UMKC plays a leading role in the Regional Government to University Coalition, a collaborative effort to build pipelines from local colleges and universities to high-demand public service careers. Troy Lillebo, UMKC Assistant Vice Chancellor for External Relations, currently serves as Co-Chair for the initiative.
The Coalition recently announced that it is launching a new career services project to help draw our region’s students to high-demand government jobs. The initiative, supported by the Volker Alliance through its Paul A. Volcker Fund for the Future of Public Service, was selected because of its potential to help government hiring in the Kansas City region and to generate replicable lessons for the national G2U Network and beyond.
Drawing on research from the Public Sector Talent-to-Industry Exchange (TIE), the working group will identify approximately 10 high-demand public sector careers in the region. Next, they will classify these careers through the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) System. SOC codes can be mapped to ten Agilities in the Agile Work Profiler (AWP). The group plans to engage professionals to produce videos to promote the hard-to-fill jobs. The videos will be scripted to counter negative stigmas of government service and highlight Agilities within public sector careers so individuals can see how their personal Agilities may be valued in those careers. Videos will be launched on a new G2U page within the PREP-KC Connector. The Connector virtually presents employee stories to students, thereby expanding career and real-world exposure relevant to student learning.
Building upon G2U relationships, the coalition hopes to work with career service offices to promote the AWP to college students seeking career guidance. The Connector will enable students to view videos that align with their interests and Agilities with careers in government.
