Assessment of the College Exploration Program
The College Exploration Program targets 100 current high school from grades 10 to 12, who are about to leave school and seeks to provide an experience of being in college. It also provides participants with the skills need to make the transition from secondary to tertiary level training. The program takes place over three weeks during the Summer Holidays and participants have the opportunity to interact socially and academically with tertiary students in addition to faculty in a vocational setting. Corporate Head Office provides funding for the program. The college and the Private Sector provide technical expertise and resource personnel.
The program is designed so that participants attend schedule sessions and learning activities. Where it is the responsibility of each participant to manage his time effectively and attend sessions planned on a daily basis. Students are placed in groups of twenty; each group is monitored and coached by a mentor. The program initially focuses on the areas Reading and reasoning for empowerment, Improving writing skills, Developing college readiness, Choosing the Institution for college, Young entrepreneur, The world of computers, Exploring the field of Vocational training, Young Scientist, and Career Guidance. In the second year of the program, Improving Math skill was introduced.
This is the second year of the program and a number of weaknesses were identified, some of which if improved will strengthened the purpose and function of the program. One of the weaknesses of the program is that mentors selected for the program should be persons who cable to provide guidance to participants in terms of their career path and persons who are informed about vocational education and training.
Secondly, there is no structure in place to track students after they complete the program to see whether, or not they pursue vocational training or attend the college. Thirdly, too many activities planned are craned in the three weeks and not enough effort being placed in the vocational training, which is one of the objectives of the program. Fourth, this could be strength and well as a weakness in that 60% of the participants are from inner city schools. The initial programme was geared towards students in the central city where the college is located and for the second year, the program was to target students from other parish, however this was not done, students from school in the western and eastern part of the island did not get to participate. Targeting students from the western and eastern part the country might provide some challenges in getting students into the city where the college is located. Finally, participants who assess the program are not final year high school students.
The College Exploration programme is quite feasible, especially when emphasis is now being place on students acquiring a skill before they leave school. In some instances there is a shortage of skill personnel, this programme will actually help to fill that void. The program would be more viable if students were targeted before their final year of high school, in that vocational education and training would be an option and not considered a last resort. Given that the Company has different location, the coordinator of the programme may consider changing its location to cater to students in the western region. In addition, the coordinator of the programme needs to set up a tracking system to see where participants end up.
