Marquette’s new experiential learning program Interchange delivers value, brings talent to Milwaukee-area businesses

Marquette University's new project-based experiential learning program - Interchange - delivers value to companies while advancing innovative approaches for career preparation, talent development and talent recruitment.

Interchange engages multidisciplinary teams of talented Marquette students to work on corporate projects. Projects are scoped with sponsoring companies, and then teams of high performing, faculty-recommended students are mobilized to execute the work. Interchange is an immersive work experience for which students receive compensation while being supported by a mix of Marquette faculty, subject matter experts and mentors from the sponsor companies. Interchange is powered by Marquette's Innovation Alley, an on-campus educational innovation incubator.

Delivering positive value for business

Interchange is designed to create value for companies in three primary ways:

1. Help companies engage talent in deeper, more integrated ways

Marquette is recognized as one of the top universities for job placement in the country, so competition for recruiting the best and brightest students is fierce. Interchange helps companies connect with the best talent in a more integrated way early on in students' college careers. Unlike more traditional approaches to talent recruitment that focus on maximum student exposure, such as career fairs, classroom visits, tabling and brand sponsorships, Interchange provides companies with an opportunity to expose our top students to their company culture and specific types of work. All the while, our partners are also getting closer to Marquette, a world-class university.

2. Help companies cost-effectively outsource additional workflows or problem-solving

Interchange is cost-effective for our partners. For each project, sponsors pay approximately $50 per hour for a team of four top students and a faculty coach to execute the work. This helps companies pursue strategic opportunities and special projects without the opportunity cost of assigning their own personnel and resources. Further, future talent with fresh perspectives who are educated in emerging thought become engaged with our outside partners.

Since we are working on projects of value to our partners, we ensure quality deliverables by making sure we scope projects well, recruit the best talent, support them with faculty coaches who have industry experience, and bring in outside subject matter experts where necessary. Since this program lives outside the classroom and students are paid for their work, they treat Interchange as a job - they recognize the opportunity it provides to build their resume and prove their skills and worth to future employers.

3. Help companies hire talent that is ready for the future of work

When companies talk about the "skills gap," they are often referring to the need for students to have more practical experience outside the traditional classroom. The ways we educate students in the classroom are immensely valuable and the cornerstone of a college education; however, students need experiences that include ambiguity, experimentation, working across disciplines and discovery-driven learning. We know that graduates who receive a traditional Marquette education, but who have also been involved in Interchange projects will possess a unique, in-demand and effective skillset and mindset.

Interchange students gain experience working on multidimensional projects with multidisciplinary teams while being exposed to professional-level problem-solving and project work. This type of educational experience, known as project-based learning, develops intangible assets like drive, creativity and resilience. Evidence suggests this type of educational environment is particularly good at developing skills and mindsets needed in the changing nature of the knowledge economy, including collaborative problem-solving, adept communication among team members and with multiple stakeholders, and ability to manage information across disciplines and sources.

Create value for your company; develop and recruit your talent

Universities and industry need initiatives like Interchange that allow us to cocreate educationally and economically valuable experiences and opportunities. Interchange creates new connections for talent recruitment, better develops this talent for the future of work, and delivers value to companies through project-based experiential learning.

To continue to grow the impact of Interchange at Marquette University and for our region, we need companies like yours to work with us to build projects of substance. Contact Dr. John M. Knapp at [email protected] to learn more.

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