Employer calls and employer visits. Hitting the hidden job market is so key for placement - and having great relations with employers is also key.
This is a good start, Fernando. You might want to turn your grads automatically into Alumni and offer them lots of networking opportunities. If they like what you offer than they are likely to stay attached to your school and let you know about job openings and other opportunities at the companies where they work. And if you need feedback on programs or referrals to fill your classes your alumni are always there as a resource. Hope you have an information management system to track all your alumni and employers too. Your employers are very valuable. Important to develop and maintain ongoing relationships with them. Thanks, Susan
Ok first of all we keep in touch with our grads to see where are they working , from them we know if there are any opening on those jobs.
Our school also keep record of those employers, se submit surveys to those employers to see how our grads are doing if they need any more people to fill any position etc.
Great idea to contact employers of previous grads. While you are developing relationships with companies you might want to ask about how well trained your grads are and if additional skills are needed to ensure they are work ready. You are right - even if employers are not hiring it is important to make the connection. Your job leads will increase if you keep in touch with the employers on a regular basis. Be sure you send great information that is valuable to them. If you keep in touch with every grad you can have a source of new employer names all the time. A reason to build an alumni association. Thanks, Susan
I have taken the placement information from our past graduates to start a list of which employers may be interested in hiring our gradautes. A great line to use is, "You have hired our graduates in the past...we have upcoming qualified graduates, do you have any available positions?" From there, I literally strolled through the phone book and contacted the local employers in our area that our graduates are qualified to work for. This was a great way to get connected. Even if employers are not hiring at the time, we still are getting that we have graduates looking for work out there. I am hoping that the number of leads we receive for positions will continue to increase. It is nice when an employer calls and says that they have not posted the position publicly yet and wanted to see if we had a graduate to send over for an interview! Overall, creating a list of employers that our graduates have alredy been placed with is extremely helpful, also, making new contacts with employers that are not aware that we have qualified graduates is a start!
Great idea Joanie. In fact, we feel that a school website should have very comprehensive webpages on career services and placement. Plus staff emails and phone numbers. So placing jobs filled and companies that hire grads is essential. Phone book or internet is a great way to develp a list of local employers. It's just that easy. And good point about motivating students to seek employment. Most are too scared so self confidence building is essential. And that starts from the admissions process. A reason for career services staff to sit within the admissions department. Thanks
In order to help with student motivation and retention, placement departments should post recent placements of students and their employer as well as celebrate and welcome employer visits to the school. Honestly—the internet or phone book is a great way to locate local employers. If you haven’t noticed throughout my past posts…I’m a true idealist. The way I see it is that EVERYONE is a potential employer of our students. Small start-up companies to international companies all need my students and graduates.
Maybe it’s because I’m still new, but the problem I face is getting students to want to WORK – I’ve been fortunate to have tons of companies want to hire from me (I sell myself to companies as their own personal recruiter). Now if I could just motivate these students to want to work instead of preferring to sit at home collecting disability and unemployment. Argghh.
HI Mark
Really good points. We believe in community outreach and you address a lot of the issues. Yes, it's important to stay in touch with all employers in the community and find out how to customize your programs to meet the company's needs. Then each company will value your grads when looking to increase staff. And yes, part of developing and maintaining relationships is to understand the company and its needs and when they tend to hire. You might even send out a list of grads and available alumni and credentials periodically so each company knows what kind of personnel is or will become available. Yes, partnership building is the key to success. Thanks, Susan
Meet will all employers in the fields related to your schools programs and find out what they are looking for in entry level positions. When you know the type of candidate a company is looking for you can groom your graduates to better fit the company’s needs. Once you have created your list, research each company to learn how successful they are. Success equals growth, growth equals job placement. Always have a list of graduates ready for when a growth cycle begins. Once you have established a credible history of placement you will have established a partnership.
Sounds like you are talking about community outreach, Ariel. We think it is critical to reach out to employers and prospective employers. Get feedback about how work ready your students are. What needs to be changed in your curriulum? How can you customize courses to the needs of the workplace? It is about research and also relationship development and maintaining. Thanks, Susan
Explore the history between graduates and employer, create assessment projects that will provide positive feedback from students, graduates, employers, the community, etc. Most important well organized research.
We also agree, Christina, that there has to be a focused effort to reach out to the community. Actually we think that partnerships need to be formed with the school and hiring companies functioning as teams. You train people to be workready at local companies. The companies need to be clear abuot what a workready employee looks like. Your programs include very specific courses. But companies may still want some kind of customization. Also we feel it is important that the career services department be run with the similar marketing strategies as admissions. With admissions your goal is qualified leads and lead to enrollment conversions. In placement your goal is hiring managers and job openings. Thanks, Susan
Finding companies who specialize in your industry is a great way to get your graduates hired. Contacting and keeping in touch with employers who have hired your graduates in the past, is another great way to build a list. Students who enroll and are currently working in their field, is a good way to build a list as well.
That is why it is so important to follow-up with students, graduates and employers that have hired your graduates, to maintain that relationship, and ultimately have an efficient, successful Placement Department.
Thanks for the update. In our office we have eliminated the words "try" and "wait." OK. We do wait a bit. Sometimes. But we always follow follow follow.If we waited for everyone to return the call their attention would be on something else. Thanks, Susan
Thanks for the response Susan. Actually, I do make contact with these employers and give them information about our school and the training they receive. Sometimes it takes a little while for them to call and request an extern from us or to ask for resumes of our graduates but many of them do eventually. Until they actually take an extern or hire a graduate they remain on the wish list.
Seems like there are many opportunities as a result of requiring a resume right away. You are starting the job search process early on rather than waiting for the last day of class. From the resumes you can see what employers in the community are hiring, in case you don't have them all. Then you can develop relationships with these employers for future job openings and training needs. Those employers might even offer tuition assistance! And yes, there are many ways to conduct a successful community outreach campaign including attendance at networking events like community organizations - Lions, Rotary, etc. and professional events. Thanks, Susan
The majority of our students have experience in the areas they come to school for. We require all students to submit a resume. This gives the placement department the ability to see where they have worked in the past. They use this resource to job develop.
Other wasys include networking in area organizations, career fairs, and through alumni and current students who are employed.
Good idea to start off with current employers. It's important to develop a formal relationship and then maintain it by keeping in touch and finding out how you can solve their staffing needs. Good idea also about the wish list of employers who will also hire your grads. But the missing step is to contact these employers as well. We believe in reaching out to the community and really involving the employers. Work with them and there will be many benefits. Like jobs before they post them, feedback about curriculum, ideas for new training needs, and lots more. Thanks, Susan
I have found that the most effective way to do this was by first starting off with a list of employers who have hired our graduates in the past, many of whom still work for them. This list is displayed in the career services department by program. From that point I created a list (wish list)of potential employers who hire people with the skills/training that our graduates have in hopes that they will eventually employ our graduates and be transfered to the first list. My goal is to shorten the wish list and increase the employer list.
Hi Jay, Sounds like you are doing a great job. We also believe that placement can be so easy if you pick externship sites willing to hire the extern. We spoke with a school that placed 65% of it's externs! You are right about Alumni -they are a great resource. In fact, you can ask them to ask their company to create a back link to your school website! Thanks, Susan
