Since enrolling in the Human Resource Development program at McDaniel College, I
have been promoted to the Director of Career Services at ITT Technical Institute (ITT Tech). In
addition to managing a team of four, my responsibilities are as follows; to build effective
relationships with local/regional employers, to arrange job interviews between ITT Tech
students/graduates and local/regional employers, and to maintain a 65% ACICS (Accrediting
Counsel for Independent Colleges and Schools) graduate employment rate. Because I need to
maintain a 65% graduate employment rate, it is pivotal that my students/graduates go to job
interviews fully prepared, especially in our current economic market. One of the ways that I
ensure my students/graduates are fully prepared for job interviews is by creating training
sessions. The “Dress for Success” training session I created in the Instructional Systems Design
class has proven to be effective tool, as I will address below, and is available to all Directors of
Career Services within ITT Tech. For these reasons, my “Dress for Success” training session fits
this objective (theoretical foundations) as a professional entry.
When first designing the “Dress for Success” training session, I didn’t give too much
thought into what went into a training session. As such, the ADDIE (Analyze, Design, Develop,
Implement, and Evaluate) model became the foundation for my training session. Through the
analysis phase, I was able to determine that there was a need for current students attending ITT
Tech to recognize what to wear (and what not to wear) to a job interview. The need was
identified via feedback provided by employers who interviewed current students. Essentially,
employers were indicating that current students were coming inappropriately dressed to job
interviews.
In the analysis phase, it was also important for me, as the instructional designer, to
consider my clientele – ITT Tech current student. As Thomas, Mitchell, and Joseph point out in
their article, “The Third Dimension of ADDIE: A Cultural Embrace,” “culture is so much part of
the construction of knowledge that it must underpin not only the analysis phase but all phases of
the design process.” Since the majority of students are attending ITT Tech for goal-oriented
reasons, they would be interested in taking this course to have a greater chance of obtaining a
job. The course was further designed with the classroom manner in mind. Class exercises and
handouts were chosen because both are standard classroom practices that the student has used to
learn throughout their program.
Another element I had to consider when creating my training sessions was my clients’
age. Thus, I had to create a training session that would cater to my students/graduates, who are
adults. Stephen Lieb references Cantor in his article “Principles of Adult Learning,” stating,
“[Cantor] points out the adults have different barriers than children on their way to learning.”
These barriers include, but not limited to, lack of money, time, child care, confidence, and
transportation. I ensured that my “Dress for Success” training session overcame the barriers
associated with adult learners via offering the training session free of charge, providing
transportation to students who use public transportation, and presenting the training session
during classroom hours.
For adult learners, such as my students, Ron and Susan Zemke suggest in their article “30
Things we know for sure about Adult Learning” that “the learning environment must be
physically and psychologically comfortable; long lectures, periods of interminable sitting and the
absence of practice.” As a result, my “Dress for Success” training session was designed to be
informative and interactive – statistical data was used to state the importance of first impressions
and activities concerning appropriate job interview attire were carried out. In one activity
(guided by the instructor), students are asked to identify what is (and what is not) appropriate job
interview attire for both males and females. In another activity, where students are to be
evaluated, students are put into groups and asked to create a complete job interview look for both
a male and female using magazine cutouts provided to them by the instructor. Each group will
present their complete job interview look for both a male and female to the instructor and class,
explaining the reasons as to why each aspect of the look was chosen. The abovementioned
activities ensure that adult learners will stay attentive.
Since creating the “Dress for Success” training session, I have delivered it to current
student of ITT Tech over ten times, all with positive feedback from attendees. As previously
mentioned, it is also available for all Director of Career Services at ITT Tech via the employee
online portal to use. The “Dress for Success” training session has helped out my organization by
ensuring that current students of ITT Tech go to job interviews dressed appropriately. While this
is only a small piece of the job interview process, it is an important one, especially since all ITT
Tech Career Services departments are striving to main a 65% graduate employment rate.
Maintaining a high graduate employment rate could also produce intrinsic rewards for ITT Tech
– students that get jobs with Career Services help are likely to tell their peers, thus, resulting in
more new student recruits for the institute.
*** student have lower economic income – show them how a small investment can have big
rewards***