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I am so lucky to work in a community where the partnerships between businesses and schools are tangible.  You can see it all around with corporate sponsorship at foundation events, business food donations to Teacher Professional Development days and students job shadowing and interning throughout the school year and summer, to name a few.

So how can your company, big or small, bridge the gap from school to work?

Well, there is a need for sure! Business and nonprofit partnerships in public schools enable students to explore authentic career opportunities and expand their horizons. 

Here are three ways to build a relationship with your local public schools:

1. Offer to go to the classroom and share your career story and mentor students with interest in your field.

It is so important to invite business leaders into the classroom! You can help influence curriculum that students can complete while being mentored by experts in the field. 

Long gone are the days where a speaker would just come in and lecture about their sphere of expertise.  Now, we create opportunities for students to apply what they learn and get instant feedback from a business leader.

2. Start – or Partner with – a School’s Business Advisory Group. 

Schools with business advisory partnerships continually evolve their curriculum to keep pace with industry needs.  This regular conversation is a symbiotic relationship:

It helps schools develop students that have the necessary employability skills, soft skills and technical skills that our community needs to fill high wage, high yield jobs.

And, schools can tell the business community what work opportunities their students are looking for as well as request time and resources needed to develop those students. 

3. Offer job shadowing opportunity (this is low commitment!), internships and co-ops. 

The final point in this trifecta is getting our students out into the “real” world of business and nonprofit.  Understandably, our students have a very narrow mind about the world of work, maybe not even knowing much about what their parents do for work! It needs to therefore be every school district’s charge to give their students some type of authentic career experience before they graduate. 

Through the chamber of commerce, local government and the downtown development authority this task can be a reality. 

By embedding these partnerships a reciprocal relationship occurs, stimulating our economy and making schools stronger.

Get in touch with your local school district today! Call and ask to be put in touch with their CTE (Career and Technical Education) Director, their business teacher, or high school counselors. Or, just give a call to the local principal or vice principal and ask how you can help with Career Readiness.