'The final frontier of recruiting for employers: the classroom': collaboration aims to train millions of university business students through online platforms
As companies are finding it more and more difficult to recruit talent that have the right skills for the jobs they need to fill, post-secondary schools are being seen as a possible avenue for training and job experience.
In a move to help alleviate that problem, educational publishing giant Pearson announced a partnership with Forage, a job simulation platform that provides skills training and interview preparation.
Forage, which claims clients such as Lululemon, Accenture and KRMG in Canada, allows users to experience jobs in their chosen fields and then show their work to potential employers. The technology will be merging with Pearson, to bring that experience to university students where they are, in the classroom.
“Through this partnership, we are giving students an opportunity to experience a potential job while giving employers a new vehicle to attract talent,” said Michelle Day, HR Vice President at Pearson. “This partnership is a win-win for both the student and employer who together are looking for the right match.”
Students access job simulations at school, share work with employers
Pearson’s higher education platform MyLab is used by students to access e-textbooks. This month Forage’s job simulation technology will be implemented for use by students in 15 various business and economics platforms including marketing, finance and accounting. Later in the year, subscribers will be able to access up to 350 job simulations – in 2024 they will begin offering “badges” when they complete simulations.
"Embedding Forage's job simulations into Pearson's educational materials represents the final frontier of recruiting for employers: the classroom,” said Tom Brunskill, co-founder and CEO of Forage, continuing that the new offering “will allow companies to help educators prepare students for the world of work, while also giving HR professionals a truly unique way to impact and hire exceptional talent from broad and diverse audiences."
Forage’s platform was built in collaboration with “some of the world’s most prestigious employers,” the release said, and has already helped four million students worldwide in preparing for job interviews and practicing skills.
