The demographics of students entering into master of public health programs has shifted over the years yielding classrooms full of eager students with little professional workplace experience. Many methods can be deployed to engage students in a manner that prepares them not only with the content and technical skills needed to thrive in the public health workforce, but the essential professional skills, as well. The Boston University School of Public Health course Managing Public Health Programs and Projects was designed with four intentional components to prepare students for successful entry into the public health workforce: an innovative syllabus, teaching cases, in-class simulations, and a real-world project with a community client. The most important and innovative element of the course is the transformation of the syllabus into an employee handbook. All essential elements are included but framed as if students are employed by the course and must behave accordingly (e.g., students must request time off in advance of a missed class). The course operates as an organization with a time-sensitive relationship with a real client. Students are expected to produce both internal deliverables for supervisor approval and oversight as well as external deliverables for immediate use by the client. Additionally, they participate in ‘workforce development training sessions’ allowing the class to have mini-lectures, case-based discussions, and simulations. Faculty use teaching cases to assess student ability to synthesize, evaluate, and apply course concepts while engaged in complex problem solving. In-class simulations allow students to put skills and knowledge directly into practice in an environment where mistakes are encouraged and leveraged for learning. Then skills are applied to create materials for the real-world project. The shifted mentality from ‘going to class’ to ‘going to work’ has been effective in highlighting the utility of many professional skills (appropriate communication, precision and attention to detail, effective meeting preparation and facilitation, etc.) that are difficult to impart to students with a limited frame of reference for the workplace. Ultimately, this course format supports students in producing highly polished and useful work products that are used in real-time by a public health organization client.