at our school, when teaching resume writing and building, students thinks that writing resume is very easy until they actually start to build it

In interviewing new student's, I have noticed, that 10 to 15% of them inquired about placement.

We have an established network of externship sites, but I want to know how to improve our externship to hire rates. My management team believes we should have between 30-40% ETH, we are currently at 24%, last year ended at 28%. The school has been in the community for many years and is highly thought of, but I sometimes feel that we are using the same sites over and over for "free labor". Can someone help us establish a means to improve this metric?

Our Placement Department has initiated what they have titled "Journey to Success" for our students. This starts on the first day of class. All employees of the PD go to each classroom, introduce themselves, hand out "train tickets" for the workshops the students will be traveling during their months of skills training (there is a different train station for each skill). We have building your portfolio, resume development, interviewing (mock and informal from our employers), dress for the interview, and several other different seminars which we believe will benefit our students. Since we can't make these workshops mandatory, does anyone have any suggestions of how to entice ALL our students to attend at least one? We are having about 65% turn out and we really want about 80%.

We believe we now have the right staff in our placement department, but we are in need of a resource library for each of our programs. We have a new Director of this department and he needs a starting point - can anyone give me some suggestions so I can help him be successful?

What are your thougts...

List at least 3 objections you will face (or are facing) when initiating an Alumni Association. How will you overcome each?

What public relations opportunities do you envision as a result of an Alumni Association at your school?

If you were to start an Alumni Association at your campus today, what are the benefits you are prepared to offer your grads? What benefits can you offer in the future?

What do you envision as the first social event to hold? When would that be? What do you want in place before the event?

What are the challenges you face in setting up a dedicated school Alumni Association website and how will you overcome them?

What areas of your Alumni Association do you plan to measure and how will you explain the return on investment to your school leadership?

Draft a mission statement. Will you adapt the mission statement from your school or create a unique mission statement?

What are the steps you will take to form an Advisory Board?

Can anyone share a methodology used to attract extern sites beyond the typical solliciation?

We currently use Diamond D software to manage student information, placement, etc. but have not seen the full potential of this product. Does anyone use this software or another to manage statistics?

We currently provide Professional Liability Insurance for our students during their externship program at clinical sites. This will cover them in case they injure a third party. However, some sites require you to provide workers comp policy. I have done some research with two different insurance agencies and they said this does not exist. According to them, sites should provide this for their workers or volunteers. Any suggestions?

Dear Susan, Do you have any suggestions for making sure the externs are participating to their full ability? I sometimes get reports from students that they are observing more than getting the "hands on" experience they need. I want to keep good relationships with the offices that offer the externships, however I want to make sure the students are recieving the training they need. I do not know if it is the student not asserting themselves, or the particular offices that are the problem. Thank You

We currently do not use newsletters but I think they are a great way to highlight students to employers. What other information are included in both kinds of newsletters in each of your organizations?

In the Job Opportunities section it mentions having a job openings resource book, which we do provide. It does have internet listings and leads that we hear of within the community. I do not find a lot of students looking at that resource, so we have been emailing the leads to our upcoming and recent graduates in the hopes that they will take our advice on how to apply for each posting.