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Some partnerships developed among organizations with a long history of interaction or collaboration, or both. However, even among these, most partnerships needed to draw in new players, many of whom would have been expected to contribute significant volunteer time to partnership activities. Surprisingly, not all partnerships had established recruitment plans. In fact, we observed underdeveloped and underutilized partnerships operating under the mistaken assumption that: "If you build it, they will come." Identification and outreach appeared necessary to developing an adequate pool of participants.
The following descriptions provide examples of three successful recruitment and training activities. In all three cases, recruitment efforts built, in part, on the strength of already established relationships with a few key partners. Initial relationships may help identify contacts directly in other organizations or may provide avenues for outreach activities. Further, participant commitment leverages interest and potential commitment from newer participants. Thus, although activity-rich projects may be tempted to hurry the initial recruitment process to get as broad a participant base as possible, this may prove unwise in the long run. It appears that at least a few initial relationships should be cultivated and strengthened to provide a reliable basis for later recruitment. All three partnerships also made recruitment an assigned responsibility.
A school-to-work transition project piggybacked on a business survey conducted by several cities' Chambers of Commerce of approximately 12,000 businesses. Inclusion of partnership-specific questions provided information regarding businesses' interest in and potential contributions to an educational partnership. Participation in the survey generated an extensive contact list for recruiting businesses to provide mentoring, tutoring, job coaching, and part-time jobs for students.
By incorporating partnership-specific questions into a local survey of businesses, information regarding possible participation and contributions was collected from 12,000 businesses. Two hundred and fifty businesses actively participated in partnership activities including tutoring and mentoring, job coaching, part-time jobs, and staff development. The survey was credited with identifying thousands of potential contacts and adding 25-30 new partners, including two multinational corporations, the regional agency responsible for rapid transit in the state, a local private industry council, and others.
One hundred and twenty-five students participated in the first phase of the partnership; 105 were placed in jobs, many with partner organizations. One third of these positions (35) involved partner-provided volunteer job coaching. Weekly monitoring may have contributed to the fact that 95 percent of the students placed through the partnership were retained by their employers beyond the 90-day trial period.
Over 300 students participated in the first phase of the partnership. One hundred and seventy-five of these students went on to continue their education at a community college or a university and 105 were placed in jobs with partner organizations. Ninety-five percent of these students were retained by their employers beyond 90 days.
The Business and Education Partnership (BEP) Cooperative was a school-to-work project administered through a multidistrict Regional Occupational Program (ROP) charged to provide vocational education. The partnership served educationally and economically disadvantaged high school students, focusing on potential dropouts, pregnant and parenting teens, special education students, and gifted and talented students. Project goals were to increase high school completion rates and ensure successful transition to employment or higher education. Career education, workplace learning, job-site experience, tutoring and mentoring, and student support services were major project activities. The partnership actively recruited new business partners to provide mentoring, tutoring, work site learning, job coaching, and part-time jobs for students. Given the target group to be served, which included troubled youths, recruiting businesses could have been challenging.
The BEP usually recruited through partner referrals, outreach efforts, and efforts of the staff coordinator. Success in recruiting partners was based largely on very active relationship building and the ability to recognize potential opportunities in the activities of partners. For example, relationships built with the local Chamber of Commerce led to an unusual opportunity for identifying potential business partners and job-placement sites. The ROP was able to participate in a survey of businesses conducted by several Chambers of Commerce and a local community college. The survey included questions relating to interest in participating in educational partnerships and what each business would be willing to contribute. Over 22,000 businesses were contacted; approximately one half of the 12,000 businesses responding to the survey were not previously involved in the partnership. Participation in the survey generated an extensive contact list for recruitment, as well as preliminary information regarding businesses' potential contributions. The ROP contributed funds to help support the survey.
Once identified, potential business partners were contacted and partnership information was disseminated. The project coordinator followed up on contacts and was responsible for translating them into firm commitments. In addition, the coordinator independently could have generated new business contacts. Participation of committed partners was maintained through regular follow-up and job-site feedback regarding student performance. Students who job shadowed or worked part time were monitored weekly. Timely response to problems reduced potential partner loss and reassured participants that they were not really risking much to work with students placed at risk.
Careful follow-up and monitoring help explain why this project had unusually low turnover among its unusually high number of active business partners. This was true even when economic conditions led businesses to withdraw from job coaching and placement. In several cases, businesspersons asked to continue participating as mentors and tutors, despite having been laid off from work themselves. Feedback also provided leverage in later recruitment by identifying rates of participant satisfaction, potential spokespersons, and inspiring success stories.
This partnership was housed and integrated into the operations of an ROP serving secondary school students in a seven district area, including East Los Angeles. Although the surrounding community looks like a stable suburb, it is a low-income area experiencing gang and other social problems.
The ROP had long-standing relationships with businesses. These relationships were developed through the partnership and formalized with signed documents outlining expectations, responsibilities, and benefits. The process of formulating these agreements successfully focused participant attention on the outcomes to be achieved by the project.
The economic recession affected employment opportunities in the area, with one participating business reporting no new hires over a three-year period. As conditions worsened and some businesses dropped out, project staff responded by expanding business recruitment efforts and stressing aspects of the program not related to internships or part-time work. For instance, when a local Sears store closed, the BEP received significant donations of equipment. This approach proved to be successful and may be more so in projects where the target population is not perceived as problematic by business partners, or where the economy is not depressed.
A handbook, Partnering and Networking With Business and Community Agencies, is available.
The Corporate Coaches for Career Development project hinged on volunteer mentors, called the corporate coaches. The project recruited volunteer mentors who were willing to commit to two years of scheduled involvement by establishing a recruitment and selection team for each participating school district. The team consisted of two or more codirectors: one or more from the education community and one or more from the business community. The business representatives oversaw the mentor recruitment and collaborated with educators on selecting and matching mentors with students.
Seventy percent of contacted businesses agreed to full participation, while most of the remaining contacted businesses agreed to provide either a mentor, a workshop leader, or a job. The program worked with 139 mentors in 12 school districts across the state. Ten percent of the coaches signed up for a second two-year mentoring commitment. Further, only 9 mentors (6 percent) discontinued involvement or failed to meet expectations during the initial two-year commitment.
The Corporate Coaches for Career Development project was intended to increase career awareness, develop positive self-concepts, and increase the number of rural and economically disadvantaged gifted students enrolled in higher education. Economically disadvantaged rural students worked with volunteer mentors who helped them learn about different career opportunities and improve their self-concepts. Coaches committed to a two-year relationship with a student prot?g?. Minimal involvement required only about 10 hours per year, so although the commitment was of long duration it did not have to be very time consuming. Corporate Coaches mentors attended an orientation, student workshops and postworkshop sessions, follow-up meetings during the summer job experience, several group meetings, and a recognition session. In addition, the mentors maintained a relationship with students throughout their senior year in high school. Although the commitment level was low in terms of hours spent, the experience had relatively structured components that required scheduled attendance.
The first step was the recruitment of business sponsors to ensure top-down commitment and support within the organization. Business codirectors targeted organizations with which they were professionally or personally involved. Secondary targets were organizations that the codirectors had no established contact with, but had histories of extensive involvement in educational issues or activities. First to be contacted were those most likely to agree to full participation by agreeing to provide a mentor, a job, and a recognition gift for the student completing the program. Businesses also could choose to provide workshop leaders, or some subset of the above. The initial contact was made through a recruitment letter followed by a telephone call. Business sponsors who agreed to have their organization participate in the mentoring component chose the mentor, often volunteering themselves.
Prospective mentors were provided with an application that delineated the scheduled meeting requirements and overall time commitments. Once the applicant completed the form, it was used by education codirectors in a student-mentor matching process. Business codirectors monitored the mentorship and called mentors at intervals to ensure all frustrations were addressed. Because many aspects of mentoring are difficult to gauge, it is important to include such monitoring or feedback loops to be certain student and mentor expectations are appropriate and to mitigate against potential misunderstandings. This helps to diminish project dropouts and identify inappropriate matches. Indeed, the vast majority (94 percent) of the mentors completed the full two-year commitment. The remaining participants either left the project or were asked to discontinue their roles as mentors.
The Corporate Coaches project focused on rural school districts, targeting promising, economically disadvantaged high school students. Although rural communities often had few corporate organizations from which to draw, committed volunteers were located. Recruiting mentors who could commit to securing summer jobs for participants was the greatest challenge; however, most of those contacted (70 percent) agreed to full participation, including job provision. This project was piloted initially in an urban setting, and was found successful, before it was implemented in a rural setting.
A variety of ongoing recruitment strategies was used to solicit active business participation in partnership activities. Particularly important were business partners willing to provide students with job shadowing experiences that encompassed a broad range of careers and that could be offered at different times during the school year. Relationship-building, promotional events, dissemination efforts, and dedicated staff assignments proved to be successful strategies for recruitment.
There were 330 businesses identified as potential job shadowing sites and of those, 230 actively participated. Forty percent of all participating businesses first learned about the project through the Chamber of Commerce. In addition, several 30-second public service announcements were developed and aired free of charge; a 14-minute videotape, produced by the community college, was used for recruitment and dissemination; and promotional articles appeared in local newspapers, as well as other magazines and business newsletters. A survey taken of promotional business breakfast attendees revealed that two thirds of the 55 percent not previously providing job shadowing opportunities for students agreed to do so.
Of the 317 students served by the project in the first year of operation, 156 involved job shadowing. By the final year of funding, over 250 students were involved in job shadowing during the year. Students' opportunities increased: 60 percent of the participating businesses reported the availability of entry-level positions for students and 27 percent extended offers of employment to students. In addition, several businesses created new entry-level positions and college scholarships earmarked for project participants.
The Omaha Job Clearinghouse (OJC) was a school-to-work transition project that focused on providing high school seniors with job shadowing experiences. The aim was to help students make career plans based on one to four job site visits, as well as visits to higher education institutions. Primary partners included the local public schools, community college, and the Chamber of Commerce. The OJC depended on recruiting large numbers of businesses that represented a broad variety of careers and were willing to provide individual job shadow experiences at various times throughout the school year. Recruitment was an ongoing and multifaceted activity that included: relationship-building, promotional events, dissemination efforts, and staff assignments. These recruitment strategies proved successful and easily could have served a variety of settings and project types.
Relationship-building with key business associations prior to implementing the partnership project was crucial in encouraging businesses' advocacy and partner recruitment efforts. Relationships were maintained through representation in the partnership's governance committees. Prior to receiving the grant, the partnership worked closely with the education council of the local Chamber of Commerce. The council head was a key member of one of the OJC governance committees and collaborated with project staff on partnership issues. Such relationship-building helped involve the chamber in the ongoing cultivation of the business community on behalf of the OJC. Partnership staff spoke about the OJC at all chamber conferences and events, chamber members actively identified potential contacts for OJC job shadows, and partnership activities were profiled in all chamber reports. For instance, one year the chamber's annual report pictured OJC students along with an article supporting the project. The project also built a close relationship with the Omaha 2000 community school improvement project sponsored by the chamber. The OJC was featured in Omaha 2000 events, along with recruitment information and OJC sign-up cards.
Promotional events also served as recruitment forums. For example, the partnership sponsored a business breakfast two times a year to promote the OJC and recruit business partners. Usually 100 current and potential business participants were invited; 45 to 60 typically attended. Students shared their experiences and insights about how the project benefited them and businesses discussed what it was like to have job shadowing students on site. Following the presentations, businesses were surveyed regarding participation in job shadowing or other OJC activities, a successful strategy in identifying potential partners.
Additionally, the project solicited volunteer talent and donated air time in order to produce and broadcast cable TV and radio promotional spots aimed at informing and recruiting future participants. A spot on national TV that featured an OJC student working at a job shadowing site was helpful in these dissemination efforts.
Staff assignments enhanced recruitment efforts. The business and community coordinator managed recruitment activities and followed up on contacts generated by the Chamber of Commerce Council on Education, Omaha 2000, the OJC promotional breakfasts, and media-generated inquiries. The coordinator translated contacts and pledges into firm commitments, while independently generating other business contacts. Active follow-up on job-site visits maintained these commitments. Counseling personnel carefully matched students and job shadows, sent resumes to businesses, interviewed students before and after each experience, and followed up with businesses. Timely response to problems reduced potential partner loss and maintained the reputation or "marketability" of the project. This was an important part of the process and helps explain why this project had unusually low turnover among its unusually high number of active business partners. Feedback also provided leverage in later recruitment by documenting participant satisfaction and identifying potential spokespersons and success stories.
An important local characteristic is the long history of business involvement with the schools. Many business leaders graduated from the local public schools and have been involved monetarily and otherwise in school projects. Before the OJC project, all seven high schools in the district already had been "adopted" by more than one local business. The schools tend to be seen as neighborhood schools as well, with involvement from many community organizations such as the Rotary and the Kiwanis clubs.
The context may have increased overall recruitment success; however, the relationship-building, the multifaceted approach, and the dedicated staff positions are promising practices that enhance recruitment activities in any context.
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[PartII: Section I: Staff Development]