Student Retention
To keep students in a program involves creativity, a high standard, motivation from the instructor and the will from the student. The challenge however stems when the unpredictable challenges occur...
Daniel, do you have any thoughts why some of the students aren't motivated? Any idea why they would invest their time, even if the training is paid for?
We have many students, up to 20 percent at our campus who are on a G.I. bill. Their tutition is paid for and they also receive monetary compensation just for attending. You can pick out the students that are paying their own way. A large part of my teaching effort is to keep the whole class motivated. Don't get me wrong, I like challanges, but I kind of had a preconceived idea when I first started teaching that all students that enrolled in our school had a passion for the field of work we are training them for. Not the case. For some students, constantly keeping them motivated is the way to keep them from failing or dropping out.
Why do you say many students have little or no motivation, Daniel? Certainly they must have been motivated when they made such a significant commitment of time and money.
Student motivation is a big key to student retention. Some students are already highly motivated which makes those students easy to retain. Unfortunately many students have little or no motivation. It’s with those students that we earn our keep. We have to constantly keep the lessons interesting by providing real world examples and applications. We also have to be sincere in our caring about their success.
But don't you love a challenge, Maurice? How do you prepare to respond when the challenge pops up?
