new perspectives for academic...

New Perspectives for Academic Advisors!

Anwar El TurkStudent Employment Coordinator

Maryam AlSaeediSystem Engineer

Qatar University Career Services Center

• Overview of the student employment program

• Identify Student Employment as a cycle of a rich learning experience

• Best practices of student employment in the academic advising unit

Session Objectives

Student Employment

Student Employment: New Perspectives for Academic Advisors Nov 2014

Financial worthy

experience

Valuable work

experience

Professional training

workshops

Educational experiences


Student Employment Program


Regular Full‐time student

GPA 2.0 or above

CareerExcellence Workshop

Student Employment Policies

Student Employment procedures

• The student must fill an online employment application form


1

2

34

5

The “Five” Learning Cycle


Produce a competitive graduate willing to

face today’slabor market

Explore

Build

Implement Evaluate

Develop

Essential elements of the “Five” learning cycle

The “Five” Learning Cycle


The “Five” Learning Cycle Explore

AcademicEducation

Career Education

• The blend between academic & career education is essential in order to produce a graduate able to compete and excel in today’s labor market.

• The student employment program is an ideal opportunity to evolve the students career education, by choosing which job opportunity fits the students interest. The chosen job will provide the students with the required skills, knowledge and expertise necessary for the near future.

• Job opportunities range from:

• Administrative assistant• Telephone operator• Peer advisor, etc…Student Employment: New Perspectives for Academic Advisors Nov 2014

The career excellence workshop focuses on two fundamental skills:

1. Essence of work ethics.2. Ideal customer service.

The “Five” Learning Cycle Build

Career Excellence workshop

The goal is to provide an educational experience which will enhance a student’s ability to perform tasks assigned by the supervisor and which also gives them a clearer image in choosing their career path.

Career Excellence workshop

Enforce


• The student is also assessed in the “Career Excellence Workshop” through both pre and post‐workshop assessments.

• The grading ranges from:• Weak• Good• Very good• Excellent

The “Five” Learning Cycle Build

72

1664

37474

2184

Excellent VeryGood

Good Weak Total

Career Excellence Grading

3% 76% 17% 3%


• The student has attended and completed the “Career Excellence Workshop” and is now ready to implement his newly achieved skills and knowledge in his new job opportunity.

• The student will be facing daily issues and situations where he will be learning:

The “Five” Learning Cycle Implement

Sense of professionalism

Time Management

Discipline

Others..

Responsibility


• Students are given a wide variety of tasks which may be outside of their comfort zones and require an ability to adapt in order to successfully accomplish.

• The assigned supervisor is given the responsibility to rate student performance ranging:

1. Unsatisfactory2. Needs improvement3. Meets expectations4. Exceeded expectations5. Outstanding

The “Five” Learning Cycle Evaluate

Comfortzone


• Situation (I): “the student is facing difficulties”

• The assigned supervisors will be working with the student employment section to level up the students performance throughout the “IMPROVE” program.

• Workshops will first be held with the supervisors to identify the importance of positive communication, motivation, guidance and building student’s skills.

• Supervisors will work with their students on these issues and if this did not succeed they are referred to the career counselor.



• Situation (II): “the student is proving to be outstanding”• The student’s outstanding performance can be recognized

through nomination for the annual student employment award.

• The first student employment award call for nominations has been launched on the 16th of November 2014.



• The supervisors can nominate their outstanding students for further professional development workshops

• Another workshop is available for high achieving students called “Leadership and Charisma workshop”

• The Leadership and Charisma workshop objectives are:• develop and set goals to become a leader• Increase self‐motivation, productivity, efficiency and creativity and

improve other student employees in the department

The “Five” Learning Cycle Develop


885Employed students

754Unemplo

yed students

Fall 2013

1307employed students

928 unemploy

ed

Spring 2014

Employment statistics


Total: 1639 Application Total: 2235 Application

Male students accomplishedthe Career Excellence

Workshop

Female students accomplishedthe Career Excellence

Workshop

918

1874

Statistics – Career Excellence Workshop


Statistics – Top 10 departments hiring student employees


246

86

76

63

59

57

54

35

34

26

Student Services Department

Admission

Student Activities Department

Student Learning Support Center

Academic Advising Unit

Library

CAS ‐ Department of International Affairs

Students With Special Needs Section

External Relations

College of Law

Technology

1. Ease of registration process for the program2. Easier access to students by the supervisors3. Easier registration and tracking of student daily working hours.4. Avoids any miscalculations in students working hours5. Proceeds faster payments for students

ManualSystem Automated

System2013


Student Employment & Academic Advising


Student Employment & Academic Advising

Advantages of peer advisors

Training & Limitations

Student Employees tasks


Advantages of having student employee peer advisors

Filtering student cases, where simple cases can be answered by a student peer advisor. Sensitive cases should always be directed towards the academic advisors.

Saving the academic advisor’s time.

Increase in trust between the student and the peer advisor due to the small age gap.

Peer advisors usually will be receiving complaints from students, and so the peer advisor will be sharing it with the academic advisor. The academic advisor will start working on fixing these complaints.


Academic Advisors Tasks Vs. Peer Advisors Tasks

??


• Assist the student during and after the institutional orientation or during the new student orientation for example:• Perform a presentation explaining the add/drop process.• Guide students towards the right labs & locations.• Assist with completion of necessary forms.

•Guide students towards the right university resources.

•Teach students how to register online, declare their major or minor online and to generally navigate the QU website for important information.

Student Employee Tasks


• Help students in interpreting course codes and understanding class timing.

• Help students in understanding:• Study plan• Majors• Major & college requirements• Admission conditions

• Explain to students the required protocol & routine to follow in order to change major.



• Aid students in generating and interpreting needed reports through the self‐service banner, report can range from degree of evaluation and transcripts.

• Perform administrative assistant tasks such as general administrative support, preparation and translation of meeting minutes, analysis of training sessions etc.

• Media assistance in tasks such as filming videos, designing invitation and poster cards etc.



• Coordinate “class visits” for the academic advisor, in which the student will be introduced to the peers in case they require any assistance.

• Coordinate with the respective academic advisor regarding recent updates.



Peer advisor should not force the student to follow a certain plan or action.Peer advisor should not command or redirect the student before prior approval from the academic advisor.Peer advisors should not portray judgmental opinions towards Professors or Qatar University Staff.Peer advisors should not handle students under probation or a low GPA; these students should be directed to the academic advisor.Peer advisors should always be expected to follow confidentiality, privacy and trust protocols.

Student Employee Limitations


• Train the students about the rules and conditions to follow each college’s study plan.

• Train the student employee to perform the registration process, for example add/drop classes.

• Train the student employee how to use the frequently used terminology, such GPA, probation, earned hours etc.

• Invite peer advisors & students to attend workshops organized by the academic advisors.

• Attend a training workshop done by the academic advisor strictly to the peer advisors containing all the necessary information in order for the peer advisor to successfully perform his/her tasks.

• Fix a dashboard system in each advising center where all the needed information is posted to aid the peer advisor to perform his tasks.

Training


Questions & Answers

Questions

?


Contact

Qatar UniversityCareer Services Center – Student Employment Section

Email Address [email protected]

Telephone 44033883

Thank you!

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