No matter how specific we made the offer, the need just wasn’t there. I remember rewriting our partner program quite a few times and every time it made even more sense to me that companies would have multiple benefits in tagging along with us.

The way I saw it, we had a high quality learning program that would benefit students but above all whoever employed them in the near future. Those companies would be hiring someone with far more experience that what would be expected from someone with the same short period of experience. So it made much sense to me that they should be the ones investing in the whole process instead of burdening the students with high tuitions just so we could run this thing.

Still, several companies were reluctant to accept this kind of partnership. Sometimes the people I spoke to would be excited but couldn’t find a way to get internal support on the topic. Other times it was hard to justify paying that money to us. When it wasn’t just about the money, it was usually about the time investment we were requiring too.

So after many adjustments, I can’t say we found one format that worked well for all companies. I think we must have signed all contracts with unique partnership terms.

As a summary though, what we were offering was a scenario where companies would pay for the benefit of being involved in the training of these new designers and developers, being able to help shape what they learned and their vision of the industry. Throughout that time, we would also conduct projects for a brief provided by the company and facilitate an internship program later in the end of the year. To us we were offering them a form of very early onboarding and training, without the responsibility of already having a contract with a specific person. They could decide who they wanted to hire and for the students, this was yet another opportunity to learn and be closer to the actual job market.

We did managed to engage in projects and internships but it wasn’t as simple or lucrative as I expected it to be. By the the last 3-4 months of the year, the already high tuitions were not enough to pay for all our expenses.