How to provide career services assistance without having workshops.
Hi there,
We do not have the staff or the funds to hire more staff for our career services department. It's just me and I have very little experience. I am learning more information everyday. With the lack of personnel it is next to impossible to host a workshop. We started a Career Services part of our website that gives tutorials of what, when and how for the job searcher.
What suggestions do you have to make the best of our situation.
Corey,
Perhaps you could consider an ongoing, online workshop.[?]
When working in the public school system, where funding for special programs is decreasing, I used a free online program (not sure if it is ok to mention the specific name in this forum). However, it was excellent in that it provided multiple means to distribute information, document the students who had reviewed the material, create test/quizzes, submit documents in a variety of formats, etc. It was a wonderful tool. I highly recommend it as it was extremely effective not only for student learning, but also provided excellent means for student feedback and also for documentation purposes.
I am in the same situation. I am a new director and while I am not new to career services, there is so much documentation that needs to be done and I only have one part time person. We have about 375 students that we need to meet with on a monthly basis it seems plus 75 graduates that I am working with. Please help!
Amy,
This is good. We also believe that each grad and senior student needs to have a personal plan for their job search. Every student has different skills and levels of self confidence. Therefore each needs a custom plan to include meeting with a career services person or alumni representative, attending certain workshops, and demonstrating a certain level of job search skills level. Thanks, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
We send out a daily mass email with tips for job searching, hot job leads, and information regarding how to apply for each company. I also give a list of companies to have profiles set up with as well as staffing agencies. The mass emails have been a great tool to get a lot of information out to many people without having to spend too much time.
It also gives us an opportunity to see who is opening the emails and following the leads we are sending them.
Corey ,
Very challenging and it sounds like you are up to the challenge. Again, suggest you get some helpers to assist you with the necessary but not priority work. Ask Alumni for their assistance. Get students to help you to give you ideas of what is important to them when looking for a job. Figure out how every person on staff can do their part in placement and employment skills training. Ask employers to come on site and help out. It is amazing the results when you think this way. What is really amazing is when you tell the owners the costs to them if they don't meet regulatory requirements re graduation and placement. To fix something broken could take 10 times the cost of getting some assistance! Best of luck, Susan
Dr. Susan Schulz
