The first days in a workplace can teach things that are difficult to recreate in a classroom.
A student may know the technical side of a job, but working with a team, understanding expectations, asking questions, solving everyday problems and learning how a business actually operates are skills that often come through experience.
That is the idea behind NEXO — Network de Empresarios para la eXperiencia y Oportunidades, co-founded by the Tunuyán Chamber of Commerce and The Vines Foundation.
Through NEXO, local businesses commit to hosting interns and identifying someone within their team who can act as a mentor. The student has a place to gain real experience, but just as importantly, there is someone inside the company responsible for helping them learn.
For employers, it creates a different kind of relationship with vocational education. They can help identify the skills they need, meet people being trained locally and give students a clearer picture of what will be expected from them once they enter the workforce.
The research now underway with Notre Dame will contribute to that work by bringing different internship and mentoring models into the conversation. Local businesses can then help determine which ideas make sense here and how they could work in practice.
No single organization can create that transition on its own. Students need training, but they also need places where they can use it. Employers need skilled people, but they also have knowledge and experience they can pass on.
NEXO brings those two sides closer together, with the student at the center.
