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Meet Your Presenters

Shawna Swenson Bryce Rohrich

Brenda Zastoupil

Patrick Mineer

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Agenda

  • Tuition Reimbursement Overview
  • Components of a Sponsorship Agreement
  • Best Practices
  • Administering Reimbursement Programs
  • Financial Benefits of Sponsorships
  • Sanford insights (Shawna Swenson & Bryce Rohrich)
  • ND Career Builders overview (Brenda Zastoupil)
  • Q&A

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Tuition Reimbursement Overview

To Attract Talent

To Retain Talent

Definition

Employer facilitates a future employee’s education

Employer offers tuition reimbursement to current employees

Common Names

Sponsorships, scholarships

Continuing education, employee development

When used

Find new talent, get the right education, secure workers

Develop & upskill employees, provide attractive benefit package

Work commitments

Yes (2-5 years common)

No

Can employer influence education path?

Yes

Sometimes

Reimbursement method

Scholarships, cash payments, loan payback

Reimbursement of incurred expenses

Benefits

  • Employers develop the talent they need
  • Can target specific roles/locations/needs
  • Quicker time to productivity once work begins
  • Longer employment, lower attrition
  • Offers compelling benefit package for recruiting
  • Drives loyalty
  • Facilitates training that can benefit performance in job
  • Can replace in-house training in some cases

Considerations

  • Benefit realized over longer term
  • Need to make sure future employee is the right fit
  • Requires contract between parties
  • Might not drive a long-term commitment
  • More of a benefit to employee vs. employer
  • Education might not relate to current role
  • Tuition Reimbursement can both attract talent and retain talent
  • Some companies offer one or the other. Both can be used together.

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Components of a Sponsorship Contract

First, find the raw �talent you need

Identify your ideal education path

  • Costs covered?
  • Scholarship or loan payback
  • Performance levels
  • Work agreement length
  • Penalties for breaking terms

Include Work Experiences

  • Internships
  • Jobs
  • Mentorship

Program Options

  • Certification
  • Apprenticeship
  • Associates Degree
  • Bachelor Degree

Other Terms

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Best Practices for Sponsorships

  • Align your level of commitment to your acceptable risk.
    • Scholarship (higher risk) vs. Loan Repayment (lower risk)
    • Longer term commitment vs. shorter term commitment
  • Ensure that you and future employee each understand level of commitment
  • Partner with a school/program that gives the best education for your company
  • Stay connected with the future employee during their education
  • Make sure performance metrics are understood and agreed upon

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Administering Reimbursement Programs

    • Many solutions exist to help Benefit teams manage tuition reimbursement (including tax implications, payroll reporting, disbursements)
    • As solutions may charge fees, some companies do manually

    • Tax implications vary by company and can be dependent on offer
    • Cares Act of 2020 allows employer driven loan repayment programs to be �non-taxable up to $5250 annually

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Financial Benefits of Sponsorships

    • Sponsorships drive a long-term commitment between you & future employee
    • Finding a student before they’ve started education path means you have the right raw talent
    • Partnering with a school or academic program means students have the right skills
    • Work experiences & internships means they know your company
    • Result: Lower attrition, faster time to productivity, higher loyalty

    • Tuition costs can be reduced and ROI increased further with programs like:

Often the lifetime value of a sponsored employee is �higher than traditional recruiting model

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Sanford Insights

Bryce Rohrich

Shawna Swenson

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Benefit of Tuition Reimbursement Programs

  • Building relationships with schools/students to provide information on healthcare opportunities
    • Including different healthcare career tracks other than nursing
    • Working with students to help them become aware that these sponsorships exist
  • Providing tuition assistance for those interested in going to school for healthcare
  • Building our pipeline
  • Sponsorship opportunities offered for rural and high need areas
  • Developing employees is an effective resource for filling high need healthcare roles

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Helping Students Understand the Guidelines/Terms

  • Sanford contribution to tuition costs
  • Work commitment upon graduation
  • Assistance provided by recruitment team to meet students interest level and opportunities available

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Career Development for Current Employees

  • Education assistance
  • ASPIRE
    • Attaining and Supporting Professional growth by Imagining possibilities, Realigning career goals and Exploring opportunities
    • Career exploration, goal planning and fulfillment
    • Resume, cover letter writing and interview skills
    • Education and upskilling resources
    • Social media presence and networking skills

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ND Career Builders Overview

Brenda Zastoupil

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

  • Tool for business to recruit individuals into positions in high demand in the state.
  • Partnership = For every dollar of private sector funds provided, the state will match one dollar.
    • Business can provide up to $8,500 per individual…the state will match up to this amount, $1-for-$1!
  • High-need and emerging occupations list – drives the program.
  • Either a scholarship on the front-end &/or loan repayment on the back-end.

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

High-Need and Emerging Occupations List

  • Workforce Development Council and ND Job Service establish the “list” annually.
  • Approximately 75 qualifying occupations included each year.
  • Same occupations used to establish eligibility for the scholarship & loan repayment.

Qualifying Educational Programs (Scholarship)

  • Associate’s level and below, including certificate programs.
  • Institutions in the state – public, private, tribal, proprietary
  • Qualifying educational programs must relate to the high-need occupations to be considered.

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

Scholarship Requirements

  • Complete application
  • Up to $17,000 total (50% private-sector & 50% state)
  • Private-sector matching dollars required – All private-sector matching funds become part of the ND Career Builders program
  • Enroll in a program at associate’s level or below that relates to the high-need occupations
  • Enroll at a qualifying ND public, private, tribal or proprietary institutions; including programs approved by ND CTE Board (i.e. EDA)
  • Full time enrollment and 2.5 GPA required (both for approval of application and for payment)
  • NEW – Recipients can now qualify for BOTH the scholarship & loan repayment programs – UP TO a maximum of $17K
  • NEW – Forbearance/Cancellation under certain conditions

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

Scholarship Requirements

  • Legally-Binding Agreement with the State: Scholarship Award Agreement signed
    • Maintain full time enrollment
    • NEW - Maintain degree progress…students below 2.50 GPA no longer have to repay IF maintaining program progress
    • Completion of program
    • After degree/certificate completion, live in ND and work in high-demand occupation in ND for 3 years
    • Repay funds (to the state) if terms of the Agreement are not met
    • REPAID FUNDS REMAIN WITH THE PROGRAM!!

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

Loan Repayment Requirements

  • Complete application
  • Up to $17,000 total (50% private-sector & 50% state); max award per year is $5,667, depending on loan balance
  • Private-sector matching dollars required – All private-sector matching funds become part of the ND Career Builders program
  • Completed a program of study – NEW – Program no longer must be from a ND institution – flexibility in hiring
  • Hold a balance on a non-defaulted student loan
  • Be newly hired into a high-need occupation in ND
  • Live in ND
  • NEW – Recipients can now qualify for BOTH the scholarship & loan repayment programs – UP TO a maximum of $17K

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

You just found out about ND Career Builders…Now What?

  1. Familiarize yourself with the details of the program at:

ndus.edu/career-builders

2. Review the high-need and emerging occupations list & corresponding programs.

3. Sponsor students for the scholarship &/or attract employees with loan repayment.

  • Scholarship – The institution will help with the application process.
  • Loan Repayment – NDUS assists with the application process.

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ND Career Builders Scholarship & Loan Repayment

QUESTIONS?

Brenda Zastoupil, NDUS

Brenda.Zastoupil@ndus.edu

701-328-2906

Information and Resources: https://ndus.edu/career-builders/

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Questions & Next Steps

    • Connect with any of the presenters via email:
      • Patrick Mineer – patrick@goldenpath.net
      • Shawna Swenson - shawna.swenson@sanfordhealth.org
      • Bryce Rohrich - bryce.rohrich@sanfordhealth.org
      • Brenda Zastoupil - brenda.zastoupil@ndus.edu

    • Information sheet with links and contact information will be sent out

Want to learn more about finding future talent and establishing agreements?

Contact Golden Path for a free consultation

www.goldenpath.net