Business students from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln may not yet need childcare, but this month they participated in a competition in cooperation with Lincoln Littles to come up with some strategic, creative solutions to ease the current challenges in early childcare. Ten local early childhood education programs (3 family homes and 7 centers) were matched with 10 teams of students.
Some ideas included:
- Creating social media presence on TikTok and Instagram
- Building an employee referral program and offer referral bonuses
- Engaging parent and family networks
- Offering parents tuition discounts for their children in exchange for volunteering their time
- Creating on-site student teaching opportunities
“I think this was a good topic because it allowed business students to apply their skills to a meaningful, real-world challenge,”
said Courtney Cummings, a senior accounting major and secretary for Beta Alpha Psi – the organization facilitating the event. “The challenges faced by childcare providers are complex and often overlooked, so this gave students a chance to create solutions that could make a huge impact.”
Cummings recruited students to participate in the event, facilitated forming teams, created the challenge statements for each team, handled all the contacts with Lincoln Littles, arranged the presentation event and created the grading rubric for judges.
Students proposed solutions to some of the greatest challenges in the early childhood industry, such as budget optimization, affordability, increasing program enrollment, recruiting and retaining staff, rebranding, parent engagement, Cummings said. “I think the students did a great job. They demonstrated an ability to think critically and creatively and truly understand the problem at hand,” she said. 
Deb Cosgrove, Beta Alpha Psi advisor and professor of Practice in the School of Accountancy, agreed. “I felt all the teams performed very well. Other than having attended a daycare or an early childhood development facility, the topic is one which the students started by knowing nothing about. It was evident that each group researched the industry and their specific topic.”
Cosgrove sees opportunities for future collaboration: “For example, our chapter could offer an evening session on setting up and running an Instagram and TikTok account. The group that created the Excel budgeting workbook could conduct an evening training session on budgeting. I am hoping this is more than a ‘one and done’ relationship.”
* Beta Alpha Psi is an honorary college organization for accounting, finance and business analytics majors