Massachusetts High Technology Council
TalentConnect Program Outline
February 2009

Overview

The Mass. High Technology Council (“the Council”) is the leading organization working to grow the state’s diverse technology economy.   As a member-based organization, the Council is comprised of chief executives from the educational institutions and companies that operate within all technology sectors in Massachusetts.  The Council works to make Massachusetts more competitive through an aggressive public policy agenda as well as delivering practical, programmatic solutions to issues and concerns of its members.

ConnectEDU (“CDU”) is the nation’s leader in providing management solutions for students transitioning into or within the higher education and employer marketplace.  CDU, a Boston-based company, is solely focused on the unique transition problems that face students when moving into or out of an educational environment.  As a result, CDU has created a set of proprietary tools and solutions that it deploys within its award-winning portal – Connect! – to assist all parties involved with student transitions – students, advisors, counselors, admission officers, transfer coordinators, recruiters, employers and registrars. CDU has developed the nation’s largest network of high schools and colleges and is actively working in Massachusetts and across the country to grow that network even more,

The Council and CDU have teamed to create TalentConnect, a comprehensive solution to the state’s workforce development and educational improvement needs.  The program allows employers and universities to guide and track students through an integrated pipeline, resulting in a steady stream of properly motivated, educated and trained job applicants entering the innovation workforce.  With this integrated talent pipeline, the Council and CDU will provide higher education institutions with a significant solution to guide students interested in pursuing careers in the technology industry.  Importantly, the integrated solution will provide Council members with a comprehensive, streamlined recruitment and talent cultivation solution that will result in an improved base of applicants as well as short- and long-term cost efficiencies for member employers.

The Problem

Studies show that students who are not given a full understanding of the benefits of a technology career are likely to leave the math and science academic track.  Employers are facing a shortage of educated students with a strong STEM curriculum, creating an ongoing challenge of how to reach and retain talent for robotics, biotech, cyber security, innovative technologies, etc.  On the other end of the pipeline, employers find that new hires are not always prepared for real world technology challenges and are forced to institute costly retraining programs.  Many businesses have created their own initiatives and developed programs to try to address the problem, however there is not a comprehensive plan to help employers fulfill the growing need. There has been no clear systemic solution to connect high school students with higher education institutions and employers in a way that makes the pipeline more tangible and quantifiable for everyone involved.

The Solution

Through TalentConnect, the Council and CDU are developing a new model of collaboration between educational institutions and employers. The program will deploy a technology platform that integrates with the nation’s and the Commonwealth’s largest network of K-12 and post-secondary education institutions to identify and guide students on curriculum and career decisions while providing employers with the ability to identify, inform and develop relationships with students that have expressed interest in their organization or associated careers.  The solution will verify the credibility of each student and their credentials by integrating with college and university student information systems to pass student verification information.  This integration removes security and credibility concerns relative to this on-line community.  An important by-product and cost-savings of this integration, is the ability for post-secondary institutions to transmit and receive student records electronically by eliminating costly student records processing tasks and ensuring accurate data exchanges in the college’s own student records requesting and transfer process.

Additionally, the solution will provide qualified employers with the ability to present themselves and their career opportunities to students they find of interest.  By adhering to federal guidelines and regulations, the solution will “mask” the personal identification of the student, until the student determines that they are interested in a specific employer and decides to make himself/herself known to the employer.  Finally, because the solution is securely integrated with actual student records, employers can also automate the process of verifying employee credentials during their hiring process.  This too will result in cost-savings for companies.

The Benefit to the Region’s Technology Economy

While TalentConnect will have a specific benefit to participating Council members, there is also a greater long-term benefit to Massachusetts by increasing the pipeline of skilled workers and providing the proper guidance and motivation for students to succeed in math and science studies.  TalentConnect will provide hard data on student performance and habits over time that cannot be found anywhere else.   This data would be used by policymakers to determine which programs are working and where we need to address gaps in the state’s education continuum. 

While Massachusetts needs to cultivate its organic workforce that is currently in high school, it also must capture a greater share of the students who graduate from area colleges.  By connecting undergraduates with employers, students will get a better sense of the career opportunities available in Massachusetts – both after graduation and summer internships.  The generation of more college internships – which give students stronger roots here – is a critical public policy goal of the Commonwealth.  TalentConnect will coordinate with the Massachusetts Life Sciences Center and other programs that are working to develop internships in key innovation sectors.

The development of the program also dovetails with current efforts by CDU and the Council to grow the network of high schools and colleges participating in the CDU system, both in Massachusetts and subsequently across New England.  After addressing the Massachusetts infrastructure, TalentConnect will connect with partner organizations in other states to expand the network and the program across New England.

The Strategy

Phase I: 

  • Identify a “Founding Group” of employers, colleges and universities that will commit to participating in the initiative and deploying the solution as a member of the Council’s TalentConnect.
  • Open membership to the “Founding Group” which will be made up of 10-20 employers and 5-10 colleges/universities.  This initial group will work together for an exclusive period for the first three years.  Each member will be part of the solution development to meet their specific needs, share in the cost and gain direct benefit.  As this unprecedented opportunity is not available to non-members, the minimum collective commitment required to ensure that the project is appropriately funded and set-up to be successful is $500K per year for three years. 
  • The “Founding Group” is to be established not later than June 30, 2009. 

Phase II:  

  • Work with the “Founding Group” of employers to develop a comprehensive tool set that meets their needs to successfully identify, inform, and develop relationships with students who are of interest to them. 
  • Test and deploy the solution. 
  • Phase II to be completed by September 30, 2009.

Phase III: 

  •  Aggregate the data and results of the project to drive policy initiatives.  
  • Open to additional employers and expansion beyond Massachusetts through the network established by the Council and the regional Defense Technology Initiative.

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