The Impact of Placement Services
How does the Placement Department specifically and positively impact other departments in your school? What are ways that Placement Services can impact enrollments?
Placement dramatically affects enrollments as it provides evidence that the degree and training have resulted the start of new careers. This is a huge marketing tool of the effectiveness of higher education. Placement also affects retention, as many students must have some income while they are in school. If we effectively assist them in finding work that will be flexible with their school schedules, they are more likely to be able to finish their education.
The Placement Department will impact ALL the departments in the school. With admissions,information about where the jobs are, salaries, industry trends and so on will be a valuable assett for interviews with prospective students. With the Faculty, they can reiterate the the services provided at the Placement Department such as Resume Writing, Interview Skills and others. For the rest of the staff, a good Placement Department means a great relationship in the company especially with current sites and employers. I started as an Admissions Representative, so when it comes to questions from a prospective student, I would like to have the resources to answer their questions such as placement rates, where the jobs are, industry trends, companies that we have relationships with...etc.
Hi Crystelyn, YOu have made excellent points. The Placement Department impacts on everything going on at the school. In addition to increasing enrollments, retention, and student success, the placement department can serve as community outreach for the school. The more employers know about your school and your staffing services, the more they will see you as an all around resource. To us we feel the placement department can be an important heartbeat for the school. Best wishes, Susan
I am in the process of having a staffing company visit the college to make class presentations. They are going to address some do's and dont's on the job search and also informal interviews.
Really great to have a staffing company do a presentation. You might want to review their presentation and coach them a bit on your students and the careers they are training for. Thanks, Susan
I am blessed to have a wonderful staff in my placement department. Our Admissions team brings each prospect into our department and give us an overview on the prospect and we are able to ask questions to them as well as have them ask us questions. This tool has worked very well and our enrollments are soaring!
Sounds like you are doing a great job, Tina. Your staff knows what they are doing. And it seems like you have good relationships with the folks in your other departments. Career services has to work hand-in-hand with admissions. Looks like it is working at your school. Getting a dialogue going with the student or prospective student impacts on retention, placement, student satisfaction, and admissions. Thanks, Susan
Being a career outcomes based college, the career services department becomes the focal point of the campus. As director, I interact, as does my coordinator, with all departments. I am always in demand to visit and speak to classes. We frequently are also asked to recruit members of the business community to serve as guest speakers.
Every prospective student is escorted to career services upon their visit to the campus to meet me. I then have the opportunity to meet them and discuss their career potential. It's documented that this has a definite positive effect on enrollment. My department also oversees the internship program which gives us the opportunity to interact with academics. All departrments on campus are supported by my department. ( this looks like an interesting course)
Career services impacts all departments in the school by being the liaison between the campus and the outside world. Serving on chamber of commerce committees, membership in community organizations (Rotary, Lions Club) and sitting on Boards of Directors for community organizations, allows you to communicate with the community about the college as well as the college as to what's "going on out there". Credibility is added to the department by your community and business involvement. The impact that you have on the college depends however, on the support that you receive from your administration. Time away from the campus, fees for membership, etc are the cost that the college pays for an effective department. This DOES have an effect on enrollment.
1)For our school, after taking the beginning level program, we help the students get their first job in the veterinary field. Then, if they wish to further their education and become a licensed technician, they must have a job in an animal hospital to apply to the next level program. So having a successful placement office helps these students feed into the next level program.
2) I also often get asked the question when people are requesting informatio about the school- "Do you offer job placement assistance?" This seems to be something that most people are looking for.
3) The animal hospitals in the area call us when they have job openings. We post their opening in the classroom and on our website for free. This keeps our school in the minds of the employers and when they have an employee that wishes to get their license- they recommend our school.
So well said, Jack. I hope everyone in career services prints your comments and acts on them and uses them as leverage to develop their departments. Career Services impacts on every department in the school and is a great community outreach and publicity vehicle. In the end it is the least expensive way to market to students. Word of mouth and referrals don't cost a lot once the systems are in place. Thanks, Susan
Hi Jack, Having the prospective student visit you as part of the admissions process is great. It reminds the prospect and the admissions rep that getting a job is what it is all about. It's great that you document the results of your efforts on increasing enrollment. Will help to secure budgets for your activities. Very good idea to manage the internship programs as well. It makes sense since you are already developing relationships with employers and prospective employers. You can also see what would improve the internship experiences so they increasingly benefit both the students and employers. And you can identify ways for all programs to have an intership component. Really exciting. Susan
Great information, Lore. Interesting idea to offer several levels of vet tech training so that students have various completion points. To get them to continue must take follow up on your part. Maybe you can give us details. Yes, prospective students want to know how they will get assistance in seeking a job. So that's a reason admissions reps need to know all about your services. In fact, part of the admissions tour should be a visit with your department. Great that the vets and animal hospitals contact you about job openings. Are you also doing any outreach to vets, etc. who don't know about your school yet? Great idea to post jobs on your website and be seen as a service to everyone. Thanks for your input, Susan
Placement services, at our school, is used from the beginning a student takes the school tour. Everything the Placement department does is exactly what students are entering school or returning to school to accomplish...finding a better career. Whether it is to build their resume', help with interviewing techniques or job search students/graduates benefit. Additional services like job networking and job resourcing as well as techniques for negotiating a job offer are also valuable. Placement services impacts every department in the school from Admissions, Student Services, Financial Aid and all others. Placement services is crucial to retention. Without retaining students every department suffers.
HI Ron
Sounds like you have an ideal placement department. We hope everyone reading this sees how important placement is for every department, for student success, and increased enrollment. Placement is also a great way to build community outreach. By contacting employers and prospective employers more people know about your school. By participating in local business and professional organizations it's great PR for your school. Can you share with us what your community outreach activities are? Thanks, Susan
I attend numerous civic, community and government organizations. This provides me with the perfect opportunity to represent our school in a professional and consistent manner.
Kiwanis, CAHRA, SHRM, 4 Chambers, and numerous other organizations. I also attend school events, judge competitions for high schools and elementary schools. I participate in job fairs and serve on the Committee for the Governor's Job. I believe all of these make our presence more well known in our area.
Thanks for sharing all the community outreach activities you do as part of your career services offerings. You've discovered the secret of finding one person or group that can reach hundreds of others. Best wishes, Susan
The placement department can make or break your school, I am lucky to have a great department with hard working staff. WIth the economy being the way it is now we are helping students get part time jobs to keep our retention high as well as helping grarduates find work to help increase our placement numbers. I feel as though Career Services can increase enrollment by having high placement results.
During the first 2 years of the school's existence an outside vendor was brought in to 1)teach a 1-day seminar on job search skills and 2)to write the resumes. By establishing a placement dept our placements increased dramatically. The admissions dept was excited to have a placement rate to talk about enthusiastically. It also gave them more success stories to talk about. The instructors have told me they appreciate that someone can coach the students through the job search so the students won't quit on their new career goal.
I'm wondering how do you coach co-workers who interact with potential employers to talk up the school as a place to recruit for new employees.
