How to Build Partnerships with the Business Community

1. Learn why the business community has a stake in education.

While it might seem intimidating to ask for support from the business community, they have a vested interest in great education. Here are some voices from the business world explaining why.

• Supporting Good Schools Is Good Business: Milton Goldberg Speaks
  The former executive vice president of the National Alliance of Business talks about the benefits of business support in education.
• Working to Learn, Learning to Work: Let's Get Businesses to Better Support Our Schools
  Businesses need to get involved with local schools to help students understand what will be expected of them professionally once they're in the real world.
• Risky Business: Industry Invests in Schools
  With the economic future of the U.S. tied to our public education system, business leaders are scrambling to push for change.

2. Get inspired by examples of businesses partnering with schools.

Some schools build a strong partnership with a single business, and some gather different kinds of support from different businesses and community members.

• University Teams Up with Local Schools to Advance Careers in Medicine

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• A Community Collaborates in Education
  C.P. Squires Elementary School harnesses parents, businesspeople, and retirees for academic and financial support and to staff after-school programs.
• Kids Invest in Funds -- and Their Own Future
  At Chicago's Ariel Community Academy, students in grades K-8 hone math skills and learn practical, lifelong lessons in finance by managing a $20,000 class stock portfolio.
• Partnership Pays Off for Business and Schools: Creating Future Scientists Together
  An innovative, project-learning merge between corporate scientists and schools pays off.

3. Explore the ways in which local businesses can get involved.

From donating supplies to offering internships to freeing up employees to be mentors, there are a variety of ways businesses can leverage their resources to support schools.

• Project-Based Learning: What Businesses Can Do
  How businesses can help promote and support project-based learning in local schools.
• Emotional Intelligence: What Businesses Can Do
  What businesses can do to help promote the philosophy of and encourage emotional intelligence in schools.
• What Business Can Do About Teacher Quality: Ways to Help With Teacher Preparation
  Ideas on how businesses can help reform traditional teacher preparation programs.

4. Find specific tools for cultivating business partnerships.

Once you've identified your goals in creating a partnership, then what? Here are a few articles with practical advice for starting and maintaining those relationships.

• Seven Steps to Building School-to-Industry Partnerships
  Collaborations with industries and professionals are a core component of career technical education. Done well, they can be a winning experience for everyone.
• How to Grow Students' Opportunities Through Private Partnerships
  Tips for creating beneficial community and business relationships.
• Building Relationships with Build San Francisco
  Learn how Build San Francisco develops relationships, including school-community and student-mentor bonds, plus tips and links to help you build your own.

5. Connect with other educators.

Have questions about career and technical education? Want to share your experiences? Edutopia's Groups are your go-to place to make connections and talk to others about this topic.

• Career and Technical Education Group
• Entrepreneurship Education

And be sure to visit our Schools That Work package, Merging Career Tech and College Prep.