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49 Developing and Implementing a Comprehensive Training and Incentive Program for Student Employees in Information Technology
Jim
Osborn, University of Wyoming
Anyone who works with student employees knows that
while it is often difficult to train sufficiently, it is of the utmost
importance to have a qualified, knowledgeable staff. We will discuss the process needed to develop and implement a
comprehensive training and incentive program for student workers, based on the
experiences we’ve had at the University of Wyoming.
We will begin by identifying the skills of those
students we consider to be outstanding employees. We’ll talk about which skills can be easily taught and which a
student should possess before we hire them.
We will examine the demographics of our work force and why we must
remember we’re dealing with students when designing a training and incentive
program.
We will talk about integrating hiring, training, and
incentives into one cohesive program in the hopes of increasing employee
retention and the building of a solid knowledge base. We will look at who to search for during the interview process
and how to develop an in-depth orientation for new employees that maximizes the
student’s ability to perform in a real-life environment with the least amount
of training. Since training is something
that must be on-going, we will also look at how to develop a long-term training
program that incorporates different types of training, such as instructor-led,
self-paced, and simulated experiential (role-playing) models.
We’ll discuss the importance of a tracking system to monitor the progress and incentives of the students. We’ll look at how you can make the students WANT to improve their skill sets, even if they’re not technology-related majors. We’ll also talk about increasingly important shortcuts, like how to get other people at your university to help train so you’re not doing it alone. We can’t forget the need for the program to fit university policies and paperwork processes. We’ll also talk about some of the simple tools you can use to supplement the training and incentive model, making it more efficient and successful...and even student driven!