JBJ: Business partnerships prepare students for future

Jacksonville Business Journal

http://www.bizjournals.com/jacksonville/news/2016/11/03/business-partnerships-prepare-students-for-future.html?surround=etf&u=Z5%2FB3zaljhFU%2BnAAPgtvmA0f222419&t=1478520761&j=76349371

When one of Jacksonville’s largest manufacturers first approached Florida State College at Jacksonville about establishing a formal partnership around six years ago, Nancy Webster saw the proposal as natural extension of the work the company and college had been doing together.

Now, though, FSCJ’s partnership with Johnson & Johnson Vision Care has turned into much more, said Webster, the school’s associate vice president of arts, sciences and articulations.

The program is just now entering its second year of operation but is already in the midst of expanding. Building upon the work with Johnson & Johnson, the school has added an additional career academy with separate corporate partners, and Webster said she expects to see the number of students going through the two career academies to continue to grow in the next few years.

Focusing on manufacturing and cybersecurity, the career academies bring together the college, industry partners and Duval County Public Schools.

For many students, it’s an opportunity to both acquire a two-year Associate of Science for no cost at a time when student debt is at an all-time high, and an opportunity to land a high-paying job in the private sector by the time most of their peers are questioning what to do next.

“At the same time they’re walking across the stage for their high school diploma, they have a college degree in hand,” Webster said. “They also have mentorship for students for all four years, and provide them with summer jobs.”

At the same time, it fills a need for corporate partners to build up a pool of talent as demand for graduates with specialized skills, including technology, science and manufacturing, outpaces the creation of graduates who meet those needs.

“It’s an exceptional way to bring in talent. It really gives them an excellent opportunity,” Webster said.

FSCJ isn’t the only local college looking to prepare students for life after graduating. University of North Florida and Jacksonville University have also set up programs designed to get students in front of employers and vice versa.

FSCJ’s program does, however, show a possible way forward for institutions of higher education as they seek to ease the transition for students post-grad.

Cynthia Bioteau, president of FSCJ, said career preparation is the college’s “bread and butter” – and it’s a niche that will only grow in the coming years.

“FSCJ isn’t here to tell you what you need. We take what our employers tell us and create a curriculum so they will hire our graduates,” Bioteau said.

Setting high standards

The career academy program started slowly, but there’s potential for more students and more corporate partnerships as each new class is introduced.

There are three students on FSCJ’s campus this year for the Johnson & Johnson career academy and nine students in the cybersecurity program, a partnership between Sandalwood High School and Florida Blue, Citibank and Deutsche Bank. Webster said there was the potential for about 20 students per year in the Johnson & Johnson pipeline alone.

While the partnership is a way for the companies to give back, it goes beyond that: The students these corporate partners are looking to train will help the businesses address potential employment shortages down the road.

The career academies specialize in fields with high demand.

Cybersecurity, for instance, is growing at a pace that colleges and universities simply can’t meet. A recent Peninsula Press analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics data showed that there were about 209,000 unfilled cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. in 2015, with the ability to fill those jobs only becoming more difficult.

Postings for cybersecurity jobs grew 91 percent between 2010 and 2014, according to a report from Burning Glass, and filling those jobs took about 8 percent longer to fill than general IT job postings.

Students are selected before they enter their freshman year of high school, must meet a minimum GPA of 2.5 and pass a college placement test before gaining entrance to the program, which is considered a magnet program by Duval County Public School standards.

Once in the program, students are required to maintain a 3.0 GPA while taking college courses beginning in their freshman year.

The students participating in the program are on FSCJ’s campus full-time by the time they’re in their sophomore year, and have access to mentorship from their program’s corporate partner, meaning everything from one-on-one conversations to career advice.

There’s also the hands-on training component with Johnson & Johnson, which offers students summer jobs for above minimum wage pay at $11 per hour.

Once the students have gotten their degree, they also have first priority in job openings for the companies affiliated with their career academy.

While the benefit for students participating in the program is easy to understand, the appeal for corporate partners comes down to the demand for highly-skilled talent.

Investing in the future

Florida Blue has been investing in education for about two decades, starting small, with partnerships like the one they established with Baker County High School and Andrew Jackson High School, which gave students jobs filling in information on medical claims.

When the opportunity to partner with FSCJ came around, it fit into the partnership profile they were already moving toward.

Darnell Smith, market president for Florida Blue, said it’s a matter of identifying and helping to train employees early, as well as investing in the economic success of Duval County.

“For us, it’s about being able to assure that we’re focusing on the talent,” Smith said. “These individuals are going to be our employees. Investing in them early, giving them opportunities to be successful, we know that one day, they will have excellent opportunities.”

Smith said cybersecurity is a field that will continue to grow, and investing in potential employees allows the company to be part of the solution to talent shortages.

“We want to make sure that we have every opportunity to get the best talent here,” Smith said. “It’s probably the fastest-growing fields today and obviously when you consider the fact that so many companies are investing heavily in protecting their data, we know that it will help with the pipeline and that it also helps in creating this skillset that is needed on the First Coast.”

The ability to have “first access” to students coming through the program is also a benefit, Smith said.

“Those who we don’t hire have an opportunity to work elsewhere. We really like the opportunity to continue to grow this skillset in the area,” Smith said.

There’s also a bigger picture in terms of how Duval County is viewed on the outside, Smith says.

“This is one of those opportunities that allows us to help the region from the standpoint of talent and the industry that we’re bringing to the First Coast. You’ll have a number of folks who, once they know that jobs are actually growing here, are attracted to Jacksonville,” Smith said.

Building on trends

Though FSCJ’s career academies are one of the most talked-about education partnerships in Northeast Florida, they’re not the only programs making strides.

Jacksonville University has a partnership with Black Knight that allows several students to move into entry-level positions upon graduating, and University of North Florida has long been partnering with companies from Fidelity Investments to Merill Lynch to Northwestern Mutual.

Many of the programs at UNF focus on career preparedness, as well as putting students face-to-face with potential area employers. The Fidelity Investments-sponsored career bootcamp, for example, teaches students skills like resume writing, interview skills, job search skills and advice on dressing professionally.

Shannon Italia, director of UNF’s career management center, said it helps students know what to expect in the professional world and the ability to build relationships with the individuals who could help them land their first internship or first job.

“It gives them the opportunity to be put in front of key people in industries and build relationships. A lot of times, they’re alums from our college. They’re able to give students the idea that ‘this could be you in five years,’” Italia said.

From the corporate perspective, it helps to build brand identity, and put a face with a company’s name.

“It helps them to build a presence on campus at the beginning of the year. Students are familiar with the company, and it gives the companies the opportunity to understand the pipeline there for them,” Italia said.

Another partnership UNF has with the corporate community is a mentorship program with Northwestern Mutual through the Coggin College of Business. Each year, 36 students are selected and paired with a mentor from Northwestern Mutual, giving students the ability to gain career advice and the company the ability to recruit students.

It’s a win-win, Italia says, and it gives students the ability to get prepared for what comes after graduation.

“For a student that comes in here that has any level of gumption, it’s all in place for them. We have connections to internships, and we have a college that’s really focused on being a resource to the region,” Italia said.

Growing the pipeline

While FSCJ, UNF and JU are focusing on preparing students for careers in a range of fields, there are a few skills in high demand that Jacksonville’s major corporations are looking to see more of.

Smith says, in addition to cybersecurity, the company is looking for analytics and information technology skills in potential employees. For Florida Blue, health informatics – the ability to interpret and understand trends from health care data – is another area with room to grow.

It’s also the focus of a new Master of Science that JU rolled out in 2015, and something Florida Blue is beginning to offer to employees who are interested.

FSCJ’s career academies, as well as UNF and JU’s efforts to meet the needs of corporate partners, are an example of a new direction that institutions of higher education are headed: adapting quickly to the job market students will face upon graduating.

It’s also something you should expect to see more of.

“We’re here and we exist to prepare people for skills,” Bioteau said. “That’s where we’re focusing. As I look to the future, we’re going to continue strengthening the programs that we have.”