this is the Farmington feed bringing you information from the city of Farmington hi and welcome back to the Farmington feed I'm Karen HJ niiki the city's Communications specialist and I'm hungry for another episode of the feed there are some exciting things happening in the city of Farmington and we're here today to talk about a collaboration with local community colleges that will help our local business Community I have with me today Stephanie Aman Economic Development coordinator and Jared sharpen director of career development at in Hills Community College hello and welcome back to the feed Stephanie hi and thanks for joining us today Jared thank you for having me yeah super excited this is a unique opportunity for businesses in the Farmington area to learn more about your programs and for you to learn more about what businesses in Farmington need correct absolutely all right so Jared can you explain a little bit about what you do for Ember Hills yeah so the main thing I spend the majority of my time doing is really serving students first and foremost I'm sort of the in-house support system when students are looking for jobs and internships we have a process where I obviously start by supporting them with resume writing and cover letter writing I do mock interview coaching for students so really much of what students would experience potentially at a Workforce Center I'm really that in-house support at the colleges okay that's nice explain to me a little bit about the Inver Hills DCTC thing too yeah absolutely so we are currently aligned institutions there are a lot of shared staff okay DCTC has by and large more Career and Technical programs whereas the majority of students at Inver Hills Community College are on a transfer path okay at any given time three qus of our students I'd say are there uh with the aspiration to go and get their foure degree afterwards for sure and so that's really I think kind of the main difference in terms of how our students or or the desires of our students yeah and you do for both correct yes okay so what can you offer our local businesses that they don't about yeah I think first and foremost um I'm kind of a sounding board when it comes to working with businesses so when a business has hiring needs or if they're having challenges recruiting you know I really enjoy having conversations about what I'm seeing internally in terms of students desires and what they're after and how you know working with employers to really Bridge students to their opportunities because they don't know where to go and you do the businesses right right um I I I'll go back to way back when I was doing this I had to do an internship of sorts and I basically was like hey professor where should I go right and he hooked me up because you don't know as a student exctly but it's interesting that a lot of businesses don't understand that connection as well yeah and you know in higher education we have a lot of acronyms and and we operate mostly thinking everybody knows exactly what we're doing and so that's really why I um you know I I take Serious kind of that identity as a sounding board really to you know feel Felding those questions and um really those interests from Employers in our students yeah now I understand there's a survey as well that is being sent out uh to F and businesses how did this all come about yeah the one of the things so several months ago we met with these great folks and realized that we had mutual Mutual interests the colleges were interested in hearing from businesses specifically on what we could do for them um and then let Stephanie talk about their interests sure so part of what part of the way that this all came about is when the economic development team was out meeting with businesses we heard things like they were using um a different Tech College to fulfill some of their training needs like hey do you guys know like in your backyard is DCTC and Inver Hills and it hadn't occurred to many of them that this resource was literally in their backyard so we made the connection with Jared and a couple Bob and Chris at um DCTC and sat down for this meeting and really talk through what it could look like to have a mutual connection and we're like well how do we do this and this survey idea came out of that so Jared is sending that out to the businesses soon and the goal there is for the colleges to learn about what training needs the businesses might have oh yeah for sure and then the city really just wants to act as a conduit to be able to help connect the businesses to the colleges kind of our add-on value ad if you will because really the city doesn't have a lot of funding and that sort of thing to be able to offer to businesses but we do offer a lot in the way of our relationships and connections and so us being able to connect our businesses to internships and that sort of thing it really is just that bridge yeah so that's kind of where that survey came about that businesses that take the survey Jared will receive all of that information will all eventually sit down and look at that information yeah to determine you know what size businesses are looking for internships because there likely is a clear pattern there or what size businesses and what industries are looking for job training in a skilled labor right something that the technical colleges can help with yeah oh awesome so can you remind listeners um your position at the city and what you're kind of doing here I sure can um I'm the economic development coordinator I was hired a couple years ago um to fill that role and really this is this is what I love to do and it is really building those connections additionally like we're obviously always looking to bring in new businesses to the community and finding good fits that are businesses that want to be in Farmington you know we talk about telling our story very often and Farmington has a great story to tell and we're looking for those businesses that want to come alongside and be part of the Farmington story yeah and then you know helping the ones that are already here right correct you know absolutely do which is what this this connection will um hopefully allow for okay and then so this culmination is what what what is going to be the business Summit the business Summit all right so what can people expect from the event who should attend that sort of thing sure so the event is on February 4th uh so 2425 kind of going for some funny busy sort of thing there but it's on Tuesday the 4th February 4th and we we're holding it at the community room in downtown Farmington and really the goal there is to bring together businesses of all sizes if you've got one employee or a thousand employees there is something there for every last one of them and Jared and some of the team at DCTC will be presenting on what the those job and trainings look like but also there's bigger and higher level things that the schools can offer to businesses like AI is a big thing right now for business huge for everything and just in conversation in that meeting that we had last August that was an idea that was brought forward and it hadn't occurred to us that DCTC could offer training to our businesses about how do you use this in your own business it's not going away and so we need to learn how to use it properly yeah for sure and um additionally from the college standpoint they'll be there doing a presentation they'll hear information from the city about just kind of what our path forward is right now and what's happening in the city we also will have present the state Economic Development rep for our area Okay because that ties directly into the colleges with their job training programs there's grant funding available that sort of thing that maybe our businesses don't know about oh yeah and some of the folks that know Natalie from MCC she will also be there that's that open for business is correct and so there's something there for everyone it really is an opportunity for us to all get together collaborate communicate and connect is really the goal awesome oh that you're excited I'm very excited yes yes um does it cost anything to attend no no we need everyone to register just wanting them to register okay and then we'll have that link on our website and on socials as well absolutely anything else you want to add about this connection and this exciting Summit nothing other than it's really exciting I think it's it's a first for us we did the small business resource Fair last year oh yeah and that really focused on our small businesses and we bought brought resources together for that this really focuses on our business Community as a whole okay come and learn about the different things that are available to you but also we're looking for feedback from those businesses about what their needs are and and that's from that small business resource fair that was one of the big things we got out of it is just them connecting together they found their own resources and when we come together to do things it leads to those connections that help you later yeah because I mean you're going to network here too right I mean you're going to talk to different businesses and to the differents oh well that's always good thing to have well thank you so much Jared and Stephanie for making these Connections in our community to help our farming businesses and their employees before I wrap up today's episode Stephanie can you remind businesses again where they can find their survey and when the Summit is just for yep for sure so the Summit is on February 4th at the community room at starting at 3 p.m. and the survey will be available when you register for the summit on our website there's a link right at the end that will come across that allows you to take the survey any Farmington business leader is welcome to the summit and anyone in Farmington that is part of a business should take that survey oh perfect so not just the leaders right right okay well that concludes this month's episode of the Farmington feed thank you for listening we look forward to connecting with residents with this podcast if you have feedback guest requests or ideas email me at communications at Farmington mn.gov don't forget to subscribe to the Farmington feed wherever you like to get your podcasts