Educators in Indiana are using innovative approaches to work-based learning to help prepare students for the careers of tomorrow. 

A 26-minute documentary from Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Midwest and Ball State PBS spotlights three models of work-based learning in Indiana high schools including a look at a furniture-making business started in a high school. 

The documentary, embedded below, is called From Classroom to Career: Work-Based Learning for Indiana's Students. 

Bulldog Manufacturing, a school-based enterprise that is part of the Collaboration of Shoals, Mitchell and Orleans Schools (COSMOS), is one of three Indiana Schools that highlights the benefits of work-based learning for students and employers.

A segment filmed at Orleans High School features the student-led business and partnership with JSI Furniture. About 15 students are part of the Orleans school-based enterprise with JSI. Freshmen students choose one of two pathways: manufacturing or engineering. As they become juniors and seniors, they can apply for a job in Bulldog Manufacturing class.

"Bulldog Manufacturing is a program in a whole," said Jacob Smith, Bulldog Manufacturing and Design Teacher, Orleans Junior-Senior High School. "It consists of classes, so it's also an enterprise. We try to give students real-world opportunities. That's what it's all about. We want to make stuff real authentic, so kids remember and they are prepared upon graduation."