Manpower and CSUSA partner to help student-athletes’ career development

Most students are eager to find their first full-time career job after graduating from university. The majority of international students finishing their degree from an American university decide on coming back home after receiving their diploma. These are highly qualified candidates for exciting jobs, but a challenge is getting access. After spending four years studying in the US most students do not have an extensive professional network.

The new partnership between Manpower and College Scholarships USA will offer career guidance to student-athletes and aims to help find them job opportunities, thus bridging the gap between companies and students. Manpower is a leading recruitment agency in Norway and the world for staffing solutions.

– Partnering with a recruitment-powerhouse like Manpower will be a huge benefit to our student-athletes, as they will get the guidance and expertise help to get exciting jobs, said Stewart Stanbra, CEO of College Scholarships USA.

The partnership will offer a variety of programs and initiatives to CSUSA’s student-athletes and involves career advisement and support, job recruitment after graduation, and events for networking and inspiration. Student-athletes coming home during the summers can also get help to obtain summer jobs to get work experience on their CV and start building their professional network.

Manpower Norway provides staffing at all levels in all sectors and disciplines with 20,000 employees leased per year. Manpower’s clients are both large and small businesses and organizations – they include Equinor, Gjensidige, Telenor, Nordea, and Lindorff.

– The ones that manage to combine sports with studies have a skillset our clients are looking for. We are excited about this partnership with CSUSA as it will allow us to form stronger ties to these highly motivated candidates, said Ketil Risberg, Business Development Director at Manpower.

Creating Pathways

CSUSA is pushing to help their student-athletes with the whole journey from starting university, during their time in college and beyond. The spin-off service Pursue Career is where CSUSA has aimed to help students find a career job after graduation. This Manpower-partnership can ensure many more talented and ambitious student-athletes will land jobs and advance their future.

These candidates can draw on their lifelong experience of elite sports. The habits will transfer to their careers. Manpower will assess each candidate and offer them a place in their program. The student-athletes CSUSA work with have degrees in a variety of fields which aligns well with Manpower’s big range of job opportunities.

– We’ve known our student-athletes since they were 17-18 years old, been a sparring partner throughout their time in university and we want to continue that relationship, said Stanbra. -They are student-athletes with a competitive edge and a hunger to achieve success through dedication, hard work, and goal-oriented traits ingrained in their psyche.

Manpower Norway has 30 offices across the country with a team consisting of more than 200 dedicated staffing consultants based locally, regionally, and nationally. As a specialist in a changing labor market, they will find the right job for their candidates.

From kick-off to webinar

– Initially, the plan was to host a big kick-off event at the Manpower HQ in Oslo for all our student-athletes, but then covid-19 broke out and we had to change the plan and do it virtually, said Stanbra.

The first webinar will be hosted in June by Manpower Norway’s head of recruitment Ingrid Blomsnes Solheim. The webinar will offer advice for what students should be doing during their studies, how the CV should look, what it should contain, and how to write good job applications. It will also cover how to create a personal brand and the keys to networking on LinkedIn.

When the situation allows the program will be looking to host face-to-face seminars and workshops for the student-athletes, both for student-athletes currently in school and the ones that have graduated.

– We work with some really, really talented students. I believe this Manpower-program will show companies here what being a student-athlete in the US is all about and what they have learned during their four years abroad translate very well to the workplace back home. They’ll go from being student-athletes to “Manpower-athletes” and I hope and think they will be in high demand for employers. With Manpower they can get plugged into the network here, said Stanbra.

About

Manpower Norway is part of ManpowerGroup – the world’s workforce expert, which connects more than 600,000 people to work every day and helps more than 400,000 clients worldwide. With 3,000 offices in 80 countries worldwide, ManpowerGroup offers the full spectrum of workforce solutions needed to address the complex recruitment challenges that exist today.

Since 2007, College Scholarships USA has assisted 2300+ student-athletes, in a variety of sports from all over the world, to pursue their ambition of competing in sports in combination with higher education with a scholarship in the US. Team CSUSA is part of their students’ journeys and provides assistance during their studies and after graduation.