Initial Steps to Engaging Business Leadership Around College and Career Readiness:

• Learn More: Meet with human resources (HR) to learn about the specific challenges your company is facing in recruiting qualified candidates. Ask for data that will help you prepare for upcoming meetings with company leadership.
• Step Up: Schedule meetings with leaders inside your company and share the data from HR.
• Engage: Ask to be added to the agenda for the next leadership team meeting so you can share information with the broader team.
• Focus: Prepare specific suggestions for your leadership about how they can best support college- and career-ready efforts in your state or community.

Here is a resource from Change the Equation that may help.

Examples of How To Engage Leaders:

• If your CEO is speaking at a community event or to a business audience, include in the speech a call to action on supporting college and career readiness.
• Work with business associations to identify opportunities for your CEO or senior executives to coauthor an op-ed piece in local or national publications.
• Before your company’s leaders are interviewed by the media, provide talking points on the link between education reform and business growth.
• Record a message from the CEO on the importance of college- and career-ready reforms — and stream it on your company’s website.

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