Business and Education Partnerships Can Solve the Technology Talent Shortage
Is there a better way to get talented employees without hiring underqualified college graduates and paying for extensive training to get them up to par? There is. Instead of just complaining that today’s graduates are underqualified; your company can invest in education.
It’s easier if you think locally, not globally. Find a local college or university that offers a major in your company’s field and build a relationship with it. This relationship can take many forms, with different levels of involvement for both the school and the business.
Starting small is a good idea. Call the college, talk to the appropriate department head, and offer your company’s assistance. Offering the school a chance to train students in your company’s field, including software or hardware used on the job, means that there will be more people trained in the use of the products and procedures employees at your company use every day. This adds to your company’s potential future employee pool, and enhances its public image. Physical donations may qualify your company for tax deductions, which can help its bottom line.
Sometimes your company might have to train college professors in the products and methods used in the industry. If so, propose doing this in exchange for the college allowing some of your employees to take courses for free or at reduced tuition rates.
This knowledge swap benefits your company and the school. Your company gets graduates trained in areas it chooses and has a place to send current employees for more training. While your company’s corporate image improves, the school gains resources that make it more attractive to prospective students.
What’s the next step? Turn those better-educated college students into employable talent by becoming an internship site for the school. Internships offer companies a chance to further the education of students through real-world experience while testing out prospective employees without incurring huge expenses.
Your company will have access to inexpensive, bright, motivated labor; a chance to recruit the most qualified college graduates; and a chance to influence those who will work in its industry. Students do not forget what they learn during a good internship experience. And someday they may be in a position to choose, on behalf of an entire company, between your company’s product or service and that of a competitor.
The school benefits, too. The promise of good internships is a great way to recruit students, because internships give the students a chance to apply the skills they have learned in a practical setting. We all know how much better real-world experience looks on a resume than just educational experience.
A few words of caution: If you have interns, treat them well. This is supposed to be a learning experience for them, so don’t have them make coffee or do your laundry. Give them an opportunity to work on as many different projects as possible and to learn as they go.
The majority of interns are eager to apply what they have learned in school to the real world. Their motivation can infuse other employees with a youthful spirit and excitement about what they’re doing. So remember – before you have your intern lick envelopes all day – colleges talk to their interns regularly. They send the best students to the best internship sites. Offering interns a rich and challenging learning experience can get you the most talented students.
From both the business and the educational perspective, relationships between corporations and colleges can be mutually beneficial. If such partnerships grow in the future, the current gap between the number of technology jobs and the qualified pool of talent to fill them may yet be closed.
