It’s Already Too Late! (?)

Your accreditation report isn’t due for another nine months or so… so it’s NOT too late!

That said, TODAY is the day to do a “health check” on your placement outcomes. Sure, you already run reports to see how you’re doing. You know your placement results year-to-date like the back of your hand. You might even have a dashboard that shows results by campus, and by program.  But you’ve tracked that before, and still ended up in a rush at the end of the reporting period because one cohort, or one campus was behind…

Here are some important questions to ask yourself now so you can get ahead of the curve and prevent the mad scramble come next Fall.

1) What do my results look like if I separate my graduates into groups (graduated over 100 days ago, 70-100 days, 30-70 days, and <30 days)?  Your results should be significantly higher for those groups that have been out of school longer.  Here are some suggested benchmarks.

• Greater than 100 days – 80% or better placed
• 70-100 days — 70% or better placed
• 30-70 days — over 55% placed
• Less than 30 days — 45% placed

We all know that the longer a student is out of school, the less likely they are to become employed in-field, or in a related field… which leads to the next great question…

2) What more can we do to increase “15 day employment rate” (this is the percent of your graduates that are verified employed within 15 days of graduation). Here are some critical strategies for improving early employment.

• Increase externship/internship-to-hire employment conversion (we have some excellent tools to help you with this, call us today! 307-200-9460).
• Start working with students earlier, so they graduate and start work, not graduate and start looking.
• Partner with your faculty to make sure they’re talking to students about job search, and work preparedness at least six months before graduation.

3) Start today with your “emergency” strategies. Many of our clients wait until August to do any skip tracing, etc… in order to find missing grads. Send those post cards, and make those calls today for your current missing grads. Again, you’re more likely to find them today, than you will be six months from now…

Ann and I have a dozen more great ideas for how you can work today, to ensure that you aren’t scrambling late in the term. Email me: martha@sparrowgroup.biz, to arrange a free consultation call to discuss your campus’ needs.