‘Build a bridge’ William Paterson dean talks about preparing business students for the workforce

Siamack Shojai has just begun his first academic year as dean of the Cotsakos College of Business at William Paterson University. Prior to joining the Wayne-based university, Shojai served as dean of Central Connecticut State University’s School of Business since 2007. Shojai also has a history in industry and is a highly regarded economist with a…NJBIZ sat down with Shojai to discuss what he saw for the future of William Paterson and its relationship to the state’s businesses.

NJBIZ: I was talking to the head of an accounting company, one of the biggest in New Jersey, and he said: “Don’t even start. Kids come out from accounting, it’s like it’s 1971 and we need to teach them everything.” So, how do you prepare students for the workforce so they’re truly ready to step in?

Siamack Shojai: We have to build a bridge between what happens in the classroom and what is going on out there. We have a very strong advisory board and they’re our ears. They come back and we ask them what competencies are needed.

We also invite students to those meetings, so there are some sort of liaison, and the students see what is happening.

NJBIZ: How else are you planning to prepare students for the job market?

SS: On top of that, we are approaching this academic year with kind of an integrated approach to building that bridge. No. 1 is to establish a business policy institute. That institute will invite our faculty colleagues to apply to become a fellow of the institute. During the summer, we will pay them extra money; they have to come up with a theme for the year. That theme has to be relevant, of practical use, policy oriented and immediately related to the issues of New Jersey.

NJBIZ: Will this be something that will set you apart, comparatively, from other schools in New Jersey?

SS: Probably they will try to imitate us and do what we’re doing in no time, honestly. But, yes, it will.

NJBIZ: And who are your competitors? Montclair State?

SS: Our direct competition is basically Montclair and Fairleigh Dickinson University. Of course, they’re private and it costs a leg and arm to go there. But we’re very affordable, our professors — if not better — they have nothing less than they, and our students are comparable.

I would say when it comes to competing for MBA students, Rutgers is a big competition for everyone.

But, basically Montclair. To some extent also Ramapo College. They have been doing well, also.

NJBIZ: You mentioned the institute was just one way of preparing students for the workforce. What are some other ways you intend to do that?

SS: We’ve also worked on establishing boot camps during the summer for our undergraduate students, initially. We will choose one or two industry clusters. And this is called the C.O.I.N.: the Crux Of Industry Niche.

We want our students to have a niche in a particular industry and, for a week during the summer, we invite people from the industry to come in and tell our students what it is that they do.

NJBIZ: When you talk to local business and local corporations and say, ‘We want to do more together,’ the reaction is ‘Sure,’ but then where do you take it from there? What is the next step?

SS: I have been talking to a lot of bankers and they’re all suffering from the fact that big banks don’t train anybody anymore. But there is no easy way to train five people internally. It would be very costly. So, next week I have a meeting with a couple of bankers to see how we could train bankers, or even our own students who are in finance or accounting, to become credit analysts.

There is a shortage of credit analysts, and banks are competing with each other. If we have 10 banks and each of them gives us $5,000, that’s $50,000 and that goes a long way for us.

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