President Obama has challenged every American to at least one year or more of higher education or career training. It's reasonable to expect that challenge will require many colleges and universities to build stronger connections between campus and the work world. As high school seniors decline in numbers in the U.S. population, many more colleges and universities will be interested in serving adults.
Stony Brook University of New York, and the work of Pat Malone, Director of Emerging Technologies, provide an excellent example of plumbing multiple education/work connections. Stony Brook has been quietly providing integrated services to its metropolitan New York community for more than a decade. The school's president, Shirley Strum Kenny, stated Stony Brook's mission is “to provide leadership for economic growth, technology, and culture for neighboring communities and the wider geographic region”.
Well, one of New York's bellwether industries has tanked. Financial industry workers are unemployed in large numbers. They can wait for a comeback in hopes that survivor Wall Street firms will re-hire them. Or they can re-skill for jobs in other industries. Stony Brook has marshaled expertise and partners to get on with re-skilling. What are the pre-requisites for such a campus undertaking to be successful?
Be located where the adult population lives and wants to work
Adults have homes, families, and schedules. They are not well served if they have to uproot or travel to a distant campus. Dorms and residence halls have little appeal or utility for them. Even a long commute can be a schedule-killer.
Employ an entrepreneurial spirit
This isn’t “education as usual”. An entrepreneurial mindset is required to customize adult training needs and an employment landscape that may be a moving target.
Imbue students with an entrepreneurial spirit.
Loyalty to employees is dead. A career is in the hands of the individual. Teach each student to define his or her training and prepare for the next in a series of changing jobs and employers.
Locate employers and business needs that will maintain or improve each student's earning potential.
An employer wants easy ways to find talent, whether hiring one person or many. Talent looks for increasing pay and responsibilities. Be like a marketplace, and help them meet each other.
Locate government agencies that will help pay students' tuition.
State workforce training grants for dislocated workers are one source. The U.S. Department of Labor is another. You may find a county or regional workforce development operation already in full swing.
Design curricula that will teach them what they need now.
Unemployed workers need jobs now, not next month or next year. They need skills that they can use in those jobs now. They also need ways to adapt their existing skills and junk what’s obsolete. .
Design curricula that does not repeat what they already know.
One size does not fit all.Enable proficient learners to test out of basic modules.
Don't teach what they won't need until year two.
Assume they’ll learn next year’s requirements while they’re on the job.
Provide counseling that builds confidence.
Make job coaches with successful track records available in a supportive environment.
Resume-writing, job-seeking and interviewing are skills as well. Teach them.
All universities have careers offices. Unemployed adults may need job search skills training as much as students, so coordinate efforts and offices.
Help your students build a peer network that will flourish during and after training.
Many jobs are obtained through connections. Encourage students to build their ownnetworks of supportive faculty, relatives, administrators and peers. But also provide access to alumni and volunteer career advisors, perhaps with a searchable database.
Get a reasonable amount of publicity at regular intervals.
Plant story “seeds” with the local media. Make sure you have statistics that highlight both the need for your services and your success.
Learn from your mistakes.
All entrepreneurial efforts involve success and failure. Evaluate your progress in light of your goals. Decide what you'll do differently next time around. Universities can be a major source of support to their communities in this economy. And Stony Brook University of New York is a solid blueprint for action.
Sheila Curran is the founder of Curran Career Consulting and the former executive director of Duke University's career center.