PIT-UN Opens the 2025-2026 Career Fair RFP
The Public Interest Technology University Network (PIT-UN) is seeking applications from its member institutions’ Career Placement or Career Counseling Service staff for career fair(s) that focus on specific areas that cultivate students as the future of the PIT workforce. PIT-UN Career Fairs should highlight career-relevant technology curriculum designed to illuminate PIT competencies and connect students with employers and community partners designing, developing, and deploying technology that serves the public interest.
Career Fairs connect students with workforce opportunities in their communities by providing students with direct interaction with businesses, non-profits, and/or the government sector to understand opportunities that align with their interests. This creates a robust public-interest technology field and drives economic advancement for all. The grant-funded RFP intends to cultivate real-life work opportunities outside the classroom for aspiring technologists interested in PIT and offer employers the chance to experience the value of having PIT-trained technologists on their teams, strengthening supply and demand for the emerging PIT workforce.
Building on previous PIT Career Fair models, successful 2025-2026 PIT Career Fair proposals will align with the theme “The Future PIT Workforce”. Innovative Career Fair proposal will recognize the workforce pipeline has changed significantly this year and will seek to foster collaboration between a member institution’s Career Placement or Career Counseling Office, partnerships with regional employers and/or employer organizations, and other PIT-UN Network members to develop an event that facilitates opportunities for alliances to better meet the workforce’s needs ahead. The grant aims to empower PIT-UN member institutions’ Career Services and Student Support staff to become critical players in growing and diversifying the PIT workforce pipeline.
We expect proposals that catalyze on:
- Regions that welcome bold, imaginative ideas to foster the most pressing challenges in workforce development.
- Careers with hands-on, high-impact work driven by innovation and entrepreneurship in public interest technology.
- Communities where students learn and work alongside creative, ambitious, and passionate thinkers in establishing the public interest in technology.
PIT-UN anticipates making multiple awards. Grantees must be affiliated with a PIT-UN member institution’s Student Success or Career Services Office and must be the primary recipient of grant funds.
The issuance of this RFP does not constitute a commitment by PIT-UN to award grants. Applications will be evaluated after the due date, and PIT-UN reserves the right to issue partial awards as determined to be in the Network’s best interest.
PIT-UN is a project of the New Venture Fund (NVF), a 501(c)(3) public charity that supports innovative and effective public interest projects.