North Idaho College is promising qualifying graduates that they will get a job within six months of graduation or get into a transfer program.

Otherwise, NIC will provide additional courses, support and training at no cost.

The program goes into effect for students starting this fall.

The goal of the guarantee is to show the community, students and critics the value of its degrees, President Nick Swayne told EdNews.

“I want to address the folks who say that higher education has no additional value,” Swayne said. “The way that’s being addressed now is for higher ed folks to puff up their chest and say, ‘Yes, we are,’ Well, okay step up and guarantee it.”

NIC’s four guarantees

The program has four areas: employment readiness, employer partnership, prior experience counts and transfer support.

For students who graduated from an associate of applied science and career technical education program, the college now guarantees they’ll have a job within six months of graduation.

If not, the college will provide career coaching, personalized job placement, employer referrals and up to nine units in any Workforce Training Center program for free.

Once a student is placed in a job, employers are encouraged to connect with an employer liaison. If there are issues with an employee’s readiness for the job within the first 90 days, NIC will provide additional training to close the gaps.

A student’s prior work in a trade, military or other certifications can be counted as academic credit through the college’s Prior Learning Assessment.

Lastly, the college promises successful admission to a participating four-year university partner program or ongoing support services. So far, those partners are the University of Idaho and Lewis-Clark State College.

To qualify, students must maintain a 2.5 or higher cumulative grade point average,  meet with their academic advisor once a semester, submit either job search documentation or transfer applications on time, and remain in good academic and disciplinary standing.

“The students have a big responsibility here, too,” Swayne said. “There is a pretty high bar, but I think that’s fair.”

The college is unsure how much the program will cost but it will likely be limited to the salaries of an additional career services staff member, along with training advisors and admissions staff.

Swayne also isn’t sure how many students will qualify for the first year, but hopes the program will increase student retention.

Promise as accountability

At NIC’s May Board of Trustees meeting, trustees directed Swayne to put together the NIC Guarantee program after a conversation about accountability.

“The national trend in higher education is toward outcomes and accountability,” said Tarie Zimmerman, board chair.

She used requirements for the federal workforce Pell Grant program as an example. Programs must have a 70% completion and job placement rate to qualify.

“I would say NIC is already successfully educating its students, and the college is providing great value in return for the tuition paid,” Zimmerman said.

Swayne was immediately supportive of the idea, especially because it sets expectations for students.

“So by offering a guarantee, I think it puts it in front of them and says ‘Here’s what you have to do in order to meet that guarantee,'” he said.

He also liked the increased feedback loop between employers and educators. The college already has advisory boards for each of its CTE programs but the aren’t as focused as Swayne would like.

“We just hired five of your guys and they couldn’t do XYZ. That’s the information I need,” Swyane said. “This gives them a way to let us know, it’s not just complaining, we’ll retrain them.”

Trustee Eve Knudtsen, who owns Knudtsen Chevrolet, said that while she overall has been happy with the NIC alumni she hires, new employees sometimes need to work on their soft skills, which the new program would help with.

“I’m looking forward to being a partner with my business on this end of it,” Knudtsen said.

Trustees Brad Corkill and Rick Durbin cautioned that any program language would need a legal review to protect the college from being taken advantage of.

Swayne said the legal review was the hardest part of putting the program together.

“They did not like the word guarantee,” Swayne said, but ultimately it passed a legal review.

Swayne acknowledged there’s some risk with the guarantee but is supportive of taking the leap.