Koru has inked another partnership with a top-tier university.
The Seattle startup announced today that it is teaming up with the University of Washington College of Arts & Sciences to help soon-to-be grads prepare for jobs.
Koru will offer a pair of two-week programs for arts and sciences students this summer that will teach the basics of solving business problems.
“Our goal through this partnership with Koru is to introduce our students to the skills and attributes that employers are seeking, and to do so early enough in their UW careers that they can use this knowledge to shape their educational choices before they graduate,” Robert Stacey, Dean of the UW College of Arts & Sciences, said in a statement. “We want our students to recognize that, regardless of major, they can increase the value of their education by starting to prepare now for the world of employment.”
Koru, which is operating in Seattle, San Francisco, and Boston, hosts similar programs with other schools that match employers like Zulily and Amazon with graduates who spend a week or two working on real problems at those companies. The idea is to help students gain valuable experience they weren’t able to learn in school and develop skills they need to succeed in the working world.
Koru CEO Kristen Hamilton, who spoke at GeekWire Startup Day earlier this year, said that this is a win-win situation: Graduates get hired, and employers have a chance to see how potential new employees perform on the job.
“Our vision in the next few years is to level the playing field for young people so that all have access to opportunities based on what they have shown they can do, and to provide an efficient and effective lens to select and hire the talent that will best serve employers,” Hamilton said in January after Koru raised an $8 million Series A round.
For the UW program, REI has signed on as the initial employer partner. Koru will offer two, two-week sessions at the UW Seattle campus this summer — the first from Aug. 17-to-28, the second from Sept. 7-to-18. Tution is $800 and financial aid is available for eligible students. You can apply here.
