An instructor seeking to implement the Industry Partners model is faced with some important decisions:
What course do I choose? How do I negotiate the industry partner’s involvement? How do I go about finding an industry partner?
How should we divide labor? These questions required careful deliberation as I attempted to adapt someone else’s model to my own context.
The greatest challenge for me in implementing Industry Partners was finding suitable participants. Two of the four partners I worked with were small business owners, so taking time out of their weekly schedules was a significant sacrifice. While alumni can make excellent industry partners, it can be many years before my graduates have enough expertise and confidence to be an effective partner. Therefore, I reached out to professionals in the community, particularly those with whom I already had a relationship through our industry advisory committee, or who had hired our interns and graduates.