Cuyahoga Community College Launches Faculty Externships to Bridge Workforce Gaps

As a part of its Center for the Future of Work, this year, Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) has implemented a series of faculty externships designed to bridge the gap between business and academia. By fostering relationships between Tri-C’s faculty and area employers, the program is already generating collaborative opportunities for reshaping our regional workforce.

At a time when new technologies such as AI are reshaping the world of work at a break-neck speed, it’s a program that will keep Tri-C at the forefront of meeting the needs of Northeast Ohio employers.

“When I came here in Spring of 2024, I was tasked with implementing our Center for the Future of Work,” says Jessica Colombi, executive director, Economic Development and Public Policy; she also directs the Center. “Our faculty was already doing an excellent job of staying in touch with local employer needs, meeting the needs of a real-world workforce. In fact, the externship program is really an outgrowth of relationships established by our faculty. Indeed, we required faculty applying for externships to have a relationship with real world partners.

“We received a grant from the Hower family to create and support externships as a way to incentivize our faculty to work with employers to develop new curricula, which benefit the faculty member, the employer and students.”

After studying faculty externships at Ball State and Ohio University’s Scripps College of Communication, Colombi brought together an academic team she calls, “the externship design team.” The faculty design team included: David Bernatowicz, associate professor of history; Matthew Crowley, assistant professor of information technology; Marty Walsh, assistant professor of information technology; Michael Flatt, associate professor of sociology; Rachel Stehle, associate professor of sociology; Michele Hampton, professor of business administration and economics; and Lemuel Stewart III, associate professor, counseling.

With the team’s help, the Center was able to award nine faculty externships marrying the participants with corresponding partners across a diverse cross section of local businesses.

The Captioning & Court Reporting externship works at multiple court sites throughout the area to give faculty firsthand exposure to modern court reporting practices as well as new and emerging technologies. An externship involved with sociological research partners with Friends of CITY DOGS Cleveland. It examines volunteer experiences in the animal welfare field to understand what motivates and sustains civic engagement, plus what contributes to compassion fatigue. Another sociological externship partners with the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland to allow students access to the Occupational Mobility Explorer, a tool that enables students to visualize career pathways and skills needed for job transfers.

An Eaton Corp. externship studying electrical engineering places faculty and advanced students on site to observe smart manufacturing processes. Smart manufacturing and engineering are also the focus of an externship at Talan Products, which offers exposure to current production technologies and product development practices.

A collaborative partnership has also been established with Kent State University-Stark, partnering Tri-C faculty with KSU’s biology lab to perform research with advanced industry tools.

A business and marketing externship at Inbloom Consulting embeds faculty at the nonprofit marketing and business consulting firm to gain experience with digital marketing tools, campaign development and strategic planning practices. A partnership with First Year Cleveland helps nursing faculty address community health disparities. An Early Childhood Education externship connects with Smart Learning Center to bridge the gaps between classroom instruction and real-world curriculum.

While those are the first externships, the future is exciting, says Colombi.