Let's face it, preparing students for the world of work is only half of the battle, especially in this economy! The other is building strategic and meaningful relationships with employer partners to provide opportunities for our students to make the transition to the world-of-work.

“Strategic Employer Engagement: Building Dynamic Relationships With Employers” is an interactive workshop specifically designed to help career center staff members enhance their ability to meet the needs of employers through effective engagement strategies that have proven to be effective!

With the role of career services on college campuses continuing to evolve, more than ever before, this area is being seen as more of an integral campus partner directly related to student success. That success is often judged by just one metric: how many students have jobs when they graduate.

Building a strategic and effective employer attraction program for your college or university is critical to the vitality of the career services function and is a must to meet the growing demand of students (and parents who are often paying at least part of the bill.)

If you want to develop or enhance your employer relations program in order to attract employers to your campus and implement an amazing customer service philosophy that keeps employers coming back each semester, then join Intern Bridge for a one-of-a-kind learning and sharing opportunity. Through this four-part interactive web-series you will...

Session 1 - Pre-Engagement: Knowing Your Current Realities (January 28th at 1:00pm ET)

If you don't evaluate where you have been and where you are today it will be extremely difficult for your to move forward with an effective employer relations strategy.  In this first session, the goal will be to take stock of your current realities.  To do this, we will be answering several questions - "Is our team adequately prepared to engage employers?", "What is our current relationship level with employers?", "Do we have enough relationships to meet our needs?", these questions, and many more help to form the foundation upon which you can build.

Session 2 - Key Attributes of Exceptional Employer Relations (January 30th at 1:00pm ET)

Employers have multiple ways to connect with students.  Many employers are now asking if career centers are still relevant to help them achieve a strong ROI for their organization.  Becoming a "conduit" versus a "barrier" is the key to exceptional employer relations.  Assessing what employers need, want and desire from career services  will help create a new strategic partnership model for career services to engage.

Session 3 - Finding, Building & Managing Relationships of Strategic Value (February 4th at 1:00pm ET)

You have got to know your labor market and have a process for keeping the most up-to-date information about your employers.  This forms solid data points which you can reference to your constituents, both on and off-campus.  While identifying employers who are interested in working with you is an important first step, the real value of these connections is the relationships you will build over time.  Building upon the assessment exercises in session 2, we will delve deeper into strategies to help you create mutually beneficial and exclusive relationships with employers.

Session 4 - Engaging Your Campus Community in the Process (February 6th at 1:00pm ET)

Can a career center successfully engage employers?  Of course they can... but you can not do it alone.  In order to build a systemic and scalable employer relations program you need to engage others.  Alumni, the community, your administration, faculty and staff in other departments all become essential players in this model.  Engaging the entire campus community in employer relations is not easy, but it is attainable.