Intel’s $3.5 Billion Initiative to Hire More College Grads

On Feb. 23, Intel Corporation CEO Paul Otellini announced that his company would be leading an initiative, dubbed the Invest in America Alliance that would pledge $3.5 billion dollars to expand hiring of recent college graduates in the IT industry, among other goals.
“It would be a long-term mistake to let our future scientists and engineers sit idle after graduation,” Otellini stated in a press conference in Washington, D.C.
The Intel-lead initiative has garnered support from other tech companies like Microsoft, Google, and Accenture, and it comes not long after Otellini’s $200 million dollar pledge in January to invest in STEM educational initiatives.

Otellini explained his two part plan for the Invest in America Alliance. First, the initiative would have Intel and 24 other venture capital firms invest in growing technologies, like IT, clean energy, and biomedical. The second part of his plan is to hire 10,500 recent college graduates by the end of the year.
Otellini’s pledge comes at a time when several companies have cut back on hiring college graduates. Honda announced last week that it would hire 30% fewer college graduates for the spring of 2011. This will be the first time in 14 years that Honda has had less than 600 college graduates working for the company, according to a Japan Today article .
In today’s bleak job market, with college costs rising at over three times the rate compared to family income, many are beginning to question the value of a college education in the first place. In an Associated Content article, a long-time recruiter gives her perspective on the value of a degree. Even in the face of rising college costs that are expected to skyrocket in 2010, the demand for higher education has remained steady.
Only time will tell if measures taken by companies like Intel will be enough to meet the demand for entry-level, college degreed jobs in the future. Many unemployed college graduates have opted for graduate school to “hide out” while the economy bounces back, but a University Language blog post questions this logic, maintaining that it may be worth it for college graduates to wait until jobs materialize.
Guest post by Katheryn Rivas, who writes on the topics of accredited online universities. She welcomes your comments at her email Id: katherynrivas87@gmail.com.