Educating employees | An innovative, countywide program gives business a leg up
Chair, College for ME-Androscoggin and associate dean for community relations and LearningWorks at University of Southern Maine Lewiston Auburn College
In a few short years, a handful of leaders determined to address central Maine’s pressing need for a more educated work force has become College for ME-Androscoggin, a collaborative that today features some 40 organizations working to double the number of degree holders among the more than 104,000 residents of Androscoggin County.
A variety of programs reaches a wide audience. For youth, we coordinate enrollment of high school juniors and seniors in early college classes to offer teens a way to earn tuition-free college credits while in high school. Literally hundreds of students in our county have taken advantage of this program, many who never envisioned themselves going to college. Their success has led us to develop a similar college “preview” experience for qualified adult learners, which promises the same transformative college success for adults.
We’ve also created a website that is a one-stop resource about college-going, and we celebrate higher education success through a host of live events and online recognitions. In addition, our Fall into College campaign is a month-long series of traditional and guerilla marketing efforts designed to strengthen this region’s college-going culture — which culminates in College for ME-Androscoggin’s signature Awards Luncheon, this year on Dec. 3, when people all across our 500-square mile county wear college garb in recognition of their own or someone else’s college achievement.
Recently, in conjunction with the Maine Development Foundation’s statewide employer initiative, we’ve begun working even more closely with businesses to learn what they do and what more they could be doing to support their employees in education. We’ve already learned some valuable lessons about what works best for employer and employee, and you may be surprised that three of these have anything but high price tags.
First and most important, there is no one right way for businesses to promote education, including higher education, for employees. More important than exactly how you do it is the fact that you are encouraging active learning and growth among your employees. That can make your company or organization, no matter its size or resources, a learning organization and there is significant evidence that learning organizations are successful. Workers in such companies tend to be good problem solvers and team players, who are likely more engaged not only at work but in their community as well. Contrary to employer fears, they are often more committed to their company, and that commitment plus the value on learning throughout the company means that learning organizations can remain nimble and responsive in hard times.
Second, linking employees to clear and repeated information about many facets of higher education pays back handsomely. Employers tend to assume their responsibility to provide information about higher education means discussing education benefits, and only those benefits related to employees attaining strictly job-related college certificates or degrees. This narrow focus prevents tapping into employee interests and passions for degree pursuit, something that can build still greater employee loyalty to an organization. Similarly, it may be more important to let employees know how to obtain their GED and learn more about adult education transitions programs once high school equivalency is in hand.
When employers tell us that few of their employees make use of their educational supports, our first question is always, “How do you let them know what these benefits are?” Your company’s policies may only be discussed in a single paragraph in your employee handbook or mentioned briefly when your employees are first hired, maybe in an already jam-packed orientation session. Employers do better, we’ve learned, when they inform employees of company educational benefits more frequently, at least once a year as part of the annual review process and ideally as part of ongoing discussion of job/career development goals. They do better still if they supply information throughout the year in memos, on the company intranet, or in Lunch and Learn sessions. In Androscoggin County, College for ME-Androscoggin can help advise employees on-site about college, career and financial resources to make college-going even more affordable. No matter where you are in Maine, public and private colleges, the Department of Labor’s CareerCenters, adult education programs and others are eager to help your employees link to higher education.
Third, just as important as helping employees prepare for college is celebrating their success. From touting completion of someone’s first college course on a lunch room bulletin board to applauding his or her degree completion at an all-company event, nothing builds a learning culture faster than sharing stories of employee success. We’ve learned that one of the biggest things standing between employees and college is not money, but the inability to imagine themselves walking into a college classroom. Knowing that the person working next to them is doing exactly that can change everything.
To learn more about what you can do to link your employees to information about higher education or actively support them in their degree attainment, check out the College for ME-Androscoggin website: www.collegeformeandroscoggin.org.
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