California Competes, in their article, Barriers & Opportunities for Building Higher Education-Employer Partnerships (2022), found that educational leaders, policymakers and employers are increasingly recognizing the need to improve higher education-workforce alignment. After examining the results of interviews they conducted with stakeholders representing the higher education-workforce continuum, they determined that:
- The challenges to meaningful engagement include misalignments in cultures, structures, and values
- Individuals navigate through them by identifying shared interests and goals; creating multiple opportunities for cross-sector engagement by staff; building spaces for engagement between education personnel and employers; and identifying and crafting messaging to demonstrate the value of engagement
The article also includes an examination of the benefits of alignment:
- For students (better job opportunities and strengthened career readiness)
- For higher education institutions (strengthened enrollment pipeline and improved outcomes)
- For employers (improved access and expanded professional development opportunities)
- For local and state economies (more stable revenue and decreased need for a social safety net)
The full article also provides a history of state efforts and budget allocations to build bridges between higher education and employers, provides greater detail on the challenges and opportunities to alignment, and lays out the methods and specifics of their interviews