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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
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.
| "I think it needs to be more hands-on experience. The business needs to be more involved. There need to be more internships and more part-time jobs to kind of help you guys build that future workforce. I think this is a good start." | Metro |
| "I think internships for students are just key." | Metro |
| "Most students are looking for summer internships. My slow season is the summer. So, I would love to have ten interns from September to March, right in the middle of the school year. We have a really hard time finding students that are interested in wanting to intern in the off-season because of their programs. It's hard for them to step away from that program because the programs are very set. You do this your sophomore year, and this your junior year, and then this your senior year. The only school that we found that has been willing to work with us is [non-MnSCU college]. That's the only place where we have found students. They will adjust the calendar. So, that would be huge. I think a lot more internships could be offered by companies if they could do it sometime other than three months in the summer, which again is the slow season for us." | Metro |
| "But at the college level, they really don't know what the businesses need. They don't know where their interests lie. Unless they get the exposure, they're not going to have that. So, this organization, this whole wonderful MnSCU and everything else, if they can collaborate and create a statewide internship program that helps educate not just the schools and the students but also the employees on how to build a job description for an intern, how to work with an intern—or an apprenticeship program—that would be helpful. I think that would help drive a lot of what your needs are. Because you're bringing in the employees that need more training anyway. So, if they have a bit of an education, the more experience they get wherever they're located, you're going to have a better potential employee that can really reach out and can grow." | Metro |
| "One program that my company has used, which has been very successful, is a program where we partner with a business that sets up an office next to the school. Then, students work for 20 hours a week while they're in school and then full-time in the summer on the campus. That's been very successful. It's allowed us to help students understand what it's like to work with a business. So, they go into that office and they learn how to communicate, how to work, how we do things, how to partner. It gives us a chance to understand what kind of employee they would be before actually hiring them. So, we have the opportunity to test the waters, and then bring them in full-time when we have open positions. That's been a really successful program for us, and it's allowed us to have really good talent for not that much money." | Metro |
| "We've been very satisfied. In the two or three years I've worked with [non-MnSCU college]—I don't know if it's an extern or an intern program—but the way the economy is, it's usually an unpaid internship. But it gives them value and it gives us value. And they get to see what it's like to really work in a corporate environment." | Metro |
| "One of the programs is, in essence, putting individuals on assignment to help out non-profits so that they have a project and they get real project experience. They're on a team that has an embedded mentor and it has a training opportunity component associated with it. It's a little bit of a safer environment. Good opportunity to network in the community. I've seen some universities do similar types of things. But I think that's a very workable model all around. That experience really does help." | Metro |