Successful Collaboration Parameters for Business and Community Colleges: A Qualitative Case Study of Schoolcraft College.

Industry leaders need a steady stream of highly skilled and motivated workers to
continue to grow their businesses to enhance the American economy. Community college leaders play a crucial role in ensuring that the labor pool is fully prepared with relevant education to ensure no gaps exist in a company’s growth plans. Currently the labor pool is not meeting the requirements for highly skilled jobs, as millions of positions are unfilled. Although students are graduating from higher education institutions in record
numbers, their skills are lacking.
One solution is to develop significant partnerships between leaders in industry
and the community college. A case study was conducted at Schoolcraft College to
determine the type of environment, attributes, academic integration methods, and
leadership characteristics that are necessary to create sustainable collaborations with
industry.
A mixed methods approach was utilized to survey 56 local businesses in the
College’s service region regarding their insight on how collaborations could be mutually
beneficial. A quantitative survey was used to identify the levels of awareness and interest
regarding the College’s assets and services by industry. A follow-up, qualitative survey
was used to delve and ascertain exactly what industry was looking for to create and
sustain collaborations with the College leaders.
Industry leaders were looking for four major findings that were concluded in this
study:
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1. Effective interactions that would lead to a significant relationship with an
affixed team from the College.
2. Expanded educational focus in which industry wanted the College to perform
talent recruitment and placement functions.
3. Academic transformation in which the faculty would be immersed in the
industry for extended periods to learn, and then to retool the curriculum.
4. Use of assets by which the College could host industry hot-button topics and
prognosticate about future skill requirements for various industries.