Attrition has a way of weeding out those who are not truely committed.

One has to be even more marketable during these tough times. Continuing with your education makes you even more marketable. When you do apply for a job you have more to offer the employer.

a certain amount of stress can be a positive motivating factor

enforce all rules consistantly

Team work plays the most important role in retention, no one person can control it alone but as a team working together we can keep retention high

i feel sometimes that trying to intervene feels like prying to the students and they put up their defanse mechanisms and with draw.

if you as an instructor are not commited to what your teaching your students will see it .

How do you know when to get involved in a students personal life?

retention today for those in school seems to be very difficult. what has happen to the younger generation, remember when school and learning was important, when taking in information was actually looked at as a good thing.. to help someone keep retention today is more of a challenge then the actual teaching the subject....

in todays economy retention is harder then ever becauce of the economic forces at work on the students.

What happens when admissions representatives, who earn their living through commission, put a student, who doesn't possess a basic skill set, into an institution that doesn't even require any pre-testing for aptitude and basic skills? It doesn't matter what the institution is in business training for - it could be cooking, computer networking, whatever. When it becomes apparent that the student isn't cut out for the trade that they "thought" they wanted to work in, the student wants to drop the program. At this point, mid to upper level managers look towards the instructor body and ask: "what happened"? I believe, as an instructor, we are the first line of defense for retention at our institutions, but my question is: "what happens when we have clay that either can't or refuses to become molded into what we want"? It becomes very frustrating when I see the number of students who were sold on dreams that were never meant to do what they were sold. It is a fact of life that just because you want to do something doesn't necessarily mean that you can do it. Without basic aptitude for a trade, it becomes increasingly difficult to try and train that particular individual. That being said, without the opportunity to try and train everyone who desires to be trained, we wouldn't have jobs for very long. It's the proverbial double edged sword.

we can feed into negativity or bad attitudes and some one who is already on the edge of cracking might just do that. but if we turn it around on them we can affect attitud which in turn may affect the mental state of the individual and the class as a whole.

Are there any studies on class size and retention numbers? I feel that concentrating on the weaker students in a 30 student class to keep numbers up causes others to feel left out. Would decreasing the class size have a positive effect on this? How do you "keep the balance"?

I like the idea of welcome packets. We give so much verbal info and the students don't seem to remember. The syllabus is helpful but other tips for doing well in class could be useful

I have had many conversations with students about this subject. our school runs 5 days a week for 51 weeks the only time off is at christmas, now add in work and family and there is not much time for personal time. In our case i think that having 1 week in the summer will re-charge their ambition and help with retention.Time off is needed , thats why we take vacations from work every year.

This particular module is excellent. It is truthful, concise and right.

The field I come from constantly grades us on customer retention/satisfaction......surveys for Customer Satisfaction Index a.k.a. CSI. I tell my students that the only way I could help customers was to approach their problem as though it were MY problem . This allowed me to detach myself(usually!) from customers screaming and yelling at times.I tried to see the problem from their point of view. I try to use the same approach in my classroom....if my student has an academic problem I will help with tutoring,questions,slowing down whatever it takes for them to understand and it has seemed to help keep retention up.

As an instructor, I have witnessed that the true and effective mentors are the more mature/older students within a class. They quickly get into the routine and encourage the younger learners to work toward their best capacity. The mentors keep everyone on pace and give the other students something to strive for. They automatically begin to serve as tutors and develop "parent" relationships with their peers.

I tell my students on the first day of class that any problem they may be experencing, or that may arise, that we are here to help in any way possible. Let me know confidentially, whether in person, or by phone,or e-mail and we'll help them find a solution.

Yes the school has to have comitmment but what about YOU. It is you that the students see day in and day out. It is you that they first go to for help. It is you that see when a student is down or not feeling weel. Do you ever take the time to stop and ask hey whats wrong can I help. Sometimes you will get no answer but guess what just your asking has made that person realize that you care. We are the frontline in the education departments of where we work. With this we need to be the ones who show and actually care about the students because if it goes to another department, well our credibility has already taken a dive. Remember school commitment is good but YOUR commitment is just if not more important.