On Universities and campuses, the student service department has a big mandate to ensure that students grow holistically in all aspects of life during their schooling period ( White, McKenzie & Playford, 2016) . Holist growth means that the student not only grows academically, but that they also grow emotionally, mentally, religiously and physically. Therefore, the department is meant to offer services to all students without any form of discrimination, which may arise due to the differences in religion, language, abilities, ethnicity, politics, social class or skin colour. By doing that, the department shall have helped support the educational missions of the college or the university in which it would have been set up. The services offered by this department include career services, academic support services, admissions, community service and service learning, food services, orientation, student activities, wellness programs, student discipline, health centres, counselling, alcohol and drug education programs, financial aid, fraternities and sororities, multicultural programs and housing and residence life. All these services have to be offered to all students admitted to any higher learning institution. In the past, some services like housing and residence life were offered to some specific individuals, while some were left out. That occurred majorly due to the differences in social class, where the rich people could corrupt the staff working at the student service department so as to receive services at the expense of the poor people. It is however important to note that this department despite some of the challenges that it may face, is still a very critical department in the student’s life.
It is extremely essential for the student service department in a college or university to focus on partnering with the community based businesses because this acts as a booster for their students’ holistic growth. Ensuring that there is good relationship between the institutions and the business makes it easier for the institutions to find internship and attachment opportunities for their students. That is critical because at these business organizations, students are able to gain real life experiences, which help them improve their skills in addition to the skills and knowledge they usually would have gained in class. By the time these students graduate, they would have developed essential skills which are required in the job market. Some students get employed in the same business organizations where they had would have their internships, and this usually helps promote and build the name of the university or college. That therefore, gives the institution a competitive advantage over other universities or colleges, whose students take time to before they secure jobs. That can cause an increase in the number of students, who in return promote the growth and development of the university or college, through the fees they pay.
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As much as the institutions may like to develop more partnership with community businesses, there are some hindrances and challenges, which may affect that process of building partnerships. First, student misbehaviour is the most serious challenge that hinders the partnership process here. Some students when they get employed in those business display bad behaviours such as being rude, indiscipline and usage of abusive languages, spoiling the institution’s name. When that happens some companies may prefer students from other universities hence affecting the process of partnership. Second is the challenge of increased number of students ( Thrasher, 2017) . Unlike in the past where parents did not like education, nowadays every parent wants to take their children to schools, as a result, there has been an increase in the total number of students. That makes it difficult for the leaders of the student service departments to choose which students to assist and which ones not to assist in securing jobs ( Kagan, Lawthom, Clennon, Fisher, Diamond & Goldstraw, 2017) . That discourages some of these leaders, hence affecting the process using which university service departments create more connections with community-based businesses. Lastly is the demand for bribery by some heads of those business organizations, making it difficult to develop partnerships ( Gasper, Henderson & Berman, 2017) .
In order to find answers as to the difficulties that career placement centres in colleges and universities face in trying to build more business partners, leaders of these departments can be asked the following questions.
Have you ever been asked for bribery by managers of the various organizations that the university or college wished to partner with?
Does student indiscipline and disrespect affect partnership process?
Do the increases in the number of students in the universities or colleges affect partnerships? How?
For the past one year, how many partnership negotiations has your institution been involved? Were they successful?
Do the university board of management and other stakeholders affect partnership processes?
College and Community Partnerships: The Development of an Entrepreneurial Program to Support Economic Development
In this article, the State University of New York Cortland and other stakeholders developed a unique relationship with businesses to boost entrepreneurship program in the school. The community business made use of the expertise from the Cortland students so as to come up with new ideas that could help boost entrepreneurship ( Burke & Phelan, 2016) . In addition, students were offered internships, where they practiced their entrepreneurship skills, helping the business grow while at the same time benefiting also, by gaining life job experience outside their classroom.
Relevance of School Related Factors to the Job Placement of Engineering Graduates
In this article, the authors acknowledge the importance of job placement centres in institutions. Despite the availability of other factors that contribute to the development of the student, career development centres are very essential. The work of the career placement centres according to the authors is to find more linkages with both local and international industries so as to reduce the gap of job mismatch, allowing the university to review their curriculum based on the relevant skills and knowledge applicable in the various companies ( Chavez, De Castro, Camello, Dolot & Laguador, 2016) . The career placemen centres assist students in universities and colleges to secure internships and jobs, through the creation of several networks.
Internet use among university students: a survey in University of the Punjab, Lahore
The use of the internet has become increasingly useful in higher learning institutions. Several universities offer free internet Wi-Fi, to allow their students use it in performing job search, while still in school ( Bashir, Mahmood & Shafique, 2016) . Also, with the use of the internet, students are able to interact with their processors, with ease, so as to receive necessary guidelines on how they can be able to impress the human resource managers in order to secure a job. Some have gained direct linkage with some companies and therefore, with a click of a mouse a student can get connected with the human resource, where they can ask any question concerning their careers and possible job vacancies.
In conclusion, as has been discussed above, student service departments are critical for the holistic growth of the students in any institution of higher learning, such as a university or college. Some of the services that the department offers to students include career placement, housing, health, food and recreational services. Career placement assists students to secure jobs quickly, because the institution through the career placement centers works at ensuring that the institution builds good connections with community business and industries, where students can secure internships and jobs.
References
Bashir, S., Mahmood, K., & Shafique, F. (2016). Internet use among university students: a survey in University of the Punjab, Lahore. Pakistan Journal of Information Management & Libraries (PJIM&L), 9(1).
Burke, K., & Phelan, G. (2016). College and Community Partnerships: The Development of an Entrepreneurial Program to Support Economic Development.
Chavez, N. H., De Castro, E. L., Camello, N. C., Dolot, J. A., & Laguador, J. M. (2016). Relevance of School Related Factors to the Job Placement of Engineering Graduates. EPH-International Journal Of Science And Engineering, 1(6).
Gasper, J. M., Henderson, K. A., & Berman, D. S. (2017). Do Sectoral Employment Programs Work? New Evidence from New York City's Sector‐Focused Career Centers. Industrial Relations: A Journal of Economy and Society, 56(1), 40-72.
Kagan, C., Lawthom, R., Clennon, O., Fisher, J., Diamond, J., & Goldstraw, K. (2017). Sustainable communities: University-community partnership research on social dimensions of sustainable development. In Sustainable Development Research at Universities in the United Kingdom (pp. 245-262). Springer International Publishing.
Thrasher, M. (2017). Towards an Enlightened Model of Department-Level Academic Leadership: Business Principles in Service of Academia. The Department Chair, 27(3).
White, C. J., McKenzie, J., & Playford, S. (2016). Student Engagement in Service Delivery: Taking it to a Whole New Level. Journal of the Australian and New Zealand Student Services Association, (48), 57.
