The Consortium for Public Education Newsletter from September 19, 2022

From the The Consortium for Public Education Newsletter on September 19, 2022

Spotlight on: a strategic role for school/business partnerships

As it gears up to launch a new generation of submarines, the U.S. Navy is looking to school-business partnerships to help ensure supplies of the roughly 1-million parts it takes to build a single sub.

Under an initiative called the Pennsylvania Talent Pipeline Project, it has retained TMG, Inc*, a Virginia-based company that works with employers on recruitment and retention strategies, to pair parts suppliers throughout the region with Career & Technology Centers (CTCs) and other training programs.

The goal is helping the suppliers find employees with the skills they need, said Vince Jordan, TMG’s Chief of Workforce Success Initiatives. At the same time, it’s opening opportunities for CTC graduates and students receiving similar training.

As it is for many businesses across the country, “the biggest concern for these manufacturers is workforce,” Jordan added. “Getting people and keeping people is a problem everywhere today, but it's uniquely important for this group of companies because of what they do for national security.”

Having just planted a flag in the region in April, the Pipeline Project already has enlisted roughly 22 of the 30 companies it has targeted to reach before the end of November. Training program partners for each have been identified within about 30 minutes to an hour’s driving distance of each.

A “match day” is planned Sept. 21 for the partnerships starting up this fall, but anyone can register for the event, which features the Allegheny Conference on Community Development’s Chief Corporate Relations Officer, Bill Flanagan, as a keynote speaker.

During the school year, TMG will support employers with workshops for improving recruitment and retention practices and help training programs understand what business partners are seeking in new hires so that they can improve preparation. They’ll work toward a June 26 “signing day” when employers make job offers to be qualified graduates.

One of the biggest recruitment problems for companies is not being anticipatory enough about hiring needs, Jordan said. And training programs sometimes are so focused on building technical skills that they don’t put enough emphasis on the soft skills needed to interview for jobs or collaborate once on the job.

TMG estimates that there are some 300 parts suppliers in western Pennsylvania, northern Ohio and West Virginia that the Pipeline Project will reach out to over time, so it’s expected to be a multi-year initiative, Jordan said. Interested companies and training programs also are welcome to contact TMG, he added, noting that the Pipeline Project is free-of-charge to any defense industry.

Compared with other relationships between businesses and schools, the Pipeline Project is huge. Still, it underscores how school-business partnerships can be a key strategy for employers trying to stimulate interest in job opportunities and, in turn, can play a key role in economic development, Jordan said.

“If we can help companies get better at recruiting, onboarding, and retaining employees, it benefits the communities where those companies are and where their employees live.”

*TMG, Inc. name edited from the original newsletter