I am the Director of the Career Services Dept. Our department covers externship, placement and student services. I have a placement assistant and as soon as we grow a little more I will have an externship assistant. We have seminars once a month for the students who are getting ready to graduate or go to externship. We have a Career Services class in every program that we assist with. This includes resume writing, dressing for success and interview information. We make visits in the community to market our students and attend many job fairs. We still see some apathy on the students part in actively searching for a job. Any suggestions?

We have found that the students have become complacent and would like for us (the Placement Dept.) to do all the work in find the student their job. They almost act like we should just hand it to them as they complete their course. Of course we want them to be working, and if we have any leads that we are aware of we give them to the students or fax their resume for them. How do you motivate the student to look for the jobs as well as accept our assistance?

If the Placement Department is explained during admissions appointments is it necessary to have the placement department do a presentation during orientation.

Hi Susan, We are in the process of implimenting a student questionair that will be distributed in each module. Also we are hosting an Alumni Luncheon/ Mini Job Fair twice a year. We invite students that are part of our cohort to students who are in their final module of training.

We have a lot of graduates that have had a run in (or two) with the law. What are some ways to help these grads gain employment?

Does anyone know of a good way to track down grads that are missing in action? We have exhausted the usual such as phoneathons, mail, certified mail, calling on weekends, skip tracing...

We offer placement for students that are in school and need help with their financial responsibilities. We require that the jobs are not related to their training to avoid losing the student. This service can be very cumbersome. Does anyone have a good system that is efficient and does not take time away from graduate placement?

Hi Susan, We do resume building with our student in a class forum. They are instrucetd on how to prepare a Profile or an objective (which ever they choose). They are also instructed on the description of their program and compiling information to include. The problem we have run into is our PAC members advised us that our students resume's are too uniform and that they can be picked out just by the format. (Is this a bad thing?) Our students are instructed that they can use diffrent headings (ie: Profile/ Objective, Education/ Training) and that they can change fonts to make the resume more individualized. Do you think this should be an issue? If so, what changes would you suggest we make? Thanks, Denise

What specific methods work to encourage student participation with the placement office on a one to one basis after graduation?

Hi Susan, We have been exploring how we can create win/win economic relationships with employers, to facilitate placement. Strategies we have used are educating employers about State/Federal job training initiatives and funding streams to pay for pre-employment costs, and tailoring curricula to job descriptions. Do you have other suggestions? Thanks! Karl

Hi Susan, Some career schools we have spoken with have placement modules as a distinct curriculum component. We would need to extend our programs to include additional placement related instruction, unless we added it as an optional class. Yet, I wonder if the students who most need this placement related training will indeed take an additional class if it isn't required. Thanks, Karl

We contact our grads with a newsletter format monthly (this seems to work best) we have found that by asking our grads to participate in submitting articles for the newsletter (whether it is work related or product related) it keeps the grads keep coming back. We also have an incentive referral program for grads. We encourage our grads to participate as a teacher's aid, which in some ways gives them a job right out of school and keeps them attached to the college. Student surveys can be a bit tricky to get participation, so once again we offer bookstore incentives etc. It does seem to be a full time job to manage the survey data - So we send them out only as needed. Thanks Susan. Cheers. Kate

Dear Susan, I have been working part time for two years on creating externship relationships with regional employers. Graduates find them very valuable, and we have had a significant number of hires out of the externships. However, it has been a process that has been slow-going, as I use a contractual clinical relationship and maintain malpractice insurance for the participants. The contract has to be approved, and that can take some time due to the various levels of review. Do you have any suggestions for facilitating this process, and crafting relationships that are attractive to employers? Thanks, Karl

Dear Susan, Do you recommend any other resources on the topic of placement? Are there any books available that expand on these themes? Do you have a book, and how would I obtain it? Karl Kaufman

I have had to evaluate what I can take one and what will have to wait for our placement department. One thing that is really standing out is finding out how much our Graduates want to be involved with this endeavor. I am thinking of setting up an externship and have a graduate volunteer help manage the research required to set up this department. We already have a lot of industry contacts and many great leads for jobs, but most of our career programs are for those interested in being self-employed. Much of the services would be business development and setting up a consultancy not job placement based. Is this part of a placement department? or an entirely different thing. Thanks. Kate

I have asked my admissions department to ask new students to advise us of places they aspire to work with phone and address. I hope to contact them and to have a working relationship by the time the student graduates. Although this will not work for all students it should give me an idea of what the core needs are for our job seekers. Also I am sure this will give me a good start for building industry contacts. Any other ideas would be most helpful. Kate

What are some of the best tools used to assess a student so that he/she could fully understand their weakness and strengths in a positive way?

What surveys can you easily create and implement now to measure placement success?

Start to think about the exercises outlined in this module and how you can encourage students to begin to work on them. Who can you get to assist with these exercises? People on staff? From the community?