Summary
Administrative ExcellenceAdministrative excellence, in the context of this Guide, focuses on communicating well with the student. current student contact information, thus facilitating regular communication with students for the first two years after graduation, can have a positive impact on post-graduation employment rates and student loan repayment rates. Colleges often target three points in time when contact information is updated: at enrollment, midway through the student’s course of study and at graduation. Those colleges who ask for a secondary contact (parent or other family member, spouse, close friend) often have the best success in maintaining contact with former students. Many schools reported that former students are less apt to change e-mail addresses than postal addresses.
Ongoing contact with students after graduation is a time consuming practice but it can have a significant impact on student loan repayment rates. Typically, contact by mail, e-mail and/or telephone is made within three months after graduation. In provinces where graduates must make a decision regarding combining Canada Student Loan payments and provincial Student Loan payments into a single payment, a second contact should then be made. Additional contacts should be made six months after graduation, when student loan repayment starts, and every few months thereafter.
Canada is one of the most internet rich countries in the world, with a high percentage of households having high speed web access. As a result, most Canadians seek information on the internet. Many private career colleges have a website that provides information about the college and programs offered. Two colleges, the Tourism Training Institute (TTI) and Rhodes Wellness College, both in the greater Vancouver area, have impressive websites that are feature-rich and comprehensive, attractive and easy to navigate.
Both Rhodes and TTI provide prospective students with information on the types of careers in which graduates might expect to gain employment, depending on the course of study chosen. Both provide admissions application forms online as well, with Rhodes providing links to Canada Student Loans and British Columbia Student Aid. Both list organizations in which they are members (Better Business Bureau, for example) and use the British Columbia Private Career Training Institutions Agency (PCTIA) accreditation seal. Both colleges utilize their website as part of their lifetime job placement assistance. TTI maintains their job board behind a student login, ensuring that persons seeking employment contacts through their site are graduates of TTI. Rhodes, on the other hand, provide their job board in a public page in their web site, providing access to current and former students as well as others in the wellness field.
Ongoing communication with graduates during their first two years following graduation, coupled with a comprehensive website with student loan contact information and ongoing job placement assistance, are the highlights of administrative excellence.
Summary
Job Placement AssistanceEffective job placement assistance programs have, at their core, student career strategies that begin prior to enrollment. For example, Rhodes Wellness College in Vancouver, British Columbia, has included career strategies in their web site. Here prospective students can discover the types of skills that are developed in each of the programs and the types of employment graduates of the college are securing.
Many colleges include a comprehensive job readiness unit or module within every program of study. Module lengths vary among colleges, ranging from a low of two days to a high of six weeks, and help students improve skills in developing potential employer contacts, preparing an application letter, preparing a résumé, preparing for interviews, selecting appropriate dress, and a host of other topics. Colleges who invest exceptional amounts of time and energy in preparing students for entry into the job market report that higher post graduation employment levels are the natural outcome.
A number of colleges utilize human resources (HR) specialists and other speakers from industry to help prepare their students for post graduation employment. While HR specialists provide helpful information toward résumé writing and preparing for interviews, industry speakers can provide information relating to careers in their industry sector. This practice has the added benefit of both enabling the college to develop and maintain healthy and productive relationships within the business community, and enhancing the college’s ability to provide quality job leads to students.
While many schools provide job placement assistance for recent graduates, some provide this service for the duration of their graduates’ working career. Normally, a job board featuring current employment opportunities is located in a high student traffic area such as a lunch room or a student lounge. A few colleges have become particularly creative and have developed an online job board feature within their web sites.
A number of principles must guide the practice of maintaining a job board. First, it must be updated regularly, ensuring that job postings are current within the last thirty days. Secondly, job boards must be presented in an attractive manner that draws the student again and again. Lastly, remember that there is no replacement for employment counsel.
Summary
Personal and Financial CounselBy the time many private career college students begin their studies, they already have significant responsibilities. Those students who have been out of school for a number of years are concerned about their ability to succeed at the post-secondary level. Working with students to develop a solid support mechanism, and to provide financial counsel through informed staff and student loan representatives is helpful to the student achieving success.
While the first contact with a prospective student is normally a casual, introductory interview, during the second meeting between a student and college staff, a variety of financing options are usually discussed. Once a student decides to apply for Canada Student Loans funding, college financial aid staff typically provide the student with detailed Canada and provincial student loans information. Some colleges even administer comprehension tests to measure student understanding of their obligations and responsibilities under the Canada Student Loans Program.
Most private career colleges surveyed have one or two people on staff whose responsibilities include working with students on matters relating to funding their education. Larger institutions, particularly those with student enrollment greater than 200, are more likely to have a full-time financial aid specialist on staff. Medix School in Kitchener recently hired a full-time financial aid specialist tasked with undertaking activities to improve the college’s student loan repayment rate. Where the hiring of a full time specialist is not feasible in smaller institutions, the goal should be to have one person on staff who is well trained and resourced to provide timely and informative counsel to students and to oversee an effective default management program.
Provincial student loans representatives play an important role in ensuring that students have the most current information regarding student loans. Smaller career colleges especially benefit from periodic contact from their representative. These visits provide updated information to college financial aid staff on any changes to student loans programs, and often involve meeting with students either individually or collectively to answer questions or troubleshoot issues.
Summary
Internship and PracticumSeveral of the colleges we surveyed have developed practicum components to enable students to practice what they have learned in the classroom. This enables students to gain a better understanding of the work environment they are training for, even prior to participating in off-campus internships. Students who had participated in such training indicated that it was confidence building and that it was one of the most rewarding parts of their program of study.
In addition, off-campus internships provide students with work experience relevant to their chosen field of study. There appears to be a strong link between internships and high employment rates, with between 50 and 90 percent of students who completed internships being hired by the employer who provided the internship experience.
Summary
Effective OrientationPrivate Career Colleges often have a high proportion of students who have been out of secondary or post secondary education for more than five years. Therefore, an effective orientation should be built on three pillars: a thorough student understanding of the college’s expectations of them, the inclusion of a student calendar and/or handbook and a Student Success Strategies course.
Many private career colleges have discovered the importance of communicating attendance requirements, dress code and other common workplace expectations to students. A well designed student handbook can be of great value in communicating such student responsibility. Colleges who clearly communicate such expectations tend to have higher graduation rates.
Orientation sessions/modules can be an effective way to ensure that students have the information required to help them succeed in their chosen program of study. For example, information about college attendance policies, personal budgeting, effective time management strategies and study techniques can help provide a solid foundation for student success. Typically, Student Success Strategies are presented in a stand alone module that is incorporated into the academic calendar.
Case Study
Personal and Financial CounselThe Universal Learning Institute (ULI), with campuses in Richmond, Vancouver, and Surrey, British Columbia, is one of the many smaller career colleges that does an admirable job of providing counsel and information to students. Students who are interested in seeking funding through the Canada Student Loans Program are required to attend a 90 minute information interview where they are informed of their rights, responsibilities, and obligations regarding student loans. The key to the effectiveness of this interview is that nothing is rushed. College staff view the interview as an opportunity for relationship building, as much as for providing financial counsel. Therefore, they take whatever time is necessary with the student.
This focus on relationship building is reflected in the classroom as well as in personal and financial counsel to the student. According to Lonnie Belfer, Vancouver Campus Manager, many of their students are “dealing with barriers [to student success], having not been in any kind of training environment since teen years, so it is very intimidating for them. If we can get their guard down (by building relationships with them), so they can be receptive to the learning, they can have success”.
While ULI is relatively small and does not have a full-time position dedicated to financial services, staff work hard to overcome this limitation, creating a family atmosphere, where students feel valued, and are comfortable approaching staff to seek advice. How effective has this approach to personal and financial counsel been? Two of the campuses report a student loan repayment rate of more than 90 percent, with one having a repayment rate in excess of 95 percent.
Case Study
Internship and PracticumThe Institute for Human Services Education in Truro, NS, utilizes internships as a structured learning experience for students. For example, students enrolled in the early childhood education program complete teaching and activity plans during their internship. The college provides students with a structured notebook in which they must record their activity plans, along with a brief self-evaluation and supervising teacher evaluation of each plan. A supervisor must also complete a detailed evaluation of the student. Again, this evaluation is very structured and has been developed to provide an objective evaluation of the intern.
Embedding this type of accountability in off-campus internships can help students gain maximum learning benefit, thereby increasing their chances of gaining employment with the same employer after graduation.
Innovative Ideas
Internship and PracticumHere are some student internship and practicum strategies and initiatives that your private career college might adopt:
- Develop an off-campus internship for your students. If you do not already have an internship strategy, you might want to start with just one program. In developing your program, talk with another college about their program and what makes it successful.
- Engage local employers to explore the possibility of expanding the number of internship placement sites. Your local Chamber of Commerce or other business groups provide an excellent network of contacts for exploring potential internship sites.
- Develop a detailed evaluation plan and process for students completing internships. Adopting this structured approach will ensure that students’ internship experiences are well documented and will facilitate placing students with an employer at the end of their training.
- Consider asking employers if they would be willing to complete letters of reference for students completing internships at their business. This could help students in securing employment following completion of their training.
Innovative Ideas
Personal and Financial CounselHere are some personal and financial counsel strategies and initiatives that your private career college might adopt:
- If you have a small campus, build on your greatest natural strength: a sense of family. Develop an open door policy with students. Consider adopting some of the student-centric ideas outlined in Section 2 – Student-Centric Core Value.
- In the pre-enrollment interview, take time to deal with potential barriers students might encounter in pursuing post-secondary education. Students will have a better chance of being successful if barriers are identified, and addressed, early on.
- Develop a system to provide financial counsel to students throughout pre-enrollment, enrollment, attendance, and early withdrawal and graduation phases.
- Designate someone from your staff to become a financial aid expert. While this may take some time and effort to accomplish, it will help ensure that students receive high quality counsel, and consistent post-graduation follow-up that could help boost repayment rates on student loans.
Case Study
Effective OrientationCompuCollege is a large multi-campus operation that has implemented a comprehensive two-week, twenty-hour Student Success Strategies module that is an integral part of every course offering. According to Debra Johns, Vice-President for Operations at CompuCollege Atlantic Region, “emphasis is placed on thinking about achieving success from Day One. This module stresses the importance of developing non-technical skills to enhance personal, academic, and career success. These skills include effective goal setting, understanding learning styles, practical time management, memory and test taking techniques, maintaining motivation, efficient note taking along with money management and writing techniques.”
Included in this module is an in-class visit from CompuCollege Financial Services Representatives during the first week. Here students are able to improve their financial literacy, as well as their understanding of student loan processes and payment options. Personal budgeting is also taught within the module and students receive a copy of Dan Baker’s The Debt Free Graduate as well as a student portfolio or Passport.