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Council In the News Index
ConnectEdu strives to match students with potential employers (Mass High Tech)
By Kyle Alspach | August 4, 2010
When many college students arrive on campus believing they are on a path toward medical school, they don't anticipate their sophomore year hurdle: organic chemistry. After taking the course, many of them suddenly find that they no longer have the grades to stay on the med school trajectory. So they begin to look outside of the science-related fields.
But it doesn't have to be that way, according to Craig Powell, founder and CEO of Boston-based ConnectEdu Inc. As the United States grapples with a decline in the number of students headed toward fields in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM, there is a smarter approach, Powell says.
“ConnectEdu tries to connect students with the resources and employers that have wonderful opportunities for students that might have slightly adjusted their trajectory,” he said. “Today, the only way that happens is if I stumble into you at a career fair or you happen to get into a career office at your college.”
ConnectEdu, founded in 2002, offers a suite of web-based tools aimed at helping high school and college students find out what they need to do in order to achieve their school and job goals. ConnectEdu also tracks the student's progress and proactively sends information to the students about their options as things change, Powell said.
The way the company makes money is through a second aspect of ConnectEdu. College admissions offices and company human resources departments can pay to join ConnectEdu, which provides them with access to details about students on the network. Colleges, for instance, can learn about promising students at participating schools, and can ask to connect with the student in a way similar to social networking sites. Students remain anonymous unless they accept the connection.
Businesses that want to make connections with students in college or high school use a service called TalentConnect, which can really help companies with the issues related to a shortage of STEM graduates, Powell said.
“If I see that there's a kid who lives in Brockton who is doing very well in their math classes, then I can reach out to that student and try to build a relationship with them, the same as on Facebook or LinkedIn,” he said.
The company can offer advice about what courses and skills would prepare the student for a job with the company. The company might even offer internships or job opportunities through TalentConnect, Powell said.
“This really has all the same elements of the way we would socially network, except this is around education and career advancement,” he said.
Since opening the platform to companies in early 2009, ConnectEdu says it has signed up 50 companies, including Bay State tech-related firms such as Kronos Inc. and Mitre Corp. Several million students around the U.S. have accounts, the company said, including students at 100 high schools in Massachusetts and at colleges including Bentley University and the Worcester Polytechnic Institute.
At Burlington-based Viridity Software Inc., an energy management software firm focused on the data center industry, Chris Rocca said he understands the value of making early connections with students. Rocca, co-founder and vice president of engineering at the firm, said his company relies on recent grads for engineering and other jobs to keep the company cost-competitive.
“If we weren't able to attract those kinds of people, the only alternative would be to do more offshore development,” he said. “But that would come with a lot of headaches, which a company like ours wants to avoid in the early going.”
Viridity has had three student interns — two of them in engineering — and ultimately hired all of them into full-time positions. “We did some job fairs, but found this approach to be much more productive,” Rocca said.
Viridity has grown from 18 to nearly 30 people in the last month, he said. As the company continues to grow, Rocca said he would be interested in an approach to recruiting such as the one offered by ConnectEdu.
At the Massachusetts High Technology Council, which has collaborated on opening up ConnectEdu to businesses, the platform is seen as an “extremely valuable tool to boost interest in the high-tech field,” said council president Christopher Anderson.
ConnectEdu's approach has a strong potential for helping to address the STEM crisis, said Isa Zimmerman, a member of the Massachusetts Governor's STEM Advisory Council.
“We need to create a panoply of ways of getting kids interested and motivated,” she said. “The U.S. and Massachusetts will lose their edge in the workplace and as innovators if we don't get more young people committed to STEM careers.”
At ConnectEdu, all signs are pointing toward continued growth. The company has seen annual revenue increases and has achieved profitability, Powell said. The company is backed by $20 million in funding from angel investors and investment bank Allen & Company, he said.
ConnectEdu plans to add 20 to 25 new employees over the next year to its current staff of nearly 75. The company's growth, Powell said, is ultimately tied to its focus on the needs of the student. “There really are a bunch of different solutions and different types of tools focused on servicing the needs of those that service the student,” he said.
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