Annual Enrollment and Outcomes Reporting
When submitting the annual Enrollment and Outcome report to CSC, it is sometimes difficult to know what category a student who is employed in the field falls into: Employed, Placed (P), or Not Placed (NP). What methods and steps do you utilize to determine what classification a student falls into? How do you work with students who do not want to disclose their employment status?
The school must maintain a form PS-072A at the school for each completer. The school can get the information needed to complete the form in a variety of ways. For example, the survey form may be completed:
• by the student
• by school staff during a phone contact with the student
• during a personal interview between school staff and the
student
• by transferring student data from school records to the form.
CSC uses the information on these forms to verify the data that the school reported. Collecting the required information throughout the year makes it much easier for the school to complete the Completer Follow-up Survey. The survey provides information required by law about the school’s
graduates, including placement status, job information, postsecondary education, military enlistment, or “Other”.
(The school may use “other” for students who do not find
jobs in their field, are hospitalized, have not been able to
find a job, decided not to work, or cannot be located.)
One step that you can take if you are unsure if the graduate should be counted as placed or not placed is to review the job description of the student (if it can be obtained), using the job description will hopefully shed light on if the graduate is using skills obtained at your school. It will also add back-up documentation to support the information provided by the graudate on the the PS72A.
You have 4 options.
1.an in person interview,
2.a phone conversation with the student,
3.the student can provide the requested info
4.you can review and transfer date from the students school record to the form
the info acquired from any of these options will help you to select the best employment categor based on the definitions provided by CSC.
if a student doesnt want to share employment status they can be marked as "other"
The key to ensuring the proper placement status is in determining: (1) Whether or not the job is DIRECTLY related to their training, and (2) What assistance - if any - was provided by the institution in the attainment of the job.
The best source of information is directly from the student. This information can be provided by the student directly, via phone contacts between the student and school staff, during a personal interview between the student and the school staff, or by transferring student records to the form.
In order to validate the proper classification I would: (1) Verify that the student was employed through student provided documentation, employer contact, and/or online job verification tools, (2) Verify that the placement is in the field by reviewing the job description, and (3) Validate the level of assistance the school provided by gathering information from the student, employer, and/or the career services rep.
The best way to get information from students (especially those reluctant to share information) is always to openly communicate to the student the importance of and purpose of the requested information - i.e., why we need it. Once the student understands the needs, the vast majority will share the information. It is important that at no time do we "badger" or "threaten" the student over the information. There are alternate ways we can access the information without having to resort to negative approaches.
An important way to determine if the employment is related to the field of study is to look at your catalog to determine what is listed in the course discription. This is where TWC looks.
Hello Mr. Hammack:
To ensure students are classified appropriated, I would review the definitions of Employed, Placed (P) and Not Placed (NP). I would make sure I clearly understand each definition. In addition, I may ask a more experienced person to review my classifications the first time I do them.
If a student does not want to disclose their information, I would first ask them why they do not want to disclose the information. Based on their response, I would try to ease their concerns. I would let them know that the information will be used for school purposes only.
Thanks,
Nicole A. Roberson
Each school must used school must maintain a form PS-072A at the school for each completer.
Also it is important to stay up with current changes with CSC and pursue ongoing training.
If I was unsure how to determine what category the student was employed in, I would request a job description from the student's employer. I could then evaluate their duties and determine if the skills the obtained at our school were being used during their employment.
Our standard is third-party verification of employment to include a job title and description of job duties for the position. We keep detailed records of all job leads discussed with the student and record their interactions with career services staff. There are always some students who are not cooperative, but we have found that if you establish a relationship with them at the beginning of their program, and sustain it throughout the program with seminars, classrooms visits, workshops, etc., the placement process becomes much easier on both sides.
You also need to look at the program discription in your catalog. It list the areas that a student may find employment. TWC looks at these to determine if the job is in the field.
These are all good ideas. Working with the student from the verying beginning is a good way to establish a good relationship at the end of their training.
We use a combination of verification steps that include the catalog, job description and employer statements.
Kim
Hi Tami:
I totally agree the job description is the best way to verify.
Kim
My plan is to have separate files for employed, placed and not place students. For employed/placed students we will contact with the employer once the form PS72A is received. We will contact them for a brief verification that includes a description of responsibilities and title. If the student is not placed or employed then we will continue to assist them with searching for a position. We will tally our statistics on a rolling basis and roll the numbers into a aging report so that I can see at a global level how successful we are at placing students. Students who do not want to disclose their employment status will go into a separte "bucket" and a separate report that shows how many referrals were made by the school and how many interviews the student attended, as documented by our conversation with the potential employer. All correspondence with that student regarding placement will be kept in a file and available for the CSC inspector.
It is very important to communicate to the student why the information is needed. They usually understand if they know it’s for reporting purposes. However, the job description is an excellent resource to determine what classification the student falls into.
The first thing to do is to make sure that you understand the differences between Placed and Not Placed. This followed by a thorough review of the student's job description while comparing it to the program description in the school catalog will really assist in this effort.
We utilize many steps in determining the classification a student falls into:
1. obtain the information from the student
2. school staff during a phone contact with the student.
3. personal interview with the student.
When a student doesn't want to disclose their employment status, we try: calling the student, sending letters, ED calling the students, and intructors calling the student.
This is correct, as this information should be communicated to students from the beginning so they thoroughly understand the process. This is all part of relationship building, as this is vital. Doing this, makes is easier to obtain the information when it is needed.
A school should utilize the form PS-072a for documenting employment related information for each student. The information from the form can be gathered from the student by a phone conversation, through an in-person meeting, by school documentation, or employment data. The student is considered Employed when working in a field related to the training received. The outcomes or job titles from the school catalog is a great place to match the job titles. A student is considered Placed when the student's employment was gained due to the direct efforts of the career services department. A student is considered Not Placed when the student finds employment without the assistance of the career services department. In person meetings with students can facilitate gathering employment information even from reluctanct graduates. In person meetings with students is a best practice.
