- Clarifying who you are, why you exist and why it matters to employers.
By re-positioning Co-operative Education and Career Services as a partner and invaluable service in supplying the local, regional and national organizations with applied skills relevant to today’s jobs. Camosun’s main differentiator is based on the value of an applied learning pedagogy. This becomes the unique value proposition.
This communication strategy seeks to position CECS, not as a job board (which there are many), but rather as an invaluable service where employers are consulted on how to tap directly into Camosun’s skill pipeline and reap the rewards well into the future.
Clarifying who you are, why you exist and why it matters to employers. #
This module helps you to articulate and define your unique value proposition, create a positioning statement, specify targeting, and create program-specific personas.
Situation Analysis answers ‘where are we now?’ Objectives clarify ‘where do we want to go?’ and the strategy summarizes ‘how do we get there?’ Strategy requires the ability to see the big picture. Yet strategy is arguably the most difficult, part of an engagement plan.
Camosun’s brand #
Camosun College holds a unique and valuable place in the Vancouver Island business landscape, supplying local industries with skilled workers equipped with applied learning relevant to today’s jobs. Canadian employers say that skill shortages are one of the biggest challenges they currently face, making them less competitive globally. In the next decade, there will be a shortage of 598,000 (69%) skilled labour jobs in BC from workers who left the workforce (WorkBC, 2019), with a forecasted 41% of those job openings requiring a Certificate, Diploma, or Apprenticeship (WorkBC, 2019).
Increased opportunity to build partnerships #
Now more than ever, it is essential to promote WIL- cooperative education, internship programs, and applied research projects—for developing the skilled workforce Canada, BC and Vancouver Island need.
Over 90% of Camosun programs offer students the possibility to engage in a Work Integrated Learning (WIL) experience, but these experiences would not be possible without industry partnership participation. COVID-19 has created many unprecedented challenges for employers. Uncertain economic conditions, office closures, and changes needed to adapt to the crisis have understandably resulted in a hesitancy among employers to commit to student placements.
In response to these circumstances, CECS has continued to work with employers to offer virtual, funded opportunities for students. While the pandemic has temporarily altered WIL placement numbers, the economy is showing signs of recovery. Camosun’s value in the local industry is undeniable and now more than ever before as we move towards a full recovery.
Unique Value Proposition #
UVP is a clear statement that describes the unique benefit of your offer, how you solve your employer’s needs and what distinguishes you from the competition. It clearly articulates why an organization would want to participate in a partnership with Camosun instead of another academic institution. Your UVP should appear prominently on your landing page and in every marketing campaign.
CECS’s Unique Value Proposition
Supplying BC organizations and industries with applied skills relevant to today’s jobs. Partner with Camosun College and tap into our student talent pipeline – a low-cost way to increase capacity.
Re-Positioning #
In re-positioning, the college and CECS as a “partner” with organizations and supporting them in building back better can elevate our value in the local island regions and beyond provincial borders as remote work is here to stay. CECS’s services are not well promoted, optimized, or understood, especially among potential employers who have never participated in WIL. Research has shown that employers require concise, clear, and accessible information to fully engage with WIL and optimize all stakeholders’ benefits (PHILLIPSKPA, 2014). Additionally, most employer resources are generic, with no particular discipline focus (FERN ET AL., 2016), which equates to the potentially interested employer contact having to spend more of their valuable time digging, searching, and calling. For CECS’s messages to resonate with prospective HR advisors, business owners, directors, CEOs, and administrators, it needs to be clear, concise and accessible with a non-generic focus on skill clusters. Within the first 10 seconds of a phone call, email, or landing on a webpage, it needs to address the question “what is in it for me”?
Who is Co-operative Education and Career Services at Camosun College? What do they do? What problem do they solve? #
CECS is a dedicated team of professionals committed to serving Camosun College’s student body in professional development through career planning and coaching; academic support and advising; and facilitating work-integrated learning experiences with industry partners.
CECS partners with private, public, non-profit, small, or large organizations in BC and across Canada to participate with us in creating quality work-integrated learning experiences for students. We have a robust employer network of human resource managers/advisors, CEO’s, business owners, directors, managers, administrators, recruiters, and business stakeholders who are benefiting from: a low-cost way to increase capacity; the concept of recruit once and hire twice; developing specific skills their organization needs; new ideas and energy; Government wage-subsidies for hiring, and heightening their community profile.
Camosun College offers comprehensive co-op programs in Business, Engineering, Technology, Hospitality & Tourism, Humanities, and Sport & Exercise Management. Our students are work-ready and available on a 3-semester timeline – Jan to Apr (winter term); May to Aug (summer term); and Sept to Dec (winter term) for work-integrated placements. Typically our employer network will leverage our students to:
- Develop specific skills their organization and industry needs
- Pre-screen potential new hires
- Give back to the community
- Access specific skills or talents
- Manage short-term pressures or special projects
We make it simple #
At no cost, our Employment Facilitators will:
- Help you identify WIL opportunities within your organization that supports your business objectives.
- Provide you with helpful resources to support you with all aspects of managing a successful WIL placement.
- Identify relevant provincial and federal wage subsidy funding programs to apply for.
- Support you with creating stellar job postings.
- Onboard you into our job posting portal.
- Advertise your job postings to relevant students.
- Arrange interviews.
- Extend offers of employment on your behalf.
- Support you and your student during the work term.
Skills focused targeting #
From a resource economy to a mobile skills economy #
The new skills economy, accelerated by the pandemic, has been quietly permeating the workforce for over a decade. A skills economy is continuously learning, training, re-skilling, and upgrading. Increasingly, occupations will be framed around essential skills to do the job rather than a particular industry or educational requirement. As technology globally disrupts jobs and the labour market, there is an increased demand for foundational skills such as critical thinking, co-ordination, social perceptiveness, active listening, and complex problem-solving.
The #1 reason employers participate in WIL is to develop specific skills their organization needs, reflecting the new skills economy. As job developers and industry partnership builders, we need to match the “skills” required to do the work and dismantle the idea that segmentation is soley based on academic program, industry, sector, or credential. Organizations across all industries typically hire for various skill clusters without considering what sector their business is in. For example, there are more workers with high technology occupations outside of the high technology sector in BC (WorkBC, 2019). In other words, targeting prospective organizations only in the high tech sector means a large segment of companies that require tech skills but are in non-high tech sectors are overlooked. Our audience assessment demonstrated that our ideal partners post roles relevant to all of our programs.
It is the job developer’s responsibility to understand academic programs, assess employers’ needs, and support them in communicating those requirements in the form of a job posting. In essence, we are directly “selling” skills because that is what is employers need. It is not that program information is irrelevant, but skills are more important to new employers. Employers want to know the student can accomplish the potential job. Therefore, focusing on students’ skills and competencies and helping organizations is a critical part of successful industry engagement.