The top management and business owners know the importance of keeping their staff well-trained with the most recent trends. Savvy entrepreneurs understand that talented and competent teams can propel their business immensely and exponentially increase their chances of outperforming their competitors. Therefore, future-oriented firms are hands-on in providing frequent training to their employees.
For training and talent development, they contact various educational institutions. However, getting into an institution for a short period or a one-day training program is quite different from developing a long-term partnership.
As a business owner or manager, are you aware that you can create a long-term business to education partnership with a university? Yes, you can very much do that. Having an education partner has a plethora of benefits for the company and the educational institution. Read on to know the benefits such a partnership makes possible for you.
Have A Trustworthy Education Partner For The Higher Education Of Your Employees
Most companies want their staff to have a master’s degree. While employees continue to work in the organization and gain years of experience, you may want them to focus on a certain aspect of the business functions or conduct research about a specific business area/function as part of “R&D budget and business success.”
It is natural for the company to support this research which can lead to innovative solutions, and in the process, your employees earn a degree from an accredited university. In that case, a university comes handy for you.
By having an education partner, the company can partner with the university and use their expertise to tailor a program according to the company’s needs and ensure the education quality with the partnered university, so sponsoring the degree program of your employee becomes much easier. Partnership in a doctoral research program with the university through sponsorship and knowledge sharing can help establish a business’s reputation as an innovator, trustworthy and reliable.
Helps You In Your Search For The Upcoming Talent
Companies need to replenish their talent inventory continuously. They often prefer to hire people belonging to institutions with established credibility in producing good graduates.
A business education partnership helps you hunt for the right talent. You can participate in the job fairs organized at the university, meet students, and ask them to drop their resumes for future references.
Sometimes, managers conduct on-campus interviews and hire interns to promote them to permanent positions one day. The university’ career planning and placement center also helps you choose the right talent by recommending the most suitable graduates for your advertised positions. This way, talent acquisition becomes more streamlined and hassle-free.
Meet Professors Who Conducted Advanced Research In Your Industry
Higher education institutions are always conducting research and exploring various aspects of businesses. The results of these studies can be of immense benefit to the companies.
When companies have an educational partner, they have access to all the research, even the professors who conducted those research studies. They can contact the professors, discuss their employee or productivity-related issues and ask for their recommendations and feedback.
The academic knowledge of these professionals can prove to be an asset for the companies vying to improve their performance.
Align The Programs With The Goals Of Your Organization
Higher education institutions provide many different professional courses and degree programs. Deciding what might be the best for your employees for keeping them abreast of industry trends might be a hard nut to crack for people disconnected from academia.
When you have dedicated education partners, you can work with them to choose a course/degree program that meets your organizational goals. They may recommend you upgrade your employees’ education to a master’s or a doctoral degree program or get specific training or certifications.
A good education partner will understand your requirements and ask the right questions to dig deep into your thoughts and strategize the best interventions.
Retain The Best Talent
Research shows that employees prefer to work with organizations that they believe care about them. One of the ways to demonstrate care and interest in your employees’ career development is by providing them with regular training and sponsoring educational programs. With an academic partner on board, showing your care towards your employees becomes easier.
Regular training programs also increase employee satisfaction and loyalty to the organization. This investment of time and energy to train them generates employees’ confidence and increases their commitment to the organization.
Every organization wants its employees to be loyal to their work. Consequently, you don’t have to spend huge amounts on hiring new employees and training them from zero when disgruntled employees leave the organization.
Get A Discount On Employee Training And Education Programs.
Higher education can be very costly. When many employees qualify for a sponsored higher education program, the cost can go beyond your estimates and destabilize your research and development budget.
Fortunately, having an education partner can get you discounts on the training and degree programs. Even if you are not sponsoring the entire program, sponsored employees can benefit from a reduced or discounted fee that is more manageable for the employee to fund.
Train New Students About Actual Work In The Organizations
Business education partnership helps both sides. Just as institutions help businesses develop the right talent, business leaders can also participate in seminars and share their insights into the practical nature of work.
Students often complain about a disconnection between what they learn in the books and what happens in the market. Continuous interaction with the market leaders improves students’ business prowess, training them to implement their theoretical knowledge in the field.
Present Themselves As Corporate Citizens
Partnership with an educational institution has its marketing and advertising benefits too. Businesses that connect with academic institutions and hire talent from universities are looked at as corporate citizens. The community wants the business organizations to play their part in reducing the employment rates, providing work opportunities, and the overall uplift of the society. All this is conveniently possible by having a hand-in-hand partnership with educational institutions. These initiatives offer positive press for the business, providing fewer chances to the media to have a go at the company.
Businesses can also donate newer equipment, construct new educational units, and provide accessories such as benches to the institution. This way, they can have their brand name ingrained in the institution’s infrastructure for life.
Conclusion
Having an education partner can help your organization in multiple ways. It develops a talent pipeline to replenish your organization’s talent needs, establish brand awareness on-campus, and make your employees more satisfied.
Reskilling current employees in a higher education institution continuously involved in groundbreaking research ensures that your employees get trained with the most advanced and relevant skills. Getting involved in academic explorations establishes a business as a market innovator and cements its credibility.
On the part of educational institutions, this partnership helps them ensure that their graduates find jobs in the most prestigious organizations. This alignment between academic and professional business can offset some of the critiques leveled at academic institutions for producing ill-performing graduates in recent years.
Continuous interactions with professionals from esteemed organizations help students develop insights into the practical workings of the business world.