Denver College Links 280 Employers to Students
Denver employers hiring entry-level talent can use the college's Handshake pipeline, which connected 582 students with jobs and internships.
Updated on Nov. 4, 2026 in Job Fairs
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The Community College of Denver received Handshake's 2026 Career Spark Award, which recognizes colleges and universities engaged in Handshake's higher education partner network. For operators hiring entry-level and early-career workers in the Denver area, the college's job-connection pipeline is now formally recognized as a model for employer-student matching.
Why it matters
The recognition signals that a local community college has built an active channel between students and employers, with 280 employers posting jobs and internships through the platform. For businesses that struggle to find entry-level talent, this kind of campus-linked recruiting route is one more place to look for candidates.
Over the past year, 582 students at the Community College of Denver connected with employers through the Handshake platform, and 280 employers posted jobs and internships for those students. The source does not give a prior-year comparison or the number of resulting hires.
The players
Handshake
Handshake is a career-networking platform that connects students and recent graduates at partner colleges and universities with employers posting jobs and internships.
Community College of Denver
The Community College of Denver is a public two-year institution in Denver whose Career Connected Learning team works to place students with employers.
The details
The Career Connected Learning team at the college helps students explore career paths, build professional networks and find employment opportunities. Handshake's platform lets employers post openings directly to students who are enrolled at participating schools, so a business can reach a campus talent pool without running its own campus recruiting program. The award recognizes the college's work in linking students to employers, internships and job opportunities.
Timeline
Over the past year, 582 Community College of Denver students connected with employers through Handshake.
Market Landscape
Campus recruiting platforms such as Handshake have become a standard way for employers to reach students before graduation. The Career Spark Award names a single Denver college as an example of that network working at the local level.
Denver employers hiring entry-level or internship talent should consider whether campus-linked platforms such as Handshake fit their recruiting mix. Hiring managers and HR teams may want to compare the cost and reach of posting to student networks against their current job boards.
The takeaway
Employers who depend on early-career hiring can use campus recruiting platforms to reach students at participating schools, and should track how many posted roles lead to interviews or hires. Operators can also ask the Community College of Denver's Career Connected Learning team how employers are invited to campus.
Further reading
For more on how campus and online recruiting events work, see the Job Fairs section.
Source note: This article includes information reported by ColoradoBiz.
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