The NC Health Talent Alliance has launched a new resource aimed at better connecting healthcare students with local employers across North Carolina. Developed by the NC Chamber Foundation and the NC Center on the Workforce for Health, the Student-Employer Engagement toolkit offers employers a roadmap to more structured and intentional engagement with students to reduce delays in licensure, improve student placement into local healthcare jobs, and increase retention within the field and region.

Establishing Consistent, High-Value Employer Engagement

Many healthcare employers lack structured, ongoing opportunities to regularly connect with students outside of clinical rotations or job fairs. Data across the state show that regional job placement rates from training programs leave room for improvement. This toolkit helps shift engagement from episodic events to a consistent, embedded presence in the student experience, enabling regional partners to create an “always on” employer presence where students are routinely exposed to local job options.

“The toolkit is developing a common language for talent developers, educators, community leaders—and more importantly, employers,” said Dr. Steven Hill, Vice President of Talent Pipeline Development for the Wilmington Chamber of Commerce / South East Area Health Education Center (SEAHEC). “The work guides development of purposefully built student career pathways that align with the current talent needs of regional employers. The consistent engagement of employers in an organized collaborative provides constant review and adjustment of those pathways to match evolving industry workforce needs.”

Structured Engagement Across Three Priority Areas

When the toolkit was being developed, a handful of persistent breakdowns kept surfacing in national reports and conversations with frontline staff and subject matter experts—students nearing graduation with limited exposure to local jobs, confusion about hiring processes, and missed opportunities to incentivize regional retention of graduates. These missed connections contribute to talent shortages and higher recruitment and onboarding costs for local healthcare providers. The Student-Employer Engagement Toolkit responds to these challenges with a structured set of activities that institutions and employers can implement jointly—aligned with three goals: informing students about local opportunities, preparing them to secure jobs, and improving employment offers before graduation.

1. Increase Awareness of Local Employment Options

Students in clinical or pre-licensure programs often encounter a limited range of employers during rotations. Even among employers that host clinicals, students often aren’t given structured opportunities to engage beyond the day-to-day training experience.

Without broader visibility, students overlook viable job opportunities within the region.

The toolkit outlines practical methods to address this, including:

• Alumni career panels, bringing former students back to discuss their job paths across different healthcare settings.
• Employer presentations, where hiring leaders provide short overviews of open roles, entry expectations, and career advancement opportunities.

These activities are designed to fit within existing academic calendars and require minimal coordination to execute.

2. Improve Student Readiness for the Job Search

Once students understand the local employment landscape, they must be prepared to navigate it effectively. That includes understanding hiring timelines, completing strong applications, and practicing for interviews.

Recommended activities include:

• Walkthroughs of application processes, led by employers to clarify expectations and link job descriptions to student-acquired skills.
• Resume and interview preparation, supported by employer volunteers and career services staff.
• Facility tours, both in-person and virtual, to build familiarity with different work environments.

These activities can be embedded into coursework or scheduled through existing employer partnerships.

3. Facilitate Job Offers and Workforce Entry
The toolkit emphasizes the value of pre-graduation hiring, proactively helping students transition directly into the local workforce. It also addresses the practical barriers students face during that transition.

Implementation options include:

• Career fairs that prioritize meaningful employer-student interaction rather than promotional handouts.
• On-campus interviews, coordinated to align with graduation and hiring timelines.
• Career exploration sessions, offering structured exposure to a range of roles and specialties.
• Expanded apprenticeships, developed jointly between institutions and employers.
• Transition supports, including transportation assistance, scrubs, exam fees, and document preparation.

These strategies create clear pathways from education to employment—especially for students facing financial or logistical barriers that could delay job entry.

Putting the Toolkit to Use

The toolkit is being deployed through existing collaborations like the NC Health Talent Alliance’s Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) initiative.

It includes easy-to-follow implementation guides and a readiness checklist that helps regions identify and prioritize their initial focus areas.

Partners are encouraged to:

• Review the toolkit to assess immediate opportunities.
• Use the checklist to determine current gaps in student-employer engagement.
• Select one or two activities to implement within the next academic term.
• Assign clear institutional and employer contacts to manage implementation and coordination.

Access the full toolkit here.