Which contributions take the least of our staff's time?
The contributions that take the least of your staff's time are the ones that share knowledge rather than supervise people: naming a contact who answers the program's questions, giving honest input on what the program teaches, speaking to a class, and hosting a site visit. The table below gives a rough sense of what each contribution asks of your organization.
| Contribution | What it involves | Time it usually asks of your staff |
|---|
| A named contact | One person who answers the program's questions and routes requests | A few hours a term |
| Input on what the program teaches | Reviewing what is taught and describing how the work has changed | A few meetings a year |
| A guest speaker or demonstration | An employee explains the work, the career path, or a current tool | An hour or two each time |
| A site visit | Students or participants see the work being done | A half day to prepare and host |
| Real problems and projects | A workplace problem becomes a class project, with an employee available for questions | Periodic check-ins over a term |
| Equipment, software, or materials | Donating, lending, or giving access to what the work now uses | Varies with what is offered |
| Mentoring | An employee meets regularly with a student or participant | Ongoing, over months |
| Work experience placements | Internships, job shadowing, or apprenticeships in your workplace | The most time, from supervisors and coworkers |
These estimates are rough and will differ by organization. Federal career and technical education law names employer input on curriculum, standards, credentials, and current technology and equipment among the reasons funded programs consult employers, so many programs have a reason to want input of this kind.
What does it take for our employees to be good mentors or hosts?
For your employees to be good mentors or hosts, they need time set aside to do it, some preparation, and support from their own supervisors. Mentoring a student or supervising a placement is real work. When it's added on top of a full workload without adjusting anything else, it can leave the employee stretched and the student or participant with less attention than either expected.
Good mentoring is also more than answering questions. Whether students and new workers come to believe they can do the work, and that they belong in the field, depends partly on how they're treated by the people already doing it. A mentor who sets high expectations and offers real support, and who lets the student work through manageable problems rather than solving every one for them, helps the student develop. No single employee has to be everything to every student, either. Spreading the role across several people, and checking in with them about how it is going, makes it more sustainable.
If interns or apprentices are leaving placements early, Our interns and apprentices aren't sticking. What's going wrong? looks at why.
What does the education partner contribute back?
The education partner contributes back more than graduates. Many colleges and technical schools offer training for employers' current employees, and a working relationship with a program gives you an earlier and closer look at the people preparing to enter your field. It can also give your organization a better understanding of what new workers know when they arrive and what they still need to learn on the job, which can help you plan onboarding and supervision.
In a two-way relationship, each side benefits from saying plainly what it needs and what it can offer, and from revisiting those terms when circumstances change, such as when a key contact leaves or hiring needs shift.
Training your current employees through a college or training partner is a question of its own. We want to upskill our people through a college or training partner. How does that work? covers how that works. Whether the time all of this asks of your staff is worth it is covered in Is a school partnership worth the staff time it will cost us?
The Grantibly perspective
Angelika's perspective
We look at workforce challenges at several levels, including the larger system: how education, training, employers, communities, and workforce systems interact. A partnership between an employer and a school is one of the places where those systems meet, and what each side contributes shapes whether it works.
Relationships matter a great deal here. How people are treated, whether they feel valued and capable, and whether their working environment helps them grow all shape their sense of belonging and their willingness to stay. That's as true for a student in a placement as it is for an employee. Support shouldn't mean rescue, and programs can build systems of support so that no single mentor has to be everything to every student. Supervisors and mentors need support themselves if they're going to support others sustainably.
