Connecting Business with Workforce
Workforce! Workforce! Workforce! Finding the workforce necessary to run businesses has been one of the most prominent issues we hear about at LIBA from our members. Leading into the pandemic, many were seeking more innovative ways to connect with prospective employees. The pandemic arrived with businesses being forced into closures, reductions in capacity, and shaken consumer confidence to go out and support their local businesses. These factors led to difficulty in finding and keeping employees. Now our community is facing record low unemployment and businesses are faced with the difficulty of finding employees at every level of their business. Businesses need to have employees and connecting with potential employees has become more and more difficult.
A few months ago, I was sitting in a meeting with Josh Jones from The Career Academy (TCA), the joint venture between Lincoln Public Schools and Southeast Community College. TCA offers career orientated pathways for Skilled Trades (construction, masonry, electrical, HVAC, machine tool, welding, and culinary), IT (programming and networking/cybersecurity), human services (K-12 education, EDED, human services, and criminal justice), business (marketing, entrepreneurship, Microsoft applications, and customer service), health science (CAN, med aide, EKG, phlebotomy, EMT, and PT aide), and Ag-bio (horticulture, animal science, and biotechnology).
During our discussion of TCA, we shifted to ways students could connect with internships, part time jobs, and work experience utilizing the skills they are developing. Thus, an idea was born – hosting a job/career fair at TCA for local businesses and organizations to connect with students interested in these career pathways. So in March, LIBA partnered with TCA and our members to host a career/job fair. We had 53 businesses sign up to attend this event with the hope of gathering prospective students who would have training connected to their industry. The connections made between students and businesses were great to watch.
Throughout the event, I walked around talking with both students and businesses. The response to this event was outstanding. Students were able to meet and speak with successful business owners, and they were able to connect and ask many questions about owning their own business one day.
I was overwhelmed hearing from businesses and organizations about the number of connections they made during the career/job fair. Businesses were receiving applications, resumes, and contact information from students about the prospect of summer jobs and employment opportunities. Ultimately, this connection between students and opportunities was part of the vision when The Career Academy first opened.
Bringing together students looking for opportunities and business owners looking to fill their workforce needs was a way that LIBA could work to help our members address a growing concern throughout all industries. Connecting businesses to resources needed is a fundamental part of our work every day at LIBA. We will continue to be a resource needed by small businesses to succeed. Look for more opportunities such as the career fair in the future!