Build a WORK-BASED LEARNING SYSTEM that lasts

Throughline Education Partners helps Colorado schools design, launch, and strengthen work-based learning and internship programs, building the systems, partnerships, and capacity your team needs to make real-world learning work for more students.

BUILD THE SYSTEM. BUILD THE CAPACITY

We co-design the system. Your team runs it. We coach you through the launch.

Book a free 30 minute Call
Two men engaged in conversation inside a bright professional office space, one wearing a blue jacket and the other in a tan jacket with a lanyard and name tag.

The Big Three

Colorado schools have a clear opportunity to expand work-based learning.

Colorado aims to have every student graduate with at least one of these Big Three goals achieved: 

  • 12 college credits

  • an industry-recognized credential

  • a high-quality work-based learning experience.

CDE's funding framework includes eligible expenses related to program planning and design, professional development, staffing or contracted support for program implementation, work-based learning, and outreach.

Ryan Plantz, a licensed Colorado teacher and assistant principal, has worked to develop and operate programs in Denver focused on these Big Three goals. He created Throughline to help schools turn the Big Three opportunities into funded and functioning work-based learning programs for their high school students.

Explore Colorado's Big Three

  • “Ryan was crucial for creating a learning community where we were able to collaborate on resources, share communication strategies and grow best practices within the real world learning and internship community. Ryan was able to support me with understanding what structures and supports were helpful in effective and successful internship programs.”

    Wendy Rose, Futures and College and Career Counselor

    Compass Community Collaborative School - Fort Collins, CO

  • "Ryan is an exceptional leader who consistently turns ideas into action and delivers meaningful results. His ability to connect people, programs, and opportunities is unmatched. Ryan has a unique talent for identifying resources and partnerships that others may not even know exist, and he uses those connections to create impactful opportunities for students, educators, and communities."

    Lisa Hollingsworth, Internship Coordinator and Work-Based Learning Coordinator

    Mapleton Early Career Prep - Thorton, CO

  • “Ryan is an intentional collaborator and leader with the experience and heart to make real change happen. From working group collabs with alternative educators to school-based exhibition panels, Ryan leads with purpose, clarity and student-centered optimism. It’s always a gift to have Ryan in the room.”

    Jennie Preece, Work-Based Learning Architect

    Venture Academy of Leadership and Entrepreneurship - Parker, CO

  • “Ryan shows up with unwavering enthusiasm in his work. He is able to quickly identify opportunity and fosters an environment of encouragement and possibility with youth and colleagues. He has a gift for gathering folks and working together toward a common purpose. It has been inspirational to see his passion for building sustainable real-world learning programs in action.”

    Erin Fernandez, Director of Post-Secondary Success

    Colorado LiftED Foundation - Denver, CO

Statistics with the title 'Proven Results' showing four metrics: 80% secured their own internship, 100% retention rate in first full-year, 250+ community partnerships and relationships, and 91% of students agree that 'my Mentor listens, encourages, and makes me better.'

WHO IS Throughline FOR?

Throughline is built for the people stewarding work-based learning inside a school:

  • College and career readiness leaders who own the strategy and need it to hold together across grades and staff.

  • Work-based learning coordinators who need real systems and a deeper partner network, not another thing to build alone.

  • For schools with a pilot or established work-based learning program already running.

Choose your starting point.

Throughline Collaborative Projects

Whether you’re building from scratch or strengthening an existing program, we help move toward implementation.

BUILD NEW

A solution from scratch

or

TUNE UP

A program underway

LAUNCH

Put your plan into practice

Photos of diverse young professionals engaged in various work environments, including office, retail store, and construction site, with informational text overlay about career development and internships.
White handwritten style text says 'Throughline' with an arrow underneath, and smaller white text below reads 'Education Partners' on a black background.

BUILD

Starting from scratch?

For schools without a work-based learning program.

What do we do together?

We turn your vision into a clear program model and build the foundational systems your team need to put it into practice.

Together, we define the program, make the key design decisions, build your partnership and outreach approach, develop the tools your team will use, and create a plan for implementation.

What you’ll have

  • A program model built for your school

  • A WBL Playbook holding the design and key systems

  • Partnership strategy, outreach process, and agreement templates

  • Screening criteria, training materials, and student preparation resources

  • A spring implementation plan, with the calendar, forms, and trackers to run it

Timeline: 10–12 weeks · Cohorts for Fall to prepare for a Semester 2 Launch

Five working sessions, ten one-hour coaching calls, and written feedback between sessions.

TUNE

Already have a program?

For schools with a a pilot or established work-based learning program already running.

What do we do together?

Over 10–12 weeks, we look closely at what you have now to identify what's working, what's missing, and the few changes worth making first.

Together, we analyze your current program, prioritize improvements, document the systems that need to be strengthened, and build a focused plan for the spring.

What you’ll have

  • Improvement priorities, ranked

  • A WBL Playbook holding what you have and what changes

  • The program written down rather than remembered

  • A spring implementation plan

Timeline: 10–12 weeks · Cohorts for Fall to prep for a Semester 2 Launch

Five working sessions, ten one-hour coaching calls, and written feedback between sessions.

LAUNCH

Ready to put it into practice?

For schools that have completed BUILD or TUNE.

What do we do together?

We stay alongside your team while the program runs for the first time. We watch what actually happens, work through problems with your program lead, and use what you learn to strengthen the program for next year.

What you’ll have

  • A measurement plan set at the start of the spring

  • Program evaluation, measured against the aim you set

  • A reporting and reimbursement system, set up and checked before you file

  • A next-year improvement plan built from what actually happened

Timeline: Semester · Cohorts for Fall to prep for a Semester 2 Launch

Five working sessions, one each month, plus three on-site visits and monthly coaching with your program lead.

We co-design the system. Your team runs it.

We coach you through the first year.

Need something different?

SCOPED PROJECT

Need help with something specific?

For schools that need targeted support for a specific work-based learning challenge or project.

What do we do together?

We define the specific challenge, clarify what needs to be accomplished, and scope the work around your school's needs.

Projects can focus on a particular system, process, partnership, resource, or implementation challenge rather than a full Build, Tune, or Launch engagement.

What you’ll have

A focused deliverable designed around the scope we define together.

Depending on the project, that might include a strategy, process, tool, resource, plan, or other implementation support.

Timeline: Scoped to the project

We'll define the scope, deliverables, timeline, and investment together before the work begins.

WHY RYAN PLANTZ?

A smiling man in a beige suit and white shirt, with dark, styled hair, standing indoors with green plants and a brick wall in the background.

Eighteen years in education, the last ten in Denver building real-world learning, change initiatives, community partnerships, and postsecondary pathways. Ryan brings that experience straight to your team. M.S. in Teaching and Learning, Colorado Professional Principal License.

System builder
Ryan built a school-wide work-based learning system from the ground up, not just a collection of internships.

Student-centered designer
Throughline's approach gives students ownership of exploring interests, finding opportunities, and building relationships with mentors.

Educator first
With experience as a teacher, school leader, coach, and program designer, Ryan understands both the vision and the operational reality of making this work inside a school.

Leads the field beyond his own program.
Since 2024, Ryan has facilitated the Real-World Learning Community of Practice, convening practitioners across Colorado and New Mexico to sharpen how work-based learning systems get built.

Students are more capable than school gives them room to show, while the working world is changing faster than ever. Young people cannot make meaning from the sidelines. They hone their interests, make connections, and define their pathway by steeping into real work, next to the professionals who do it.