Fast Facts

• The RITE Board provides a united industry voice for IT training and skills needs in the region
• Focused on three critical areas to fill the skills gap in the IT industry: academic engagement, opportunity placement and community outreach
• Individual RITE Councils tailor efforts to specific educational institutions
• The RITE network involves over 150 participants from industry and higher education
• Two community colleges and three universities in Northeast Ohio engaged in the partnership

Founded in 2009, the Northeast Ohio Regional Information Technology Engagement (RITE) Board is comprised of senior IT executives committed to advancing the regional IT workforce by facilitating robust interactions between employer, education and community stakeholders and acting with a united industry voice. The RITE Board operations are hosted by Lorain County Community College in Elyria, Ohio.

RITE Board members originally convened as part of a state initiative to identify and eliminate skills gaps that were resulting in a lack of qualified IT workers and difficulty filling open positions. The RITE Board uses industry expertise to address IT training by enhancing industry feedback to educators, spreading awareness of IT careers and promoting best practices in experiential learning.

The RITE Board works with five higher education institutions, including two community colleges (Lorain County Community College and Stark State College of Technology), as part of a network to develop an increased pipeline of emerging professionals to better serve the dynamic needs of major IT employers in the Northeast Ohio region. Each institution forms a RITE Council, charged with driving the specific institutional efforts to prepare students for jobs.

How the Partnership Works

Employers on the RITE Board coalesced early on around a single mission: to reduce the gap between supply and demand for IT workers in Northeast Ohio through leadership and engagement with higher education to yield greater numbers of qualified IT talent who are students and graduates of the region’s higher education system. To achieve these goals, the Rite Board broke their activities out into six main categories: (1) Accredited Training; (2) Career Awareness; (3) Career Guidance; (4) Employer Support; (5) Internships; and (6) Outreach and Student Support.

The RITE “APP” focuses on these core problems and champions the following solutions: 

• ATTRACT–Build the Pipeline 
           Impact the career choice of students and job seekers through promotion of the availability and advantages of information
           technology careers.
• PREPARE–Develop the Talent 
          Strengthen regional IT educational and experiential programs at all levels to ensure world-class preparation for today’s IT
          roles.
• PLACE–Connect the Talent 
          Link NEO students to regional IT employers through experiential learning, career development, job search and
          employment opportunities to match talent and employers in real time.

Specific measurable targets to address these goals have been set for the next 3 years (e.g. increase the number of internship experiences of IT students at the partner colleges by 10% per year).

The Program

The RITE Board is interdisciplinary within the institutions and involves multiple levels of participants, from CIOs to company recruiters, and from provosts to career services staff. The RITE Board partnerships focus on a collaborative process between the industry leaders and educational institution representatives, and cut across individual institutions resulting in both internal and external cooperation and resource sharing. There are also identified faculty and student services teams who work within each institution and with other institutions to effect change and improvements

The RITE Board primarily serves students living within a 12-county region. The two community colleges have created and convened their own RITE Councils comprised of RITE Board members, a larger number of IT employers in their area and stakeholders from across the institution. These Councils are charged with driving efforts specific to their institution and working with local employers to best train and prepare students.

Benefits

In addition to first-time students, the partnership has helped adults transition to new jobs in the IT sector, with both groups given the opportunity to explore the IT sector through a coordinated approach that involves business leaders and academic institutions.

As a result of RITE activities, IT recruiters are working jointly to identify major IT roles critical to the region; agreeing on entry-level IT jobs common to all companies and organizations; and participating in in-depth job profiling of six IT jobs including agreement around how to assess student competencies for each of these positions, whether entering as intern or employee. The results and implications of this pioneering work in the coming year will be used to inform curriculum enhancements at partnering colleges and universities, as employers work directly with educators to determine what is needed.

Results

The broader Northeast Ohio RITE network involves over 150 participants from industry and higher education. The effects are intended to be wide-spread toward the goals of growing IT employer engagement and adding other institutions in the region to the network, encouraging efforts to replicate elsewhere in Ohio and beyond. The long-term aspiration for the RITE Network is that it will work to influence all IT education and training in the region. In addition, it now has affiliation with two other major regional IT initiatives that have parallel objectives for the purpose of building on the lessons they have learned and resources they can share with RITE. These are the Boston Area Advanced Technological Education Connection (BATEC) and the INTERalliance based in Cincinnati.

In the fall of 2012, the RITE Board held its first Interview Day, where IT students had the opportunity to have live interviews with employers in the region. At the end of the day, interviewees received feedback on their interview performance and needs. Eleven employers conducted 57 interviews with students; several were invited for subsequent interviews... The network plans to repeat this event at least once a year, and expand participation.

The RITE Board is also sponsoring original research and analysis in conjunction with the institutions to derive a better system which can be used to tackle inherent shortcomings of existing national data sources for defining IT and related occupations, linking them to career pathways and other employment information.

Skills for America's Future (SAF) is a non-partisan, employer-led initiative of the Aspen Institute. It is focused on creating a national network of partnerships among employers, community colleges, industry associations and other stakeholders. These partnerships are designed to ensure that American workers receive the necessary training to meet the skill needs of employers, giving them the opportunity to obtain and keep good jobs. 

For more information about how your company can partner with community colleges and Skills for America's Future, contact Rene Bryce-Laporte at rene.bryce-laporte@aspeninst.org