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A Work College is an institution approved by the U.S. Department of Education that meets the federal regulatory requirements to integrate work experience into their academic programs, fostering a unique and holistic approach to education. Guided by statute, Work Colleges must meet the requirement that all their resident students participate in a comprehensive work-learning-service program for all years of enrollment.
While a majority of students at the Work Colleges have on campus jobs, students also hold off-campus positions. Some of the colleges have developed off-campus “corporate work programs.” The work college model is student-centered and designed to enrich and complement the educational experience through work. The majority of Work College students are first-generation college participants. Students graduate from college with reduced, little, or no debt; and with self-awareness and an understanding of their place in the world and the contributions they can make as individuals.
There are currently 10 federally recognized Work Colleges:
In March 2024, Antioch College (Ohio) received a formal federal designation as a Federal Work Colleges.
A voluntary consortium supports member schools with federal compliance, conducts research across the institutions to help assess student work-learning and service outcomes, shares best practices, and supports ongoing activities among the colleges in the areas of work-learning-service. The WCC produces resources such as the 2023-A-Guide-to-the-Work-Colleges-Program.pdf (workcolleges.org)
The American Council on Education (ACE) undertook a research project in 2022 to study the following research questions:
The report provides case studies on two work colleges to provide insight on how the work college model might be leveraged to serve working learners: Berea College and Paul Quinn College.
Berea College is one of the oldest work colleges in the country—opening just prior to the beginning of the American Civil War—and has a Non-Traditional Student Program to specifically support older, married, and/or parenting students. Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas is one of the newer work colleges, having gained this designation in 2017. It was the first urban work college and is the only one with a Corporate Work Program, in which students work off-campus in corporations and nonprofits as well as on campus. It also is the only work college that is a Historically Black College or University (HBCU).
This report also explored the financial models at work colleges.
All 10 work colleges have strikingly different budgets that vary by size of budget, size of endowment, and how the work programs function at each college. For this analysis, the authors added a third work college—Warren Wilson College—to provide a data point between the well-endowed Berea College and the more modestly budgeted Paul Quinn College. There is high variation among the student budgets, i.e., cost of attendance estimates and student financial aid packages, at these colleges, as well. The wide variation demonstrates the flexibility in designing different types of learn and earn programming.
Home - Work Colleges Consortium
Soares, L; Vickie Choitz, V; and Kelly Rifelj, K. (2022). Exploring the Work College Model for Working Learners. American Council on Education (2022). Exploring-Work-College-Model.pdf (acenet.edu)
Statute of the Work Colleges: USCODE-2015-title42-chap34-subchapI-partC-sec2756b-2.pdf
2023-A-Guide-to-the-Work-Colleges-Program.pdf (workcolleges.org)
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