In the State of Maine the percentage of high school graduates going on to college has declined 13 per cent in four years. Our graduates at Mt. Ararat School are no exception. From primarily rural, coastal "down east" communities, they are quick to point out that the belief that college means good jobs is "not necessarily so." At the same time, it has been clear to us on the faculty that without help, these students will be ill-equipped to seek or keep jobs. They need help and have the right to expect it.
(Mt. Ararat, incidentally, is Maine's largest consolidated school. It serves four rural communities in central coastal Maine, grades 7-12, 1,360 students.)
Two Models
In an effort to meet the placement needs of undergraduates as well as graduating seniors, the Mt. Ararat Guidance Department has developed two alternate plans for job placement at the high school level. One is a guidance-based model in which the guidance department conducts the job placement effort as part of its ongoing program. The second is a team approach involving interested faculty members who organize a team placement effort.
The models were developed on the following guidelines: Neither would require additional personnel; each would be viewed as an extension of existing services rather than an addition to them; both would reflect the needs of rural youth, and both would take a comprehensive view of placement.
Taking a "comprehensive view" means that job placement is more than getting kids jobs. It means preparing students to be successful employees as well as preparing them to wage a successful job-seeking campaign. At Mt. Ararat, we use a five-segment program which includes (1) needs assessment, (2) job development, (3) student development, (4) placement, and (5) follow-up.
Trite but True
"Look before you leap," is the way the saying goes. Needs assessment is exactly that. What is the student demand for placement services? Is the greater demand for full-time or part-time employment? Where are the students working now? Who are the major employers? What is the average wage? All are questions that must be answered.
It may sound a bit hollow, but needs assessment is important. The demand for job placement services can be awesome. Before starting a program, the school staff should determine realistically how many students can be served. In many circumstances, it may be possible to provide a true placement service to graduating seniors only. This should be decided before the program starts.
Needs assessment is not complicated, by the way. In most instances, a simple paper-and-pencil questionnaire filled out by an advisory group is sufficient.
Personal Visits Pay Off
Job development is broadly defined as an effort that results in job orders-specifically, that which is done to get information on employment opportunities to which students can be referred. The major effort in this vein is contacting businessmen to inform them of the service. The hope is that in the future they will turn to the placement office when they have openings.
Some job development techniques we have used are:
Personal contact with individual employers at their business. Mailings-a good preliminary to the above. Speaking engagements to civic groups. Newspapers and radio spots.
It is significant to note that of the companies visited personally, 79 per cent have supplied job orders and 44 per cent have hired students. Clearly, getting out to visit employers pays off. It is crucial to any placement effort.
One last word on job development: A first step is to organize a system of job order management. Specifically this means keeping track of who is looking for employees, and equally important, finding out exactly what they are looking for. The more information you can get about an employer and the job, the better equipped you are to prepare a student for successfully applying for that job.
"Kids today can't even fill out an application." "The way they come in for an interview, they couldn't get hired if their father owned the company." Sound familiar?
"You have to keep telling them every minute what to do." "They think you owe them something." Anyone dealing with employers has heard it all. Doing something about this state of affairs is the primary objective of student development.
How does a student get a job? Better still, how does he keep one? Teaching these skills is student development. It can be the most challenging, creative, important, and frustrating aspect of job placement.
The prime vehicle of student development at Mt. Ararat is a job-seeking/job-keeping seminar. A one-day intensive format is used, as it tends to interfere least with class scheduling and other activities. The seminar covers sources of jobs, resumes, letters of introduction, interviews, job keeping, and labor laws. Each participant is given a job packet containing relevant materials for review. Only the packet binder is purchased; thus the seminar involves no great expense. Of all aspects of this seminar, students seem to enjoy hearing from local businessmen the most.
Currently being developed are activities that take place within the classroom. Seniors are being asked to report on a troublesome work situation as a writing assignment. Teams of students use these reports to write short, work-related role-playing scripts for videotaping. It is the author's belief that such activities included in the ongoing curriculum will be the most effective type of student development.
Mutual Trust Essential
Placement is the payoff of the program. It is a process of matching a potential employee with an employer-of providing students with information and support to ensure that they are hired.
At Mt. Ararat, we are committed to the premise that effective placement depends on a personal, trusting relationship between placement counselor and student. If you don't know the kids, you can't do the job. Fancy cybernetics, roving placement counselors, satellite trailers are not, in our opinion, "where it's at." The key to good job placement is that the effort be handled within the school by people the students know and trust, and vice versa.
Several others points are worth considering:
In placement, the employer bears the responsibility to hire or not to hire.
Don't get trapped into recommending hiring; it will backfire. If a student isn't hired, find out why and use this as a learning experience for the student.
Provide some method to identify students being referred by your service as opposed to those applying off the street.
Most Prefer to Wait It Out
Unfortunately, unlike institutions of higher learning, employers cannot wait until graduation day. Any secondary school committed to job placement must develop a procedure to allow seniors the opportunity to take full-time jobs prior to graduation.
The process at Mt. Ararat is facilitated by a graduation contract. Briefly, students and teachers make arrangements whereby the student will finish required courses and any other course he may want. The student agrees to return to school if full-time employment ends, and the contract spells out these additional stipulations: the exact tasks that must be completed to finish courses, when they are due, how work will be submitted, and the time the student will report for his weekly meeting with the counselor.
The last point calls for explanation: We at Mt. Ararat view the program as a transition effort. We still consider the student to be in fact a full-time student involved in a final educational project-working full time. Under these circumstances, we require that participants meet weekly or biweekly with the placement counselor to review the work project. In short, we don't cut them loose. We attempt to support them in those crucial first weeks in the world of work.
One finding may be helpful: At first glance one might anticipate that the opportunity to cut education short would result in half the senior class vanishing after Christmas. Not so. The fact is that the end of the senior year is a time that few want to miss. We have found that only the most seriously job-oriented seniors are tempted. Most prefer to lake a chance and wait for whatever opens up after graduation.
Kids who lose jobs seldom take long in doing so. Those first weeks on a job are critical and, as we all know, the most trying. Thus follow-up is, first of all, support.
At Mt. Ararat, students who register with the placement office agree that if placed, they will attend two follow-up group sessions. In these sessions, job-seeking skills are stressed and potential conflicts explored.
A second form of follow-up concerns graduates. In this follow-up, two types of data are looked for: Who needs placement and help? And how are employed graduates faring?
Getting graduates back to school to meet with the faculty is both fun and rewarding; it is also excellent public relations. Parents are amazed and pleased that the school is still interested.
Logical Extension
Guidance departments have long provided placement services to students pursuing higher education. The guidance-based model recognizes this precedent, and sees its job placement effort as a logical extension of these services. The model revolves around one counselor identified as placement coordinator.
This counselor becomes solely responsible for job development and is given the mobility to spend considerable time outside the school in the business community. He also handles placement counseling whenever possible. The remaining activities-needs assessment, student development, and follow-up-are shared by the other members of the guidance staff.
This model is feasible in any guidance department of three or more counselors. Job placement offers the coordinating counselor a unique opportunity to demonstrate to kids and their parents that the guidance department serves all students.
Alternative for Small Schools
In the placement team approach, an ad hoc committee of school staff-turned on by helping kids get jobs-organizes to run a placement program. Team members can include parents, businessmen, and other interested laymen. Job development is also part of this group effort. Everyone has some contacts in the business community which can be pooled by the group.
At Mt. Ararat, the placement team's responsibility is restricted to seniors planning on full-time work after graduation. The team takes this group as a "case load." A team approach to placing seniors has several advantages over other types of organization. First, a student's instructor can supply accurate information about his skills. We found early that placing a student in a job he is under trained for can be a great disservice. Secondly, placement often involves motivation, support, and personal concern. A number of adults providing this type of support is dynamic.
The team approach is particularly promising for small schools. It is an excellent alternative for rural schools that have no guidance services. In Maine we are currently exploring the possibility of providing a placement facilitator in each regional vocational center to organize placement teams in the rural member schools.
Dividends-Selfish and Otherwise
We are excited about job placement at Mt. Ararat-for some very selfish reasons. It has paid dividends. Here are a few of them:
We have demonstrated to students, to parents, and to the community that we care about all students.
We have gone to the business community offering a service instead of asking for a handout. We have met the real needs of a lot of kids.
Job placement is fun. Get into it. If we can help you get started, let's hear from you.
