There’s a lot of momentum at Golden Path this fall! Compass continues to grow with new users, features, and ways to connect, while new partnerships and projects are expanding our work across the region. In this newsletter, we’re sharing everything from a new Compass Dashboard for employers to a new project with the NSF AgTech Engine in North Dakota, how one college is using Compass for healthcare clinicals, and more.
Keep reading to see what’s new!
College students in Compass = more connections for employers
Employers can now connect with students in middle school all the way through college in Compass! This means even more opportunities to highlight their companies, educate students about careers, and offer internships to both high school students and college students.
We highlighted some of the benefits in last month’s employer email, including:
- Reaching more students with company and career information
- Broadening the pool for internship candidates
- Building more connections between careers, employers, and college programs
- Staying connected with students through their education journey
It only takes a few quick Compass account updates to start reaching college students, including:
- Updating the audience for Career Profiles and work-based learning by simply checking the box for college students (or copying the opportunity to create a new one, customizing a few things, and publishing it for just college students)
- Updating the schools for Career Profiles and work-based learning by selecting “All College” or checking particular ones
New Compass Dashboard offers key insights to employer members
The newest Compass addition, a Dashboard for employer members, provides valuable data and insights about how students and schools are interacting with their Compass content. The analytics will give employers a better understanding of metrics including:
- How many clicks content has received, including how many unique students viewed information
- A breakdown of activity by month, week, even the day. See how participating in activities like career fairs generates interest after the event.
- What schools have the most students interested in particular content or what schools might need more attention to drive more activity
- How many students are taking classes that teach sought-after skills, including trends on whether interest is growing or declining in specific classes and subjects
- Use our AI engine to discover which classes at a specific school are teaching needed skills to determine which teachers and classes to visit.
Awareness Members and higher can access the Dashboard to details on views, clicks, and interactions with everything from the employer profile to Career Profiles, work-based learning opportunities, events, and more. Connections Members and higher can access more detailed information, including contact information for students who have requested a connection, names of students interested in their company and careers, and more.
Golden Path to partner with others for upcoming NSF AgTech Engine project
Golden Path will be part of an upcoming statewide project with the National Science Foundation (NSF) AgTech Engine in North Dakota to explore and highlight the variety of careers in the agriculture industry.
The NSF AgTech Engine is an initiative of the nationwide NSF Regional Innovation Engines program. It is dedicated to addressing critical challenges in food security through cutting-edge agricultural technology and workforce development.
With this new project, Golden Path will work with other engine partners, including the Fargo Moorhead West Fargo Chamber of Commerce, other chambers of commerce, economic development corporations, tribal government, North Dakota State University Extension, secondary and postsecondary schools, and employers across North Dakota. Together, we will examine how technology is transforming the agriculture industry and how that is affecting required career skills and education paths. We will also help increase the visibility of agriculture industry start-ups and established companies, including by highlighting companies and careers in Compass.
Watch for more news on this exciting initiative!
BSC takes student clinicals to the next level with Compass
Medical Laboratory Technician students at Bismarck (ND) State College (BSC) are gaining valuable hands-on work experience this summer and fall. As part of their program, the students complete clinical rotations at a hospital or similar medical setting, working alongside healthcare professionals in a variety of labs and putting their studies to the test. They’ll each complete about five months of full-time lab work before returning to school and graduating in December.
This year, the well-organized program is running even more efficiently thanks to Compass by Golden Path Solutions.
As one of the first colleges to use Compass to connect with high school students, BSC is now also the first college to use the platform to support internships for its own students. Working closely with Golden Path last spring, the college expressed an interest in using Compass specifically for clinical time tracking and providing a shared program for all parties – students, faculty, and healthcare preceptors (supervisors) and coordinators. By modifying a few features and streamlining the employer sign-up process, Compass became a central hub to manage each student’s unique clinical experience. (This system is now rolling out to all public universities across the state.)
“Golden Path and Compass have done a good job of tying all of us together,” says Cristie Dockter, BSC Experiential Learning Coordinator. “It’s making the whole experience optimal for students and employers.”
Explore workforce development with us at upcoming chamber conference
Area chamber of commerce professionals are invited to the Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives Fall Conference Sept. 16-18 in Fargo, where Golden Path will be featured in a workforce development session.
Golden Path Founder and CEO Patrick Mineer is speaking at the session “Workforce Development – Getting Started Toward Alignment” as part of a panel discussion on best practices. We’ll explore how educators, employers, workforce partners, and community leaders are aligning efforts to build stronger talent pipelines and meet regional workforce needs. The session is at 2 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 16.
We continue to grow our partnerships with regional chambers to support workforce development. Current partnerships include Detroit Lakes, Fargo-Moorhead-West Fargo, and Grand Forks-East Grand Forks. Watch for an announcement soon regarding our new collaboration with the Bismarck Mandan Chamber EDC.
Watch for new Compass guides and new North Dakota student sign-in process
With the new Compass student homepage and user interface, we will be updating all of our Compass Guides soon. You can find them in the Resources section of Compass or RUReady.ND.gov. These guides for students, school professionals, and employers include step-by-step instructions for Compass processes, along with screenshots and helpful tips.
North Dakota students will also sign in to Compass a little differently this year. The state is transitioning from PowerSchool to Infinite Campus. Soon, students will be able to sign in to RUReadyND through Infinite Campus and access Compass. Thank you for your patience as these updates are finalized.
North Dakota University System update
Our latest work with the North Dakota University System includes four virtual trainings for educators, adding college programs to Compass, and expanding information about each college and its strategic employer partnerships. We’ve also been visiting with the colleges that use systems like Handshake to ensure employers know which platform to engage with.
In the next few weeks, we will provide a progress update to university presidents, conduct several in-person trainings, and update Compass with additional features to support colleges. These updates include integration with single sign-on for NDUS schools, adjustments to the job shadow workflow, and creating a Compass Dashboard for engagement tracking and connections.
You can watch the college educator trainings here:
Thank you to new and renewing employer members
New and renewing employer members mean more companies, careers, work-based learning experiences, and other opportunities for students to discover in Compass – and now that also includes college students!
Some of the most recent Golden Path membership renewals include: Acme Tools, Altru Health, American Crystal Sugar, Apex Engineering, Butler, Cardinal IG, Gate City Bank, General Equipment, Goldmark, Harvestone Energy, Korber, Lunseth Plumbing, Missouri Valley Family YMCA, North Dakota Department of Transportation, North Dakota’s Building Trades Unions, and Rapat Corporation. The Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce also renewed its partnership with us.
New and upcoming Career Profiles include:
- Truck & Trailer Service Technician at Lund Oil in Watford City
- Paramedic at Sanford Health in Fargo
- Sales Associate and Private Services Advisor at Marsh McLennan Agency in Fargo
- HVAC Service Technician at Metropolitan Mechanical Contractors in Fargo
Learn more about Golden Path employer memberships – which include Career Profiles.
Let us know about your events
If you have an event that you want us to include in our newsletter, please send us a note at info@goldenpath.net. If you are an employer and want to publish your event to schools and students, remember that you can do that through Compass. If you’re an educator wanting to invite employers to a school event (like a career fair or expo), you can do that in Compass too, choosing the employers you invite by industry, name, career cluster, or distance from you.
Upcoming events
- Sept. 8: NDSU Social Work Career Fair, Fargo
- Sept. 9: NDSU Meet the Firms: Careers in Accounting and Finance, Fargo
- Sept. 10: NDSU College of Health and Human Sciences Career Fair, Fargo
- Sept. 16-18: North Dakota League of Cities Annual Conference, Grand Forks
- Sept. 16-18: Minnesota Chamber of Commerce Executives Fall Conference, Fargo
- Sept. 18: Community Venture Network, Lakeville, MN
- Sept. 22: Greater North Dakota Chamber 2026 Policy Summit, Bismarck
- Sept. 23-25: North Dakota Society for Human Resource Management (ND SHRM) State Conference, Grand Forks
- Oct. 8-9: North Dakota School Board Association Annual Convention, Bismarck
- Oct. 21: GFMEDC’s BioScience Summit, Fargo
- Oct. 28: 2026 Northern Valley Career Expo, Grand Forks
- Nov. 12-13: Minnesota State Career and Technical Education Summit, Minneapolis
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Dec. 1: Career Expo, Fargo
Connect with us
Contact us for more information or more opportunities with Golden Path Solutions.