Patrick Leahy, President of Monmouth University, is looking for ways academia and the business world can work together to train a talented workforce.
As a former business executive turned university president, Patrick Leahy understands the importance of taking cues from the corporate world that will employ students once they graduate. As the pandemic brought concerns over job readiness to the forefront with new challenges and precarious markets, universities have been adapting with a focus not just on student excellence but on alumni success.
Creating pipelines between student training and career success is vital, especially in a rapidly-shifting world. Colleges and universities must find partners in the corporate world to ensure training is responsive to the needs of companies.
Both academia and corporations can benefit by partnering in innovative ways. While some programs, like health sciences or teaching, already have clinical placements as part of their curricular requirements, universities should expand that model to encourage job-readiness in a wider range of fields. The co-training model opens career doors for students and provides corporations with fresh talent.
Preparing an adaptable, culturally competent, and savvy workforce is not just important, it is essential in a globalizing world. Both corporations and academia have a role to play in training talent and building an adaptable workforce.
“The key to winning and losing is all about talent in the end. Pretty much everything else is more or less a commodity or will eventually become a commodity, but the quality of the people that you have, the culture that you build, and the skills that you develop are the competitive advantage,” Leahy advises.
