Alan Pearce, the CEO of Danville-based metal additive manufacturing company FasTech, wanted fresh perspectives on improving the company’s standing as a great place to work.

Who did he turn to for those insights?

A bunch of high school juniors from the Academy for Engineering and Technology (AET).

Through the Next generation Of Work (NOW) teamship program, three teams of high school juniors collaborated with coaches and Pearce to get to the root of the issue and identify possible solutions. As part of the 2024 cohort of the NOW teamship program, 17 students worked with two organizations—FasTech and the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership (V-TOP).

Pearce was amazed by the professionalism, data and knowledge these students shared. His company is trying to recruit two of them to work as interns over the summer, allowing them to execute some of their ideas.

“When they made their presentation, my biggest regret was that I didn’t bring my management team with me. It was a great professional presentation with some strong data.” – Alan Pearce, CEO, FasTech LLC

This is the fourth year AET students have participated in the teamship model, which is spreading across other Southern Virginia localities. IALR also supported a teamship program for college students in the Hampton Roads region.

“This is an excellent thing to connect schools and business, for both sides,” Pearce said. “The businesses get to start younger, and maybe we can help steer these students.”

Solving Real Business Problems

The teamship model is straightforward: a business presents an open-ended problem to a group of students who, with guidance from a coach, work together to provide solutions.

Past problems have focused on issues such as new product adoption, staffing difficulties and environmental regulations.

“The NOW teamship program provides our AET students with a memorable, impactful work-based learning experience. They learn critical thinking and collaboration skills while providing valuable insights to a business.” – Dana Silicki, IALR, Advanced Learning Program Manager

The primary objective of the teamship experience is to provide the student participants with two essential skills: effective collaboration and problem-solving. Through interview sessions with the businesses, research and data analysis, students figure out the problem and its full context—a critical step in offering potential solutions.

District C, a North Carolina-based nonprofit, developed this framework and is spreading the model throughout the United States.

The model, which was designed to provide value to businesses and benefit the student participants, is part of IALR’s work-based learning system that connects students to careers. With just a five-hour time commitment, companies can gain fresh perspectives on complex problems at no cost, all while helping develop future talent. Students learn to utilize four critical career mindsets—analytical, design, collective and self-aware—not just to solve the problem but to understand it in full. 

The framework can be customized. For instance, the AET students typically complete the experience in about a month while other organizations may facilitate a more intensive process in just a week.

Connecting Students to Internships

The other organization that offered a problem for AET students to solve was the Virginia Talent + Opportunity Partnership, which aims to improve the internship readiness of Virginia students, institutions and employers. (IALR leads the V-TOP innovative internship effort in GO Virginia Region 3, serving 15 localities across Southern Virginia.)

The main question these students tackled was: How can V-TOP increase student engagement and awareness? V-TOP needs secondary and postsecondary students to place in internships.

Two student teams took two approaches. One focused on improving digital marketing, while the other looked at grassroots efforts. Their recommendations were simple and actionable.

• Revamp digital marketing strategy to target students directly with engaging content and highlight the benefits of internships.
• Implement a strong in-person marketing presence at colleges and universities and have the recruited students source the employers.
• Streamline the internship placement process for both students and businesses.

“I was very impressed with the level of detail they went into, trying to make sure they knew exactly what the problem was and understanding what we are already doing. I thought their insights were very, very valuable.” – Kiana Dillard, IALR Work-Based Learning Coordinator, V-TOP Region 3 Program Coordinator

Gavin Shields, a junior in the AET program who focused on the digital marketing side, learned the importance of collaborating with people who have different ideas.

“We got to solve a real-world business problem, and it felt cool because we were doing something that meant something in school. And we found the root of the problem like we were supposed to. We contributed a lot of new knowledge and ideas.” – Gavin Shields, AET Junior

Dillard will soon join three other IALR staffers – Advanced Learning Program Managers Jessie Vernon and Dana Silicki and John Hatchett, AET Coordinator who is employed by Danville Community College – as a certified coach with District C.,

“I’m seeing this model from all ends,” Dillard said. “It’s just great, and I look forward to coaching students through this process in the future.”

Taking the Experience to College

IALR and AET were the first Virginia-adopters and piloted the District C teamship program with students from AET, which has led to the model spreading across Southern Virginia. Chatham High School Teacher Tara Stafford has run cohorts in the past two years, focusing on problems from the Danville Otterbots and The Bee and Holbrook Hotels.

Teachers from Halifax and Brunswick have been certified, with Lunenburg planning to implement teamship soon.

On the eastern side of the state, Michelle Simmons, V-TOP Project Manager for Region 5 covering the Hampton Roads area, worked directly with District C to get certified as a teamship coach. Simmons and the Teamship Committee decided to implement a week-long intensive experience for college students with both a virtual and in-person option.

“VTOP regional leadership wanted to provide a unique, internship opportunity to students in the region. We hope that sharing our experience with implementing this program will encourage school districts, institutions, and employers to adopt Teamship in their respective spaces.” – Michelle Simmons, V-TOP Region 5 Project Manager

Simmons wanted someone experienced in facilitating teamship programs to provide support, which led her to IALR Advanced Learning Program Manager Jessie Vernon, who led the virtual option for seven students.

“I was so excited when Michelle said they were implementing the teamship model this summer! One of the beautiful things about teamship is its versatility. We utilize the model as a part of the AET junior seminar class over a one-month period. The Hampton Roads program was a one-week intensive, completely outside a class. We haven’t run a virtual teamship program since 2020; the Hampton Roads program had both an in-person and virtual option. As secondary and postsecondary schools try to connect more students with high quality work-based learning experiences, teamship is a great option.” – Jessie Vernon, Advanced Learning Program Manager, IALR

A rising junior at Norfolk State University with a major in Business Marketing and a minor in Mass Communications, McKensi Rice was one of the virtual participants in the teamship opportunity.

“When I saw that we would be working with a real company, this is the experience I need for my future career. And it fit well with my schedule.” – McKensi Rice, Norfolk State University 

Rice and the other students worked with the 757 Collab, an innovation network serving the greater Hampton Roads area, on discovering key metrics to measure success and ways to incentivize innovation and improve the company’s culture.

“This experience was eye-opening and very positive,” Rice said. “It was only five days, but I learned a lot about myself and how to work with others.”

IALR is looking for businesses as well as educators that would be interested in participating in the NOW teamship program. Those who are interested should contact Jessie Vernon, Advanced Learning Program Manager at IALR.