Tess ,
Do you find that students demonstrate an awareness of what is expected of them?
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Zena,
Sounds like a worthy goal. Speak to your management and see if you can make it happen.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
The placement department does a good job and provides training to students at their initial process. This department does provide information to student in how to get a job after they finish their program.
I think it is important for schools to start working with students day one.
George,
When does your placement department start working with student? Yes, the school should work with students regarding placement from day one.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Actually, our school does almost everything that you mentioned in the course! The only aspect of the course that we do not do is mentoring. I really think that that is a wonderful idea and will bring it up our next meeting. It only seems reasonable that teachers have mentors, therefore students should also.
Cynthia,
Thank you for your post. I certainly hope you are successful in making this happen.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Each quarter they offer a class for students that covers one or more steps in job placement activities.
Our Graduate Employment Services department is introduced at orientation and works with students throughout their programs. I can see that we need to become better organized as I would like to see them go into the classroom for every course and have some presentation and activity for students so that they get to know the staff and feel comfortable with them. I agree that the students are coming to our school for the education but are looking to the bottom line -- a new job in a new career.
Sally,
Help students keep their eyes on the prize.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
my placement dept meets with students every term and discusses future goals and opportunities. The dept also meets with prospective employers and holds job fairs. I do believe they need to hold more to satisfy the needs of the students, but I understand it can be hard to coordinate one.
Our career services department has a very comprehensive training. They have workshops on resume writing, how to fill out applications, interview skills, how to answer questions, before graduation they are given an exit interview. Other staff members will give them a technical interview also. One of the ways to increase student retention is to make sure that the student understands that once they obtain employment it is important that they complete the training.
Having a large number of field contacts and agencies from which to draw from would help with placing students. A proper fit for the student and the agency is necessary for retention to increase.
As a campus we contact our students daily to let them know we care and that they are not just a number, but we value them.
To increase student retention, we could as a campus work collectively versus individual efforts most of the time.
Supporting students efforts academically lets them know we care and we want them to succeed in all cases.
IRIS,
It does take a village.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
We have primarily focused on our relationships with employers in our area. Many of these employers successfully graduated from one of our programs and now own their own business. They make us aware of any openings, and we are able to provide them with well-prepared and educated students. These relationships with employers have been very beneficial to placement and retention.
We will improve student retention by incorporated more job readiness, resume, interview lessons/projects throughout the semester, rather than primarily focusing on these areas in one lesson.
We have great relationships with employers in the area, which almost always ensures our students are placed. Our students are aware of this, which motivates them to complete their studies.
We will improve this placement program by incorporating the website page for resumes/job postings suggested on our website. This will further help students visualize their future job and complete the program. It will also help with placement.
WE will be improving our placement program primarily via our website/social media. We will begin including student resumes and photos on a page on our website and on our social media accounts, so future employers we may not have as much contact with can research our graduates. Furthermore, we will allow these employers to post on our website.
We will also include more activities involving job readiness, such as resume development and interview preparation.
Suzanne,
Learning how to use Social media is becoming more and more important.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Our placement department does presentations in every class regarding how to be well-prepared for a job interview, writing an effective resume, what to expect when the students change careers, etc. I think that our placement department does a great job reaching out to most students. To increase student retention I have suggested they bring in graduates to talk about their experience, their struggles and their successes to motivate students. Students will hear those stories and relate to their present respective life stages.
