How can we effectively motivate our students to seek employment once they have graduated?
I have a small but fast growing Allied Health Academy. We train medical assistants, dental assistants and massage therapists. Our medical and dental programs each have externship components. We agressively seek externship sites that are hiring. Our massage therapy program has an internship component that is held in our clinic. I have opened the clinic up to our licensed grads so they can have assistance starting their new careers without being at the mercy of a spa hiring them or not having start up cash to go it on their own.
Our problem has been motivating some of our students from all programs to actually seek employment when they are finished with school. We have a professional development class for interviewing and resume wiritng etc. We have tough academic and hands-on skill requirements, so they all must demonstrate competence prior to graduating.
Since our classes are usually small (sometimes 4 or 5 students) it makes it hard to achieve at least a 70% placement rate when we usually have a few who choose to either turn down several job offers or to not search at all.
We are in the application process for accreditation now. Placement is very important. Even without accreditation, as the owner, I have always been very placement conscious.
During the interview process, we stress the fact that this training is geared to those who want to job search, and the applicants say all the right things. Any suggestions on motivating the students to actually want to work when they are done? HELP!
Hiram,
We also agree that the goal of seeking a job starts with the admissions interview and promotional materials. This often means that Career Services staff has to coach admissions people and provide useful information about the job market. Educators need to keep admissions up to date about the course work and how it is used on the job. Externships are great and ideally student externs treat it as an extended job interview. It is true that students must take control but we believe that everyone at the school has to provide the ongoing push. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
The motivation must start at the beginning in the Admissions Representatives office. Admissions must identify the needs and wants of the applicant and show them the tools they will need to be successful including but not limited to actively looking for externships that will hire them. The Student can't rely solely on Career Services, they must be assertive and take control.
PARIS,
This is a common problem with programs that require license tests. Here are a few solutions:
Include the license application fee within the tuition and pay for the student. It sounds like you have started that. How is it working?
Start career planning at the time of admissions to create a job-focused awareness.
Require that the student take test prep courses and apply for the test before they graduate or before they get a certificate of completion.
Require career planning and test prep workshops throughout the course of training.
Put plans in place, measure results, ask students what will work for them, make changes. You will figure out what works. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We are a school that offers "careers" that require licensure in the field in which they will be employed. One issue that we always have is "money", meaning graduates state that they cane not apply for test and/or licensure because of the lack of funds. As a result, they cannot work in the field. Recently, we have included testing and licensure fees in tuition costs, and we send checks to testing and licensing organizations on students' behalfs. It is in the initial staes, but we are hopeful that this will help to increase our placement rates.
Kelly ,
We also totally believe in the value of externships. For the student to get the job at the end of the time period, both the student and the site supervisor have to be super prepared. The student must show excellence in course work and be trained on how to behave in the world of work. There needs to be lots of oversight and accountability. The supervisors need to know how to guide and measure progress. Externships can be answers to so many challenges. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
The best way to place students in the allied health field with an externship is to ideally have them convert at the site from extern to hire. If you have an experienced externship coordinator who is rated on conversions, things run much more smoothly
denise,
Very challenging situation. Any regulatory agencies that oversee your school make the situation more challenging. Do students who enroll and don't intend to work get financial aid? That adds to the problems since it is all about placement and repaying loans. If people want to learn massage for home or hobby use, why not offer courses to the public like couples massage? Perhaps avocational and continuing education courses will address your problems, meet the needs of your community, keep you in compliance, and create a new revenue stream. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
The form stating that the student is enrolling with no occupational objectives is a good idea. We are part of a system of career colleges, tech colleges and a university. We get many "in-house" students who just want to learn massage for home use or as a hobby. "In-house" students have no tuition, so they can afford to do nothing with the education. It really hurts placement stats.
PATRICIA,
Good points. We think that many students are resistant to seeking employment because they are afraid, lack self confidence, and don't want to leave the safety of their school. It's a challenge. To us this points to the reason to start career services training and programs early and keep the training going throughout the students' classroom experiences. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
we had the same problem
but we are getting better at it
try bringing employers to your class room like a hiring agency see if that will help.
Crystal - You are on the right track of asking a lot of questions, getting information, and then making changes based on your analysis. First - seems like your admissions department has to do an effective job of screening people as to why they want to attend school. If it is for personal or avocational reasons then perhaps there is a program you can create for the hobbyist. If you are a Title IV approved school and the student has a student loan they should be fully informed that they will have to pay it back. Perhaps after completing the program grads realize they are not interested in culinary jobs. But perhaps they can use their skills in other ways in the hospitality and restaurant industries. An interesting challenge. Good luck, Susan
Internships are a mandatory part of our school, but we do have students that don't want a job in the culinary industry after internship because culinary school is something they always wanted to do. Possibly stay in touch with students after graduation that you know are not employed and offer assistance; our school offers lifetime placement assistant to all of our graduates. Or during school and exit interviews, ask the student where there career goals are, if they have changed, and why.
Hi Byron and Patty
Raising students self esteem is a challenging task. The entire staff has to focus on that. In addition, skill building and value adjustment also helps. And providing students with mentors who can reinforce the values to seek employment and stay on the job.
Best wishes
Susan
Patty: my experance with students having low motivation in seeking employment.most people that we recive are victums of low selfasteen and we the one tool that never fail teacher must contiune to remind the students that you really care about the students and contune shine the light that they are going to win. byron
Hi Patty,
While it appears you are taking the employment services seriously, placement rates is one of the tools accrediting bodies utilize to measure success and it is a requirement to hold accreditation. What comes to mind is the famous situation where students do not share all the information with school officials. This happens all the time. The only suggestion I have is to maintain monthly monitoring of the students to not only assess their progress but to also have an opportunity to revisit the goals established at the time of enrollment and make sure their focus has not changed. During their time in school life may bring unexpected changes that may have an impact on the originally set goals and as an institution we all have the responsibility of staying abreast of our students development and changes as it is the only way we will be able to place them when they graduate.
Another issue that comes to mind, since Massage Therapy is mentioned; there are a lot of students that plan to work independently as self-employed and might reject job offers your employment department provides, given that they may not want to be employees. I suggest to check with your auditors and accrediting bodies to corroborate what type of documentation the institution may provide to support placement data. In these cases, student's tax returns may be supporting documentation for your placement rates. Now of course I wish you good luck getting a copy of that from your students.
HI Frank
Great idea to invite recruiters in to present workshops and talk with students. You might plan on one day and/or evening periodically to have a Career Night. This certainly does keep students motivated. When they can see why they have to take certain classes it can increase motivation to persist to completion.
Best wishes
Susan
Hello, it sounds like you are doing all of the right things in regards to establishing an atmosphere of career development. While I believe that increasing placement rates begins at student admissions and continues past graduation, I beleive that there is another element to be added that is of equal value or more.
Operating a vocational school myself, I often find that recruiters cold call or knock on our door and ask permission to speak with prospective students for future employment. That just happens to be the climate of the industry I am in at the moment. Recruiters come from all over the state of Florida requesting five minutes of time with our current student body and act as a source of motivation.
While recruiters are not coming out to see you, why not you pursue the industry yourself. Possibly someone in your office (that is personable) could pursue seeking companies that will commit to visiting your student body.
The students could meet the person who is in the industry and perceive them as a role model, or or at least as a source of information. I would suggest to you bring in these recruiters or other guest speakers to create job interest, excitment - and motivation.
HI Dario
We also believe that a lot of handholding is necessary to assist grads to find a job or work on their own. Going to school is new to them. So understanding who they are to write an effective resume and be interviewed takes a lot of work and effort.
Best wishes
Susan
We help the graduate by showing them how to build a successful resume. Also how to represent themselves in interviews .We show the different possibilities and the different areas that a graduate could work, and also the potential to open his/her own business if that is his/her goal. It is up to the student to choose the road to follow, but it is very important to assist students by showing all the tools students have in order to have a successful career.
