Good point, Steven. Hopefully, those who will struggle with the tools of the trade know that when they commit to the field and understand the alternative career paths.
Even those students who have acceptable base skills may find that they are more comfortable with some tools/procedures than others.
Great idea to tie the career objective with life experience. How do the students respond? Do they have memorable events to share? Does the question help focus them on living their objectives?
As a third generation automotive technician, and my great grandfather a wagon wheelwright I think there is a lot to be said of heredity My son just graduated with honors from here. I believe when you work with your hands this is an aptitude you are born with. I have students who attempt to use hand tools. You can see the difference between teaching the proper use and a painful thing to watch. The passion may be there but the hands won’t quite make it. These students often excel academically. I encourage practice in lab and there are many facets in the automotive industries i.e. service writer, sales, management the knowledge learned will be well applied.
Oh yes, there is such thing as passion. It can be identified right form the start. Very few but it's there. They like to talk about their experience, not always in cooking but also their joy of eating and wanting to know how to do that dish.
I use to ask on Monday if they had a memorable food experience over he weekend.
Oh yes! Good question. How many of you would like to be on foodnetwork? A lot of hands go up. So we talk about it. Not at all a bad idea but what does it take to get there, that's the question.
"You can do whatever you put your mind on" but first graduate, get some experience and then get a more experience, become famous with maybe cooking, maybe some other things but become famous...
There seem to many programs on television dealing with food preparation and its challenges. How they been a help or hindrance in alerting students to the expectations of the job?
Hands and mind dexterity, very fast thinker and fast mover. Go for it style not afraid of trying anything once. Hard worker and this is just a few. Only an "outsider" will say that everybody can do this kind of work.
If we are talking about kitchen work, it's true that not everybody is fit to handle the heat. So, one popular question comes to mind,"Can you stand the heat?" Not everybody can and yes, it's hot in a kitchen. Kitchen work is hard, do you like hard work? Can you work under pressure? There are a lot of challenges happening in this field, do you like challenges? Cooking is about pleasing people and can be very frustrating, how do you handle frustration?
Although I'm not sure I agree with you about the supply of prospective students, I do agree that entering students should be making an informed decision about the career they are starting.
What questions should should admissions be asking to assure a good fit at your school?
Interesting observation, Richard. Over the years, it's been my observation that career schools are the benefactor of this process - Mom and Dad insisted that the child enroll in a "real college". The students had to fail before they would let him/her pursue their preferred career.
When are you becoming aware of students who aren't committed to the occupation? What have you been able to do with them?
Are there any particular physical indications you look for that indicate a student is having problems, Luis?
Luis, I agree with part of what you are saying. A timely intervention will often save a student and connect them with the proper resources. But it is never in a student's best interest to be enrolled simply to meet a monthly goal if there are indicators that the student may not find a good fit at the school.
I see many students who simply should not have started school when they did -- who could have been prevented from going into debt if the best questions were asked during the admissions process.
There are enough quality students out there to dig a little deeper and enroll those who truly want to pursue a career in this field.
Luis, I agree with part of what you are saying. A timely intervention will often save a student and connect them with the proper resources. But it is never in a student's best interest to be enrolled simply to meet a monthly goal if there are indicators that the student may not find a good fit at the school.
I see many students who simply should not have started school when they did -- who could have been prevented from going into debt if the best questions were asked during the admissions process.
There are enough quality students out there to dig a little deeper and enroll those who truly want to pursue a career in this field.
A great deal can be said for "people" reading". Is it the student or the parents that are more interested in the students attending? Often times in taking the time to talk and listen you can see how far down the road the perspective student is looking or is able to look, sometimes they want the right things for the wrong reasons.
As members of the whole institution we do not have nor can afford to be selective when it comes to enrollments. Everyone needs to understand that once we take an student in our hands; the expectations are to make sure the student completes their choosen field of training.
This is not an easy task but no out of our reach. We need to listen to our students, both to their physical and spoken language to look for sings of difficulty. A timely intervention by any memeber of the institution will help to save the student and build their confidence in the organization.
I believe that passion can be measured by body language such as smiles when it comes to a tour, or even discussion during the interview process. The probing method would work great for this. When the student is enrolled, see what it is that brought him/her into the school and relate that somehow to the practices of the school.
I suspect most of your colleagues will agree but wonder if many students actually demonstrate passion.
Any thoughts on how to measure passion during the enrollment process or how to draw it out while the student is enrolled?
