The U.S. Department of Defense must go beyond classified newspaper ads and college student recruitment visits if it is to effectively recruit the highly skilled workforce necessary for the 21st century, marketing students at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs recently recommended.
A four-person UCCS student team was selected to present its ideas about recruiting the nation’s best and brightest students to civilian jobs in the Department of Defense that require foreign language skills. The team, students of Andrew Czaplewski, associate professor, Business, was selected from more than 25 representatives of the nation’s top college marketing program. The students earned an expense-paid trip to the Pentagon and $2,000 in scholarship funds.
“The students put together an integrated marketing communications plan for the Department of Defense to recruit heritage speakers, those college students with fluency in languages critical to the defense of the country,” Czaplewski said. “These students did an outstanding job, not only in creating new ideas but in presenting them to some of the top officials in the country.”
As part of a competition sponsored by the Civilian Personnel Management Service and contractor EdVenture Partners, the students began in January to develop recruiting and marketing plans to identify U.S. citizens with foreign language skills to fill jobs in areas such as medical engineering, science, transportation, acquisitions, finance and security. Targeted language skills include Arabic, Chinese, Dari, Hindi, Korean, Russian and Farsi. Currently, there are about 700,000 Department of Defense jobs in 2,000 agencies.
For Czaplewski, whose classes have worked with EdVenture Partners previously, having students work with actual clients to find solutions to real problems helps them apply classroom theories and to exercise their creativity. An expense-paid trip and the opportunity for scholarship funds provided additional incentive.
The UCCS team recommended an integrated marketing communications campaign plan that included comprehensive audience segmentation and targeting as well as a blend of advertising, promotions, direct marketing, Internet, public relations and personal approaches to recruit heritage language speakers.
Students representing 25 of some of the nation’s top marketing programs submitted proposals. UCCS students were among three teams selected to present at the Pentagon and received second place honors. The winning team represented the University of Illinois, Chicago, and students from Cascade College, Portland, Ore., received third place.
For more information about the competition, visit www.defenselink.mil/newsarticle.aspx?id=4982.
The team members were:
Jenna Daurio, Pueblo, May 2008 business graduate.
Jeff Frashuer,Trinidad, senior business major.
Michelle Herbst, Aurora, May 2008 business graduate.
Lindsey Meyers, Winter Park, May 2008 business graduate.
UCCS, located on Austin Bluffs Parkway in Colorado Springs, is the fastest growing university in Colorado and one of the fastest growing universities in the nation. The university offers 29 bachelor’s degrees, 18 master’s and four doctoral degrees. The campus enrolls about 7,700 students.