Individual Development Plans for career college faculty should include developmental goals and objectives, suggested professional affiliations and activities, recommended training, and classroom observation to evaluate transfer of training. An effective plan should encompass the instructor's own ideas for ongoing development of effective teaching, and be supported by the responsible manager/mentor through coaching, supplying the necessary resources, and mutual discussion of results.

Are you having challenges in engaging your instructors in your faculty development program?

Most career college instructors are highly motivated because they are passionate about their students. As career educators, they are driven by the goal of providing an excellent education to their students and helping them succeed in their life and career. These instructors are always looking for opportunities to enhance their teaching skills to better serve their students.

Training is ineffective unless the desired behavior, knowledge, and skills are transferred to the workplace. It is not enough to simply admonish employees to apply what they learn in training. Below is a suggested list of things to do after training starts to maximize transfer of training to the workplace.

If you are like most career colleges, you are probably very good at calculating the ROI for your various advertising programs but have never measured the ROI for your employee training programs.

I have seen many “quality-driven” schools that view training as an essential component of their continuous improvement plan. The leaders of these institutions are completely sold on the value of training and are convinced that timely and effective training is needed to ensure quality and profitability. Naturally, these quality-driven schools automatically meet the compliance requirements set forth by their licensing and accrediting agencies.

Employees have the tendency to listen to a trainer that they perceive to be the expert.

Employees may not be attentive to learning if they perceive the trainer as being biased.

At the CCA 2008 convention, Dr. Gary Meers (our VP of Education at MaxKnowledge) and Kay Bertrand (VP of Education at NCCT) made a joint presentation on the care and feeding of career college faculty. In this session, Gary and Kay discussed ways of retaining and rewarding faculty while facilitating their professional development. I am sharing their PowerPoint presentation below.

The presentation covers the following topics:

• Understanding the Roles Faculty Play in the Instructional Process   
• Developing Faculty Development and Retention Plans
• Making Instructor Certification a Part of Faculty Growth
• Identifying Strategies for Retention of Faculty
• Keeping the Best

Managers perform many supervisory roles in the workplace. Underlying those roles are three key components to effective supervision: responsibility, authority and accountability. The free tutorial below examines some common myths about the roles of the manager and, in concert with the key components, presents both good practices and practices to avoid when supervising others.

Upon completion of this tutorial, you should be able to:

Your actions can and do influence your boss's behaviors. And your boss's behaviors influence your actions. You and your boss are in a behavioral loop, each influencing the other. The easiest way to change the pattern of interaction with your boss is to change your own behavior. Your relationship with your boss has a bigger impact on your attitude toward your job than anything else. The free tutorial below shows you how you can work with your boss to obtain the best possible results for you, your boss, and your organization.

Upon completion of this tutorial, you should be able to identify:

Training is vital to the successful operation of a career school. Orientation is the first order of business for a new employee and continued training improves employee competence. Superior employee performance yields efficient school operation. Ensuring that employees are well trained is one of the fundamental responsibilities of a manager or supervisor. The free tutorial below discusses the importance of formal training and offers guidelines for setting up effective training programs for your school personnel.

Upon completion of this tutorial, you should be able to identify: