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Handshake Updates

Addressing the school staffing shortage

Handshake joins the Biden Administration’s call to action to connect college students to meaningful careers in K-12 education.

At Handshake, we believe in making opportunity accessible to everyone, no matter where they’re from or what school they attend. This principle grounds our mission to connect college students with companies and organizations who rely on their innovative spirit.

With a national teaching shortage and pending retirement wave—in the next 10 years, 1 in 5 baby boomers will retire—careers in K-12 education are calling for mission-driven Gen Z to tap in.

And as the network for over 10m students, 700k employers, and 1,400+ educational institutions, Handshake is uniquely positioned to create connections between aspiring educators and school districts in the nation.

That’s why we're accelerating our efforts and joining the Biden Administration’s call to action, along with education leaders across the country, and executives from Zip Recruiter and Indeed, to collectively address the problem. Alongside leaders in the education space, we’ll lean in to encourage the college students on Handshake (including 281k who are pursuing or have pursued education degrees) to jumpstart their careers by exploring opportunities in education at the over 5.5k K-12 school districts hiring on Handshake.

Handshake cofounder and CEO Garrett Lord joins a discussion at the White House lead by Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States. 

Also pictured; esteemed Ambassador Susan Rice, Director of the Domestic Policy Council of the United States, Secretary Miguel Cardona, US Secretary of Education, Secretary Marty Walsh, US Secretary of Labor, Governor Phil Murphy (D-NJ), Randi Weingarten, President of the American Federation of Teachers, Becky Pringle, President of the National Education Association, and Lynn Gangone, President of the American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education.

On Aug. 31, 2022, Dr. Jill Biden, First Lady of the United States, hosted education leaders from across the country and Tech executives Ian Siegal (CEO, ZipRecruiter), Maggie Hulce (EVP and GM of Enterprise, Indeed), and Garrett Lord, (Cofounder and CEO, Handshake) to address the school staffing shortage. Photo credit: Erin Scott, Official White House Photographer.

Pursue a career with purpose

This October, we’ll be hosting an event for college students: "Class Act: Why a career in education might just be right for you," a free virtual event for college students breaking into K-12 education.

Whether they’re looking to grow as teachers, guidance counselors, school mental health specialists, school psychologists, or another specialty, this event is for our future educators. We're inviting our network of more than 10M+ active students—from the most socially conscious generation yet—to hear from real educators, influencers, school counselors, and administrators about what a career in education really offers, the dynamic skill sets needed to get started, and how to get on the pathway to becoming a teacher.

Teachers have impact. They are change-makers; they shape leaders, inspire growth, and enable people to develop socially, cognitively, and culturally—just like GenZ. "Gen Z is a generation that not only cares deeply about the world around them—including climate change, equal pay, and diversity—but is frequently challenging and encouraging corporations to have robust social responsibility programs,” says Christine Cruzvergara, Chief Education Strategy Office at Handshake. This event will be an opportunity to expose college students to real perspectives and inspire them to pursue a profession with purpose.

Following the event, we'll launch a special section of our website to allow students from 1,400 colleges and universities around the country to connect with the over 5.5k local schools and districts that are hiring.

Action today for a bright tomorrow

By 2025, Gen Z is expected to make up ~27% of the global workforce. But for many schools, finding—and attracting that talent—is hard. Affecting change requires a deliberate strategy to connect graduating college students and those in existing educator preparation programs to open roles.

And given our position as the #1 place college students find their career, we know we can help.

We believe Handshake can provide both key insights into the challenges of the teacher talent pipeline and help drive more interest in the profession by inspiring our core student users, GenZ.

Addressing school staffing shortages is a challenge we know we can’t tackle alone. Together with industry, policy, and educational leaders, we can help reinvigorate the teacher talent pool and help school districts recruit, develop and retain their workforce.

We’re committed to this journey and we’ll continue to take steps toward making a monumental difference in the lives of those we've made a vow to help—students.

Looking for an update on our progress? Check out the latest, here.

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