Valentin,
Yes - all of the prior comments are valuable and valid. One thing that is not mentioned very often is that some graduates mistakenly believe the school is trying to take credit for a job the grad feels they obtained "on their own". Again, good rapport with the student is key, but it is helpful to inform the student that the TWC CSC reporting process allows for differentiating between graduates who found employment with the schools assistance and those who found employment on their own. Ideally, school personnel can impart to graduates that "we care that you find meaningful work - it doesnt matter if we [the school], or you [the graduate] find the job".
JP Mehlmann
I agree with frank, starting at the begining is the key. We start at orientation and continue it throughout the students program.
We use the appropriate TWC form for reporting. During the year we maintain spreadsheets that have more detail regarding contact and activities used to assist with placement. Students are not discouraged from using their own resources, however we attempt throughout their program to encourage them to fully utilize the resources of our career services department. Our career service department is now establishing a relationship with students at the beginning of their experience so that they are familiar with the persons in the department at the time their exern begins so it is a seamless transition. We also attempt to find extern sites that are going to consider the student for employment. Although those opportunities are not sufficient in number we do work with students during their program to develop their resume, interview skills, etc. We want the students to be prepared to begin their job search in advance of completing extern and by developing a closer relationship between the student and career services we expect to have more successful placement outcomes.
Don,
You make an excellent point that Placement Services must have rapport with the student. This relationship begins early when the student first starts school. If a graduate is uncommunicative or cannot be reached, it is important to have sufficient documentation from an employer if the graduate is counted as employed.
JP Mehlmann
Most of our students are placed with clients so we have a second avenue for gathering information on the student. The key to successful reporting is the contact that Placement Services has with the student. That rapport is the only thing that ensures accurate and timely gathering of placement information and allows us to document student classification. Every once in a while a student refuses to disclose information and we mark them as Employed (other) or Not Placed.
Most problems related to placed v. not placed come to fruition when schools choose to ignore students until it is critically necessary to get them placed for sake of numbers. A successful career services department works with students from their school tour through orientation, day one of class and clear through their time as an alumni. Understanding the individuals and what types of employment they desire/fit into goes a long way to a successful placement. It is not a bad thing when a student finds their own employment; in cases such as these, students have learned to take the necessary responsibility of finding employment on themselves. It is when they feel as though the CS department is not helping them, and that the training at the school is inadequate when problems are typically encountered.
If you are actively working to place the student you should be able to determine if your efforts resulted in their employment. Also, those same efforts will establish a relationship with the student that fosters open communication of their status. Many students will proactively let you know their status.
TWC has an internal verification process where they may attempt to verify placement information with the wage/employment division of the TWC (either as a random procedure or in response to other concerns). It seems that they need SS #s to do this. The most recent revision of this report was 11/2011. These revisions included requiring that all report data be encrypted to protect student personal data. Can you think of other reasons why they still want Social Security numbers?
Why are Social Security #'s made a requirement of the report to be turned in?
Gabriel,
TWC requires that a school have appropriate documentation in the form of a Completer Follow-Up Survey (PS-072A) to provide the backup to the numbers reported in the Student-Level Completer Report (PS-072B) that is submitted by December 1st of each year. A school has to make every effort to get this form completed.
Gerald Parr
If the school is a title IV school, they probably have access to their DOE-CIP codes. DOE is a great resource for determining related fields. For those students who do not wish to disclose their employment status, they may be willing to fill out waiver.
One thing would be to have a strong Career Services department that maintain a relationship with the students from Day 1. With this fostered relationship, students will not be hesitant about disclosing employment status. It ia very similar to new students with a new instructor. At first both parties can be timid but a few days into the semester, all have relaxed and feel comfortable. Often, this relationship continues long after a student is no longer in the class with the instructor. Developing this similar relationship would be key for Career Services.
I believe one of the best things you could use would be a job description to determine the classification.
Richard,
It seems that you have a handle your placement program. Your approach will meet the standards and keep you from having reporting problems in the future.
Gerald Parr
This is an age old problem for our school. The biggest issue is loss of contact. The way we determine if a student is placed is whether or not they are working using the skills that they learned at our school. If they are employed and they did not need our training to secure the job we report them as placed out of field. We enjoy a very good relationship with our employers and they work with us to satisfy our reporting requirements by keeping us up to speed on whom they hire and the details regarding the graduate. In the rare instance that we have a graduate who does not want to speak with us we simply report them as not placed.
Misty,
While partnering with the industry is important, it is equally important that placement is a component of training from the day that students begin their program or course. Having regular emphasis on placement at graduation and including the importance of the reporting process throughout their training will make the students comfortable in complying with the schools need for documentation. While the raffle program sounds good, nothing can take the place of constant communication with the student and preparing them for after graduation.
Gerald Parr
We partner with the industry as well as the students to identify the placements. I have seen incentive programs at schools that enter a students name into a raffle each month when they report their working status after graduation. The program I am familiar with actually gave the students a one time entry form that entered them into the monthly drawing for a tool they could use on the job.
Hi Bobbi,
Your procedures for preparing your students for graduation and placement sounds very good. The secret to successful placement of students lies in follow up with both the student and employer. It is also extremely important that your back up documentation is verifiable.
Gerald
one thing that our career service dept does here is before students go out on etern they do a 'match day'. they use this to get an idea of what/where the students want to work, what their needs are (location, hours, issues, etc) so they can best match them with a site so it is successful for both. At this event they go over what to expect on extern and what forms they will need to fill out upon solidifying their job. This way it is not something they are 'surprised' with at the end. they explain how the data is used and that this is something that they legally must report. typically when students really realize that this was info they were asking for when they enrolled in school, they are willing to give that info too.
The student might not have employment at that time and you can work to get them employed before the report is due. Use the PS-072A to record any employment the student might have.
Prior to graduating, each student at our school has an exit interview with each department. During their exit with Career Services, they complet a PS-072a. This helps us prepare the Enrollment and Outcome report.
