Partners for Education & Business holds first-ever job-signing day

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Partners for Education & Business, Inc. (PEB) on Wednesday held a job-signing day for local students that Central New York employers have recruited.

PEB is an affiliate of the DeWitt–based Manufacturers Association of Central New York (MACNY).

The Le Moyne College Campus Center hosted the job-signing event with nearly 300 students, parents, educators, and community leaders attending, PEB said.

PEB modeled the job-signing event after letter-of-intent signings for high-school athletes choosing their college or university. The students sat on a special platform with their hiring companies behind them and signed their letters of intent, while receiving hats and other items adorned with company logos.

To secure their job offers, the nine students who signed with companies had to complete “one of three main pathways to employment,” per a PEB news release.

Those involved were either P-TECH students who accepted summer, part-time or full-time jobs; Tech sector/CTE/ pre-apprenticeship students who accepted jobs upon graduation; or STEM Scholars Program students who completed their bachelor’s degrees to begin work at the company that sponsored their scholarship.

P-TECH is short for Pathways in Technology Early College High School. CTE is short for Career and Technical Education. STEM is short for science, technology, engineering, and mathematics.

“The overall goal of job-signing day was to create the straightest path from crossing the stage in high school or college to successfully attaining a job at a great local company upon graduation. From the start of this initiative, we ensured employers that if they worked with us to mentor these students and provide job shadows that they would be first in line to hire them. Well, that day arrived!” Joe Vargo, PEB executive director, said.

PEB annual awards

The job-signing event was a new addition to PEB’s annual awards program that awarded thousands of dollars in scholarships to Central New York students pursuing a STEM education and/or a career.

“We had a vision when we started the STEM Scholars program and it is being realized today with students … joining our team,” Paul Tremont, CEO of SRC, Inc., said in the PEB release. “Working with PEB has been great and we continue to look to them to assist with STEM outreach and delivering the message of all the opportunities in STEM careers to students in CNY. We are also excited to name a new class of STEM Scholars today and anticipate that they will become future hires, continuing to keep students in CNY.”

Prior to the job-signing event, PEB presented eight graduating high school seniors with CNY STEM scholarships totaling more than $88,000 from four local companies.

To date, this brings the total amount of CNY STEM scholarships awarded since 2013 to nearly $500,000, PEB said.

PEB also recognized additional students, mentors, and business and community leaders for their efforts and achievements in STEM. The awards included the AT&T Women in STEM honor, which was presented to Susan Graham of Upstate Medical University and Linda LeMura, president of Le Moyne College.

In addition, PEB presented the Paul Tremont CNY STEM Champion Award to Phil Rubenstein of United Radio of DeWitt. The award was renamed for Paul Tremont, who will be retiring from SRC Inc. in early 2020.

Contact Reinhardt atereinhardt@cnybj.com