Have a skills shortage? Consider community college collaborations.

March 29, 2024

As unemployment rates remain persistently low in many parts of the world, and as a global skills shortage accelerates, many employers are looking to expand their recruiting and upskilling efforts. Some employers are turning to local colleges and universities for a boost.

Employers have long had a presence in higher ed. They advise faculty, offer experiential learning (like internships), and recruit among graduates. However, to better meet their workforce needs, more employers are now forging closer relationships with higher ed. These relationships can pose challenges. A strategy can help.

We recently researched what we called workforce learning ecosystems in the manufacturing sector of the New England region in the U.S. These ecosystems consist of businesses, higher-ed institutions, governments, and other organizations—all interacting to advance (or hinder) work-relevant learning for early-career and incumbent workers. To study these ecosystems, we interviewed 30 leaders in stakeholder organizations. We were interested in what enabled an ecosystem to supply enough workers with skills to meet industry demand.

We found that ecosystems tended to meet industry skills needs best when a large, well-informed employer led collaborations with other businesses and local colleges. In these ecosystems, a large employer led stakeholders in designing, executing, and maintaining learning programs. Such programs were usually offered through community colleges.

To collaborate well with colleges, employers may benefit from anticipating common challenges. Such collaborations also need reassessment and revision as they mature, to ensure they continue to meet all parties’ needs. Identifying key critical factors that determine the success of a college collaboration may help.

Before embarking on a collaboration with a college, businesses should clarify their objectives.

Not all businesses collaborate with colleges in the same way. Strategic collaborations should be designed around business goals.

Writing in Sloan Management Review, Lars Frølund and team identify five common goals that companies have when they partner with colleges or universities. While this list goes beyond workforce goals, it provides a menu that may help employers brainstorm what kind of relationship they need with a college:

• Short-term, incremental problem-solving
• Talent identification and hiring
• Long-term development of new technologies
• Systematic exposure to startups
• Publicity and political influence

Each goal requires differing degrees of employer involvement, according to Frølund and team. Short-term problems require little effort to coordinate, and coordination can be handled by employees in the involved units. However, other goals—like building durable learning programs that adapt to change—may require long-term commitments and the participation of high-level executives.

As this short list of goals suggests, employers may consider combining workforce and other goals. Often, they synergize. For example, a company might sponsor research, which in turn could help train potential future employees. Other companies might gain positive publicity by providing resources to support career-oriented learning programs.

Work-oriented learning programs at colleges are most effective when employers help create and maintain them.

In New England manufacturing, collaborations were more effective when businesses helped colleges with learning programs at multiple stages:

• Designing courses and programs
• Recruiting learners for courses and programs—especially including learners among incumbent employees in the industry
• Offering experiential learning—especially through internships, co-ops, apprenticeships, and pre-apprenticeships.
• Purchasing or sharing equipment and facilities
• Training instructors in new technologies and techniques
•  Assessing students’ progress
• Teaching courses
• Awarding credentials—like certificates and licenses
• Interviewing and hiring graduates

As this incomplete list suggests, employers may need to expend significant effort in helping colleges build work-oriented programs, and these efforts may take a long time.

While colleges may have expertise in teaching and learning, they can struggle to stay current with industry trends. They may not have up-to-date equipment or lack funds for repairs. And they may not know what credentials, aside from degrees, industry values. Employers can help at all these stages.

In some cases, employers can be highly involved in learning programs delivered at colleges. One community college in New England, for example, created a 10-week microelectronics bootcamp with help from at least three employers. The employers not only helped design the bootcamp but have continued to help revise it and to observe learners who take it. Practically, the boot camp serves as an extended interview. Students who take the boot camp are hired at a rate of 98 percent, according to our interviewees.

Employers may wish to work as consortia in their collaborations with colleges.

Collaboration can take nontrivial time and resources for both employers and colleges. Small and mid-sized businesses in particular may not have the capacity to sustain intensive collaborations. Many colleges also lack resources to collaborate separately with numerous employers. One solution is for employers to form consortia, or industry groups, which communicate as one voice with colleges.

For example, in Ohio, manufacturers and education providers have formed two groups that partner to help members to communicate and share resources. More than 40 education providers are part of the Ohio TechNet, while 1,292 manufacturers are currently members of the Ohio Manufacturers Association (OMA). Many of these are smaller manufacturing plants, with roughly half of OMA members employing 50 or fewer workers.

Groups like Ohio TechNet and OMA help save resources by reducing redundancies. Colleges can learn what they need to teach by consulting industry groups, rather than seeking input from numerous employers.

In New England manufacturing, such industry groups have started to work with colleges in some areas too. Most notably, a group in Eastern Connecticut (called EAMA RSP—or Eastern Advanced Manufacturing Alliance Regional Sector Partnership) has helped align college learning programs with industry demand.

EAMA RSP includes more than 35 member manufacturers—led by General Dynamics Electric Boat—and has helped create the Manufacturing Pipeline Initiative. The Initiative offers short-term courses at local community colleges in high demand skills—including pipefitting, shipfitting, and design and drafting.

Such groups may also enable smaller employers to contribute their views during curriculum design. In this way, more employers have a voice in program design and operation. Such programs, because they’re informed by diverse views, may be more likely to work well for a greater number of employers and may be more resilient.

Even more importantly, consortia can help employers to pool their own training needs together. Rather than operating their own training programs, businesses can send employees to colleges, aggregating learners in single classes. This may help employers save costs while also helping colleges to raise enrollment. Colleges must be assured that enough students will enroll in courses to justify offering them. Consortia of employers can help boost enrollments.

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Despite obvious benefits, collaborations can be challenging for reasons beyond those mentioned here. Boston Consulting Group has identified five common challenges—which are worth reviewing. One common challenge, for example, is that colleges and businesses tend to work on different timelines. According to BCG, setting up a new course usually takes about three years.

But such challenges may have solutions too. For instance, interviewees in New England told us that they have had more success with building short-term programs, like bootcamps, because they circumvent drawn-out processes that colleges follow when they create for-credit programs.

Strong collaborations benefit not only businesses, but colleges and learners too. Colleges are looking to prove that they offer work-relevant education, and most learners are looking to improve their job prospects. As skills shortages become more severe, college-industry collaborations will likely be crucial for building workforces and securing good jobs for learners.

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