It's Time For Education - Business Partnerships
Author: Jim Leatherwood

Paul is a successful businessman who feels that he has a
solution for the problems that face education.

"If education was run more like a business," he says "we'd be
far better off." Many of Paul's colleagues in business agree
with him.

Estelle is a school principal and is tired of hearing business
people make negative comments about education.

"They should mind their own business and stop criticizing the
schools," she says shaking her head. Most of her teachers share
the same opinion.

These words and the feelings they express indicate a lack of
real understanding between the worlds of business and education.
Such negative attitudes only serve to create further division
and misunderstanding between two potential partners.

Education is not a business. It faces some unique issues and
problems that are often unrealized by the business community.
However, business has a major stake in the product that comes
from our schools. In an era of rapidly changing technology,
reducing the cost of training new workers is a great incentive
for business to collaborate with education. Education is the
business of business and the entire community.

It has been said that education is a "journey," not a
destination. Indeed, there is always more to learn. That journey
becomes "first-class" when business joins hands with education.
The formation of effective school-business partnerships is the
way to bridge any gap that may exist between these two worlds. A
successful design for constructing such a bridge is the purpose
of this book (Facing the Future Together).

Some alarming trends make a strong case for collaboration and
partnership. Currently in the United States approximately
one-quarter of each high school class fails to graduate each
year. Of those who do only about one-third go on to a four-year
college and complete a B.A. degree. While most of these young
people do well, the other two-thirds will have a much more
difficult time facing the demands of the workplace.

These trends represent a tremendous source of frustration and
waste for these young people, and just as much a source of waste
and lost potential for the nation. Why is this happening? First,
there is no institution that has established as its mission
helping young people to make the transition from high school to
the work place. High Schools care about their students until
they leave. Employers care if the new employee has needed skills
and can contribute to their success. But no one helps young
people get from point A to point B.

This is also a time of great change for young people. They
enter high school having had everything in their lives planned
for them. They leave high school and are on their own. At a time
when they're dealing with a host of issues related to growing
up, they are expected to plan their future with almost no
experience in this arena and no organized system to help them.

Who will inherit these youth? By and large employers. Even
those who go to college for four years will spend the next 30 to
40 years working. Those who don't go to college will begin
working directly after leaving high school. Is it in the
interests of high schools to learn what employers want and need
in hiring new employees? If they care about the future of their
students, yes. Is it in the interest of employers to learn what
schools want and need? If they want young people to successfully
make the transition and become productive employees, yes.

There are huge payoffs for schools and employers working
together. And while there is no organized system to make this
happen, this book offers examples of proven methods of bridging
the transition gap for students of all ages through
school-business partnerships.

Examples of successful partnerships can be found among the
pages of Facing the Future Together. However, there are
thousands of large and small businesses and thousands of schools
still without partners. Upon the completion of this book –
educators, CEOs and business managers will understand the
concepts and mutual benefits of school-business partnerships.
Instead of the antagonism between Paul and Estelle described at
the beginning of this article, representatives from both
business and education will have the expertise to approach one
another with this information and face the challenges of the
21st century together.

(An excerpt from the book Facing the Future Together: Forming
Successful School-Business Partnerships and reprinted with
permission of the author, Jim Leatherwood)


About The Author: Jim Leatherwood is the author of Facing the
Future Together: Forming Successful School-Business
Partnerships. Website: http://www.successfulschoolbusiness.com;
E-mail: thebrookepress@aol.com.