Attracting young professionals to careers in local government: when trying to attract younger workers, governments need to concentrate on partnerships with universities and colleges to ensure their programs are responsive to municipal needs.

A version of this article originally ran in the June 2009 issue of Canadian Finance Matters, the GFOA's Canadian newsletter.

Municipal governments everywhere are concerned with attracting younger workers. One way to do this is for municipalities to form partnerships with universities, making sure students get opportunities that both get them interested in local government and equip them for careers in this area. Nova Scotia's municipal community decided to work with Dalhousie University on getting students involved in local government initiatives, and these opportunities have been successful in generating student interest. In addition, the municipal courses developed and offered as part of the university's Master of Public Administration (MPA) program have contributed to preparing students for local government careers, and a number of graduating class of 2009 students who registered for the municipal courses are currently working, or pursuing employment opportunities, in local government.

THE CATALYST

The catalyst for the Nova Scotia Municipal Community-Dalhousie University Initiative was a report prepared in 2006 for the Nova Scotia Association of Municipal Administrators, which draws its core membership from Nova Scotia's urban and rural municipalities and local government special purpose bodies. The report, titled "Attracting the next generation of municipal government managers in Nova Scotia; projected that within the next decade in Nova Scotia, there would be less than one person to replace every two people who retire. The report focused on the pressing need to attract younger workers and on formulating recommendations to help recruit the next generation of municipal government managers. The key areas and supporting strategies identified included the following: when trying to attract younger workers, governments need to concentrate on partnerships with universities and colleges to ensure their programs are responsive to municipal needs.

Following the release of the report, the municipal community--represented by the Union of Nova Scotia Municipalities (UNSM), Nova Scotia Association of Municipal Administrators (AMA), Province of Nova Scotia Municipal Affairs, Nova Scotia Municipal Finance Corporation (MFC) and Dalhousie University--met to discuss options for attracting more young people to managerial positions in local government and improving local government educational opportunities. The MPA program at the Dalhousie University School of Public Administration had offered graduate courses in local government in the past, but the courses had been discontinued a decade ago because of small class sizes and financial limitations. The MPA program also offered an internship program, and each year a few of the students would select municipal employment opportunities with either the Nova Scotia Municipal Finance Corporation or the Halifax Regional Municipality. Interns often pursued careers in local government as a result of these opportunities, so increasing the number of municipal internships was seen as a way of attracting young professionals to local government.

A meeting was held with the director of the Dalhousie School of Public Administration, who was enthusiastic about the idea because it would meet a municipal educational need as well as rounding out the school's program to include all three orders of government--federal, provincial and municipal--in its curriculum. The initiative then expanded to include additional financial resources, enhanced content, and formal commitments from each of the partners. Both intermediate and long-term strategies were developed and agreed on, and a memorandum of understanding (MOU) was drafted. Resources were committed for the first four years, and a commitment was made to seek funding for a permanent chair in local government at Dalhousie University.

COMMITMENTS AND RESOURCES

Each of the signatories made specific commitments, and all parties contributed resources. The main commitments included in the MOU were to:

* hire a faculty member and a research assistant

* design and offer a minimum of two courses in local government each year

* promote municipal content in other MPA courses

* create a minimum of five local government internship and project opportunities for students

* provide scholarships for municipal track students

* include municipal speakers in the weekly School of Public Administration (SPA) speaker series

* provide support through municipal community participation in the annual student conference held by the SPA and regular stakeholder meetings as well as assisting students in finding career opportunities in local government

Securing funding to establish a chair in municipal government was important to ensure the long-term viability of the municipal curriculum. The MOU recognized this and identified it as an area of cooperation among the participants. Provisions for reporting, accountability, and resolution dispute mechanisms were also included.

THE FIRST YEAR

After months of discussion and fine tuning, the MOU was signed on March 17, 2007. A municipal faculty member was hired during the first year, and elective courses in municipal government and local government finance for second-year students were developed and offered. Academics at other Canadian universities were willing to provide their municipal course outlines and information sources, which made the task of developing the two courses easier. The first course (city government) attracted students with some interest in local government as a career choice as well as students who believed that knowing more about local government would be of value in working at the federal or provincial government levels. The local government finance course appealed mainly to students who were interested in local government as a career.

Dalhousie's MPA program also offers a practicum course where students undertake a research project on behalf of a government department or agency, and three municipal projects were included, focusing on municipal utility rate structures, commercial property taxation, and alternative service delivery. A municipal curriculum research assistant was hired, and two initial research projects were identified through meetings with the municipal partners--one on governance structures and strategies for smaller towns and rural areas, and another on the use of community circles in transportation planning. Both projects are currently works in progress.

The municipal partners also created three opportunities for first-year MPA students who were interested in learning more about local government. The offerings were a seat on the board of directors of the Nova Scotia Association of Municipal Administrators, participation in a two-day orientation session for newly elected municipal councillors, and a spot as a support member of the team that organized the annual strategic planning session with Nova Scotia mayors, wardens, and chief administrative officers. Students showed considerable interest in these prospects, and a selection process was developed.

CONCLUSIONS

Five of the MPA students participated in municipal internships in summer 2009, and three of the MPA program's May 2009 graduates have secured positions in local government. Several other 2009 graduates are at various stages of competition for municipal management jobs. One of the challenges of promoting careers in local government is the fragmented hiring approach in this area, as compared with recruitment efforts by federal and provincial governments. The latter employers tend to have more focused recruitment efforts, with specific entry-level positions and offers of employment to successful candidates prior to graduation. Municipal internship programs for graduates such as the ones offered by the Ontario-based Association of Municipal Managers, Clerks and Treasurers (AMCTO) and the Nova Scotia Department of Municipal Relations are one way of meeting this challenge.

The plan for the second year is to continue with the activities outlined in the MOU. This will include efforts to generate more interest in local government, add opportunities for students to gain exposure to local government, increase the focus on research, and work toward a funded Dalhousie University Chair in local government. Registrations for the 2009-2010 municipal classes are up by a third when compared to the first year of the program.

MARK GILBERT is a professor with the School of Public Administration, Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia. He is a member of the GFOA's Committee on Canadian Issues and a past GFOA executive board member.