Institution-Wide Participation
Share ways in which your institution views employment rates in a systemic, institutional way? How do you believe each department works together to improve employment rates, or what would you recommend be done?
Our Management Team, consisting of department managers of Admissions, Student Services, Education, Financial Aid, and Career Services, has consistent opportunities to review and discuss employment rates and feedback from employers about our graduates and their performance. This analysis and dialogue provides an opportunity for all the departments to make any necessary changes/adjustments in an effort to address and remove barriers within that may be contributing to a less than maximal employment rate. For instance, employers may indicate to us that they have noticed a trend in which our graduates are displaying a particular weakness in a skill set that is desired for those jobs. We, as an institution, then look at different possibilities which may help to minimize or erase that weakness (i.e., adjusting curriculum, providing more support through Student Services to students who are struggling with particular skills, etc.)
Cathy,
I commend you and your organization for coming together to discuss and address issues affecting your employment rates. It is only when placement becomes a campus wide culture will an institution and their graduates be truly successful. Do you have any advice for those struggling to involve all campus departments on how to encourage and win their participation and support?
Sheri Leach
I think one of the things that really speaks to all departments is feedback from employers that participate on our Professional Advisory Committee (PAC). Since they are external to our organization and work or have worked with our graduates their feedback holds a bit more weight than an internal staff person reporting about the job market and employment rates/trends.
I would recommend the formation of a PAC to any organization.
Cathy,
Great point! Our staff, and our students will sometimes tune us out or not take our comments seriously. This is because we often become "Mom or Dad". So bringing in employers and past grads to speak to instructors and students is an ideal way to get a point across. It is my belief that it doesn't matter who the student learns from, as long as they learn and feel inspired and confident.
Sheri Leach
Speaking from the perspective of an accrediting agency, we encouraged the integrated, systemic view that is presented in this training course. For example, when an institution reported placement rates below expectations, we would look for placement improvement plans that included activities which fostered cross-departmental interaction, especially between academics and career services.
We would look to see if the institution looked into the relationship between various outcomes, such as employer satisfaction and placement rates, and we would encourage interaction with students from admissions through to graduation.
We also required that institutions made some use of resources from the local business community, including as guest speakers and field trips for academic classes as well as participation on program advisory committees, sources for internships, and career days, etc.
One area that I feel institutions and accreditors should place greater emphasis on is evaluating the demand for graduates from various programs and using that information to control enrollments more carefully.
Tom,
Your view from an accrediting agency standpoint is most welcome, especially since it is one not very common in this forum. So that we may have a better understanding of how to improve our schools, (and to spur a discussion) what are some of the best practices that you have encountered that fostered cross- departmental interaction? Can you name a few specifics?
Your point regarding evaluating the need for certain graduates is interesting. How do you propose that an institution do that? Feasibility studies are done before a program is instituted based on a showing of demand. How would an institution continue to check if there is an ongoing need, especially if it requires forecasting employment needs 9 or 12 months later (which is the length of many programs)?
Sheri Leach
During weekly leadership meetings employment rates are discussed for the current cohort graduates by program. All department heads are in attendance and we share information about specific programs and students. Strategies are discussed and implemented among the departments. Each week we analyze the strategies and determine our weekly targets and how they compare to our traction in regards to the yearly benchmarks. Admissions often aides in interviewing skills, the financial aid department helps in locating graduates that are missing, the education department offers refresher seminars and graduate nurturing, and finally the career services department leads the charge in developing community/employer relationships and honing the soft skills of our graduates.
Dan, It seems as if your institution has developed a process that includes all departments. Weekly discussions are ideal, as it reinforces the need that employability issues must be addressed constantly, by everyone on campus. Plans such as yours lead to increased employment outcomes and stronger relationships with students/graduates. Have you measured the effect on your outcomes? Any other observations you can share?
Every managers meeting Director of Career Services presented the employment rate by program. If any program is below the standard, other manager make recommendations and communicate any information they have about the students. Also, employment rate is used as an indicator for the Institutional Assessment and Improvement Plan.
All department need to communicate any information they received from graduate especially Financial Service Advisor and Financial Aid. Also, Registrar communicated with Career Services when they received a student asking for any record and provide up date information about address, phone, etc.
Every staff member need to understand the importance of employment rates and the implication for the school.
Jose ,
It is a great practice to have all managers provide recommendations to assist with placement. And it is a great best practice when all departments on campus provide Career Services with updated student and graduate information. I agree, that all staff members need to understand and be a part of the campus employment outcomes success story
Sheri Leach
At my institution, employment rates are reviewed weekly through Leadership meetings with the Executive Director and Department leaders. The Department leaders then take the information back to their respective areas and share with their team.
If there are programs that have low trending employment outcomes, strategies are discussed to improve the low performing programs.
An example of strategy building activities that have come from institutional collaboration have been weekly accountability meetings with Program Coordinators. Each Program Coordinator has been given a list of "MIA" (missing in action) graduates to assist in contacting them. We have found that sometimes Instructors or Program Coordinators have additional contact information for graduates and/or sometimes graduates have remained in contact with their Instructors/Program Coordinators after graduation. This allows the Education Department to engage with the student and sometimes refocus them on their career goals.
Shaundra ,
Thank you for sharing this. You have a good process in place. Placement outcomes definitely increase when everyone on campus is involved and has accountability. And, as mentioned before, instructors are most effective since they have strong relationships with the students and are able to reach them in ways that Career Services is not.
Sheri Leach
Each of our departments begin by being in concensus that student retention is most important. From there we cooperatively work together to mold students into professional graduates. Our Student Services Departments enforce our required dress code and attendance (all directly relating to "outside" success), while our Instructors work directly with Career Services to schedule visits to the classroom where we discuss resume writing skills, interviewing skills and also conduct mock practice interviews. All departments have channels in which they keep in touch with graduates and they all extend back to Career Services where they keep us posted as to someone's employment they gained or where someone might be struggling so we can reach out to them.
Gretchen,
I commend your institution for working together to enforce professionalism in your students. This is not easy and takes a whole campus to act together. Can you please share how some of the departments keep in touch with the graduates and how they notify Career Services of employment information?
Sheri Leach
Our institution does an amazing job at working together to assist our students to be successful from the beginning of their time in school in order to help them hit the ground running when it comes time to find jobs. Our instructors work with career services by having me go into the classroom at certain times and help explain the information. Ie. testing, licensing, resumes, etc. They are also good about helping to talk up employers and get the students excited about working in the industry.
Jennifer,
That is a pleasure to hear! Do your instructors also discuss career related information with the students? If so, how does everyone teach the same thing/send the same message?
Sheri Leach
One of our 2014 strategies has been to set a career expectation from day one. We implemented an expectation of professional interview attire for our students at their first day of orientation prior to beginning class. It has been a great way to set a high bar and remember the end goal as well as allow us with the ongoing opportunity to provide our students with feedback during monthly professional Dresss for Success days.
Darcee,
Setting expectations at the beginning is ideal. On your campus, how do all the different departments help the students live up to those expectations?
Sheri Leach
We need more participation from all departments to improve our employment rates. This seems to be coming around but making CS solely responsible for employment rates is crazy. We cannot control who they enroll.
