The ongoing challenge of a nationwide worker shortage is prompting employers in the public sector to adopt new tactics for attracting potential employees. The City of Faribault, Minnesota, offered school credit reimbursement to an intern as a means of training and retaining potentially good talent.
The US labor market—particularly for specialized, skilled workers—has become tight due to factors such as aging workers moving toward retirement, low birth rates, and slowing immigration rates. According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, there are about 6.5 million unemployed workers in the country to fill 9.5 million job openings, and an NPR article notes that training and the associated costs are often barriers for the workforce pipeline.
The Faribault City Engineering Department experienced this problem firsthand when a senior engineering technician retired, leaving an engineering technician III position open after internal promotions. The city ultimately could not find a candidate with sufficient training to directly fill the position.
“Toward the end of the summer, we started talking internally about—‘Hey, one of our two interns is showing a lot of promise’,” says Mark DuChene, city director of engineering. “What can we do to be creative to lock him up before he hits the free market when he’s done with school?”
Stuart Schatz had been hired as a seasonal intern for the summer of 2023, and in October that year, he was hired as a tech I—which requires only high-school-level education. To get him ready for a tech II position, he entered the Civil Engineering Technology program at South Central Mankato. He focuses on school in the off-season while working 40-hour weeks during construction season.
Schatz is reimbursed for his tuition after submitting passing grades. DuChene says that the city will ultimately be reimbursing around 45 credits of the 60-credit program, totaling around $9,225. Schatz will finish the program in May 2025. He is required to stay with the city for at least two years post-graduation or pay his tuition back in full.
The reimbursement, DuChene says, was an existing program within the city, but it had never been used to train a new hire from the ground up.
“We thought this was a way to get a newer, younger employee in, train him from the beginning on how we do things, and then offer some incentive for him to stay,” DuChene says. Financially, the cost of training worked out to be about the same as hiring a fully trained tech III, and it allowed both the city and Schatz to gauge the long-term compatibility of the hire.
“Moving into my position, I’d say that it’s been very graceful,” Schatz says. “They’re just taking it slow, making sure that I can get what they need from me down right now so that way I don’t have to go back. I can just keep moving forward and developing as a person in my professional career.”
The main drawback to the program, DuChene notes, is time. It will take around 18 months for Schatz to become a full-time, permanent employee, and being promoted to a tech III position will require years more of service and experience. However, the program has a lot of promise for any other city departments that need to fill positions and that can afford the wait.
“We really saw it as a win-win for both the employee and the city,” DuChene says.
—Sophie Koch, contributing writer