Growth Sector works closely with employers across sectors to utilize the STEM Core to meet their engineering, technologist, and computing talent needs. For many employers seeking access to diverse, qualified engineering and computer science students, the STEM Core’s National Network provides the necessary structure to recruit locally, regionally, or across the nation. Lawrence Livermore National Lab has worked closely with Growth Sector and Bay Area STEM Core colleges to develop a solid pipeline aimed at filling their talent needs since 2015- hiring more than 50 STEM Core completers for full-time roles in engineering and engineering technology.

Recognizing a retirement wave approaching among the lab’s 1,000 engineering technologists, Lawrence Livermore National Lab (LLNL) management connected with Growth Sector to customize a training program at a local community college. LLNL recognized that the next generation of technologists would need a new set of skills to be successful- comfort with changing technology, higher-level math competency, and industry work experience. Growth Sector began dialogue with LLNL engineering managers along with administrators from neighboring Las Positas College. The result: creation of a new Mechanical Engineering Technologist A.S. Degree in which the STEM Core and internship would serve as the foundation.

Growth Sector worked closely with LLNL and Las Positas to recruit a pilot cohort of 20- initially nearly all Afghanistan and Iraq War Veterans. The program showed great success immediately- a majority of summer interns were quickly hired in part-time roles by the lab while they completed A.S. Degree courses. In the intervening years, LLNL has hired dozens of STEM Core completers in engineering technologist roles averaging $65,000 per year. Additionally, LLNL has begun recruiting interns and making hires of STEM Core students other local community colleges in the Network.

In addition to their work in the Bay Area, LLNL has been instrumental in spreading word of the STEM Core’s effectiveness to educators and employers across the country. LLNL leaders were instrumental in Growth Sector’s pilot cohorts with Native American students on the Navajo Nation in New Mexico with Gallup McKinley County Schools and Navajo Technical University. LLNL’s demonstration of transitioning STEM Core interns to full-time, permanent hires led the way for additional National Labs to collaborate. Thanks to their leadership, Growth Sector now also places students with SLAC, Lawrence Berkeley Lab, Sandia National Lab, and Los Alamos National Lab.