Module 1 starts the process of gathering information to make effective program decisions. What information do you already have? How will you gather the additional information?

An Advisory Board or committee is very important for program decision-making. Who will you have on your board and what is their affiliation with your institution?

What surveys does your institution have in place? How can you use the current data? What new surveys and other research techniques do you have to put in place to gather data to make informed decisions about program development?

Who on staff has information about the companies that currently hire your graduates and companies that do not? How can you work together to gather missing company information?

List all the training centers in your community. What discoveries have you made in terms of serious competition to your institution and ideas for new programs to offer?

List all the new continuing education courses offered in your community or elsewhere. What discoveries have you made and what ideas do you have for new courses to offer?

What kinds of planning tools are already used by your institution? How much of the existing planning tools will you use? What new planning tools will you bring to the project?

How prepared are you to conduct research to determine what new training programs to offer? What else do you feel you still need to know?

Victoria, At least you are reaching out to the large employers. Many career services departments do not because typically, they don't hire a lot of our graduates. Even if they do not usually hire our graduates, they hold key information on the reason and tapping into that will open up opportunities with larger employers down the road. Christopher Nickell

Victoria, Since we all do basically the same thing with many of our programs, the path to setting yourself apart is service from admissions through to career services. Just like any sector of business, the ones that lead their sector usually put out a better product and provide the best service. Since our product is education, the service is coming from your faculty and your staff. Creating a world-class team focused on daily service to each and every student is how you "appeal" to students. Christopher Nickell