Recruitment Basics

Whether you're new to recruitment or an old pro looking for ways to refresh existing efforts, this section will help you assess where you are and think about where you'd like to be. Woven throughout are suggestions for places to incorporate resources from Pathways to Technology. This section is meant to be used as a starting point. Feel free to take the ideas offered here and adapt them to fit your unique technology program, college, and pool of prospective students.

Take Stock
Evaluate Your Programs
Develop a Recruitment Strategy

Take Stock

Before you start any new recruitment strategies or programs, take some time to examine what you are already doing. This will help you avoid duplication of efforts and begin identifying what you can still use and where to develop new strategies. Begin by compiling a master list of your recruitment efforts (past and present), including:

• Who is responsible for recruitment
  
  
• Target audiences (prospective students; people who influence prospective students such as parents and educators; internal audiences such as trustees, faculty, and administrators; external partners in business, civic and professional organizations, government and not-for-profit agencies, and education, etc.)
  
  
• Key messages
  
  
• Materials (college bulletin, posters, brochures, ads, etc.)
  
  
• Events/programs (open houses, teacher or student workshops, career fairs, off-campus events, summer camps, etc.)
  
  
• Publicity (mailing lists; newspaper, radio, and television ads; press releases and feature stories in press, etc.)
  
  
• Budget and expenses
  
  
• Evaluation tools
  
  
• Results

Evaluate Your Programs

As you gain a clearer picture of your recruitment efforts, evaluate what you are doing. This step will help you assess whether you are reaching your target audience, how well your messages and strategies are working, and where there is room for improvement and new ideas.

Audience

Who is your target audience(s)? Who is the primary audience, the secondary audiences? Are you reaching these audiences? Are there groups you aren't reaching but would like to?

Messages

What are your messages? Are they clear and concise? Are they reflected in your promotional materials? Do they align with your current technology programs and target audiences, or do they need to be updated?

Events/Programs

Do you have identifiable and measurable goals and objectives for your events and programs? How well are you achieving these goals? For example, does your open house attract your target audience, and is it converting potential students into enrolled students?

Publicity

Do you have mailing lists? Are your lists up to date? What are you doing to continue building these lists? How are you reaching out to the press? Are these efforts garnering the type of press you want?

Evaluation

How are you tracking your efforts? Do you have an infrastructure in place to measure success and gather feedback about your efforts? How are you using evaluation findings to make changes?

Develop a Recruitment Strategy

The efforts described above should yield the big picture of what you are doing, how it is working, and ideas about what needs to be added, changed, or dropped. Before you tweak any individual activities, survey your big picture and develop an overall recruitment strategy. Begin by setting your goals and objectives. Goals define the ultimate purpose of your project. They tend to be abstract and broad in scope. Objectives, on the other hand, are more specific and concrete. They describe what you believe you can reasonably achieve through your project. Below are sample goals and objectives that can serve as starting points. As you develop your own recruitment strategy, be sure to establish measurable outcomes for all of your programs and materials.

GOAL Increase community awareness of your technology program and related careers.

OBJECTIVES:

• Integrate your technology program into the college's ongoing promotional efforts.
  • What profile does the technology program have on campus? For example, is program information readily available in admissions and career guidance offices?
  • Do the program administrators and college marketing or public information departments work together? Do they know about the program's existing recruitment strategies, success stories, and partnerships?
  • Is the technology program part of the college's overall marketing strategy? Are program listings highlighted in the college bulletin and on the Web site? Is the program included in campus-wide recruitment events?
  • Do the academic advisors for incoming students know about your program? Host a meeting and provide them with handouts they can distribute to students about your program, available careers and pay scales, course requirements, and contact information.
  • Do your college's administrators, trustees, faculty, staff, and others know about your program? Host an Open House or an informational meeting for them.
  • Is your program featured prominently on the college Web site? Create a technology area on your Web site that highlights technology training and jobs. Link to or adapt features from the Pathways to Technology site.
  
  
• Partner with your local public television station.
  • Meet to discuss your college's programs and explore opportunities to collaborate. Public television stations are committed to community outreach and may be able to assist you with events and promotion. Visit the PBS Web site to find your local station. From the footer of the PBS home page, click on the Station Finder and enter your ZIP code. When calling your station, ask to speak with the outreach or education coordinator.
  • Discuss ideas for joint workshops. Stations offer teacher and parent workshops throughout the year.
  • Stations typically have membership programs and vehicles, such as magazines and e-mail newsletters, to inform members of upcoming events. Ask your partners about placing an Open House or Technology Forum announcement in their communication systems. Also ask stations about on-air promotion spots. Keep in mind that there is heavy demand for on-air spots, and stations cannot accommodate every request.
  
  
• Partner with your local cable channel.
  • Work with local channels' news departments to develop a "Technology Today" news segment that features local industry and business and is created or hosted by your college. Encourage local industry to buy advertising during the segments to help support the concept.
  • Negotiate with local channels to buy ads for each technology public service announcement they run. Develop a local technology infomercial that runs as a local insert and is cosponsored by cable and local industry.
  
  
• Create events to continually bring people into your program, such as:
  • Open Houses for prospective students and undeclared majors already at your college.
  • Technology Forums for those who influence prospective students, such as guidance counselors, career advisors, teachers, and parents.

GOAL Create strong partnerships with related industries.

OBJECTIVES:

• Meet with industry representatives to discuss your college's programs and explore opportunities to collaborate.
  • Offer on-site lectures, short courses, or specialized coursework to corporate partners/supporters.
  • Host information tables at their facility.
  • Invite their employees to apply for adjunct faculty positions.
  • Ask their experts for real-world applications of technology and incorporate these into your curriculum.
  • Offer tuition discounts or other incentives to their employees.
  • Invite businesses to participate in your mentoring programs, co-op programs, internship programs, and job placement services.
  • Determine whether there are places to link your training with their jobs in their advertising and job announcements.
  
  
• Create an industry advisory committee to promote program-specific technology fields, recruit students, evaluate and refine courses, etc. Define their role, term period, and expectations.
  
  
• Ask your adjunct faculty to serve as college representatives within their company. Provide adjuncts with ready-to-distribute materials and ideas for sharing information with fellow employees.
  
  
• Invite industry representatives to participate in your on-campus functions, such as staffing a station your Open House or Technology Forum.
  
  
• Partner with local chapters of professional organizations that are related to your technology programs.
  • Invite their members to apply for adjunct faculty positions.
  • Ask their experts for real-world applications of technology and incorporate these into curriculum.
  • Invite members to participate in your on-campus functions, such as staffing a station at your Open House or Technology Forum.
  • Invite members to join your industry advisory committee (see above).
  
  

GOAL Build bridges between your program and local middle and high schools.

OBJECTIVES:

• Introduce middle school students to the excitement of science, math, and engineering.
  • Research shows that most kids (especially girls and minorities) are turned off to careers in science and technology as early as middle school. Meet with representatives from local middle schools, science and children's museums, afterschool programs, and business partners to discuss partnership opportunities to reach this age group.
  • Work with your faculty and students to develop a "Science Magic" show and take it into classrooms. Think hot dogs frozen in liquid nitrogen and shattered with a hammer!
  • Arrange for your faculty or students to serve as judges or mentors at middle school science fairs.
  • Host an afterschool club or summer camp program. For ready-to-use resources, go to:
    • ClubZOOM Engineering Activity Guide (http://pbskids.org/zoom/) Available on the Parents and Educators section of the ZOOM Web site January 2004, this guide contains instructions for five engineering activities, teaching tips, club member cards, and bulletin board postings.
    • Building Big Activity Guide (http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/buildingbig/educator/index.html) This guide contains hands-on activities that increase students' awareness of their built environment and the impact of technology on society, while at the same time teaching basic physical science concepts.
  • Sponsor a design competition, such as:
    • Future Cities Competition (http://www.futurecity.org/) Seventh- and eighth-grade students are challenged to design their vision of a city of the future.
    • FIRST/LEGO League (http://www.usfirst.org/jrobtcs/flego.htm) This robotics program introduces science and technology to elementary and middle school students using real-world challenges and hands-on learning.
  • Host joint professional development workshops with your public television station. Stations offer teacher workshops throughout the year.
  
  
• Introduce high school students to careers in technology and your program.
  • Create a list of area schools you want to reach out to. Assign one faculty or staff member to serve as that school's liaison.
  • Meet with school principals and superintendents to discuss the importance of science and technology, programs your college offers, and what their needs are. Explore opportunities to collaborate.
  • Offer short courses or lectures at the high school.
  • Host an Information Table at high school career/college fairs.
  • Invite high school students and parents to an Open House on your campus.
  • Have faculty serve as judges at high school science fairs.
  • Host science fairs or engineering challenges (such as FIRST Robotics Competition, http://www.usfirst.org/robotics/) on your campus. Arrange opportunities for participants to tour labs and meet faculty while on campus.
  • Work with high school teachers to arrange a classroom visit by several of your program students. Have your students do a hands-on technology activity that relates to the curriculum, discuss what they are studying, and share their career plans.
  • Connect your current students and alumni with prospective students. Create a list of students and alumni who are willing to be contacted so that prospective students can ask questions and learn more before applying. Be sure to address language issues. For example, if the high school serves a large population of Spanish speakers, provide them with names of students who also speak Spanish.
  
  
• Create professional development opportunities for teachers and guidance counselors.
  • Offer a Technology Forum for teachers and guidance counselors to learn about your program and available careers.
  • Partner with your college's education department or other teacher professional development experts to offer teachers summer institutes in math and science.

GOAL Increase the number of nontraditional students in your program, including women and minorities.

OBJECTIVES:

• Identify what obstacles exist to nontraditional students attending your program, such as math and science proficiency, transportation, child care, financial limitations, and language barriers. Does your college offer support systems for dealing with these obstacles? For example, does your college offer a program for students who need to improve their math skills or a free transportation service that prospective students may not know about? Develop promotional materials (brochures, posters, flyers) that outline available support. Translate the materials into appropriate languages.
  
  
• Develop partnerships with government or not-for-profit organizations that provide your target audience with services (e.g., churches, unions, workforce development offices, retraining programs, unemployment offices, libraries, etc.). Explore opportunities to collaborate:
  • Offer short courses, lectures, or specialized coursework on their site.
  • Participate in their related programs or events.
  • Host an Open House or information table at their facility.
  • Share brochures and other information about your program that they can distribute or incorporate into their existing programs or resources.
  
  
• Connect current students and alumni with prospective students. Create a list of willing students and alumni contact information so that prospective students can ask them questions and learn more before applying. Be sure to address language issues. For example, if the organization serves a large population of Spanish speakers, provide them with names of students who also speak Spanish.