The college and higher education sector is in an interesting position. Although the majority of higher education institutions’ enrollment numbers are falling at an alarming rate, the same cannot be said for other institution types.
Technical and trade schools are actually experiencing an increase in enrollment. Trade schools’ market growth will grow between 5 and 7 percent through 2030, whereas broader higher ed will only grow between 2 and 4 percent. If you are a technical and trade school administrator, this growth presents a great opportunity.
To distinguish your institution from other trade schools, you can offer summer programs. Well-designed summer programs can help improve the quality of your courses and the engagement of current and prospective students. Your school will gain a competitive edge.
However, to ensure your summer programs are of high quality, you must review them. Learn more about how you can streamline your summer program review to take advantage of this market growth.
A summer program review is a periodic evaluation of how well the program accomplishes its purpose. These reviews help identify areas of improvement within summer programs. Typically, these reviews occur in five, seven, or 10-year cycles.
The main goals of a summer program review include:
Summer programs offer focused, skill-based training to current students during the summer months. Students gain valuable hands-on experience in their respective fields. It ultimately helps them gain market-related skills, explore their career path further, and potentially earn credits or certifications.
With the evolving landscape of the higher ed sector, summer programs are ideal for helping technical and trade schools stand out while engaging their students. To ensure your institution’s summer programs fulfill their goals, you must conduct an authentic and reflective assessment.
A typical summer program review consists of two phases — a self-study and an evaluation. The department faculty conducts the self-study phase, and an external review team conducts the evaluation.
Although consisting of only two phases, the review process can take between six and 12 months. To ensure your technical or trade school can quickly stand out from the rest, you need to streamline this process. You want to gain important insights and make informed decisions as quickly as possible.
Here is how you can streamline your summer program evaluation process.
First, you must understand how your summer program currently performs. Collecting this initial data allows you and other stakeholders to properly conduct the summer program assessment, as it provides a benchmark to measure and work from.
Not any data will do — you must be intentional with your choice. The data you choose to collect and prepare for the review can impact the way you choose to direct the program’s next steps. This way, you can use your data more effectively. As an example, you can gather relevant data such as:
There are various systems and software that can gather data. Regardless of the data collection method you choose, always follow data collection best practices to ensure it is of good quality.
That said, using different learning management systems (LMSs) to collect data can make it challenging to organize and manage it. You’ll also want to ensure you and stakeholders can access this data easily and have a bird’s-eye view.
Consider using a tool that integrates with LMS platforms effortlessly to streamline the process.
Next, you must conduct a self-study on the summer program with an internal self-study committee. This step is similar to an accreditation self-study, as both processes evaluate the program itself while identifying areas of improvement. A self-study also allows you to outline the program’s future goals.
The self-study phase will address the program’s strengths and weaknesses. Tech and trade school administrators will meet with other stakeholders or decision-makers to go over these. During this phase, the focus must be on optimizing student outcomes. This can be done by addressing the following elements within the self-study:
A report summarizing the self-study’s findings is crucial to put everything together. The external review board will review this report.
Throughout this phase, the technical or trade school administrator will check in on the progress made. Depending on how far the self-study committee has progressed, they may need to have the report ready by that time.
Having a tool with prebuilt self-study templates can help streamline your reporting. Bonus if this tool can integrate with other LMSs to help truly visualize key self-study insights.
This entire process may take between six months and a year to conduct, so it’s best to start this process as soon as possible, especially if you have a tight deadline.
Including other stakeholders in the summer program review process can help your self-study committee build a more comprehensive and authentic report. Relevant stakeholders may provide new and different ways of improving the program that the internal committee may overlook.
Examples of relevant summer program stakeholders can include the following:
Using dedicated software for gathering feedback can help simplify your feedback collection efforts and even increase response rates.
Whether you use website updates, email newsletters, or in-person meetings, ensure you close the feedback loop with these stakeholders so they stay informed and feel valued. In your communication, share the planned changes the institution will implement in its summer programs based on their feedback. Remember to thank them for their contributions.
The last step is where you will sit with the internal committee and other decision-makers to develop an action plan to address the identified areas for improvement based on the reports. To ensure the plan is put into action, it is crucial to set measurable goals and a timeline for its implementation. Additionally, plan how the institution’s resources will be allocated to realize this plan.
It is also key to keep track of the summer program’s improvements as time goes by. Continuous monitoring allows you to gauge success. A specialized system for efficient program review cycles can help you build multi-stage workflows and monitor progress.
A summer technical program review should not feel like starting from scratch every year. With the right tools, technical and trade schools can simplify the process and gain deeper insights.
Watermark Planning & Self-Study solution empowers your team to collect, organize, and act on data with confidence. We can help turn your technical education review into strategic milestones for long-term growth in a competitive market.
Learn what we can do to help your institution save time, break down silos, and build a culture of continuous improvement. Request a demo today and see for yourself.
