Twice a year, 35 companies offering around five hundred jobs descend upon GRCC.
Twice a year for a school that is home to well over ten thousand future workers.
As a two-year institution that is home to many different programs and degrees, Grand Rapids Community College needs to do more for its students and their futures.
This May, thousands of students are going to leave this college looking for an exciting job opportunity only to find very little out there.
When a student leaves GRCC, they should leave with more than a piece of paper. They should leave the college with a career that they enjoy and that they look forward to going to day in and day out.
What else can the college do? Let’s start with more job fairs. The college should be bringing in companies and sending out e-mails informing students about the jobs that are out there on a regular basis.
What about Blackboard?
The college has a wonderful tool in Blackboard. It reaches all students so why not allow job opportunities to be posted on the site?
The Student Employment Services tool is a nice feature but how many students know that even exists?
That doesn’t seem to matter to the college. To them, they have done enough.
They seem to think they have done enough for the thousands who wake up every morning jobless.
It should be noted that in addition to the two major (general) job fairs, GRCC holds a variety of other job and career fairs in other specialized fields.
For example, right now there is a Gerontology Career Fair set for April 3:
http://cms.grcc.edu/prgerontologyfair2012
The college also recently held a Manufacturing Career Day event:
http://cms.grcc.edu/prmanufday2011
[Both of these other fairs were promoted on the front page of the college’s website, as well as through all of the college’s social media presences and featured prominently in Blackboard.]
Further, the Student Employment Services office is indeed in Blackboard – you can access it by clicking on the “Community” tab under “My Organizations.” They post all of their job opportunities there and offer a variety of other resources.
Jobs are also available on the SES website at http://www.grcc.edu/ses
GRCC is very concerned about students achieving success after completing their time at GRCC (in fact, we’re required to report that information to accrediting agencies) so we take career opportunities for students very seriously.