Who should we contact first at a college or school district?
The first person to contact at a college or school district is whoever is responsible for the program that prepares people for the roles you need to fill. Titles differ from one institution to another, so it helps to know the common ones:
- Dean of workforce development or continuing education (community and technical colleges). Often oversees short-term training, noncredit programs, and training for employers' current employees.
- Program chair or lead instructor (colleges). Knows what a specific program teaches, such as welding, machining, or information technology, and who is enrolled.
- Career and technical education (CTE) director (school districts). Oversees high school career programs and often coordinates employer involvement.
- Career services or job placement staff (colleges). The quickest route if you want to reach students or recent graduates who are looking for work now.
- The local workforce development board. Knows the training programs in your area and can connect you with the right ones.
If you can't tell who handles employer partnerships, call the college's or district's main office, describe the kind of work you hire for, and ask who oversees the program in that field.
What should we bring to a first conversation?
Bring specific information about the work to a first conversation with a college or school district, along with questions about the program, because specifics give the program something it can act on. For example, "We expect to hire six maintenance technicians over the next year, and new hires struggle most with troubleshooting the equipment" is far easier for a program to respond to than a general interest in finding good people.
What to bring
- The roles you need to fill, what the work involves, and the skills new hires need on their first day
- How many people you expect to hire, and roughly when
- Where new hires tend to struggle, if you know
- What you might be able to offer, even if you aren't sure yet
What to ask
- What the program already teaches, and how that compares with the work
- Who the students or participants are, and when they finish the program
- What the program needs from employers, which may be more than job openings
- Who else in the organization you should talk with
What an employer can offer besides job openings is a question of its own. What can an employer actually contribute besides money? covers the options, from a guest speaker to mentors and work experience placements.
How long will it take before this affects our hiring?
How long it takes before working with a college or school district affects your hiring depends on what you are asking for. If the program already prepares people for your roles, you may be able to meet and interview students or recent graduates within a semester. If you need the program to teach something new, the timeline is longer, because changes to courses or programs usually go through an approval process at the college or district, and sometimes at the state level, and are scheduled around the academic year. Students who begin a revised program then need time to complete it.
That timeline is a reason to start before the need is urgent and to ask early how the program's approval process works, since a partnership is unlikely to fill a position you need filled this quarter.
Whether that commitment of time is worth it for your organization is a separate decision. Is a school partnership worth the staff time it will cost us? walks through that decision. If you're considering an apprenticeship, Should we start an apprenticeship program? covers that choice.
What if the people we hire aren't staying?
If the people you hire aren't staying, address that before relying on a school partnership to fill roles, because a partnership brings new people in and doesn't change what happens after they arrive. An organization that keeps replacing people it has already recruited and trained may find that a partnership increases how many people it hires without reducing how many leave.
Look at where people are leaving, for whom, and why. Why do good employees keep leaving when we pay competitively? covers the common causes. If your newest or youngest employees are the ones leaving first, Our younger employees and our newer immigrant employees leave first. What are we missing? looks at that pattern.
The Grantibly perspective
Lauren's perspective
Our experience with this work comes from the education and training side. We have evaluated federally and privately funded programs that prepare people for high-demand careers, including programs in advanced manufacturing, cybersecurity, technical education, apprenticeships, and other career pathways. That work has given us a close-up view of how people are recruited into career pathways, what helps them persist, where they encounter barriers, and how employers and educators work together.
We also believe workforce development doesn't end when someone gets hired. Getting people through the door is only part of the challenge. Before an organization invests in a pipeline, it's worth asking whether there are conditions inside the organization causing it to continually replace people it has already recruited and trained. A partnership with a college or district works best alongside an honest look at what happens after new employees arrive.
