Student Recruiters Prove to be Assests on SAIT’s Campus

SAIT recruiters try to help prospective students find a program that is right for them in any school.

Michael Sondermann, assistant director of student services, has been in his role for two months. He is responsible for the strategic recruitment of students and reviewing recruiters’ performance.

“Our main goal is not only to tell prospective students what a great school SAIT is, but turn them on to continuing their education,” Sondermann said.

SAIT recruits students through visiting career job fairs, speaking in high school COMM classes, hosting tours, open houses and family orientation nights.

Recruiters also use SAITs Further Your Passion website, facebook, twitter and host msn chats a couple times a week for a few hours at a time. These online resources give students the opportunity to take advantage of the recruiter’s knowledge and ask any questions about SAIT.

“They know an incredible amount of information,” Sondermann said.

Recruiters also attend events like the Calgary’s Women’s Show and set up a booth to provide information to women for themselves and children about SAIT.

Sondermann said SAIT’s three recruiters are spread thin from September to January.

“We attend the events where we will hit the most prospective students,” Sondermann said.

“Recruiting is kind of like marketing. You have to target where you are aiming.”

SAIT will host a counsellor update this fall in which approximately 50 high school counsellors will attend.

“We will have speakers come and give presentations telling them the changes to the application and what’s new on campus,” Sondermann said.

According to Sondermann counsellors will have the opportunity to explore the campus and get hands on experience of the programs so they can tell high school students what SAIT is like.

“We create a passion for a lot of things here and it is kind of cool,” Sondermann said.

Sonderman said recruiters are trying to tell prospective students SAIT is a good place to go to school and encourage students to do the same.

According to students, they already are. Adnan Mohammad, Sarah Wong , Seung Ok, and Alfrooz Fereosiyan all said they heard about SAIT through friends, not through other recruiting methods SAIT uses.

“Take some courses and you can get a job,” said Wong, a construction estimating student.

According to Ok, SAIT is a pleasant place to go to school with kind staff and students.

“It is a good school for getting a professional career,” Ok said.

Sondermann is trying to get the voice of current students and alumni out to the public. To do this he is looking at posting student blogs on the Further Your Passion website as well as having alumni speak to prospective students about their experience at SAIT.

Other information Sondermann wants to offer on the Further Your Passion site is a virtual tour of the campus complete with a student narrative.

“Other schools provide great information on what life on campus is like,” Sondermann said.

“We don’t do a great job and we have to change that.”

(Weekly Albertan)