Established in January of 2004, The Institute for Emerging Careers (IEC) is an outreach initiative of the U of I to offer creative solutions to Indiana’s Brain Drain challenges. Through the support of the Lilly Endowment, the IEC will accomplish this through:

• IEC staff and faculty consultants that do applied research on employment trends and workforce skill sets
• Faculty and student teams that develop partnerships with business and community to create diagnostic internships that identify skill sets which result in program and course development

The institute is leading an innovative collaboration between industry and academia to identify new and expanding business sectors, pinpoint the skills required in those fields, and develop curriculum and degree programs to match industry needs. The key to the institute’s work is building relationships between the business and education communities and establishing ongoing communication that allows both sides to adapt to changing conditions. The other partners in the process are students themselves, strategically placed in internships where they can test their classroom knowledge in the real world, then provide diagnostic feedback to the university as it fine-tunes the academic offerings.

 Project goals

1. Identify future Indiana needs
2. Ascertain the macro work requirements of each industry
3. Use an alumni network for research on employee recruitment and retention
4. Create strategic partnerships with emerging industries
5. Create student research interns
6. Conduct research on emerging career field
7. Link with the University of Indianapolis Office of Career Services
8. Apply research to curriculum
9. New students recruited to new programs

Accomplishments

Since its establishment in 2004, the IEC has met the goals through programming and activities in the following areas:

1. Academic/Employer Entrepreneurship - The IEC is helping to develop an environment of institutional entrepreneurship at the University of Indianapolis that encourages and supports new outreach and academic ventures and initiatives.
    
2. Economic Development - The IEC has identified emerging careers in Indiana, and is actively developing business partnerships and networks to develop new academic initiatives, consulting opportunities, skill sets, and internship opportunities.
    
3. Collaborative Community Partnerships - The IEC is creating partnerships with major community and business development leaders in Central Indiana in areas like the life sciences, community college partnership programming, professional societies, and employer groups.
    
4. Workforce Development - The IEC is developing partnerships and initiatives that result in skill development for Indiana employers in the forms of measurable outcomes.

Mayor Bart Peterson the 44th Mayor of the City of Indianapolis presenting a lecture on the brain drain initiative at the University of Indianapolis on September 9, 2006


Mayor Bart Peterson addressing a packed house at the Ruth Lilly performance Hall at the Christel Dehaan Fine Arts Center


The Director of Institute of Emerging Careers, Mr. Ronald Dow presenting the Mayor with a token of appreciation on behalf of the university