Developing the Workforce of Today and Tomorrow
Honda and Ohio State have worked together in recent years to focus on building skills in the current and future workforce. This effort is two-pronged: providing continuing education for current associates and ensuring classroom and experiential learning opportunities for students are designed to meet future talent needs.
A personalized program to develop business acumen
The Fisher College of Business Executive Education team worked with Honda to create a Graduate Certificate in Business Leadership focused on creating opportunities for associates by building specific business knowledge and leadership capabilities.
The specialized program incorporates concepts including strategy, finance, communications, negotiation and leadership, culminating in a final capstone project. Teams of Honda associates, guided by Ohio State faculty and Honda executives, identify opportunities in the mobility industry and devise a strategic plan to seize that opportunity.
Already, more than 50 Honda associates have participated in the program, including Jason Van Buren in Honda Research & Development.
The capstone program: Honda gains innovative ideas, Ohio State students gain invaluable experience
From sustainable seat coverings and logistics to automated visual inspections and die casting, students have a lot of ideas to solve some of Honda’s business challenges.
A capstone is an integrative, final learning experience for students, allowing them to combine the skills and knowledge gained throughout their education into a real-life project. By supporting more than 25 capstones and student projects each year, Honda gives students a chance to prove their ideas in both engineering and business.
Ohio State students involved in these projects – in both engineering and business – bring fresh eyes and ideas to issues seen across the company in the hopes of gaining some real-world experience. Recent projects have covered process improvement, prototypes, analytics, design and more.