In partnership with the Texas Workforce Commission, Workforce Solutions Northeast Texas hosts a Teacher Externship program for area high school Career and Technology teachers, Counselors, and Curriculum Directors.  

Teachers participating in the program spend a week with a local employer, learning about the operations and workforce needs.  Each teacher is matched with an employer related to their classroom courses.  The experience gives insights for both technical and soft skills required in the workplace.  Each teacher is required to write a lesson plan based on their externship and translate the information they learned to their students.    

In 2023, twenty teachers from ten different school districts in Northeast Texas completed the externship program  Each teacher spent four days with an employer and the fifth day with Workforce Solutions Northeast Texas staff for a wrap-up meeting and lesson plan development.  

Comments from Teachers:

• My education and background as a high school counselor and CTE advisor limits my personal knowledge of specific health care professions.  The externship allowed me to gain additional knowledge that will directly impact advising of students both in their high school course selections and career plans. 
• The externship was very meaningful, as I was able to schedule a facility tour for my students and discussed an internship program with the employer. 
• The experience was amazing and couldn't have been better.  Looked forward to it each day, as everyone was very welcoming and helped me learn so much.
• The experience was excellent!  The information I received was very relevant for my classes and will help my students.

Comments from Employers:

• This was a great opportunity to share suggestions for new curriculum based on our market deficits as well as offer suggestions where our graduates are lacking basic skills.  We are happy to partner with our educators to aid in the job preparedness of these potential future employees. 
• It was an honor for us to host a teacher this week and allow him to walk the company and see how we do things. We talked at length a few different times about things he can do differently when his students return back to the classroom. This was a very beneficial experience for the teacher as well as our company, we look forward to next year.
• We loved this program!  We think it was very beneficial for the teacher and are possibly going to work on a new certificate program for the school.

Check out the videos from a few of our teachers who participated in this year's externship program.

If you are an employer interested in participating in the Teacher Externship program, please email Workforce.Services@netxworks.org