A Strategy for Establishing a School-Based Job Placement Program

Most vocational teachers agree that one of the primary goals of vocational education is training students for employment. Many school districts, however, do not provide a formally organized job placement program for vocational students leaving school and seeking employment. What if you, the vocational agriculture teacher, assumed the role of change agent and sought to introduce the innovation of a school-based job placement program into your school district? How could you accomplish this change? What would be your strategy? The following is a step-by-step description of a strategy that you could use in bringing about this change in your school district.

Step 1: Contacting the School Administrators

The initial phase of the change strategy involves contacting the school administrators to present a rationale for a job placement program for vocational education students and to seek approval to investigate the need for a job placement program in the school district. Using this approach, school administrators would be informed from the very beginning of the program. Doing so also gives the administrators a stake in the outcome.



It would not be appropriate to have all of the data establishing a need for a job placement program gathered at this time because the change process should be collaborative in nature, with you the change agent forming a partnership with the school system and the community in planning the change.

Step 2: Creating Awareness

Next, create an awareness of the potential benefits of a school-based job placement program among the faculty and the community. One method of creating awareness involves scheduling a person, already directly involved with a school-based job placement program, to speak on the topic of job placement for vocational education students at a faculty meeting, in-service training program, or similar event. This technique would produce a general awareness of the job placement concept and would stimulate thought concerning the implications of such a program in the school district.

A special effort should be made to allow all vocational education teachers in the district and the speaker an opportunity to visit together informally. This technique would provide the vocational teachers additional information and clarification concerning this innovation. Additionally, it should aid in convincing the vocational teachers that a school-based job placement program for vocational education students would help each of their programs.

Further support for this kind of program can be developed by having representatives of the local mass media interview this speaker and other persons already involved in job placement programs concerning the concept of job placement. This technique could create an awareness of the innovation among businesses, employers, industries, parents, and students. The mass media coverage should also reinforce the concept in the minds of the school district's personnel.

Step 3: Determining the Impact of the Innovation

This may be done by organizing a committee to determine the potential impact of such a job placement program on vocational education students and the community. Committee membership should include vocational teachers, school counselors, school administrators, representatives of the vocational education advisory committees, state employment agency personnel, businessmen, vocational education students and others. Bice cautioned that involving only opinion leaders in the change process should be practiced with caution. Therefore, this committee should be composed of opinion leaders as well as non-opinion leaders.

This committee should study the potential impact of a school-based job placement program by

1. Studying vocational education follow-up reports to determine the percentage of students placed in employment commensurate with their vocational training.
   
   
2. Interviewing former vocational education students concerning their reactions to the job placement program concept and to determine if such a program would have been beneficial to them.
   
   
3. Interviewing present vocational education students concerning their reactions to a job placement program.
   
   
4. Interviewing state employment commission personnel and employers concerning their willingness to participate in a job placement program.
   
   
5. Collecting other data deemed necessary.
   

At the conclusion of the committee's work, arrange a formal meeting for vocational education personnel, school counselors, and school administrators. The committee should present its findings and recommendations at this meeting.

Real-life examples, using local persons, should be used to dramatize the need for a school-based job placement program and to help persuade the school personnel that the need is real. Another technique to illustrate the potential impact of a job placement program would involve describing the discrepancies between the present situation and what it could be.

The committee's work could also serve further to convince the vocational teachers, counselors, and administrators of their capability of implementing this change. One way of doing this would involve describing the experiences of a similar school district that has successfully adopted a school-based job placement program.

Step 4: Developing a School-Based Job Placement Program and Gaining Its Acceptance

A committee, similar in composition to the one described in step three, can be the vehicle by which a model for the school-based job placement program can be developed. Using this approach, a program oriented toward the needs of the school, the vocational education students, and the community would result. This local orientation is vital when we consider that Rogers and Shoemaker concluded that the success of a change agent in introducing an innovation is positively related to the degree to which the innovation is client oriented and compatible with the client's needs.

Various models for school-based job placement programs are available in the literature, such as the ones described by Allen, Gingerich, and Buckingham. This latter article describes a school-based job placement program in the Baltimore Public Schools which began as an outgrowth of guidance and counseling in 1928. These models and others are guides around which the school-based job placement program could be developed.

After the tentative job placement program has been developed it should then be presented to all vocational teachers, school counselors, and school administrators for their comments and suggestions. Considering these recommendations, then develop and present the final model to the superintendent and board of education for final action. If board action is favorable, the task still remains of insuring school and community acceptance of the job placement program.

The major emphasis at this stage of the change strategy is persuading vocational teachers, vocational students, and the community that the job placement program is workable. Strategies to be employed by the change agent and the job placement coordinator to help persuade the client system to adopt the innovation would include

1. Contacting each vocational teacher to provide clarification and additional information concerning the job placement program.
   
   
2. Persuading each vocational teacher to discuss the potential benefits of the job placement program with his classes.
   
   
3. Contacting the state employment commission to solicit assistance with the job placement program.
   
   
4. Contacting employers concerning the job placement program and securing assurances of their willingness to participate in the program.
   
   
5. Contacting each vocational education advisory committee concerning the job placement program and securing their active participation.
   

Do not be surprised if everyone does not participate in the program initially because different adopter categories, ranging from innovator and early adopter to laggard, will probably exist in the school district. However, it may be your responsibility or that of the person given responsibility for the job placement program to attempt to get people in the adopter categories to accept the program as rapidly as possible in order to achieve its adoption.

Step 5: Continuing the Job Placement Program Once Initiated

The person responsible for the program's operation needs to provide evidence concerning the effectiveness of the job placement program to the vocational teachers, school administration, employers, and the community. Evidence concerning the number of students placed on jobs, type of employment received, and present job openings should provide reinforcement to those who have adopted the innovation and would stimulate continued participation. Similar information should be provided to non-adopters to aid in persuading them to adopt the innovation.

For example, one activity prior to the close of school might be to arrange a meeting of vocational teachers, school administrators, representatives of the vocational education advisory committees, state employment agency personnel, businessmen, and others. The purposes of this meeting would be to present an interim report concerning the success of the job placement program and to receive recommendations for improving and modifying the program. After this meeting, you should become less involved in the job placement program and the job placement coordinator should assume the major role for the program.

In the subsequent years the job placement coordinator should continually seek information concerning changes needed in the job placement program and change the program to meet these needs. Also he should continue to provide evidence indicating the effectiveness of the program.