Businesses large and small nationwide partner with community colleges to secure their future workforce. Locally, employers increasingly are teaming up with Lincoln Land Community College to train employees.
For instance, O’Shea Builders helped design the college’s new construction lab and provides several instructors for the program. Memorial Health funded the expansion of LLCC’s nursing program and more recently its allied health programs such as radiography and sonography. Roland Machinery supported the diesel technology program that will soon graduate its second class, and the state of Illinois has hired individuals to take information technology classes at LLCC then move into full-time state employment.
Accompanying this trend are more students and parents questioning the return on their investment in higher education, resulting in more interest in workforce programs that lead directly to a career.
LLCC works with hundreds of area employers to make sure a steady stream of prepared students is ready to step into local jobs, according to Josh Collins, assistant vice president of business relations at LLCC.
“One way local employers help us is with program design,” Collins said. “We reach out to employers, and they come to us, telling us what they need. We determine their barriers to growth and what can we do to help solve those problems, to create a better pipeline of people filling their jobs, earning better wages and creating a better local economy.”
Karen Sanders, vice president of advancement and executive director of the LLCC Foundation, said business partnerships have greatly expanded throughout her 23 years at the college. “What has happened over time is our employers found that they needed people — shortages of qualified workers in healthcare and the trades, in diesel tech, welding, HVAC and truck driving, along with retirements due to an aging population. And, as a community college, we can be nimble and responsive to those community needs, which is our mission and responsibility.”
Seeing this trend developing, LLCC President Charlotte Warren created the business relations position six years ago under the umbrella of the college’s advancement office “to centralize those requests and make sure that we were responding appropriately and effectively with our industry partners,” Sanders said.
“It just exploded because when Josh came on board, what we also had the opportunity to do was strengthen our program advisory committees. We have advisory committees for nearly every program on campus, and it enabled us to connect and have effective communication with the right partners at the table,” Sanders said. “We know many of our workforce and healthcare graduates stay and work locally.”
O’Shea Builders
O’Shea Builders, a leading commercial construction services company in central Illinois, along with its subcontractors and other industry professionals, helped LLCC reimagine its construction program, Collins said. That included identifying what courses needed to be taught and the desired learning outcomes, with industry professionals helping teach the courses.
Mike O’Shea, president of O’Shea Builders, said his company has supported LLCC’s new construction program and lab on the Springfield campus in several meaningful ways. “For two years, we collaborated with a group of industry partners – including Anderson Electric, A&R Mechanical, B&B Electric, E.L. Pruitt, Henson Robinson, Joyner Construction Services and Mid Illinois Companies – to help shape the program’s curriculum and ensure it aligns with real-world needs,” O’Shea said.
Beyond curriculum development, O’Shea has stayed actively involved by facilitating job-site visits, offering internships and providing scholarships to students in the program. “Several of our staff members have also served as adjunct instructors, bringing their experience directly into the classroom,” O’Shea said. “One example of this impact is Alexis Bowman, a member of the inaugural construction class and recipient of the O’Shea scholarship, who was recently hired full-time by our company.”
He said an ongoing partnership with the local community college is a significant opportunity for O’Shea, allowing the company to play an active role in shaping the next generation of construction professionals and ensuring students are developing the skills the industry needs.
“By staying involved, we’re able to build relationships with students early on, provide real-world insight into the field and create a strong pipeline of talent for our company,” he said. “It’s a win-win — students gain valuable experience and career opportunities, and we gain access to a well-prepared, motivated future workforce.”
Memorial Health
LLCC announced an agreement with Memorial Health to address the local nursing shortage in 2020. Memorial Health’s $6.1 million gift allowed LLCC to nearly double its student capacity in a new Nursing Education Center.
“More recently, Memorial Health donated $1.4 million to expand allied health programs, so we can increase the number of students graduating from those as well,” Sanders said.
She said the expansion of cardiovascular and diagnostic medical sonography, radiography, respiratory therapy and surgical technology programs, with improved training facilities and equipment, leads to more qualified workers in these in-demand positions at local healthcare facilities.
Roland Machinery
Another example is the college’s diesel technology program. “Roland Machinery recognized the huge shortage of diesel technicians in our region,” Sanders said. “They stepped forward and helped us build the program.”
Roland continues to provide donations of heavy equipment and scholarship support as well as hosting LLCC’s diesel tech interns and hiring program graduates.
“The Roland donation impacts our local economy,” Sanders said. “It’s truly putting students to work and filling a worker shortage need.”
State of Illinois
A unique partnership formed several years ago between LLCC and the Illinois Department of Innovation and Technology (DoIT). “They hired three cohorts of students, and their job was to enroll in LLCC,” Collins said. “The students completed our IT help-desk curriculum while they were DoIT employees, and that allowed DoIT to grow their own. Many of them were able to grow into an IT career with the state of Illinois.”
LLCC formed a similar program with the Illinois Department of Revenue. “They had employees take our accounting classes, many delivered on site at their workplace, and their employees were able to upskill to better paying jobs within the department,” Collins said. “We also work regularly with Central Management Services to connect our students with various careers at the state of Illinois through career fairs and help them navigate the state-hiring process.”
Cooperation among competitors
Sanders said a unique aspect of these business partnerships is the cooperation among competitors. “These industry partners are coming to the table for the good of the community,” she said. “They actually brought in competitors to the table to talk about what’s best, what does this curriculum need to look like so that when students leave our program, we’re sending out the best to all of these different companies. Across the board, our partners have come together for the greater good.”
Partnerships such as O’Shea Builders’ with LLCC are essential to strengthening the future workforce and supporting the local economy, O’Shea said.
“As the available workforce continues to shrink, these collaborations help local companies stay competitive by developing a steady pipeline of skilled talent,” he said. “Partnerships like this not only benefit individual businesses but also help build a more resilient, prepared workforce for the entire community.”
This article appears in June SBJ 2026.