Students don’t want to be something they've never seen someone be

I spend a lot of time in rooms where healthcare employers describe a shortage of radiology techs, lab scientists, and respiratory therapists. I spend time in other rooms where educators describe programs in those exact fields running below capacity.

The employer version goes like this. Awareness is the school’s job. Career exploration belongs in the counselor’s office. We will hire them when they graduate. Three years pass, nobody applies, and the whole thing gets described as a tight talent market.

The school version goes like this. We built the program, we have seats, and students are not enrolling. But when I ask whether local employers have committed to hiring from that program, or whether anyone from those employers has stood in front of those students, the answer is usually no.

Both versions are true. Both are incomplete.

A 17-year-old picks a career from a very short list of jobs she has watched a human being do. Nursing is on the list because she has met a nurse. Respiratory therapy is not on the list because she has never met one and has no idea the job exists.

Two hours. That is what it takes for one of your staff to host a teacher or stand in a classroom and put a face on a job title. It is the least expensive recruitment work available to you, and some are doing it and doing it well. I call it playing the “long game.”

If you are an employer, ask which local programs feed your hardest roles and whether you have committed to hiring from them. If you run a program, ask which employers have committed to hiring your graduates. If neither of you can answer, that gap is the shortage.