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Employer Quotes

The quotes below are from employers in this industry: Information Technology (IT)

They are talking about this topic: Educational Partnerships

 

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The quotes below are about this issue:
Respondents assert the importance of creating experiential learning partnerships. This means businesses and educational institutions working together to create a solid network of internships and other practical experiences for students to explore. Both businesses and higher education acknowledge challenges exist to creating such a system, but both sets of respondents demonstrate a genuine interest in creating something that would prove beneficial to all stakeholders.

Employer Quote Region
"Our situation is a little bit different given that we operate on campus. So, we're more of an on-campus internship program. We've been operating since last August. And basically I am seeing—or can attest to—the trend in increased interest in the IT field or those IT majors. So, we pull from the pool of information technology, computer science, and computer engineering majors at the university. We hire them on, and they do on-campus internship work for us while they're in their junior and senior years of school. We try to give them the opportunity for some hands-on real-world programming experience before they move into their full-time career. But, yeah, it's great to see the interest. There's a ton of interest across those majors in the program to really get that hands-on experience." Central
"Thinking about things like entrepreneurship inside of these tech programs, get the applications to the students early. So, instead of having the application in technology in a four-year degree program in the fourth year, have it right away so they're energized. And then we'll get the people who are really curious at the end of those four years much further along in that curiosity cycle. And we'll weed those other people out—the ones that just really aren't interested in applying it, but they want to get their degree or whatever. So, to me, that's a big piece. Think of the students who are already there who are really interested in it. Because some students might just kind of be going through the cycle." Central
"We have 16 students working for us right now in our internship program. And hearing feedback from the students who are working on real-world projects, they're seeing the impact. So, not only are they doing project work, but they see the impact and how it integrates with everything else from a bigger standpoint. I think it's very meaningful to them. So, it's taking something that they've learned in the classroom and now they're applying it to a real-world situation. It's very rewarding and gratifying. So, if we can provide that earlier on in the process, I think it helps connect those dots for them." Central
"I'd say your four-year degree—well, that's great and everything—but if I saw that while you were in college, in your spare time, you created a program online that thousands of people use, that's awesome. And I think if there's one piece of advice for students it's to be more involved, whether that's finding a project to do or doing freelance work or even volunteering to help work with collating in other projects. That's a big one. I'm not sure how flexible a lot of these IT programs are, but if these programs were really open to recognizing that sort of contribution and could reward the students—with credits or something—for doing those kind of programs, I think that'd be great." Central
"I like the fact that one student that we were able to hire was able to take their internship right after their first year. So, then they went back to their second year with a stronger focus as to what they needed." Central
"There can be site visits. We had a class of entrepreneurs come to our office just last week, and we have our experiences to tell them. And I made a point of saying, 'This is how we got to where we are, and these were the pitfalls, and here are the things we got lucky on.' And I think that adds to the foundation, too. It might light some of that fire. That'd be my hope. And we actually volunteer at the school. But the school could just as easily go to some of the leading companies and say, 'Can we do a site visit? Can you take some time with us?' We view it as a good opportunity to help the school system, and we thought it was valuable for both sides. I hope it was. I thought it was quite valuable to see these kids and to see the enthusiasm in some of them...and none in others. It's normal. I got a compliment that nobody fell asleep during the class! So, there was some level of interest from everybody." Central