This sounds like a great idea! I too have often been frustrated over students who are here for their hobby or whatever. The only feedback I've received when asking about this can be summed up like this, "they don't want to hear excuses for the unplaced, your job is to place them" O.K. So, I'm suppose to force them into a job? Was my response. So, this gives me something to look into, thank you!
HI Teresa
It's a challenge to meet placement statistic requirements and at the same time respect the student. And respect the fact that some people want to learn for learning sake! Some regulatory bodies allow students to sign a letter saying that they enrolled with no employment goals.
Best wishes
Susan
I encourage then no matter what, to atleast do it part time/private clients. We teach massage therapy,I'm not sure that can apply this to everyone.
John
Hi John
Massage therapists have several choices in employment including working for others or building their own practice. Each takes a different focus when teaching employment skills and methods for seeking a job. A grad planning to open a practice or work on his/her own needs skills on how to open, market, and run the business.
Susan
I have to agree that a waiver form can come in handy with graduates that are not able or not willing to find employment in their field of study. Although, most waiver forms are limited to what can be considered as a true waiver, they can be most helpful for difficult cases. Many times we try to work with the student and find something of interest to them that maybe considered a related field rather than waiving them.
Hi Patricia
There are clearly students that a waiver is applicable for. Examples are those who are already working or those who are ill and cannot work. However, we have to be careful to avoid using waivers for difficult students. The difficult students point to the fact that perhaps something in the employment skills training or placement process has to be updated.
Best wishes,
Susan
During the admissions interview process is a good time to ask questions geared towards why a student is enrolling in school. On the first day of school our instructors will have the students introduce themselves and tell why they enrolled in that particular program. If we can identify those students early on who may not want to work, either we counsel them out of the program or the instructors work very hard to motivate them.We obviously don't want to lose anyone; the reality is we cannot reach everyone who is in the classroom. You and other staff members may want to have a brainstorming session to try and figure out why a person would come to school and not want to work and then try and figure out how to help them. For the most part we found that they are scared or that this is the first program that they have gone through, completed and just wanted to know if they could do it. Some students may simply want a trade because they may question their future with a spouse and want to have something to fall back on. When I ask a student why they have chosen a program and their reply is "I just wanted something to do or my parents said that I either work or go to school", those can be red flags. I also keep waivers to about 10 % and under. Explain to a student that even if he/she sign a waiver, it is not permenent and they can return for placement assistance when they need to.
Hi Maria,
What a great job you did of summarizing the issues of students who say they don't want to get a job. In our opinion, it is about fear of going for an interview and failing. It's fear of the unknown when actually on the job. That's why a lot of interview skills and job awareness training is needed. Also shows why intern and externships can be so important. We still believe in a lot of handholding to get the student to and through the interview process.
Great summary. Susan
AMy,
Having read your posting, and the several replies that followed...I can honestly say "I feel your pain!" It doesn't make sense for me for someone to work hard in school and complete the course, and then refuse to look for work!
What I have found, however; we haven't done a good enough job in motivating that individual to want to look for work in the industry we trained them in. So I try to have one on ones with soon to be graduated students, and figure out where their heads are in terms of job search. Sometimes I can point them in a direction that hadn't been discussed before, there by getting them excited about the choices.
Kevin
Hi Kevin and Amy
There have been many exchanges about this issue. One point to focus on is the grad's fear of the job search. That might be so strong they would rather hide out than go on a job interview. So suggest you do whatever it takes to get them over the fear of finding a job. It is probably a lot of little things like not having the right clothes, fear of talking, fear of failure, being rejected, looking silly, and on and on. Plan role plays and practice sessions. Plan some group "therapy" to talk about fears. It's a challenge. Career schools are designed to overcome them.
Susan
I try to expalin to them the real world and give then examples like, talking about people or things that turn them off. I ask them about their family and family memebers they do not want to wind up like. Or a friend they know that they do not respect. I try to be dipl0omatic about this but find there hot spot for what motivates them.
James,
Students who say they don't want a job are really saying they have a fear of leaving school and going through the job search process. So it is up to the school to provide as much practice, experience, and knowledge as possible about finding a job. Break down the lessons into sections and require that the student complete one section before going on to the next. Each section should be designed to eliminate a major fear. When there are no fears, students will look forward to the job search. Good luck, Susan
I believe in effective note taking during the interview process. Part of admissions and enrolment is a question and answer paper. Why they want to enroll in school. What are their goals? Where they see them selves in five years. And other fact-finding and Value based questions. So it can be discussed with them upon graduation or if the issue comes up you can explain or show them their enrolment and Q & A sheet about what they said they wanted to accomplish upon graduation.
James
Hi James
This is a frequent topic for discussion. I think that students who say they don't want to find a job are really afraid of the job search process. It would be interesting to see what extra employment skills training would do to address this fear. Fear can be an enormous barrier to anything. Learning how to overcome fear can be a life time lesson.
Best wishes
Susan
I think that having students graduate and then opt out of the full-time job market is probably not that unusual. We have a lot of female students who put off starting families until they are near completion of our program. That said, I found the idea of having such students sign waivers to be of interest. I wonder though if there are any legal or financial aid problems associated with doing so.
I definitely understand having graduates that have no desire to work. However, our bigger problem is trying to place students that do not have a driver's license, it is not that they have a license and it just isn't valid at this point. We have several students who do not have licenses at all and have no intentions of getting their licenses. We live in a very rural area where there is not public transportation and most of our gradautes are traveling outside of our immeadiate area to find employment. What are some tips you could offer to helping these graduates get motivated to get their licenses?
We have that problem with students that don't want to find a job as well. However, our bigger problem is students that do not have driver's licenses. It isn't even that they have a suspended license they simply do not even have a license and have really no intentions of going for their license in the near future. We live in a very rural area and there is not public transportation. Most of our graduates have to travel outside of our immeadiate area to find employment and we stress the importance of having a license but it does not mean anything to some graduates. What are some recommendations that you may have to help us motivate these students without a license to get their license?
Hi Janelle
Very very interesting situation. Can you require that students have a license as an admissions requirement and even offer driver's ed. Of course if the students have no way of getting a car then it's a moot point. The other thought is to get the employers to be creative. Ask employers to set up vans for pickup and drop off of employees. It depends on how desperate employers are for workers. Anyone else have ideas? Susan
A lot of people (more than you might think) take classes and enroll in programs just for something to do. I can think of one particular student who came to school for the sole purpose of finding a husband; she never intended to use her degree and openly admitted that fact! There's nothing you can do about it and unfortunately it skews placement results.
FYI, she didn't find a husband by graduation and ended up moving in with her parents because she still wasn't interested in working. You meet all kinds!
That's a great story Deborah. Unfortunately not a story.Maybe you need a disclaimer about no guarantee about finding husbands. (Just kidding.) Perhaps this points to better qualifying during admissions? There are ways to ask around the applicant's motivation to enroll. What do you plan to do with your training upon completion? How soon do you see yourself working in the field? How many of your friends work or are in the specific field, etc. Anyone else have a story to top this one? Any other suggestions? Best wishes, Susan
