Get Your Students Hired
We use many of the techniques described especially making phone calls and following up on our students. What is the best practice for getting correct or accurate phone numbers. Our students appear to change phone numbers constantly and when you call they no longer work. This is very frustrating.
I believe being proactive on looking for guidance, update in their life or even becoming professional.
I believe education is serious and they need to understand that it is actually a comitment between them and their future.
More difficult on younger ones of course.
Thanks
Lionel
Thanks, Jeffrey, for your comments. We, too, have contacts in the information system records. I ask them to create these hard copy files as a document I can access even when not at a computer, or in the unfortunate scenario of a system failure.
Jo,
Nice plan. Many career colleges use their student information system to record contacts.
Jeffrey Schillinger
On the first day of term students fill out a 4x6 index card with pertinent informtion, how and when is best to contact them, and any information they feel I need to help them be successful during the course of the term.
I make notes on the flip side of the card when I contact them, and the outcome of the call. These cards are handy in that they are with me during each class, should I have a question from them about a conversation, and/or I need to call them after class.
Students update these cards a mid-term.
The are a valuable resource with our technology changing so quickly.
Robert,
What are some of the expectations your students have the most difficulty living up to?
Jeffrey Schillinger
There is only so much you can do. Some students simply don't live up to our expectations. If a student changes their number and doesn't give you the new number, the best you can do is document your attempt, and ask them for their number the next time you see them. Since we're preparing them for employment, I also try to emphasize how this kind of behavior would never fly if this were their job.
The first day of each new term and new course, the instructor has each student fill out a 3x5 index card with address and number they can be reached at along with an email address they actively use. They are also asked if they have a facebook account. FB is one of the best ways to get in touch with someone who is unreachable any other way.
I agree, I have them form study groups, and create e-mail lists and phone numbers. I encourage that they pick each other up. When I see a student is absent. I just ask if anyone has their number, and several hands go up. This shows the class, That I noticed. It also lets them be a part of the process.
In our program, we are not allowed to directly call the students. What I do is to have the study groups share their phone numbers with the other members. This way, I can have a group member contact the absent student to see why they are out and when they will return. We have a set number of hours that can be missed, so we have to keep at them for retention.
Thank you, Susan.
One thing I have found effective its to have my teachers develop alternative activities that students who are absent can complete to remain relatively "caught up" in the class. They email these activities, along with presentations and handouts used in class that day, to the missing students.
These activities do not take the place of being in class, nor should they. But they allow responsible student to keep up and are a way we can show that they care.
By calling our students daily that are absent, it is easier for us to follow up with students that come in the next day and at that point, get the correct phone number.
One of the ways that I utilize the monitoring process through phone calls is that I have a designated school cell phone that the students are encouraged to use to call in if they plan to be absent or are struggling with another issue.
Todd,
This issue comes up a lot at career colleges. The best thing one can do is to get the student's to provide a contact number at the beginning of the term and have them update/confirm the number near midterm.