Though
it will seem to cause some pain and hurt for some individuals on
campus
the reality needs to be said. Students do not come to college to learn.
They come to get a job. Well, to be trained and educated to get a job.
They are not there to learn and grow though they will accede to that as a
condition to getting the diploma they seek to get a job.
Students realize that college holds the key to that job. The diploma. Without the diploma they would not be able to get the job they want and by the way, for most of them nowadays that is almost any job in their field.
Students realize that college holds the key to that job. The diploma. Without the diploma they would not be able to get the job they want and by the way, for most of them nowadays that is almost any job in their field.
Sure
there are a few who do not know what they want to do and there will
always be a some art history and philosophy majors who may not say they
are looking for a job but to just learn but they are also job seekers.
They want to work in a gallery or go on to grad school so they can
finally get a job as a professor. More likely at best a part time prof
teaching something other than philosophy or philosophizing while pouring
a cup of coffee but a job nonetheless.
Realizing
that the students are coming to college to get a job should make us
realize that they are going to be even stronger consumer-oriented
people. They look at their paying tuition and fees and the like as part
of a contract. I pay you money for services that you provide to get me
to where I want to be. Want proof? Count the number of times you hear
students say something like “I’m paying a lot of money to go here.” Or I
pay your salary”. And even if that number is not yet huge just think
back and realize that you are hearing it more and more now. That is a
sign of a consumer orientation and of the students’ realization of a
contract being written between the school and the student.
Students
are there to get what they need to get a job. Just think about required
courses too. Why are they required? So that students will take them. If
they were not required students would not take them in favor of either
getting more training in their future field of work or to skip them
altogether and get out faster. The
argument here is not whether or not to be a well-rounded citizen
students need to take required courses though there is a counter
argument that many of them are either useless or just there to make sure
some departments have a reason to exist and bring in money. The issue
is not to question the value of required courses but to point out that
students would not take them if they did not have to as a hoop to jump
through to get to their goal.
One
other point. Career colleges exist to a large extent because they are
career-oriented. The profit sector would not exist in as large a bloc as
it does if there were not a string demand for direct school to job
training. The career schools pare down the required courses to minimum
to get students to their goal in as quick and job-oriented pattern as is
possible. They also succeed
because they realize that the job is the goal and invest in career
placement activity far beyond what not-for-profit colleges and
universities do.
This
is not to say the career schools do it well or that some of their
placement claims are anything but PFTA thinking. (PFTA? Pulled from thin
air. The polite way of saying it here.) To continue being honest, many
of the career schools have been questioned on their placement rates but
they are not questioned on their focus on careers and jobs for their
graduates. And that gives them an edge and a basis for their attraction
and growth.
Realizing
that students are job-oriented should make colleges and universities
also realize that they need to be job conscious too. They need to focus
more on career services as a basic customer service for students. They
need to have people who do nothing but seek out jobs for graduates as so
the career colleges.
They
need to give up on the idea that career services just is a job taker
when a company calls in looking for graduates to hire. They need to
realize that just giving out sheets on how to write a resume is not
enough and a simple free class on resume writing doesn’t do it for the
current crop of students. They
want and need much more. Granted some colleges and universities are so
well known for their graduates that they may not need as much career
services work as others but even the top 306 name brand colleges are
finding that smaller and smaller segments of their graduating classes
are getting jobs after graduation. Also recognizing that the top schools
have fairly strong alumni structures with the alumni hiring from their
alma mater but even that is changing as businesses are becoming more
selective and gaping after the best without as strong a sense of brand
loyalty anymore as the available pool of grads grows larger.
When
student say they left a college or university because it wasn’t worth
it what they are saying is that they felt that the school would not get
them to their goal of a job. It just was not worth the time and effort
so they quit. Colleges and universities need to take a note from the
career schools and expand their placement and career services functions.
Considering that 34% of students leave a school because they just don’t
think it is worth it should be a enough to awaken schools to the
importance of career services as a basic customer service to students to
aid retention.
Students
also need to interact with career services from the beginning of their
careers and not just at the end. They should write a resume each
semester/ quarter that adds on the new skills and courses they have
taken. This will allow them to have a well written resume after it is
reviewed by career services as well as see the relevance of their
coursework to the goal of getting a job. They should take interviewing
classes to learn how t interview. They should also be taking work in how
to be an employee.
This
work can be done by providing appropriate decorum in the classroom
which is after all their workplace at the time of being in college.
Students should be required to act at a level that would be demanded if
they were on the job in their area of chosen future profession. For
example, on the job if an employee came in large each day he would not
lose half a grade, he would lose a job. If an employee answered her
phone in a business meeting, she would possibly be fired or at least
reprimanded for doing so. If an
employee missed work without calling in and letting the supervisor know
he or she were going to be out, that could be cause for being fired.
I am aware of at least one school that requires all its students to wear work appropriate uniform shirts as a
sign that they are preparing for a job. The Porter and Cable Institutes
have all their student wear uniform shirts that designate what career
path they are in. They also supply the students with a tool bag that has
the basic tools they will need to do the classwork and be prepared to
do the job when they graduate. And their placement office is always
working to find, yes find jobs for their graduates. This
may strike some as a bit extreme. Making them dress appropriate to the
job they seek but it is no different than having nursing students or
other medically-oriented students wear uniforms or clothing appropriate
to their future profession. Porter and Cable also have their instructors
all wear Porter and Cable embroidered shirts to indicate they are also
dressed for the appropriate job. They and their students are dressed for
success.
The
classroom is the workplace for students and should be treated as such.
Part of the service we should be providing is teaching not just the
skills to get them hired but what is needed to be a good employee and
keep the job.
Customer
service is not just smiling answering phones it is providing all the
services the customer, the student, needs to achieve his or her goals.
Just as we require courses, we should require good employee skills.
NRaisman
& Associates is the leader in increasing student retention,
enrollment and revenue through research training and academic customer
service solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the
US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that seek to work with
them
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enrollment and revenue through research training and academic customer
service solutions for colleges, universities and career colleges in the
US, Canada, and Europe as well as businesses that seek to work with
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