WSNCT Awarded Grant to Help Teachers Bring Real-World Skills Back to Students

WSNCT Awarded Grant to Help Teachers Experience High-
Demand Industries, Bring Real-World Skills Back to Students

Workforce Solutions for North Central Texas (WSNCT) has been awarded a $200,000 grant for 2026 Externships for Teachers from the Texas Workforce Commission (TWC).  The grant will fund a regional initiative that connects educators directly with high-demand industries across a 14-county area. Workforce Solutions Greater Dallas and Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County also received Teacher Externship grants, and the three North Texas workforce boards are collaborating to recruit employers and teachers for a coordinated, regionwide effort with the support of North Central Texas InterLink.

The Teacher Externship program places educators inside local businesses for intensive, hands-on experiences that they translate into classroom lessons, career guidance, and work-based learning opportunities for students.  By aligning the curriculum with real-world skills, the program strengthens the talent pipeline for high-demand occupations while helping students better understand and prepare for career pathways in their own communities.

Teachers are among our most critical workforce partners,” said Phedra Redifer, Executive Director of WSNCT. “Experiencing today’s competitive workplaces firsthand—from aerospace and healthcare to IT and advanced manufacturing—allows them to bring relevant, real world knowledge back to their students.” WSNCT has successfully implemented five Teacher Externship cycles, most recently in the summer of 2025, when 117 educators from 23 school districts completed the program, and approximately 80 industry partners participated.  For summer 2026, the new grant will support high-quality internships for 50 teachers—including middle and high school teachers, career and technical education instructors, school counselors and administrators, and educators from higher education and adult education and literacy programs.

Participating teachers will complete at least 40 hours with an industry host over 10 days, gaining exposure to workplace activities, technologies, and career pathways in sectors such as aerospace, construction and engineering, healthcare, information technology, manufacturing, transportation, and emerging industries.  The experience includes labor-market information training, followed by a regional curriculum development session where teachers and employers work together to create lesson plans, project ideas, and future opportunities such as field trips, job shadowing, internships, and career days.

“Our shared goal is quality over quantity,” Redifer added.  “By coordinating with Dallas and Tarrant counties, we can offer employers a streamlined way to participate and give teachers across three workforce regions access to high-impact experiences that directly benefit their students, regardless of zip code.”

In 2026, WSNCT and its partners will recruit roughly 145 highly committed, high-demand industry hosts and reach out to educators across the North Texas region, with approximately 15,000 student impacts during the 2067-27 school year.