I recently caught up with Marcia Robinson who has been running the HBCU Career Center website since 2007. Their footprint reaches over 55,000 people among the black college community.
What is the HBCU Career Center?
We provide career information and resources for students, alumni, staff and a broad community of supporters of Historically Black Colleges and Universities. It’s important to remember that this community of supporters goes well beyond currently enrolled students because these schools have existed for almost 200 years.
We communicate regularly with HBCU staff including faculty and career center directors. As we say on our site we are currently laser focused on the following goals:
- Graduates being career-ready with a job or a plan by commencement
- Employers valuing HBCUs as a talent source for inclusive workplaces
- Americans knowing the HBCU role in building our diverse workforce
- HBCUs providing access to relevant and timely career information
- Students developing in-demand skills to meet workforce needs
- Workers knowing how automation will impact the future of work
- Professionals staying aware of workplace, career, HR and industry trends, practices and success habits
How many HBCU students do you have registered and come to the site each month?
Social media footprint in approximately 55,000. We are small, but very focused.
How can employers use it to recruit?
Our job board offers a variety of options to get their brand and vacancies in front of a diverse community. A product list is here.
How many HBCU schools are there in the US? There are 105
How many grads come from HBCU each year? 50,000 graduates annually
What’s the profile of a typical student that uses your site?
Our job seekers are educated mostly African American professionals with 70 % of our audience holding a bachelor’s degree or higher.
What tips can you offer employers to attract a more diverse workforce?
Employers need to see the footprint of HBCU’s as a community well beyond the geography of the campuses. Although the schools are predominantly located in the eastern and southern US, these schools and graduates are part of a very large global diaspora. To attract a more diverse workforce employers need to understand that steady relationships and brand reinforcement is important and takes time.
There are brands that the HBCU community sees everyday, but are not aware of opportunities for careers with those brands. Brands have to show commitment to social issues that are important to diverse groups and have to demonstrate commitment to equity in employment. The more they can educate the audience about that or make it easy to know, the more successful they will be.