Pellissippi State sees increase in companies looking to hire grads

Businesses know a good thing when they see it.

That may explain why Pellissippi State is experiencing a boom in the number of employers contacting its Placement Office in search of qualified employees.

“Between January and May we were contacted by 52 companies—some of them established in the area, some new to East Tennessee—that we had not dealt with in the past,” said Carolyn Carson, director of Placement.

“There has been a significant increase in inquiries for 2007 as compared to 2004, 2005 and 2006.”

Part of Carson’s job is to send out resumes on behalf of students.

“As companies call me with employment needs, I send the resumes out,” she said. “The number of resumes sent out from April 2006 to April 2007 increased from 88 to 122.”

Carson attributes the increase to two primary factors: a strong economy in and around Knox County and a growing confidence in the College.

“There seems to be more knowledge in the community among employers that our programs provide the knowledge and technical skills to meet their employee needs,” she said. “We’ve especially noticed an increased number of new companies contacting Pellissippi State for graduates in our engineering and business programs.”

Most of the students that use the College’s placement services are graduates of Career/Technical—the path designed for students planning to enter the workforce directly after graduation—and the majority of Career/Tech graduates are in engineering or business, says Carson.

Mike North, interim associate vice president of Student Affairs, says he sees the additional interest as an opportunity for the College to promote itself even more to the community.

“The fact that more than 50 companies have inquired for the first time about hiring our students is very impressive,” he said. “It’s a perfect opportunity for us to show these companies just how good a job we do in preparing our graduates for employment.”

"Inside Pellissippi" is a bi-monthly electronic publication produced by the Marketing and Communications Office for the faculty and staff of Pellissippi State Technical Community College, 10915 Hardin Valley Road, P.O. Box 22990, Knoxville, Tennessee 37933-0990. All suggestions and comments should be sent to Julia Wood (jwood@pstcc.edu).

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