We are kicking off this year by hitting the road to visit some of our academic partners and their students Keep reading if your office is interested in:

• Recruiting and retaining emerging talent

• Staying up to date on resources offered by academic partners

• Continuing education opportunities

One of the goals of NASPO’s academic affairs program is to create opportunities for attraction of talent through career fairs.  In January, NASPO attended both the 25^th annual Supply Chain Management Association Career Fair at Michigan State University, and Penn State’s Supply Chain Information Systems Career Fair. During our visit to Penn State, we also viewed the site for our 2020 Academic Forum!

Interested in Academic Forum? Click here to read the highlights from 2019.

In February, we will visit North Carolina State University (NCSU) while they are hosting the annual Poole College Spring Career and Internship fair. During this time, we will network with students and professionals about internship opportunities in public procurement. Internships are symbiotic, providing real-world experience to the student and public procurement professionals the opportunity to recruit emerging talent.

Career fairs provide a great opportunity to promote and support the development of degree programs in public procurement and provide program strategy development for sustained growth in public procurement.

Is your office interested in pursuing education resources provided from academic institutions?  Read this post or examples on how to get started!

Over the past several years, we have seen employer and university relations continue to develop. According to Jeremy Bauer-Butler at Education Dive, “DeVos, speaking to business leaders at an event in Washington, D.C., in November, urged them to reach out to their local institutions and form partnerships”¹. Attending career fairs with members and working with our academic partners is becoming more important in the search to find the right candidates to join and lead public procurement in the future.

I will continue to send updates on the whereabouts of Academic Affairs and informative topics. Please reach out to me with any questions or thoughts and I will be happy to talk more! Email me at: [email protected]

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1. Bauer-Wolf, J. (2020, January 1). 7 Higher Education Trends to Watch in 2020. Retrieved from Education Dive: https://www.educationdive.com/news/7-higher-education-trends-to-watch-in-2020/569629/