Talent Ready Employer Opportunities

What is Talent Ready?

The Talent Ready program was developed by Montgomery County Public Schools, Montgomery College, and the Universities at Shady Grove, in collaboration with The Greater Washington Partnership, to increase baccalaureate degree attainment and professional success for students who have been historically underrepresented in IT academic programs and careers. The program offers a structured and supported pathway to IT degree attainment for students in Montgomery County, MD. Additionally, Talent Ready encourages students to explore and persist in IT career pathways and to be ready with he 21st century work readiness skills required by our region’s tech employers.

Opportunities for regional businesses to engage with students in Talent Ready include:

Virtual Informational Interviews
Virtual Career Panel Discussions
Job Shadowing
Virtual Internships
Microinternships
Career Immersion

Help us guide our programming by completing this short survey.

REGIONAL IT PROFESSIONAL SURVEY

Informational Interviews

Informational interviews create an opportunity for students to learn one-on-one about the real-life experience of someone working in the field. Professionals can expect that students will come prepared having researched your organization prior to the scheduled interview and prepared with questions.

At this time, informational interviews are being held virtually and scheduled for 30-60 minutes. Students and professionals will be matched for informational interviews based on availability and IT specialty. During the informational interview, we encourage professionals to share their contact information with the student for the purposes of follow-up questions.

VOLUNTEER TO PARTICIPATE IN VIRTUAL INFORMATIONAL INTERVIEWS

Career Panel Discussions

Take the opportunity to impact a group of students by participating in a career panel discussion. Career panels offer professionals the opportunity to discuss their educational and career pathway as well as comment on changes they see in the industry.

Career panels will typically host 3-6 professionals from various organizations in the IT industry and be moderated by an ACES staff member. At this time, career panels are planned to be held virtually in Spring 2021.

VOLUNTEER TO PARTICIPATE IN A VIRTUAL CAREER PANEL DISCUSSION

Job Shadowing

Help IT students learn about the job by walking through a work day. The job shadowing work experience is a temporary, unpaid activity where the student follows an employee at an organization to learn about the occupation and industry. Job shadowing provides more insight than just reading a job description or asking an employee to describe what they do.

VOLUNTEER TO HOST A STUDENT FOR JOB SHADOWING

Virtual Internships

A virtual internship is an opportunity to host a student intern where the majority or all of work will be conducted remotely. Virtual interns can be hired to work on a project basis for a series of hours (10-15 hours), a number of weeks (8-10 weeks), or for an entire academic semester or longer.

HIRE A VIRTUAL INTERN

Microinternships

Microinternships are short-term placements with an employer, generally with a maximum duration of 30 days, that commonly focus on the completion of a short, clearly defined project created by the host organization. Because placements are generally shorter than a traditional internship, microinternships offer a level of convenience and accessibility to organizations that might not ordinarily be in a position to support a traditional internship.

HIRE A MICROINTERN

Career Immersion

Interested in giving students a peek inside your organization? We are currently recruiting local organizations to partner in creating in-person or virtual career immersion programs. A virtual career immersion is intended to simulate the experience of visiting your organization in person to students in a virtual environment.

A career immersion experience will include the following modules: