Some Massachusetts organizations are trying to keep college graduates in the state after graduation in an attempt to avoid losing the thousands of students who have called Boston home throughout their college careers.
Massachusetts: It's All Here, a non-profit collaborative marketing initiative, recently launched a web campaign called Stay Here — massitsallhere.com/stayhere — aimed at offering recent graduates and young professionals easy access to resources for finding a job and procuring housing in the state. The effort comes in response to research indicating that the Massachusetts' skilled workforce growth rate is lagging behind that of other states.
It's All Here — an association of private companies, internship organizations and academic institutions from around the state — launched in 2003 with the aim of promoting the Massachusetts economy, according to Kofi Jones, It's All Here's lead coordinator. She told the Daily that Stay Here, which began last September, focuses on retaining Massachusetts college students after they graduate and on supporting young entrepreneurs looking to start businesses.
"This is kind of our ‘I Love New York,'" Jones said, referring to the famous advertising campaign. "It's a great way to talk about the strengths of Massachusetts, particularly its great minds and innovative work force."
Jones said Stay Here is about linking the state's strengths in business and education.
"The greatest minds come here to go to school," Jones said. "When they graduate, that workforce is vital to the state's long-term prosperity. Businesses want that talent and energy."
Beyond the website, Jones said that Stay Here partners will be visiting colleges around the state this year to promote Massachusetts resources and get input from students.
"We're working directly with schools so schools can provide resources directly to students," Jones said. She added that Stay Here has reached out to career services departments at colleges, providing them with posters and website links.
Tufts has linked to the Stay Here webpage from the Career Services website in an effort to provide students with additional regional job listings, according to Director of Career Services Jean Papalia. Papalia said this move is not necessarily an attempt to convince students to stay in state after graduating.
"In our experience, Tufts students don't need to be persuaded to ‘stay here' in Massachusetts," Papalia said in an e-mail to the Daily. "For example, 37 percent of the Class of 2010 reported that they planned to stay in Massachusetts."
Jones called the Stay Here website a "universal platform to find information" because it includes links to many relevant resources for graduates looking for jobs or internships. The site will soon offer access to the Massachusetts Internship Collaborative, an online handbook designed to guide Massachusetts businesses on how best to create more internship opportunities.
"If companies don't have internships, we convince them that they should," Jones said.
Sarah Lanning, the assistant director of economic development at the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, which represents area businesses, said that her organization is an It's All Here member and has responded in the past couple years to research that indicates Massachusetts college graduates are leaving the state.
The Chamber of Commerce is focusing on increasing the number of internships available around the state, Lanning said. This fall, it plans to launch a pilot of an online talent retention tool centered on a social networking model, according to Lanning.
Through a Facebook application, Lanning explained, students will be able to create profiles that will facilitate communication between students and local employers and match the two according to the student's field of work and interests.
"This website is not just a job board," Lanning said. "This is a research tool to help connect students with employers. Employers can send targeted messages to students."
"Research showed that despite the high number of students coming into [the] Boston area, Massachusetts is losing talent at a faster rate than other states," Lanning told the Daily. "Massachusetts is not growing its skilled workforce fast enough to meet employers' needs."
The Chamber of Commerce, along with the human resources consulting firm Mercer, released in 2008 a report projecting that Massachusetts' five-year growth rate for persons over 25 with bachelor's degrees was less than two percent, ranking among the 10 lowest rates in the country.
Comparatively, leading states such as Nevada, Texas, Arizona and Utah are projected to experience growth rates between 12 and 16 percent, according to the report.
A separate study published by the New England Public Policy Center at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston found that approximately 20 percent of non-native students at New England colleges will remain in New England after graduation.
That report indicated that job availability is the principal factor determining whether graduates from Massachusetts schools leave the state. While less than two percent of migrating New England graduates left for reasons relating to housing, almost half of them cited employment reasons for moving.
Jones said Massachusetts ranks among the country's leaders in revitalizing its state economy, referring to a CNBC report that recognized Massachusetts as number five on its list of America's Top States for Business 2010. The report also ranked Massachusetts first in the Education category, as well as number three in Technology and Innovation and number two in Access to Capital.
