Get Your Students Hired
This is a general discussion forum for the following learning topic:
Institutional Best Practices to Maximize Graduate Employment Outcomes --> Understanding the Big Picture of Graduate Employment
Post what you've learned about this topic and how you intend to apply it. Feel free to post questions and comments too.
Developing contacts and maintaining contacts with companies who hire recent graduates is imperative. Researching exactly what kind of skills employers are looking for, to create curricula accordingly and with that, prepping students for the prerequisite of studies necessary to be in demand.
As other professionals have stated in this posting- Career Services is NOT the antidote for an institutions overall productivity regarding student engagement. It begins when they first share interest to the admissions rep, to finding out pricing options from financial aid, to all the way to their time in the classroom. Student success translates to graduate success.
I appreciate the idea that institutions share the responsibility of preparing their students for post-graduate life. Collaboration is imperative for supporting alumni and preparing students. As a non-traditional student myself, it was interesting to read that traditional students view themselves as "students who work" and non-trad students view themselves as "professionals who study".
This really gave me an AH HA moment: Everyone within a career college must model the professionalism expected of students. All employees have a responsibility to help students succeed, while never compromising integrity or standards of excellence. The institution operates as a system with all departments interdependent on one another, and it is through the successful collaboration among all team members that optimal graduate employment outcomes are achieved. Many of the roles and responsibilities examined are shared among groups and staff members and are not mutually exclusive. Graduate outcomes are not a measurement of any one department’s success, but rather a metric of institutional success.
It's a team effort to get the students gainfully employed once they have completed their program. That was emphasized, but the average ratio of students to career development personnel, that totally shocked me! That's a pretty huge amount.
Career Services is an integral part of the organization. However, this module has reaffirmed there are many stakeholders that have an impact on employment rates. I'm pleased our campus works well together and it shows in our placement rates, increasing salaries, and expanding employer relationships.
During this lesson I learned a better understand of the classification of my current student population and how to effectively state the benefits during initial meeting and encounters.
In this module I learned to ensure that our graduates have the best possible outcomes, however, it takes more then Career Services to help the graduates reach their goals.
I have already come up with comprehensive career success tactics such as personalized counseling, connecting my graduates with thought leaders to assist with job search opportunities, and ensuring they are aware of networking events in our area. These tactics will empower our students to explore different career paths in tech and gain valuable skills.
Second, as a school, we have and will continue to forge strong partnerships with employers, aligning our programs with industry needs and creating internships and networking events, which we have done.
These practical experiences will give our students a competitive edge in the job market.
Lastly, we'll engage our alumni community, providing mentorship and networking support to help current students succeed. By focusing on these strategies, we aim to maximize our graduates' employment prospects and support their professional growth.
This whole module, reinstated everything that I have already learned and look forward to continuing my growth as a career coach.
Information provided in this section was helpful in understanding the statistics around the many barriers to employment faced by our students.
I learned that Career Services encompasses more than just helping a graduate obtain his/her first job. I learned that barriers and not just the graduate/job match can play a key roll in whether a graduate gets employed in a timely manner in an appropriate position. I plan to listen well to be in tune with a student's barriers and in tune with the employers needs.
All stakeholders should work together in order to make Career Services meaningful and successful. With collective involvement, we will be able to achieve the mission.
I have been working for career services for four years now, and this is the first time that I have the opportunity of taking a course that shows a radiography of what we do and the importance of our department in higher education. Some people think that we are just there to write resumes and show students how to dress properly for an interview. This section portraits very well what we do and the importance of our work.
I always sort of intuitively knew about the seven characteristics of a nontraditional student, but it was helpful to see them spelled out. In the future, I will consider whether a struggling student possesses any of these traits and how that might influence the support we offer.
This module is full of reaffirming information that supports a Career Services department's mission, specifically, that it is incumbant on every staff & faculty member to understand their role with job placement outcomes. I also appreciated the breakdown of the multitude of barriers at play when assisting a student with job support services.
My takeaway from this section is that the entire institution is responsbile for the employment rates and success of graduates. Each of us has a hand in molding and coaching a student using specific departmental techniques. Also, it was a nice reminder of the population that we serve and the barriers that may be experiencing going through their program. By understanding the circumstances of students the better we can help them be successful and provide resources to support their goals.
Knowledge of community resources to help overcome barriers, such as lack of transportation, prior incarceration and lack of financial resources for single mothers are all important to be able to assist at risk groups to gain employment.