Guest Author
Rachel Rainey
In order for our company to find and hire the best qualified employees – never an easy task – we get collaborative. We also go academic.
In short, we partner with a higher education institution.
Often it’s a single partner: Rockford Career College (RCC). In fact, our company – Hennig, a global manufacturer headquartered in Machesney Park, Illinois – partners more with RCC than we do with any other school.
In recent years, Hennig has hired more than 100 RCC graduates, mostly welders, electrical specialists and maintenance technicians. In 2025 alone, we recruited no fewer than 34 RCC grads.
The upshot? Almost all of those brought onboard have earned promotions and raises and launched careers destined to progress still further and last decades to come. Most of those 100-plus RCC graduates are still on our staff, a remarkably high retention rate. One particular employee joined us from RCC 10 years ago. Some RCC graduates employed at Hennig return to the campus to speak to students and say, in effect, “If I can do this, so can you.”
Our successful partnership raises some important questions. Why have we consistently hired so many RCC graduates? How do we go about doing so? What’s the key to making this matchmaking relationship click? And how can other local companies partner with local schools such as RCC to build a robust talent pipeline and a thriving workforce?
Now for some answers.
For starters, Hennig enters the RCC ecosystem. We regularly dispatch our supervisors and recruiters to the RCC campus. There, they give updates on job opportunities available, act as guest speakers, conduct mock interviews with students, and even serve on the RCC advisory board to help shape its curriculum. We also participate in RCC career fairs and host tours of our own facilities.
I strongly suggest other companies do the same. But also tell the colleges exactly what kinds of skills you need and expect in employees. Schools that keep those specific needs top of mind can then better train students for the marketplace. Graduates come out ready to do the job at hand and strengthen your business, a benefit that ripples through communities.
But be warned. Never operate last-minute, waiting until you’re desperately short-staffed to swing into recruitment mode. Make sure to build your talent pipeline before it runs dry.
Rockford Career College, to its credit, often takes the initiative in establishing this rapport. Its career services leaders make a point of networking with local employers, whether hospitals, law firms or manufacturers. RCC makes house calls to companies to talk shop. It always welcomes employees to visit its campus and classrooms and see faculty and students in action teaching and learning.
But employers that go the extra mile with schools appear to be in the minority. According to a 2022 Harvard Business School report, only an estimated 11% to 24% of employers are willing to go above and beyond the norm in teaming up with community and vocational colleges. Only in some instances do employers co-create curricula, guarantee students job interviews and directly commit to hiring graduates.
More positively, schools that partner with companies in fields featuring skills heavily in demand see 70% to 87% of graduates secure job offers before or soon after graduation, showed research published in the International Journal of Management Science and Business Administration.
In other words, companies should forge partnerships that are strategic.
Participating in a school job fair, for example, is all well and good. But better still is for the school to conduct a survey that collects feedback from employers to better understand how it can support local businesses.
Stautzenberger College, a trade school in Maumee affiliated with RCC, recently held a job fair and polled employers who set up booths there. The results spoke volumes about how companies can join forces with higher education.
Of the 28 employers who responded, 82% said they were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with the fair and 85% made hiring connections, saw hiring potential and left believing the event produced current or future recruiting opportunities. Nearly 70% said they had at least three “meaningful” conversations with candidates and 82% are either “very likely” or “likely” to participate again.
So let’s say you’re now intrigued about the opportunities here. Maybe you’re even interested in building a partnership. Getting a conversation going is easy. Just contact Danielle Harriott, RCC’s vice president of community outreach and alumni affairs – and herself an RCC graduate. Together you can customize the workforce solution best for you.
