Targeting Intervention Strategies
Does your institution’s career services department assess student employability skills and barriers to success prior to offering interventions? If so, what assessment is used and how are interventions applied? If not, how does the staff personalize interventions to ensure that the best approach is applied to each student?
We do not have a specific Career Services Department to assess student employability skills and barriers. Career Services (in our case called Job Placement Assistance) is completely handled by the Program Director of our school. Graduates schedule an appointment with the Program Director to discuss job opportunities and also utilize our Alumni Resources page on our website that lists employment availabilities.
Some general assessments are completed in our Business & Marketing course but not to the extent to give our students much guidance for success and to give the Program Director information on potential interventions needed.
After studying this module I am going to work on researching effective assessments and also update the ways in which we present employment assistance to our students and graduates.
At this point our interventions are on a one-on-one basis and they are presented to those self-reliant students so I fear students that have employment barriers are falling through the cracks. Our annual placement percentages are always good, but I feel we can achieve a higher percentage by placing revised systems in place and offering greater support to ALL students, not just those that seek assistance.
At our institution, the Career Services department is responsible for assessing student employability skills and barriers to success. With one on one career counseling, Career Services Advisors are able to identify the goals of students and help create the plan of action to fulfill knowledge and skill gaps that contribute to successful job placement.
We meet with students at least three times during their program and at each meeting we are able to follow up on previous action items.
Chasminh, I think you are in the enviable position of having the framework to meet with your students as you describe.
For those institutions who are trying to work out their structure, can you shed light on a few things:
at what point in the student's life cycle and at what intervals do you meet with them? Do you find that meetings at certain times are more effective than others?
Vivian, it is generally the ones that do not seek our assistance that would benefit the most. Think about how to implement a total campus wide strategy to identify when an intervention may be appropriate. Think about how to form partnerships between those responsible for job placement and others on campus. The instructors spend the most time with the students, can you think of ways to partner with them regarding intervention strategies?
Our Career Services Department staff initially meets with students regarding career goal-setting in their first or second term. Career Services gathers career goal information from each student at this meeting and then follows up with personal meetings with each student in order to assess employability skills and identify barriers as well as begin discussion about career resources and services available to them. Frequency of meetings is determined on an individual basis and continues through the end of the program and often beyond graduation.
Cathy,
Do you find thAt most of your students are forthcoming about their barriers to employment? Do they share these willingly?
Sheri Leach
Yes, in my interaction with students, I think most are forthcoming about their barriers to employment and are willing to share that information with me.
Cathy,
Since you are successful in getting students to open up to you, can you share what makes you successful? How do you begin a typical conversation with a student on this topic?
Sheri Leach
I usually begin by asking a student what they feel their personal and professional strengths are and then follow with asking them to tell me what they feel their challenges and roadblocks are.
If I sense that the student may be uncomfortable or reluctant I'll share with them some of the things that have challenged me in my career.
Cathy,
Thank you for that Cathy, that is a great approach. By sharing your stories, it helps the student bond with you and makes them more comfortable to share their stories and challenges.
Sheri Leach
We do not offer a formalized assessment. However, we do this informally when my team works with students one-on-one. This is the best approach for my students because I can offer personalized advice and activities.
Stephanie ,
Meeting students one on one can help you assess their employability skills and determine if there are any barriers to employment. Are you in a position where you are able to meet with all of your students for an extended period of time? Do you think in schools with larger ratios of student population to career services professionals would benefit from a more formalized assessment?
Sheri Leach
Vivian
Your career service department sounds similar to our program. We don't really have a career service with several career advisers ( I wish). I'm the job placement coach and I pretty much just provide the students with leads, although the information from this course is giving me some ideas to re-design this area of our school, with us being an accelerated program it is really hard with the amount of time we have.
Felicia,
Perhaps both you and Vivian would consider asking the instructors to conduct some employment related activities in the classroom. If time allows, you could even conduct the activities with the instructors. Any activities where the students research and contact potential employers would be most beneficial. Can you think of an activity that would help on your campus?
Sheri Leach
Accreditors typically assess the outcomes of career services and institutional placement activities. However, they do not have any standards or process for assessing the job placement process. Given its central importance in career education, it would be useful for accreditors to require certain fundamentals of the job placement process mentioned in this section, such as an assessment of employability skills and barriers, and customized interventions based on student needs.
Tom,
When visiting an institution, an accreditor will often ask for a summary of the job placement process. Specifically asking when the Career Services Team starts to work with the students. Is there a particular answer to this question that the accreditor is looking for? Additionally, in your experience, is there a process that you would consider a best practice that you can share?
Sheri Leach
There are no assessment employability skills & barriers performed at this school. However, we do meet with each student one on one to discuss job opportunities and how to obtain them. We also perform workshops; were they learn how to prepare their resume and cover letter and brief seminars on how to present themselves in speaking, dressing and in grooming which pretty much time allows.
Based on the course I heard, there is a lot more we can do where the student will benefit and become a productive member in society.
Mario,
With time and staffing challenges, it is not always possible to meet with students one-on-one or as many times as you would prefer. Workshops are a great way to get information across to a group. Perhaps you can use your workshops or your review of resume/cover letters as a way to identify students who may need more assistance.
Sheri Leach
We need to improve on learning students specifics barriers prior to offering interventions. We typically conduct workshops in a group fashion due to low staffing. We look forward to implementing new strategies in order to match interventions to student barriers.
Our institution does keep a close relationship with most students thus knowing a bit about their personal lives gives us insight on barriers they may have, but a more formal approach will be beneficial to us.
