A case study of public college leaders' perceptions of a public-private partnership model for workforce development.

摘要

This study was framed under the following precepts: 1) there is an increased emphasis on collaboration between public postsecondary institutions and private entities to educate students in workforce development areas; 2) career integration is an integral component of workforce training to produce highly-skilled graduates who were exposed to an industry environment and gained industry experience during their education; and, 3) the study of an established public-private partnership program between a public college and private company could provide insightful information for leaders in higher education.;Therefore, the purpose of this study was to gain an in-depth understanding of the process to create a partnership between a public college and a private company, to train students in an academic workforce development field. In addition, the study sought to obtain background information, prior to the inception of the partnership, to better understand the necessary factors in creating the partnership. Further, the study sought to understand the benefits, challenges, and sustainability of the partnership, to provide insight for practitioners in higher education.;This study focused on the collaboration between a state college in Florida and an international company, that partnered together to train students in the workforce development field of biotechnology. Data were collected and analyzed from the review of institutional documents and artifacts, as well as from interviews with key academic individuals involved in the establishment and operation of the partnership program.;The findings of the study revealed that 1) the impetus to partner stemmed from: legislation as well as partnerships with local industry officials who served on the program advisory board; 2) the development of the partnership model required significant time, and the Request for Proposal process was lengthy and complex; 3) the model selected was a Third Party Operator model in which campus facility space and some lab resources were shared between the college and company, with the company interning some students in the program; 4) benefits of the partnership were experienced for the college, company, and students; 5) challenges of the partnership were significant, and included: organizational culture clashes, leadership changes, and economic impacts on the international company. No existing scholarly model addresses all of the components of a public-private partnership for workforce development; therefore, a robust model is warranted and recommendations are provided.