been a long-term practice. Our work has built-in metrics that provide feedback on results. Some of the metrics we look at include the following:

• Student participation: How many students are engaged in work-based learning experiences and career development experiences
• Employer engagement: How many employers are engaged with students in work-based learning and career development
• Employer-paid wages: Youth work experiences include a mixture of paid, unpaid and subsidized experiences. A priority for the Connecting Activities initiative is brokering employer involvement, and one of our measures is the estimated total of "qualifying wages" -- wages paid by employers to students in Connecting Activities placements.
• School involvement: How many schools are partners in the Connecting Activities initiative? And in our broader network of partner and member schools, how many are sponsoring career development activities for their students?
• Skill development: What are the skills that students develop through their work-based learning experiences? Using the Workplace and Career Specific skills built into the Work-Based Learning Plan we can look at the array of skills that students use in their work experiences. We analyze both the "Top 15" to look at the most common skills that students focus on, as well as some of the less common skills to see the diversity of work experiences and career areas that students explore.
• Skill gain: Do students show skill gain during their work-based learning experiences? We look at aggregate data from the Work-Based Learning Plan to analyze skill gain between the initial baseline review and the final review at the end of the work experience.

Basic Measures - Student Participation, Employer Engagement, School Involvement

Date Range:  July 2018 to June 2019

Connecting Activities has managed a database of the detailed information generated by the MA WBLP for many years.  It is accessed at the http://massconnecting.org site, where practitioners across the state log on to store the detailed information that underpins this initiative.  Through this mechanism, ESE is able to document the practices for which CA is responsible, including the pre- and post-assessments of work experience that enables students’ skill gain to be measured, as well as the amount of wages generated through the brokering work of the initiative.  Key performance outcomes for FY2018 include:

• 12,057 students participated in work-based learning experiences in FY2019.
• 4,927 employer sites hosted these work-based learning experiences.
• 3,232 employers sponsored career awareness and exploration activities for students including career days, job shadowing, guest speaker programs, STEM industry awareness events and more through the Connecting Activities initiative.  
• 195 high schools were partners in the CA initiative.

From our FY2018 annual report, the following chart illustrates the diversity of industry sectors in which students are typically placed.   Placements reflect our work to connect students with internships in career areas of personal interest, in emerging career areas and in local businesses that provide a valuable introduction to workplace skills and resume building opportunities.   A particular area of focus is STEM-focused placements, with a focus on placements in health care, manufacturing, science, engineering and technology, information technology, environment, natural resources and agriculture; finance and other STEM-related settings.

The following charts show skill used and our measure of skill gain for students who particpated in work-based learning experiences.  The first charts shows skill gain for the employability skills that are hlighlighted in all Work-Based Learning Plans, and the second chart shows the skill gain for the most-common career and workplace-specific skills highlighted in Work-Based Learning Plans during FY2018.