Everybody in our industry knows about the many great four-yearcollege and university programs available to students who want topursue an insurance career.

But not every kid is lucky enough to have the grades or the bankto attend a university. For them, community college is—or shouldbe—a viable pathway to an associate's degree and employment.

Unfortunately, employers often find a disconnect between thecommunity college grad's skill set and the actual requirements foran entry-level job.

That's where Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel comes in.

In 2011, the mayor launched the “College toCareers” (C2C) program, a joint initiative between the CityColleges of Chicago (CCC) and local industry, including insurance.The goal is to help close the skills gap, provide students withexposure to real-world job requirements, and produce graduates whocan go on to employment or a four-year program.

Insurance is big business in Chicago and Illinois. A 2012 study by the Katie School of Insurance and FinancialServices at Illinois State University finds that the industryemploys more than 141,000 and contributes 4.2% of the state's grossdomestic product—higher than construction, transportation, andinformation.

Chicago's community colleges, with seven schools and 115,000students, have low tuition and open enrollment, making themattractive to a diverse demographic of inner-city students. But thesystem's graduation rates have hovered around 7%, and post-gradcareer paths have been faint.

Emanuel saw the CCC system as a perfect incubator forlaser-specific job training for the city's six industry sectors,including insurance, that generate 80% of local job growth.

His plan was to turn each of the seven City Colleges intocenters of excellence targeted to specific industries such ashealthcare, TDL, and culinary. HaroldWashington College, the largest in the system with more than15,000 students, would be the center for business, professionalservices and entrepreneurship, including insurance.

Emanuel began approaching insurance leaders in 2012 for input oncurricula based on each company's specific job requirements.Corporate partners included Aon, Allstate, Country Financial,Kemper, Willis and Zurich.

The insurance pathway courses at Harold Washington officiallylaunched last August with three classes, says Paul Thompson, deanof the C2C program. Today, there are four classes: salesmamagement, business processes, business communicatino, and specialtopics in technology, focusing on advanced Excel andPowerPoint.

These were designed based on input from human resourcesdepartments on what skills were needed for entry-level jobs, saysJohn Atkinson, managing director at Willis Group Holdings. “Themayor wanted us to provide input and support the initiative, and toprovide the opportunity to interview potential job seekers andprovide internships, so we were thrilled to do it,” he says.

Community college involvement is nothing new for Atkinson. Heserves on the board of directors of the One Million Degrees (OMD)program, a non-profit Chicago organization that empowerslow-income, highly motivated community college students to succeedin school, work and life. Willis has been involved in the programfor the past five years, providing mentoring and academic supportservices.

Key to C2C's success is internships. Willis is participating inan upcoming job fair at Harold Washington and Atkinson isinterested to seeing how the first crop of students with insurancecourses under their belts will work out for internships.

Aon, which like Willis has been involved in C2C since itsinception, hired six interns from Harold Washington last summer,extended continuing internships to four of them, and hired two inpart-time permanent positions, says Aaron Olson, Aon's vicepresident, global head of talent engagement.

Although it partners with four-year colleges, universities andapprenticeship programs around the world, involvement at thecommunity college level is a first for Aon. “We're interested ingetting involved wherever we can find a school that's interested inpartnering,” Olson says. “The opportunity to help in Chicago wasvery much in line with our overall view of how we work with placesto find the best talent.”

One of Aon's permanent hires is Carmen Hines, a HaroldWashington general studies grad who got her “first experiencelearning about insurance or a Fortune 500 company” at aneducational forum at the college last summer. (Aon hired a secondHarold Washington intern, a Polish native, to work in its officesin Krakow.)

After the presentation, Hines approached Olson to ask aboutavailable jobs and internships at Aon. The conversation led her toa summer internship at the brokerage, where among other projects,she worked on a student survey for a master's program that Aonsponsors at a school in Israel. The project gave Hines the idea todevelop her own survey to gauge the experiences of Aon's more than100 interns nationwide. She created and distributed the survey, towhich 85% responded. The results provide a clear picture of theintern experience at Aon and were distributed throughout thecompany.

Along with her job at Aon, Hines is also continuing hereducation at Northwestern University, majoring in communicationsstudies and minoring in psychology. Although she's not sure ifshe'll stay in insurance, she sees a future at Aon because “I lovethe company and I'm happy with my alignment here.”

Hines says she would “absolutely” recommend insurance as acareer path for her peers. “There are a lot of misconceptions aboutinsurance,” she says. “You don't necessarily need a finance orother specific background. I graduated with a general studiesdegree and I'm able to take everything I've learned and apply it tothe job. I would definitely tell anyone to give it a shot.”

So far, 60 students at Harold Washington have taken at least oneof the four insurance business courses, Thompson says. At first, itwas a tough sell: “One of the challenges we have in marketing toour students is that they all have this perception that insuranceis just Allstate, State Farm, Met Life, or the creepy guy in thekitchen trying to sell their parents life insurance they don'tneed,” he says. But as success stories like Carmen Hines' getaround, Thompson expects to see more student interest in insuranceas a career path.

To keep the ball rolling, Harold Washington has recently enteredinto a relationship with the Katie School of Insurance, looking atways to market the C2C program to students, which in turn willcreate a pipeline of potential students to the Katie School.

CCC's commitment to practical career paths has already seenresults: graduation rates, which once hovered in the single digits,are expected to hit about 13% this year, Thompson says.

All of these elements make C2C a win-win-win—for students, theschool, and for industry. “The quality of the opportunities thatstudents are exposed to are incredible, especially the internshipsand full-time placement,” Thompson says. “These are life-changingexperiences for our students.”

Carmen Hines is a perfect example. A product of Chicago's magnetschools, including the prestigious Whitney Young, she attendedEastern Illinois University after graduating high school because itwas the most affordable for her mother, who works as a nurse. Whenher mother could no longer afford to pay tuition, Carmen was forcedto quit school and go to work. She found Harold Washington becauseit was affordable, close to her job, and a practical way for her tocontinue her education. Her performance there landed her on thedean's list, led to the internship and job at Aon, and ultimatelyto acceptance and a scholarship at Northwestern.