Benefits for Employers

Work-Based Learning provides employers with the opportunity to develop their future workforce while assisting students in developing industry and employability skills before they graduate or complete their workforce training certificates. It is a key strategy for workforce development and facilitating a globally competitive educational system.

The Value of WBL: Develop Your Future Workforce!

  • Work-Based Learning experiences enable students to feel confident and prepared for their future, and employers gain a talented pool of homegrown job applicants that they helped generate.
  • Employers gain a competitive edge in hiring Work-Based Learning students by having a strong influence on the education program of future employees.
  • Employers provide valuable feedback to the College of Southern Maryland about the needs of their business/industry resulting in a positive impact on workforce development.
  • Employee Culture and Morale – Employees benefit through mentoring students, creating higher morale, and improving work culture, which leads to increased productivity.
  • Community Involvement and Goodwill – Build relationships and connections, increase industry awareness, and learn about shared interests and goals.

 

What are the Participation Requirements for Employers?

  • Create a position description that identifies professional skills (i.e. soft skills, technical skills, communication skills) that the student will be learning during their internship.
  • Complete the employer pre-assessment. After submitting your pre-assessment, the WBL Team will follow up within 24-48 hours with a Zoom meeting invitation (check your junk mail if you don't receive your Zoom invite).
  • Provide the student with a supervised, progressive, and meaningful work experience.
  • Provide compensation.
  • Assure a safe and healthy work environment.

  • Provide a healthy working environment that is free of harassment and discrimination based on gender, sexual orientation, race, age, color, religion, disability, marital status, national origin or disability status. 

  • Permit on-site visits by CSM’s industry engagement specialist.
  • Complete student performance evaluations.

 Get Started with the employer pre-assessment

Download a Free Position Description Template (.docx)

 

Contact Us

We would love to talk to you about helping you fill your internships. Charles, St. Mary's, and Calvert County employers, schedule a meeting with an Industry Engagement Specialist today!

Book a time to meet with Selorm Agbley

Book a time to meet with Ralph Critten

 

Hear From Other Employers

I am a huge supporter of the program.  The program allowed us to have outreach to local students and potential job candidates that we may not have reached otherwise.  With being in Southern Maryland, recruiting is very important and hard to do.  The program connected us with students looking for experience in the accounting field and transitions from a flexible internship with minimum hours to full-time offers.  We work with 4-year universities for internships and recruiting all the time, but for the Southern Maryland area, this is a hard sell.  I believe the key to making this work is to be flexible with the student and to stress the importance that the education is still to be the priority. 

 

Denise Lumpkins
CPA
Lombardo Ayers & Company, LLC

T12 Technologies, “T12”, is an Information Technology (IT) company providing IT Managed services to diverse small- and medium-size companies by hosting their IT infrastructure on cloud-based platforms such as Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. Our unique service offerings call for a unique mix of employees. This is where the College of Southern Maryland’s Work-Based Learning program (WBL) became a staple in helping our business grow.

As the Founder & CEO for T12, I felt it was important to not only have the right staff embedded into my company but also bridge the gap between students’ working knowledge and real-world working experiences. Due to the variety of opportunities I have within my company, I was able to utilize two students, so far, from the College of Southern Maryland Work-Based Learning Program (CSM WBLP) to help kick-off important contracts and assist with external security assessments.

I was able to quickly sign a contract requiring technology to generate business leads for a contracting company. LeNisha Chance joined our team from the CSM WBL, and she has performed outstandingly. We provided her with her first job, provided training, and all the success was due to her tenacity, skills, and drive to accomplish the tasks. She is currently generating over 100 outbound calls a day with a 20% rate of business lead returns. Very impressive!

Sekethia Bowser was another outstanding student we received from CSM WBL. During the months of January 2023 – May 2023, T12 was going through a security audit and required the creation of several security documentations to meet audit requirements. Sekethia used her knowledge of cybersecurity protocols and processes to develop a security incident response plan and contributed to our disaster preparedness training exercise plan which helped T12 close out deficiencies found in pre-audit security reviews.

The two students reflect the talent the Work-Based Learning program (WBL) brought to my organization.

Tamika Chance
Founder and CEO
T12 Technologies

Email us at WBL@csmd.edu
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