Overview

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 its 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:

1. Alice Lloyd College in Pippa Passes, Kentucky
2. Bethany Global University in Bloomington, Minnesota
3. Berea College in Berea, Kentucky
4. Blackburn College in Carlinville, Illinois
5. College of the Ozarks in Point Lookout, Missouri
6. Ecclesia College in Springdale, Arkansas
7. Kuyper College in Grand Rapids, Michigan
8. Paul Quinn College in Dallas, Texas
9. Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont
10. Warren Wilson College in Asheville, North Carolina

In March 2024, Antioch College (Ohio) received a formal federal designation as a Federal Work College.

Key Federal Requirements

• Work-learning-service is a stated part of the institution’s educational philosophy and program.
• All resident students and one-half of all full-time enrolled students must work.
• Students must work a minimum of 5 hours per week or 80 hours each semester.
• Students work at on-campus or off-campus jobs, which helps to reduce the cost of their education.
• Students must be trained regularly; students must be paid for work performed, and student work (performance) must be evaluated.
• A record of work performance must be a part of the student's college record.
• Work Colleges are expected to provide programmatic leadership by college personnel for the comprehensive work-learning-service program that is comparable to a traditional academic program. Most Work Colleges have “Work Deans” or the equivalent who oversee student work.
• Faculty and Staff serve as work supervisors.,
• There are consequences for non-performance or failure in the work-learning-service program that parallel consequences for non-performance in a regular academic program.
• Infrastructure should be put in place to effectively manage the work program, which includes tracking student hours, evaluating student work, and maintaining a record of work performance.
• Federal compliance for the Work Colleges Program includes Federal Work-Study Regulations, Work College Program Regulations, and the Fair Labor Standards Act.
• The Federal Work-Study Program provides the operational and regulatory underlayment for the Work Colleges Program.
• The Work Colleges Program allows for more flexibility in the use of funds and requires additional institutional infrastructure and oversight

Work Colleges Consortium (WCC)

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)

Research

The American Council on Education (ACE) undertook a research project in 2022 to study the following research questions:

1. Can the work college model work for working learners who must combine learning with significant earning to support themselves and their families?
2. Can the work college model be expanded or adapted to provide these learners with some sort of learn and earn postsecondary education experience?

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 is also 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.

Resources

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)