George,
This is all good. Do they come into class or hold workshops or both?
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
They consistently meet with our students throughout the year. The placement department regularly communicate with the clinical instructors in the community about job openings. Periodic updates and job postings may motivate our students more and therefore improve our retention.
We have ongoing meetings with career services as well as resume classes and interviewing classes
John,
Yes, this early involvement is not only a big aid in retention. It also aids in placement.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Our CS department is fully engaged with the students from their very first classes all the way through the programs. Reps from the CS Dept. visit classrooms regularly and give presentations and workshops on resume writing, job interview skills, etc. These presentations are also re-inforced by Instructor's activities in classes, John E
Chana,
You do need a placement department now. If you are part of a group, get the job description and policies and procedures for a Placement Department and use that as a start. If your accrediting body requires placement then get the standards and build your department accordingly. In the meantime, find somewhere in the curriculum where you can teach resume writing and interview techniques.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Chana,
Those skills are important for a person in the placement program or for an instructor teaching job readiness.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
I like your idea of the Career Services department meeting with students at the beginning of every quarter. it is often enough that students feel that the school is trying to help them and staff cares about them, but infrequent enough that it is not annoying when students have classes to take and assignments to complete.
How do you find a Career Services Director such as her? We are developing a Placement Department now and nee all the help we can get.
Based on this, I would recommend that we hire people to teach students how to create resumes and work on their interviewing skills.
We are a new school (only in operation for two years), so we do not have a placement program yet. However, we need to develop one. At present, several adminstrators and instructors have been disuccing how to create a placement department. Some ideas that have been mentioned are networking with people in the fields that our instructors know and online job listings. Can you give some other suggestions for creating an effective placement department?
Once we had one, we would instruct all teachers to include information about the department in their closing class.
Mary,
Your placement and retention probably reflect how well this has worked for your school.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Catherine,
Sounds like a good start and a good plan. Thank you for your post.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Our online school helps each student create a portfolio and compile a resume. The students are just starting the program. I agree that job placement and employment skills training should be implemented early and often. I have learned many ideas which can be helpful to retention. I plan to speak to our new student services director and placement director to implement some of these valuable suggestions. I think having professionals in the field talk about the own experiences will be especially motivating to our students. I hope we will be able to set up some externships as well.
Our placement department meet and work with students from day one of class to last day of class. We set up monthly meeting with students to work on job skills to get a job. We have students do research on companies and follow up with employers. We assist with resume, interviewing skills, and portflios so everything looks nice when presenting to an employer
Ron,
I am sure you campus has a referral program. Many institutions do this or are required to do this.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Paula,
Removing the layers and making direct connections often helps.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
Our Placement Department Coordinator teaches our Job Development class. This works well as she knows what the students need to know and do to be successful.
There should be a phycologist available to students.This is the first time most of our students leave home and they have a hard time adjusting to a bigger city, being out on their own.
Audrey,
Happy to read about the success. Thank you for your post.
Ron Hansen, Ed. D.
