Higher education has the power to drive economic development through the deployment of workforce initiatives. Through strategic partnerships with companies and organizations across technology, business, and healthcare, my organization works directly with state governments and industry leaders to determine how they can adapt programs to meet the immediate and long-term needs of the workforce. To understand the demand for skills, the goal is to develop pathways that help students gain relevant, up-to-date knowledge and networks to prepare to launch, transition, or advance into successful careers.
As an institution of higher learning with active workforce partnerships, DeVry University supports a two-side market approach, helping students pursue their goals through education while simultaneously helping corporate and community partners gain a steady pipeline of qualified, diverse talent to drive business growth, fuel innovation, and increase competitiveness in their industries.
Goals and Favorable Outcomes
With nearly every industry being transformed by automation and AI, the shift is creating a sizeable skills gap. However, through innovative public-private partnerships, this skills gap can be closed with reskilling programs tailored to resolve regional industry needs.
Workforce partnerships that begin at the state level can help higher ed and state agencies identify industry priorities and growth vectors. States then can collaborate with employers to develop programs for underutilized populations, providing them access to opportunities. For instance, a partnership may create micro-credentials that build into degrees, community college programs, or partnerships with high schools to create dual enrollment programs. This is a multifaceted approach that serves both learners and employers.
In the World Economic Forum’s 2023 Future of Jobs Report, respondents expressed confidence in developing their existing workforce. However, they are less optimistic regarding the outlook for talent availability in the next five years. This finding signals the urgency for companies to reshape their workforce learning strategy to narrow the skills gap. For instance, DeVryWorks, the university’s workforce solutions team, has hundreds of corporate education partnerships with companies such as Arizona-based Microchip Technology Inc. Recently, we helped to design a custom upskilling pathway for Microchip’s frontline workers to gain technical and business skills to move into advanced roles.
Further, employers can benefit immensely from completion grants that are offered through workforce partnerships to remove the barrier of affordability for employees who want to use their tuition benefits to gain skills for roles that are impacted by continuous technological change.
An Ideal Partnership Leverages a Shared Vision
An ideal workforce partnership between a higher ed institution and a state-level agency or employer starts with understanding each other’s needs and priorities. For employers, this means assessing current and future skills gaps and talent demands. What jobs do they need to fill? What roles will emerge for their industry in the next three to five years? For higher ed, it means analyzing what skills and training learners will need for their career readiness.
Bringing higher ed, companies, nonprofits, and government agencies together can allow them to develop a shared vision of their talent development needs. And with priorities aligned, partners then can co-create customized solutions such as new training programs, upskilling pathways, apprenticeships, and more.
A Weak Partnership Is Held Back by Lack of Understanding
In contrast, a weak workforce partnership primarily is held back by a lack of understanding of students’ needs. While traditional workforce partnerships aim to align education with workforce needs, these programs often fail to account for the unique challenges of underserved students, who face additional barriers to rewarding careers.
Women, Hispanic, and Black students frequently struggle to break into male-dominated, white-collar fields due to a lack of mentorship, resources, and networking. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, just 27.7 percent of computer and information systems managers are women; 7.9 percent are Hispanic; and 7.9 percent are Black, respectively. To remedy this, higher education institutions should offer supplemental programs targeted at underrepresented groups. For example, at DeVry, we created Women+Tech Scholars Program and the NextGen Hispanic Scholars Program to empower learners who want to succeed, particularly those who lack the options to do so within the traditional higher education system.
No doubt, colleges and universities must have a deeper understanding of underrepresented groups’ challenges to create impactful and equitable workforce programs.
Components of a Sound Partnership: Flexibility, Resources, and Timeliness
Workforce partnerships are most successful when they are flexible, have the right resources, and are timely. The combination of all three allows workforce partnerships to have long-term success. Flexibility enables higher ed, agencies, and employers to develop initiatives that are customized to the needs of today’s workforce. Providing support and creating customized resources are vital to help employers and students thrive. These resources can translate into access to new technology, tuition benefits, apprenticeship and internship opportunities, and career guidance, to name a few.
Furthermore, workforce partnerships should be implemented with timeliness in mind, leveraging current programs, customizing them for each partner, and developing academic programs so learners can gain the necessary skills and knowledge to thrive in today’s job market.
What to Hone In on This Year and Beyond
Looking ahead to this year and beyond, higher education institutions and organizations must hone in on developing shorter, agile processes of education such as shorter learning cycles, training programs, certifications, upskilling, and reskilling programs to close the skills gap in our nation. Additionally, workforce partnerships should continue to expand internships and apprenticeships geared toward tech careers so learners can receive real-world, on-the-job experience while addressing current and long-term workforce needs.
