How do you recruit employers for WBL?

Traction-driven employer recruitment (TDER) is a "chicken or egg" approach to recruiting employers for student work-based learning (WBL) experiences. Or if you prefer, another metaphor is "build and they will come."

In this case, TDER proposes the "egg" first where students build solutions for employers first as a mechanism for delivering value before the employer engages. This theory addresses the "no" problem we have when recruiting employers to acquire work-based learning (WBL) experiences for K12 students particularly high school.

By building value first for employers before they initially engage, the effect is to "pleasantly surprise" employers with the delivered value before they've committed any time being drawn into the process of working with predominantly inexperienced student participants - further increasing their satisfaction and reasoning for engaging in the first place through the momentum already established for their initial engagement.

The next step for the employer then becomes perceptually "easier" to engage because the work has already been done, and the "two-cents" and off-the-cuff feedback of the employer is now the immediate next step as opposed to the process of spending the time to go through the process of planning, setup, and deployment while risking the often scenarios of student disengagement, completion of program, and quality of product due to student inexperience.

Traction-driven employer recruitment (TDER) logically solves the issue of how to engage employers to commit to K12 WBL experiences.

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TL;DR:
Traction-driven employer recruitment (TDER) flips the traditional approach to K12 work-based learning (WBL) by having students build solutions first, creating value before engaging employers. This "egg first" model addresses employer hesitancy by showcasing results upfront, reducing their commitment risk, and making engagement easier. Employers are "pleasantly surprised" by the value delivered without upfront effort, increasing their satisfaction and likelihood of ongoing collaboration. TDER effectively resolves the challenge of recruiting employers for student WBL programs.