Dive Brief:

• A new Pennsylvania nonprofit, the Fayette Leadership Fund, is working to partner high school students with local businesses for apprenticeship opportunities to boost local employment, the Herald-Standard reported.

• Garry Sisson, the organization's founder and a local business owner, is working as a liaison between local high schools and businesses to create a program that will place students in shadowing roles before they graduate — an example of the growing partnerships between public and private employers throughout the country.

• The Fund’s first employer, Nemacolin Woodlands Resort, is the third-largest employer in Fayette County, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor. The resort plans to offer on-the-job experience in a range of disciplines in the hospitality management and services area, including culinary, food and beverage, engineering, grounds keeping and golf course technology. Its hope is to become a "hotbed for hospitality talent," Tom Smith, Nemacolin's group sales director, told the Herald-Standard. 

Dive Insight:

Employers are spending more on training, hoping to upskill and retain workers. And research shows employees are responding positively; the more training they receive, the more they want. But employers are increasingly realizing they can't handle the weight of development alone — especially in certain industries — leading many to partner with public institutions such as local schools and governments to bridge the gap. Manufacturing, for example, is struggling to overcome an image gap that begins all the way in early-childhood education; partnerships with schools is one way employers are attempting to overcome it.

For schools, these types of partnerships bring in a slew of benefits. By giving students a chance to gain real-world experiences in a professional environment, they're able to test their skills, network with full-time employees and learn more about what they may — or may not — be interested in pursuing later on. Career and technical education (CTE) is increasingly being embraced by districts and schools, as educators realize their students need this out-of-class exposure to be prepared for the real world that hits them after graduation.

Training is now a top priority for both employees and schools. More than half of workers report they’d quit a job that didn’t provide opportunities to grow and develop, and as college degrees become increasingly pricey and competitive, students are turning to other post-graduate opportunities, or avenues to explore what fields they might wish to pursue in a college setting. CTE has been proven to better prepare students for jobs, and as many industries — including education — struggle with labor shortages, this approach to learning and this population could help to address employment needs.