Nine Central New York students will be making the easy transition from an internship right into a paid position after a first-ever job signing day at LeMoyne college. Partners for Education and Business, or PEB, modeled the event after letter-of-intent signings for athletes. Ailiyah Morris will be taking a job at commercial laundry equipment manufacturer GA Braun after she graduates from the Institute of Technology this month. She says the company began its relationship when she started 9th grade. She took an internship in her junior year.
"I enjoyed it so much because I built connections with all the employees and some of the management. I got to do real world stuff like being in the assembly line with big washers and dryers. That was one of my favorite parts," she said with a big smile on her face.
Morris says she also likes working in the circuit shop, building the components that run the equipment. She completed the P-Tech program, one of three pathways students need to take to receive a job offer. The program put her on the path to earning her Associates Degree while in high school.
PEB has been preparing students for future careers for 26 years, and now has about 140 business partners. The program is an affiliate of the Manufacturers Association of Central New York, where President Randy Wolken says both companies and students benefit.
"The beauty of this is it starts with an intent to work together while they're learning. These companies are intimately involved with these students when they're still in school. And then they're hiring them. There's no better outcome than that."
Wolken says the process starts as early as middle school and matures in high school and maybe into college. Many schools are designing curriculum with employer needs in mind. He says there are so many young people in the pipeline that he expects there will be future job signings.
