Business-Industry Partnerships

What school doesn’t want quality business and industry partnerships? Well, to help schools, the lunch panel today had a variety of different companies talk about how they partner with local schools and/or academies. 

Chris Wilder, who is the president of FACTE, opened the discussion, which was moderated by Tom Besaw. First up were Angela Chriest and Randy Swift from VyStar Credit Union. VyStar partnered with St. John’s County Schools to open two high school branches, which are aligned with the business and finance academy. “There was a synergy between the school and its board and the credit union,” said Swift. 

The second guest was Bob Coleman from Florida Power and Light. “Name any career and we will probably have a place for them,” he said. Because of a shortage of line operators and the growth in alternative energy careers, FPL needs to partner with schools and CTE programs to make sure they have the workforce to support the company. “We are a customer of the school system,” said Coleman, explaining why the company chose to get involved in the education arena. 

Flagler Life Institute representative Patricia Moore was next and she talked about the need for health care workers in Florida–approximately 10,000 nurses will be needed in Florida in the near future. “Because of this shortage, we are interested in the academy model,” said Moore, who works with Pedro Menendez High School. The program consists of student internships and teacher externships to ensure the highest quality instruction for the students. “One of our goals was to build our future workforce and get out into the community,” said Moore. “This partnership has accomplished that.”

Last on the agenda was Bob Davis of the Hotel Motel Association of Volusia County. He shared his group’s connection to schools, which he said seemed pretty obvious in Florida. His main point was that the hospitality industry employs just about every CTE field, from welders to plumbers to electricians to culinary to management. “If there is an industry in this world, the hospitality industry touches it,” he said. 

The big takeaway from the discussion was from the last question, which was “What do you need from us?” The participants broke it down to four answers:

* Two-way communication–the schools and businesses need to communicate to reach common goals.
* Solution providers–businesses like to solve issues/problems/concerns. If there is one of these, come to business to work on a solution.
* Alignment–the goals of working with the school will be more successful if they are aligned to the strategic priorities or goals of the business.
* Internships–providing these at the school level allow the students to decide if this is their career path. Businesses don’t like turnover and this could be one way to address that.

All in all a great session and they even had cheesecake for dessert. As Alisha said, “I don’t understand when these luncheons don’t have cheesecake.” Needless to say, both of our plates were clean.