Get Your Students Hired
Greg,
That's great! I love hearing stories where "we" are doing the right things at the right time for our students.
Sarah Smoger
Loleta,
Great insight. There are certain career in which a particular licensing agency or other governing agency has disqualifiers. Just off the top of my head, I know that many police departments (years ago) required that an officer candidate had a certain vision requirement. If the candidate could not wear contact lenses or afford surgery to correct it, they were not considered. These types of positions are still out there, but by far are less and less the norm.
Sarah Smoger
Julie,
Great ideas. There are a number of things that we as institutions can do to help a student determine if the career path they are interested in is commensurate with their abilities.
Sarah Smoger
Marisa,
The decision to self-disclose a disability is up to the student. There is nothing written that says that someone with a disability must provide that information to an institution-unless they are seeking classroom accommodations. With that being said, if I suspect that a student is having difficulties in the classroom perhaps related to a disability, I typically approach the student and discuss specific behaviors, such, you seem to have difficulty getting to class, not turning work in, poor grades, etc. and start to talk with them about some of the support services my department offers. I try to see if I can get the student to open up to me, discuss what they found helpful at other institutions, and take it from there.
Sarah Smoger
Amanda,
We need to be careful here, right? There is a fine line between providing insight and information about position expectations, etc. and discriminating against those with disabilities. Remember, we must consider reasonable accommodation.
Sarah Smoger
Robert,
I agree. However, admissions isn't always the best place to have conversations with prospective students regarding support services and accommodations. This is best left to the folks to review accommodations requests, make the determination on reasonableness and what our obligations are under the law for providing equal access.
Sarah Smoger
Darien,
I agree-with the caveat that institutions must ensure that we provide full transparency regarding program expectations and reasonable accommodations.
Sarah Smoger
Rocco,
It's always a good idea to invite someone unrelated to the institution advocate for the student when these discussion take place. However, if the institution knows, or should know that the student may be unsuccessful due to demonstrated (during the admissions process or otherwise) learning issues, the responsibility falls on the institution to provide program transparency and outline the curriculum.
Sarah Smoger
I understand your concern but as an institution, they have to safe guard themselves. Just think, if a student is passionate about their major and a counselor of a particular institution tells them they will not succeed, only to see that years later that field of interest has made the neccessary adjustments to accomodate people with that disability. We see it all the time. I once saw a video of a man with no arms or legs but through great determination and education, he went on to become a great engineer.
It is my opinion that a student with a disability should be informed or presented full transparency with the possible limitations or barriers they may encounter in the employment field they choose to study. However, disclosure and restriction are completely different actions. As long as the student meets entrance requirements, doesn't have a condition or circumstance that would bar them access to certification, licenses,and/or entrance to the employment field of choice then admittance should be accommodated. Additionally, as administrators and educators it is my opinion that it is not our job to judge or assess individual capability, it is our job to provide equal opportunity for equal advancement.
I completely agree, and at our school we try to put everything out on the table for the prospective student (and usually the parent). This includes daily life on the job after graduation, the rigor of our programs, the learning supports that are available, and the price (we are too expensive of a school to go just for the experience). The student and parents appreciate the one-on-one nature of this discussion and all walk away knowing what the school plans to do and what the student must do to succeed. Sometimes they enroll, other times not, but most come in, get in line, graduate and enter the workforce.
After reading through all of the threads which were interesting, I only wonder what is being said in the conversation? Although I totally agree that an adviser, teacher, instructor, recruiter etc. should be honest about the what is expected of a career choice I caution about someone giving their professional opinion about what will be successful. I say this because in today's world I really can't think of a job that a person with a disability can not be successful in. When you think there is a limitation you quickly find out there is a work-around. I think it is great to hear that a conversation is taking place, I would just like to know what is being said.
The college is responsible to let students know what is needeeof them to perform a job function and advise them accordingly.
-I think a certain level of honestly is important. The best way to handle this situation is to give facts. Make sure they understand what the position will entail and be sure they know what will be expected of them. There is also the option to offer a shadow opportunity. This will help the determine if this particular career path will be what they expect it to be.
This is very interesting for me. I have a cousin who has Asberger's and he is about to graduate from college with a degree in accounting. He is 24 and has never had a job. He is now going to a career counselor to develop skills to get and keep a job. Isn't that something that his disability counselor in college should have addressed a long time ago? Although, now that I think about it, I don't know that he ever alerted anyone in the disabilities office that he has a disability, which I find a whole other problem as well. How do you get a student to report the disability?
Yes, I agree with your practice,and follow the same approach. It's very important they understand the limitations, if any, of their future career.
yes I think this is a completely valid point and it would be unethical to allow someone to continue when we know they cant get through an interview much less a day of work in a formal office environment
Yes we should provide a honest potential job description involving physical expectancy at a place of employment.
I think that it is absolutely the responsibility of the admissions representative to have an honest and forward conversation with a potential student about their chances of employment in a field in which they are unlikely to be successful. It would be no different than the conversation you would have with someone who has a criminal background history and wants to enter the CJ field. It is better to have those difficult conversations, rather than let the student waste their time and money studying something even though they do not have a very good chance of putting that degree to work afterwards.
As a matter of institutional integrity and compliance, a school should educate the prosective student on placement rates of students within a field of study irrespective of an existing disability. As a practice of providing awareness, insight and education, the school would show good judgement in providing insight around ALL challenges faceing prospective graduates.
The decision to endure, overcome, proceed with taking on any challenges within a field of study ultimately falls on the student.