Student Recruitment Strategies: A Guide for Companies

Rapid technological developments fuel an emerging skills gap, challenging recruiters as they look for qualified, experienced candidates. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, in December 2024, 7.6 million jobs were advertised, but as of January 2025, there were 6.8 million people unemployed in the US [1,2]. As a result of this disparity, corporate employers are turning their attention to university campuses to find candidates with relevant tech skills, ambitious minds, and a readiness to learn new concepts.

As a hiring manager or department leader, it's important to develop strategies for effective student recruitment and understand how they can complement your corporate skills development programs.

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Understanding student recruitment in a corporate context

Hiring students directly after finishing college to work at your company means their skills and knowledge are current, and their limited experience means their willingness to train and develop is high. For these reasons, students are excellent contenders for your corporate learning initiatives. College graduates align well with companies that prioritize identifying and nurturing talent for long-term development. 

Additionally, students typically desire further learning and development beyond their college careers. According to a survey conducted by Handshake, 87 percent said that L&D opportunities are essential when considering a potential job [3]. With that said, you might consider featuring L&D benefits within your recruitment strategy.  Finally, recruiting college students to work for you in, for example, a cooperative education program can be cost-effective while also freeing up current staff to pursue higher-level projects. During the student’s tenure at your company, you can gauge their work ethic and determine if they are a proper fit for your organization. 

Read more: What Is Talent Attraction?

Crafting effective student recruitment strategies

Like any recruitment drive, recruiting college students requires a clear strategy. Ideally, you want to grab their attention, spend time with them, and then hire candidates with the skills that most align with your organization’s needs. To accomplish this, you will likely need to implement an approach that contains both in-person and online interaction. 

Identifying target audiences and student personas

Whether you’re looking for students for internships or to hire them in entry-level roles, it’s essential to understand your target audience. Students of the Gen Z generation have specific needs and preferences that they want to see in a future employer, such as authenticity, a commitment to diversity, and flexibility in how they work. You might also want to include other incentives like paid parking, child care, and student loan repayment.

Authenticity, diversity, and long-term commitment

Honesty and authenticity: In an online world where people expect bombardment by brands, students are looking for something to believe in. Honesty and authenticity are important to them, so focusing on what it is like to work for your company and what you offer specifically and delivering proof on social media builds a connection effectively. 

Inclusion and diversity: Students who are likely part of Gen Z value a commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). Therefore, during the recruiting process, it’s beneficial for your company to convey your success in this arena while pointing out your goals for continuing to improve DEI throughout your company. 

Long-term commitment: Students want employers to offer training and development programs to help them advance their careers. If you can provide this benefit, students will likely remain with your company longer. When they see that you care about their needs, they have more reason to stay.

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Leveraging digital channels for student outreach

Students are familiar with using digital platforms and social media such as LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, Instagram, and Facebook, so this is an effective place for your company to identify, engage, and hire talented people. You also want to consider that recent college graduates employ social media to research and learn about a company’s culture, which means it’s probably a good idea to ensure your online presence clearly reflects the brand’s values.

Read more: Why Is Diversity Important in the Workplace?

Establishing partnerships for targeted recruitment

An excellent recruitment campaign might explore the benefits of forming partnerships with universities and colleges while also attending conferences associated with your industry where you can discover recent alumni. Working collaboratively with these institutions can provide an educated and trained workforce to shape into an employee who fits well with your company. This partnership approach can also help you reduce training costs, increase productivity, and improve retention rates. 

Finally, building relationships with college staff, especially professors, who know students well and interact with them daily is an excellent way of reaching potential candidates. You might also work with the career services department to engage in campus recruitment through career fairs, workshops, and events in which you can network. 

Implementing a successful student recruitment campaign

To implement a successful student recruitment drive on campus or online, you must develop appropriate recruitment materials, host or access valuable events, and have a communication strategy in place.

Creating compelling recruitment materials

Aside from social media campaigns, creating testimonials with video and audio and providing promotional materials such as phone stands, journals, pens, and even socks displaying your company’s brand can help you recruit college students. You might also consider using success stories from your current employees to attract college students. 

Using an alumni network

It’s always an excellent strategy to utilize the tools already available to you. Since your current employees likely attended college, you can ask them to contact their alumni network in search of recent graduates who might be a good fit for your company. A vital aspect of this approach to recruiting is that you can feel better about a new hire when recommended by one of your employees who trust their network. 

Hosting recruitment events and webinars

Allowing students to speak to representatives from a company firsthand at an event is a practical part of any student recruitment drive. Whether in person or online, illustrating your culture, the benefits you offer, and current employees who have developed while working at your company are all important recruiting tools for potential employees to see. 

Personalized communication and follow-up strategies

Because many potential employees are overwhelmed with various forms of media, you can think about personalizing your communication with them by researching their backgrounds before making initial contact with them. Doing this lets the student know that you value their time, and when you mention a specific reason why they would be a good addition to your company, you improve your chances of grabbing their attention. When planning to follow up with the potential hire, you should use their preferred contact method, which may be via email, phone, or text.

Addressing common challenges in student recruitment

As with any recruitment initiative, student recruitment may provide some challenges. These may include: 

Inexperience: Students actively engage in learning and development and can offer a new perspective but lack professional experience. They might need extra support, mentoring, and training. Build this into your corporate development program for maximum effect.

Market saturation: Standing out against other recruiters and companies can be challenging. It’s important to have a strong brand and student recruitment strategy that utilizes the channels that students use most.

Outdated: Recent college graduates might view your company as obsolete, so when recruiting them, you want to focus on modern initiatives while emphasizing benefits such as excellent vacation time. 

Getting started with Coursera

Student recruitment is proving an effective solution for companies looking for employees who value opportunities for learning and development. Students are ambitious and keen to grow in their careers. 

Attract frontline talent, support internal mobility, and prepare workers for in-demand, digital jobs with Career Academy from Coursera. Featuring a curated catalog of guided tutorials and projects focused on high-value digital skills and tools, Career Academy offers competitive career development opportunities with training programs from industry leaders like Google, Salesforce, Intuit, Meta, and Ashok Leyland, among many others. Explore Coursera for Business to learn how to provide the technology training your business needs to be competitive.