Christina Befumo

Experiential learning is one of the best ways for students to demonstrate and build new skills in the workforce.  Having the ability to have experiential learning experiences can lead to gainful employment with higher wages more rapidly than through traditional methods.  Employers are able to have basically an extended interview to see whether the student is competent in the skills necessary to complete the job task and has the professional or employability skills they are looking for.  Students can also develop those skills in programs that can be held by career services or in programs that are associated with Individual… >>>

Instituting a career culture in the classroom is not the only place where students can find information about careers.  Students can be exposed to career expectations in their coursework, on field trips, through networking events as well as in the career services office and when meeting with advisors.  Each student should have an individual plan to increase their level of success.  Employability skills are something that are part of the curriculum, but the addition of embedded professional skills could benefit students from the beginning of their career education to gaining employment.  

Who would be in the best position to establish and maintain alumni relations in an institution?  What ideas could we use to increase alumni engagement and feedback?  

This module really puts relations between industry, community organizations, higher education, alumni and faculty into perspective.  In order to have a successful program, relationships must be strong across all areas.  One area that tends to lack is alumni relations.  Alumni tend to move away or we lose contact because their email addresses shut down within 6 months of graduation.  Putting together an alumni organization to maintaining those relationships can truly benefit the program.  

This modules demonstrates how many different individuals and departments work together within the institution to assist in students being able to achieve academic, technical, and career goals.  The approach is multifaceted and each facet plays an important role in success.  This module also clearly identifies the differences in what industry is looking for opposed to what academic colleges are attempting to provide in work readiness.  Career colleges offers more current skills for industry, but some gaps can be seen if the career colleges are not vigilent in their ability to follow trends in industry.

The ability of a student or graduate to gain employment depends upon the student's ability to communication effectively with faculty, career center employees, and industry personnel.  So many students require the assistance of talking on the phone in a professional manner, promoting themselves to employers and having confidence in themselves.  Many of the soft skills necessary for having a successful interview are developed throughout their time in the programs through interactions with their peers or with faculty.  Those relationships can be so important to developing successful graduates.

Having a strong, knowledgeable advisory board can make all the difference to a program.  Members included from current students/families, former students, higher education and industry can work together to see the needs of industry, post-secondary education and the students perspective.  Former graduates have been able to give the most relevant feedback and suggestions to what students in the program need for skills for industry while relating their educational experience to the needs they found when entering the workforce. 

One factor that impedes gainful employment with our students is their age.  Highly regulated industries are not able to hire students under the age of 18.  Students become discouraged by this fact.

Reply to Frank Barcellos's post:I wonder if the reason for this is because this course seems to focus on post secondary education, rather than secondary level technical education.