The document lists 51 ideas for maximizing the chances of finding prospective employees with adequate skill acquisition and job readiness prior to graduating from school. The most practical idea is #10, which is to have an internship program. The most disruptive idea is #50, which proposes using technology like Google Glass with an earpiece to provide guidance on interactions and solve problems in real-time. The favorite idea is #46, which suggests staging a theatrical performance based on the workplace using student actors to help them better understand different roles.

1. 50 Ideas to maximize chances of finding prospective employees with adequate skill acquisition
and job readiness prior to the end of their schooling
Most practical idea:
#10 Have internships.
Most disruptive idea:
#50 Google Glass + earpiece + vote up: Use something like Google Glass + earpiece. Glasses
scan environments, objects, or process discussions and then the linked earpiece provides
guidance on what to say or do. Glasses also able to detect uncertainty or frustration and
provide answers. Solutions can be voted up or down based on their effectiveness to make better
suggestions in the future.
Your favorite idea:
#46 Stage a theatrical performance based on your workplace using students as actors. To
prepare their roles they have to do character research by interviewing their real-life
counterparts. During the actual performance improvisation is encouraged based on those
character interviews. After the performance, the students share with the audience insights from
their character interviews.
Full list
1. Like the military (ROTC), have a program that partners with universities where you pay for
education and people are required to work for your company for a certain number of years after
that. This ensures job security for the student, and gives the employer flexibility to tailor parts
of the curriculum to their needs.
2. Like law schools, sponsor summer interns that will be offered jobs at the end of the summer
based on their performance for the year following graduation.
3. In partnership with universities, organize job fair as a part of freshman orientation where
employers pass out a “job readiness checklist” of extracurricular learning opportunities and
experiences that they think would best prepare students to work for them.
4. Freshman orientation job fair “job readiness checklist” could be distributed to all universities
(or select universities with relevant departments) and for an application, rather than a CV and
cover letter you include the filled-in checklist, signed by employer or professor along with other
materials or reflection papers.
5. Company opens their own university.
6. Job positions are filled by faculty nomination rather than direct applications from job
seekers.
7. Organize with local university and other similar companies a job exploration class for the
first semester of college where you are required to create a plan for getting specific kinds of job
experience during university or graduate school.

2. 50 Ideas to maximize chances of finding prospective employees with adequate skill acquisition
and job readiness prior to the end of their schooling
8. Change traditional interview technique so that interviews last a week and you can experiment
having someone actually at the office working.
9. Partner with universities to create a course based in the workplace, similar to student
teaching or what happens in some hospitality programs.
10. Have an internship program for current students only.
11. Have recruitment process formatted like American’s Top Model/Top Chef incorporating
relevant project-based tasks and the person who wins gets the job. This recruitment activity
would take place the last semester of college.
12. Company assigns mentors and tutors to promising students that coach them on
professional skills.
13. Have a pre-work bootcamp for students straight from school.
14. For the first year of working, only give work assignments in the same structure as school
assignments are given.
15. Incorporate mandatory study halls for new employees where they learn about work skills:
management, teamwork
16. Do research on what skills exactly are lacking and tailor training first to remediation in
those areas.
17. Make an app that simulates a real work environment where you have to successfully
complete a certain number of games within a certain amount of time to apply for the position.
(If someone did not have a smart phone they could make it available at the public library or
something). Keep track of correlation between results and employee performance for future
hiring.
18. Sponsor a seminar series at different colleges where you talk about what’s really expected
of new employees.
19. Have undercover employees assigned to schools to audit classes with students to get a
better sense of their personality, skills and other important qualifications and they recommend
students for jobs after graduation.
20. Commission an interactive youtube series on the skills necessary for the school-work
transition, where you must complete real world assignments after watching the videos. Require
this series to be watched and the activities to be completed prior to interviewing.
21. Have applicants interview in groups and work on solving problems together. Select based
on the method of problem solving and interpersonal skills rather than if they solved the
problem correctly or not.

3. 50 Ideas to maximize chances of finding prospective employees with adequate skill acquisition
and job readiness prior to the end of their schooling
22. Facebook ad for job position targeted to people about to graduate with previous work
experience.
23. Increase starting salary to be able to afford more-qualified applicants.
24. When new employees from school are hired, they have to seek out a current student to
share their insights about what they’re learning about work that they didn’t learn in school
during their first year of work.
25. Select new employees the way college sports recruiters find new athletes. Go to classes or
activities that demonstrate the kinds of skills needed for work success (like seminars,
practicums, student government, clubs) and select students from there and invite them to
interview.
26. Don’t interview candidates, randomly select three individuals—a combination of classmates
and professors—to interview on behalf of candidate asking them to give examples of times they
exhibited behaviors useful for success in the workplace.
27. Scholarship for local students so they can work for work experience not to support family.
28. Marketing blitz. Research on differing salaries for graduates with prior work experience vs.
those without.
29. Partner with popular entertainment places (TV station, movie theater, pool, etc.). if they
host an intern, the intern can go for free when they aren’t working.
30. Start company club on university campuses that act like micro companies and acts as a
potential feeder into your company. (Think Model UN)
31. Run a cafe stall on campus and only hire student workers.
32. Let new employees try out different positions so you find the place where they fit best.
33. Use headhunters.
34. Pay relocation expenses for applicants who studied in better school systems that included
practicums/residencies/internships.
35. Institute probation periods after hiring.
36. Hire new graduates as temp-to-perm.
37. Offer job training workshops at the beginning of each school year for “grade” level.
38. Make scenario based interviews.
39. SIMS 5: The Workplace.

4. 50 Ideas to maximize chances of finding prospective employees with adequate skill acquisition
and job readiness prior to the end of their schooling
40. Sponsor events and have students work as volunteers for it. Enough volunteer hours moves
them up in the hiring queue.
41. Have someone prank interviewees when they come in for interviews (think boiling point TV
show or those prank radio station calls). How they responded determines if they get hired.
42. Since employer is looking for certain attitudes, qualities, and skills, have prospective
applicants fill out a lengthy questionnaire and apply E-Harmony-like dating site algorithm to test
compatibility.
43. Start young! Have a Scouts/4-H type program that teaches job skills and runs up through
high school. In college, senior scouts can lead their own scout group teaching job skills for a
specific industry.
44. Offer flexible (and drastically reduced, if needed) hours to students so it doesn’t conflict
with their school schedules.
45. Pay for employees at lower levels without education who have been at the company for a
while to go back to school which may open up higher positions for them when they are
finished.
46. Stage a theatrical performance based on your workplace using student actors. Do prepare
their roles they have to do character research by interviewing their real-life counterparts.
During the actual performance some improvisation is encouraged based on those character
interviews. After the performance the students share with the audience insights from their
character interviews.
47. Write a Job Readiness column for the school newspaper.
48. Have Trainee/Open House week where students, whether they are about to graduate or not
occupy all the positions in the workplace and are coached by staff for the first half of the week
and left to themselves the last half of the week,observed, and given feedback. Students are
encouraged to participate as many times as they like while they are still students.
49. Create an electronic dictionary of work scenarios and responses where someone types in a
work situation, sets certain parameters and the appropriate action and explanation comes up.
As staff solve novel problems they can add them to the dictionary and include enough
keywords/metadata so it can be applied in other situations.
50. Use something like Google Glass + earpiece. Glasses scan environments, objects, or
process discussions and then the linked earpiece provides guidance on what to say or do.
Glasses also able to detect uncertainty or frustration and provide answers.
51. Whatever they did to Derek Zoolander to get him to attempt to kill the Prime Minister of
Malaysia. But for work.