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Workplace Learning
Apprenticeships, internships, and real-life job experience
Quick Tips
- Work-based learning (apprenticeships or internships) are one of the richest learning resources for success in a career.
- Most of what we need to learn to be successful in a job we get from informal learning—from watching others do the job, from talking to people, from trying it out, from making mistakes, and from getting feedback.
- Work-based learning can help you ease back into the culture of the civilian workforce.
- You can choose whether you will disclose or discuss your disability during your work-based learning experience. It’s helpful to discuss this with your career counselor.
- You might have a right to a job accommodation during your internship/apprenticeship. Visit the Veterans page of the Job Accommodation Network to get some ideas.
- The human connections you make during your internship/apprenticeship will be one of the most valuable parts of this experience. Talk to people. Be curious about what they’re doing.
- Don’t just learn facts and tasks. Learn how to think and how to solve problems. If appropriate, ask them to “think out loud” as they’re making decisions or going through tasks.
- A learning journal can make your work-based learning experience more worthwhile. Capture how-to information, contact information, and insights into your new career in a learning journal. Your journal can be low-tech or high-tech.