Workforce Readiness: Why Higher Ed Struggles to Use Employer Support

Workforce readiness is usually framed as a funding and program-design problem. In some states and at some institutions, the funding and the employer willingness already exist, and what is missing is a structure on the institution's side that can take the offer and act on it.

In this episode of the Changing Higher Ed® podcast, Dr. Drumm McNaughton speaks with Brad Griffith, president of Buckeye Innovation, a central Ohio technology firm building custom software for nonprofits, local governments, and growing organizations. The conversation covers where the public-private partnership between employers and institutions breaks down, and what leaders can change on their own side of it.

Griffith serves on a curriculum advisory committee at Central Ohio Technical College, hires apprentices through Columbus State Community College's IT Flexible Apprenticeship program, and ran six state-reimbursed interns this past summer. He guest lectures in a justice tech program at Ohio State and has helped commercialize university-developed technology, including a job-matching tool that came out of the OSU Wexner Medical Center.

This conversation is especially relevant for presidents, boards, provosts, deans, and career services leaders evaluating whether their institution can absorb employer, donor, and state investment in experiential learning at the speed those partners operate.

Topics Covered

• State wage reimbursement programs for employers who host interns, and how the Ohio application and reimbursement process works in practice
• Donor-funded and institution-funded internship placements at outside employers
• Internal curriculum approval sequencing versus accreditor review as the source of curricular delay
• Writing course descriptions broadly enough that faculty can change technologies without reopening formal approval
• How curriculum advisory committees give two-year and technical colleges a structured way to bring in employer input
• Career fair pricing and participation structures that can screen out smaller local employers
• The start-to-finish work cycle, from conceptualizing a problem through launch and post-launch support
• Why commercializing university research calls for a different capability than developing it

Real-World Examples Discussed

• VocFit, a job-matching tool for individuals with developmental disabilities developed at the OSU Wexner Medical Center, moved from mailed paper surveys and manual spreadsheet matching to deployed software now demonstrated in Italy and partnered with Cincinnati Children's Hospital and Colorado State University
• A University of Richmond student whose internship at an Ohio company was funded by his own institution
• An Ohio State justice tech program pairing engineering with the Moritz College of Law, where four student project teams on four technology stacks raised a real long-term support constraint
• Central Ohio Technical College's community advisory committee, which reviews courses and syllabi and names the skills employers see missing in graduates
• Apprenticeships through Columbus State Community College serving working adults changing careers, some with employer-funded certificates and stipends

Three Key Takeaways for Higher Education Leadership

1. Invite businesses in and build structures where outside perspectives are represented, including advisory boards and standing invitations for employers to participate.
2. Make sure students graduate with real project work they can show, on a publicly visible portfolio rather than a transcript reference to coursework.
3. Embrace AI while teaching its limits alongside its capabilities, so graduates can judge where it belongs, where it does not, and how to use it as a thought partner.

Read the transcript: https://changinghighered.com/employer-engagement-in-higher-education/

#WorkforceReadiness #HigherEducation #PublicPrivatePartnership #ChangingHigherEdPodcast