Barb Cutillo: On-the-job training needs to begin before graduation

It’s graduation season again, and students at all educational levels are transitioning from the classroom to the workplace. This is a significant and challenging period of transition, requiring time, energy, money and a good amount of patience for students, families and employers.

According to a recent CNN Business article, nearly 60% of hiring managers said college graduates are unprepared for the workforce, which is a sobering statistic for universities to acknowledge.

Effectively preparing college students for permanent work is a complex problem, requiring innovative solutions. The Kelley School of Business at Indiana University Indianapolis delivers results through its experiential learning programs, but we can’t do it alone. We need help from business and community leaders.

One driving factor resulting in many unprepared students is the cost of college itself, as the tuition and fees for a four-year college degree at a public institution in Indiana have increased significantly in the last 20 years.

Yet, even with the cost increases, the Education Data Initiative estimates that an average bachelor’s degree has a lifetime return on investment of over 680%.

Students remain incentivized to reduce the number of years they must pay for college, so many of them enter as sophomores, with close to 30 hours of dual-college credit from high school, then push themselves to finish their degree in three years.

Eliminating a year of tuition saves on average more than $12,000, which is a great way to reduce overall costs. The result is that many students view college as a race to the finish line, with little emphasis on workplace skills and relationship building. This leads many of them to be less mature and less focused on the skills needed to succeed in a competitive job market.

Students can be better prepared for the transition to the workplace with experiential learning opportunities, but it requires support from community leaders and businesses around the region. The state of Indiana recently launched an apprenticeship program for high school students, and many universities like IU Indianapolis are developing their own experiential learning programs to ensure their students enter the workforce fully prepared and ready to add value in a meaningful way.

Experiential learning opportunities offered in partnership with innovative businesses here in central Indiana help college students make the move into permanent positions relatively smooth and painless. The Kelley School in Indianapolis partners with businesses and community leaders to offer these programs to students.

At this point, you might ask yourself, “Are we just talking about internships?” The simple answer is yes—as a starting point—but our students can offer much more and begin contributing to the local economy more than just scanning documents and taking up space as an intern.

Experiential learning is activity-based learning, for which students perform hands-on activities such as part-time internships while in school, case/pitch competitions and consulting projects. These active learning experiences directly impact the student’s competency level as they enter the workforce.

Critical thinking, communication, professionalism and teamwork are the areas they “practice” as they solve real problems and analyze real issues.

We offer a variety of experiences for students at Kelley. Starting as freshmen, they can participate in the Business Plus program, a part-time internship and academic course with the internship spots secured initially by Kelley. Students interview and compete for the jobs.

We just completed our first semester and learned that four out of six freshmen will be staying with their employer during the summer. That’s solid confirmation of the value these students are bringing to the workplace.

In addition to Business Plus, this spring we offered the JagStart entrepreneurial pitch competition with IU Innovates, as well as the Shiley Real Estate Development Case Competition this past month. The JagStart Pitch competition had students from across campus pitching their ideas to a panel of four judges from the local entrepreneurial community—Elevate Ventures, 16 Tech, TechPoint and IU East.

The Shiley Real Estate Development Case Competition presented by the Kelley-Indianapolis Real Estate Club focused on redevelopment plans for the original Indiana Women’s Prison site on the near-east side. Students created development proposals, with the winning proposal featuring apartments, town houses, retail, office and green space named after two women who helped create the prison.

This all seems so fantastic for students, but what benefit does it provide for community and business leaders? Business Plus employers have indicated that they appreciate the opportunity to recruit younger students and build relationships with talent early in their college careers.

Employers committed to engaging and retaining talent in central Indiana and interested in giving back to our community begin by helping younger workers make the transition to the workforce. If your organization would be interested in Business Plus or any of the other experiential learning programs at the Kelley School Indianapolis, please don’t hesitate to reach out to me directly.•

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Cutillo is director of experiential learning and lecturer of management at the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Indianapolis. She can be reached at [email protected].