Career Services
When discussing wages for jobs a student might expect after completing a program should be handled by careeer services. Is it ever appropirate for addmissions to speak to this issue?
As a BDR, I have built relationships in the commuity that send their job openings for our students to me to send to career services. I have had a great experience working with career services and I work closely with them in sending any potential contacts with job opportunities for our students while in school as well as after graduating for them to post and have available.
We refer our students to bls.gov....it is a very informative and useful resource!
After talking to my Career Services Rep. she made mention that she will help students look for employment while they are in their course of study. However, if the student is looking for part time work during school she has handouts in her office of part time opportunities that the student may pick up.
I have been advised to use the bls.gov website. However, remember that the information changes regularly and so it's important to show students the actual website instead of having printed copies because they could potentially be out-dated.
I think that discussing wages with a prospective student is very important, because most students want to know a range they should expect to make once they secure a job in their field. The statistics are very important and it is vital that an agent is not giving a prospective student too high of expectations. The only salary information my school allows us to give are information that has been collected from previous graduates at oour school, in 3 years of working their job. I think this is a more accurate response as in other schools salary may be different, based on where you live etc.
I do not think its appropriate for admissions to speak on this issue just because it could be considered misleading information. I believe as an admission rep, a person should refer someone to career services or approved websites that discuss potential wages for similar careers.
At my school, we also refer the student to bls.gov...it is an awesome site that has reliable information. As admissions Reps we often help them navigate through the site and find their particular profession and see what the averages are in different states.
We also use job boards as a way for students to gather there own information to make comparasins
Our admissions Reps refer students to internet sites like: Career.com or paid.com. we do not discuss what a student should or can make at All.
I think that you raised a good question. I think that if you do answer any questions regarding wages/salary for a specific field you should always use www.bls.gov because that is a reliable source.
There may be other reliable sources out there, this is just one that I know of for sure.
Yvonne
