Learning how to survive after school.

Knowing how to verbalize goals, learning how to act, and in the end, getting a successful job are some lessons students are learning under a new training program. At Sacramento New Technology High School, a charter school under the New Technology Foundation, part of the students' education will involve learning the Job Journey transitional skills program, which is just over a year old and exists in eight states.

The New Technology Foundation has 24 high schools in seven states. High Tech High programs in California used the program's model when it opened a few years ago, says foundation CEO Susan Schilling.

The New Technology schools, which have no more than 400 students each, are focused on 21st century learning where teachers do team teaching, such as integrating English and history as well as science and math, and students use technology to do projects while they cover required state standards. "The kids are doing the work in the context of projects and that makes the learning relevant to students," says Schilling.

Using the Job Journey at Sacramento New Technology High is just another benefit. "Sacramento New Technology High School holds kids accountable and so does Job Journey," says Barbara Dwyer, CEO and founder of the Job Journey. It will be taught to sophomores during the course of the day, she says.

"The Job Journey is the kind of program our students have asked for" to learn what employers are looking for and how to market their strengths, says Paula Hanzel, principal of Sacramento New Tech High.

Part of the program has students list qualities they possess and then has them think of real situations in the past that prove those qualities, such as when they went shopping and returned $10 to a cashier who miscounted their money and accidentally overpaid them, Dwyer says.

www.thejobjourney.org