Monitoring apprentices is critical to high completion and success rates.

Having committed a further £222 million to vocational training earlier in the year, apprenticeship schemes are undoubtedly high on the government’s agenda. Often beset by high dropout rates, however, education providers need to display that they are a valid ongoing investment. Effectively tracking learners can have a direct impact on apprenticeship success rates while concurrently demonstrating that the funding is well spent.

As reported by FE Week (click here), between April 2010 and March 2011, the government targeted that 203,200 19 year olds and above would start an apprenticeship scheme. Figures released in June, however, revealed that the actual figure was 257,000 – an astonishing 54,000 more than expected.

Figures like these demonstrate the potential power of apprenticeships but, for them to work successfully, the alarming dropout rate of around 25 per cent needs to be rectified to ensure success rates become consistently high.

Further education colleges can help to address this issue by effectively tracking every learner’s progression and attendance. Historically, this has been a cumbersome and highly inaccurate process that had very little effect on success rates, however, there are effective ways to manage this.

By having instantaneous access to up-to-date records on all students, colleges have the data they need to not only increase the success of their learners but also the success of the scheme itself. As a result, if either aren’t delivering to their full potential, colleges would be able to use an accurate flow of information that will directly lead to the point of breakdown, allowing it to be rectified before any serious or long-term damage is caused.

Increasing and maintaining motivation is another important factor that can be heavily influenced by the implementation of online management software. Institutions have reported that their apprentices displayed an increased willingness to learn and determination to improve themselves when they could view their own progress – a simple yet highly effective means of lowering dropout rates while increasing individual and overall success.

Apprentices displayed an increased willingness to learn and determination to improve themselves when they could view their own progress”

Arming colleges with the tools they need to manage apprentices through effective learner-centric tracking of progression against qualifications, frameworks and milestones, as well as managing funding, recruitment and statistical reporting from a single platform, provides them with the ability to have much greater control of the destiny of the scheme and those taking part.

Apprenticeship schemes without a doubt have the power to reduce unemployment rates and address the UK’s skills shortage problem but, in order to do this successfully and recurrently, they need to show that they are worth the ongoing investment, which currently sits at £1.4 billion every year. Monitoring students has a key part to play in demonstrating and influencing this.

Paul Davis is Managing Director of Perspective, a provider of learner management products. Tweeting as @PDPerspective

 

Like any other company, business or organisation FE colleges are open to as much reputation tarnishing as any other brand.  However by managing your social media presence and using Facebook as part of your social marketing strategy, you can start to engage with your audience and realise that social networking isn’t just about the number of “likes” but the level of engagement between you and your  students.

Creating relationships and a positive experience can enhance any positive responses and counteract a bad reputation.  So in line with the marketing strategy and corporate objectives, social media can control to some extent college’s online influence and overall personality.

Engaging your students on Facebook

There is the risk of running your college facebook page as an advertising billboard, by bombarding your fans with constant marketing messages, however if this is your approach then the whole focus of your social media strategy is fuzzy and will put off potential fans.  Social media should be about starting a conversation topic and then monitoring the type of comments and feedback the students are responding with.

At Bournemouth and Poole College this approach has been effective, as instant feedback was used to change a process at enrolment.  It gave an instant student response and helped the college get to the root of the student experience.

Resolving issues is not the only benefit of interacting with your students, as Facebook can act as another line of enquiry for not only new and prospective students but current students as well. Questions and queries will be common but it’s the way in which the college responds that can affect the online relationship with your audience.  Responding quickly or instantly will begin to build up a rapport with your audience; it’s not necessarily about knowing all the answers to the questions but being supportive and responsive.  If the students know that you are there to help they will continue to ask questions and feel part of a community.

Social Media Metrics

From a marketing point of view you might be thinking about spending serious time and money on social media, but are you measuring your return on investment (ROI)?  If not, how do you know it’s even working?  By measuring these 5 metrics, you will be well on your way to getting an accurate representation of your ROI.

1. Referring Sites

By measuring the majority of your website clicks and where they are coming from, you can determine which social media platforms you should be spending more or less time on.  For instance, if only 2 per cent of your clicks come from Twitter but 65 per cent come from Facebook, then you know that your audience is more present on Facebook and you should spend more time there.

2. Comments

If you monitor your comments over a period of time, you can see which topics have got your audience talking and continue to post about those topics.  If you have a Facebook business page and monitor your Insights, you can find this metric in the “Interactions” portion of your Insights page.

3. Klout

The Klout Score measures influence based on your ability to drive action. Every time you create content or engage, you influence others. The Klout Score uses data from Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Foursquare in order to measure:

• How many people you influence

• How much you influence them

• How influential they are

Klout explains, “How often do top Influencers share and respond to your content? When they do so, they are increasing your Network Score.”

4. Sentiment

Sentiment is simply whether people are saying positive, negative or indifferent things about your brand.

5. Mentions by Source

Mentions by source will tell you where people are talking about you, which gives you the perfect segue into the conversation.  For instance, people may be asking their friends questions about your brand on Twitter; you could chime in and help answer them.  If this metric is measured correctly, it will tell you what percent of your mentions are coming from blogs as well as social media.  You then should be able to view each mention and see the sentiment.

If you start measuring these five metrics, you should have an idea of your return on investment and whether you are spending your time and money wisely.  By ignoring these simple metrics and continuing your social media strategy blindly, you are just throwing away your time and money.

Start by finding a good social media management platform tool, there are lots to choose from and basically all platforms have the same monitoring function.

Rachel Batho is Marketing Co-ordinator at Bournemouth and Poole College

Read the FE Week FE Guide to Twitter: click here