How can we effectively motivate our students to seek employment once they have graduated?
I have a small but fast growing Allied Health Academy. We train medical assistants, dental assistants and massage therapists. Our medical and dental programs each have externship components. We agressively seek externship sites that are hiring. Our massage therapy program has an internship component that is held in our clinic. I have opened the clinic up to our licensed grads so they can have assistance starting their new careers without being at the mercy of a spa hiring them or not having start up cash to go it on their own.
Our problem has been motivating some of our students from all programs to actually seek employment when they are finished with school. We have a professional development class for interviewing and resume wiritng etc. We have tough academic and hands-on skill requirements, so they all must demonstrate competence prior to graduating.
Since our classes are usually small (sometimes 4 or 5 students) it makes it hard to achieve at least a 70% placement rate when we usually have a few who choose to either turn down several job offers or to not search at all.
We are in the application process for accreditation now. Placement is very important. Even without accreditation, as the owner, I have always been very placement conscious.
During the interview process, we stress the fact that this training is geared to those who want to job search, and the applicants say all the right things. Any suggestions on motivating the students to actually want to work when they are done? HELP!
Hi Patty
Interesting situation. Sounds like you are doing a lot of the right things. So - how to motivate people to get jobs? Perhaps they didn't enroll with employment in mind. Perhaps they just wanted the skill. With massage therapy perhaps students already have jobs like working as a nurse, psychologist, etc. and want the additional skill to help them in their practice. Or perhaps some want to train now and get a job at a future date.
Also might be a problem in admissions. Do the applicants know the occupational outcomes of the program in which they are enrolling? Does the admissions rep assess whether the prospect can picture themselves in the job?
If grads do not plan to seek employment upon graduation you might have them sign a form saying they are enrolling with no occupational objectives. Forms like this often work with accreditating agencies and state boards as well.
Best wishes
Dr. Susan F. Schulz
Interestingly we are in the same position with a massage therapy school, where we are working on the record keeping of those seeking to add to their skill set, those seeking to change careers, those seeking to expand their lives yet not seek employment. Clarity in the admissions process we have, now it is record keeping.
HI Debra
Record keeping is vital to a school and an easy place for most school administrators to get bogged down. There are many commercial providers of school management software. You might want to call a few and have them give you a presentation. Lots to learn about your options.
Best wishes
Susan
great suggestion, I really had not gotten in the investigation mode on management software, we have great systems in place, they are just too labor intensive, I have put that on my short list.
Thanks Again
Deby
You may want to take a close look at the Qualitative Approach to Admissions. In a good Qualitative Interview, the admissions rep will ask the prospect to explain why the school should accept them. Make employment a high priority in this process.
The instructors must be trained on making each lesson applicable to the job. Make testing applicable to the job outcomes, and insert some of the Qualitative Interviewing Techniques here. Make the student sell themselves on their employability.
Bring employers into the classroom on a regular basis. Ask employers who have success stories to share to speak at student assemblies.
Every day, the student should hear something from you about the wonderful career prospects in their chosen field.
Without all of this, the student may lose sight of their dreams and change vocational goals prior to graduating.
There will always be a small number who do not go to work after graduating, but this should not cause you to fail the placement test with your accreditors.
Nate
HI Nate
All great ideas. In fact, I found simililar results when I researched a massage therapy school for my doctoral dissertation.
Best wishes
Susan
While the question askes about motivating students to seek employment, Nate Clark's response shows that employment is the result of a systematically designed set of processes throughout the program to have students expect and be ready for empolyment as the logical conculsion of the school's program. Having students obtain employment is more about the school designing its processes from admisssions to exit interviews focused on the desired results rather than trying to "motivate" students after graduation.
HI Patrick
Perfectly said. Employment skills training and focusing on placement are activities have to happen every day and in as many ways as possible. Placement equals successful retention and motivation.
What other ways are there to present employment and placement skills to students on a regular basis?
Best wishes
Susan
In just a few words, you have explained the key to student's success after graduation. I would like to add that preparation to pass, registry and licencing exams on every course that the student takes while in school is another important factor. Students tend to loose interest if there is too much time between graduation and passing those exams.
Hi Luis
Good point to keep students focused on preparing for and passing the licensing tests. Ways to do this could include test prep courses and using the exit interview as a time to get the grad to commit to a test date. Good points.
Best wishes
Susan
We help the graduate by showing them how to build a successful resume. Also how to represent themselves in interviews .We show the different possibilities and the different areas that a graduate could work, and also the potential to open his/her own business if that is his/her goal. It is up to the student to choose the road to follow, but it is very important to assist students by showing all the tools students have in order to have a successful career.
HI Dario
We also believe that a lot of handholding is necessary to assist grads to find a job or work on their own. Going to school is new to them. So understanding who they are to write an effective resume and be interviewed takes a lot of work and effort.
Best wishes
Susan
Hello, it sounds like you are doing all of the right things in regards to establishing an atmosphere of career development. While I believe that increasing placement rates begins at student admissions and continues past graduation, I beleive that there is another element to be added that is of equal value or more.
Operating a vocational school myself, I often find that recruiters cold call or knock on our door and ask permission to speak with prospective students for future employment. That just happens to be the climate of the industry I am in at the moment. Recruiters come from all over the state of Florida requesting five minutes of time with our current student body and act as a source of motivation.
While recruiters are not coming out to see you, why not you pursue the industry yourself. Possibly someone in your office (that is personable) could pursue seeking companies that will commit to visiting your student body.
The students could meet the person who is in the industry and perceive them as a role model, or or at least as a source of information. I would suggest to you bring in these recruiters or other guest speakers to create job interest, excitment - and motivation.
HI Frank
Great idea to invite recruiters in to present workshops and talk with students. You might plan on one day and/or evening periodically to have a Career Night. This certainly does keep students motivated. When they can see why they have to take certain classes it can increase motivation to persist to completion.
Best wishes
Susan
Hi Patty,
While it appears you are taking the employment services seriously, placement rates is one of the tools accrediting bodies utilize to measure success and it is a requirement to hold accreditation. What comes to mind is the famous situation where students do not share all the information with school officials. This happens all the time. The only suggestion I have is to maintain monthly monitoring of the students to not only assess their progress but to also have an opportunity to revisit the goals established at the time of enrollment and make sure their focus has not changed. During their time in school life may bring unexpected changes that may have an impact on the originally set goals and as an institution we all have the responsibility of staying abreast of our students development and changes as it is the only way we will be able to place them when they graduate.
Another issue that comes to mind, since Massage Therapy is mentioned; there are a lot of students that plan to work independently as self-employed and might reject job offers your employment department provides, given that they may not want to be employees. I suggest to check with your auditors and accrediting bodies to corroborate what type of documentation the institution may provide to support placement data. In these cases, student's tax returns may be supporting documentation for your placement rates. Now of course I wish you good luck getting a copy of that from your students.
Patty: my experance with students having low motivation in seeking employment.most people that we recive are victums of low selfasteen and we the one tool that never fail teacher must contiune to remind the students that you really care about the students and contune shine the light that they are going to win. byron
Hi Byron and Patty
Raising students self esteem is a challenging task. The entire staff has to focus on that. In addition, skill building and value adjustment also helps. And providing students with mentors who can reinforce the values to seek employment and stay on the job.
Best wishes
Susan
Internships are a mandatory part of our school, but we do have students that don't want a job in the culinary industry after internship because culinary school is something they always wanted to do. Possibly stay in touch with students after graduation that you know are not employed and offer assistance; our school offers lifetime placement assistant to all of our graduates. Or during school and exit interviews, ask the student where there career goals are, if they have changed, and why.
Crystal - You are on the right track of asking a lot of questions, getting information, and then making changes based on your analysis. First - seems like your admissions department has to do an effective job of screening people as to why they want to attend school. If it is for personal or avocational reasons then perhaps there is a program you can create for the hobbyist. If you are a Title IV approved school and the student has a student loan they should be fully informed that they will have to pay it back. Perhaps after completing the program grads realize they are not interested in culinary jobs. But perhaps they can use their skills in other ways in the hospitality and restaurant industries. An interesting challenge. Good luck, Susan
