Butler University partners with local nonprofit to connect more students with employment

Employers across Indianapolis lack skilled workers. Local nonprofit Ascend Indiana is working to close that gap by connecting job-seekers with promising jobs.

Brooke Barnett, Butler’s provost, says this job-searching work complements the work of their career center. 

“We already know that we have a lot of workforce needs that are not really being met, particularly in the state,” Barnett said. “And so thinking about how we align and I mean, in our case, we have really wonderful talent that we want to push into the right pathways and systems in the state again, to keep that talent here.”

Barnett says since the start of the partnership, over 150 students have been connected with jobs.

The job-searching tool the Ascend Network is entirely free to students. They have partnered with dozens of private and public universities across Indiana, as well as hundreds of employers.

The goal is to retain more talent in the local workforce.

Contact WFYI economic equity reporter Sydney Dauphinais at sdauphinais@wfyi.org. Follow on Twitter: @syddauphinais.