By JD Hoye; President, NAF
We are at a critical crossroads in our nation’s economy — a time of rapid change in our industries and our way of life. Living in a global society will require quality education to work smarter to keep pace to ensure that nobody is left behind.
Just as our technology has changed the way that we live our daily lives, it has changed the way young people learn, and it has changed the job opportunities available today and left open the question of what jobs will be needed tomorrow. We need to guarantee that every single student sitting in today’s classrooms has the skills, knowledge, opportunity, and motivation to take on whatever lies ahead. We cannot allow underserved students to fall through the cracks and need to keep working to implement the solutions that will allow them uncover their full potential and possess the key tools to carve out viable career paths.
Education and business must continue to work together to stay ahead of the changes and prepare the next generation for success.
Building A Strong Talent Pipeline Early On
NAF students benefit from a career-focused curriculum made relevant by industry experts. Outside of the classroom, students get invaluable exposure and hands-on experience in industry, so that they begin connecting the dots and plotting a pathway for their future.
There are major corporations who are engaging with us at NAF and taking on the responsibility to ensure that young people continue to develop the necessary hard and soft skills that will continue to prove critical in the workplace, but we need more like them. The responsibility is a shared one and requires the willingness to be 100% invested in the future – a future that will affect each and every one of us.
Business leaders need to begin to shape the future talent pipeline while students are still in high school, when they are making choices about their career paths. Through experiences such as mock interviews, career fairs, worksite tours, guest speaking opportunities, and paid internships, businesses that are engaged will have the advantage for thinking long term in preparing future ready employees.
Creating Benchmarks For Success
Paid internships have been a complete game changer for so many of our NAF students. These future leaders repeatedly attest to how what they have learned in the workplace has motivated them to higher learning and larger career goals. Similarly, many employers express how much value high school students add to their workplace. An example of this is KPMG, who recently hosted eight interns in their New York City office with an additional 27 hosted in other cities across the nation. “Hosting NAF interns is as valuable to KPMG as it is to our interns. It helps us better understand emerging trends in the market, how we need to prepare for future hiring and how we create and maintain connections with our future employees”, shared Bob Garrett, KPMG Managing Partner – New York City.
Education is a lifelong investment and one that will depend on the “buy-in” of industry to help shape the opportunities for all students. With a wide range of “all-in” corporate engagement opportunities, that begin with career awareness activities and lead to career exploration and preparation, business partners can help bring the continuum full circle by recognizing these students’ credentials, such as with NAFTrack Certified Hiring. By incorporating industry-recognized credentials into their companies’ hiring practices, business leaders can ensure that they continue to develop and retain the talent that they have worked with since day one.
All-in corporate engagement is the future of education. Now is the time to level the playing field and provide young people with the chance to create their best lives – the future of our world depends on it.