Title
Journal Entry Week 4
LDR-463
This week I focused on how to bring local care facilities and Arizona Career Institute into a mutually beneficial partnership. From my research last week, I discovered that several leaders at the care facilities were intriguingly optimistic at the idea of being directly involved in the process of training individuals and assigning with the hiring process direct from the school, so I wanted to create a program that enabled that to happen. Jayne and Krizia sent me ideas with strategies they felt the school could offer to facilities and ways facilities could help the school. I spent close to 8 hours this week compiling data and different marketing strategies
I introduced a name for this project called the Industry Partner Program, there was a wide consensus that this name was acceptance. We decided that the program will be membership based, meaning that industry partners will have the opportunity to purchase certain levels of membership and in return they will receive certain perks. The 3 levels will be Silver, Gold, and Platinum, each level offering a higher exposure to students than others, the prices of that packages will be $500, $700, $1000 as an annual membership. We will continue to adjust what is included within each package. Members will receive a variety of perks such as, being able to advertise job openings at their companies via a job board located in the school lunch room, the opportunity to speak at classes and at graduations, discounts to care facilities who send students to the school.
As you can see there is still a lot of work to be done in order to organize the packages and to create more benefits to the care facilities. Jayne Stephens CEO is optimistic of this program, as she believes it will create exposure to the school, generate a steady flow of reliable income outside of students, and give students greater access to companies that are hiring for the profession they are going to school for.
Our next meeting is scheduled for Wednesday July 29th to discuss and organize the program. Journal Entry Week 5
LDR-463
Wednesday July 29th, 12:00pm, a zoom meeting conference call was held with CEO Jayne, Krizia and I to discuss further on marketing strategies to incorporate in Arizona Career Institute and generate revenue. Carrying on from the previous uncompleted agenda, we had a chance to meet up and discuss further on industry partner program where Jayne and Krizia were both interested to know on what marketing ideas I had in mind. Branding and use of brochures was what I had been thinking of for the past week.
As part of our marketing strategies, we decided to research and dig deep in to branding ideas and creating brochures, ideas which we viewed as an inexpensive advertising method which will promote the institutions development and operations. For brochures, it would be easy to create and distribute explaining to the public on programs such as the Bridge program and explain to them on the pros of undertaking the program as far as their career is concerned.
For branding as a marketing strategy, we explored further on an idea which we had discussed on previous meeting, which included branding school items and giving them out during job fairs, when distributing brochures and when students enroll in a program. Further, the branded items would be distributed within local health care facilities so as to improve the chances of graduates from our institution getting job employments as well as ensure that these health facilities are part of our growth. We saw this to be a chance in which they can also help market and fund our institution.
At this point, the CEO Jayne Stephens agreed on branding as an essential component of marketing for Arizona Career Institute. I agreed to assist with brochures and give feedback on my progress the following week. Journal Entry Week 2
LDR-463
Wednesday July 8th at 10am a Zoom video conference meeting was held with the Schools CEO Jayne Stephens, the office manager Krazia Reed, and me. The topic of this meeting was to discuss marketing opportunities. The nonprofit school that I am volunteering my time to is dedicated to training individuals who have a desire to care for the elderly and disabled population. During the meeting we discussed some of the hurdles the school is faced with when it comes to recruiting new students, Mrs. Stephens stated that the positions these students will ultimately be obtaining are on average minimum wage jobs, working demanding hours, and with stressful responsibilities. This poses a hardship for recruiting new students and placing graduates with employers. During the call we discussed areas the school would like to utilize to maximize their marketing efforts.
As a takeaway from the video call we discovered several opportunities the school can study to potentially implement in their marketing program. We agreed hosting monthly open houses would give perspective students and community members the ability to meet with staff and currently students, to get a better understanding of what the school offers. Krazia the office manager suggested that the school purchase materials that they can use at job fairs, such as banners and possible school branded items to give away. I suggested that targeted social media ads could reach interested individuals in areas that the school has limited or difficult access to. One of the more interesting topics brought up was to find a way to engage with the local care facilities that would be hiring the graduates, to work cohesively with a mutual goal to get students trained and employed, this would allow the employers to be directly associated with he process which would extend the school marketing team substantially.
At the conclusion of the call we agreed to review the meeting notes and come with strategies to pursue some of the marketing efforts we had discussed. We have scheduled a follow up meeting to take place on Wednesday July 15th. Journal Entry Week 3
LDR-463
Wednesday July 15th, 3pm. Zoom conference call with employees at Arizona Career Institute (ACI)CEO Jayne Stephens and ManagerKrizia Reed. This weeks meeting was productive. The agenda for this weeks meeting was to discuss the findings and ideas from the main takeaways of last weeks meeting. I took this time to elaborate on a concept I came up with while conducting my research for marketing strategies.During the week, I began to explore other schools with similar training programs; both in Arizona and in other states. This allowed for me to gauge what marketing strategies they are utilizing and what seemed to be effective. Unfortunately, it was like hitting a brick wall trying to locate a school or company that was using unique advertising methods outside of the standardized social media ads. I realized I was going to have to get creative and think outside the box.
While contemplating on how to pursue this, I figured why not contact the care facilities that are hiring nursing assistants and caregivers and seek their input directly.So I compiled a list of questions such as, ask about their hiring process, do they work directly with schools to encourage students to join their company, is there any feedback they can provide for ACI in general, and what skills do they wish students knew outside of the standardized training that would make a graduate stand out over others. The responses I received were disheartening and encouraging, as I noticed a tremendous disconnect between schools and the companies hiring these graduates but saw an opportunity to solve that gap and somehow create a partnership. Thirteen out of fifteen facilities that I spoke with, expressed interest with wanting to be more involved with schools.
As I discussed the findings with Jayne and KriziaI encouraged that we come up with some type of partnership program with the care facilities; one that will benefit both them and the school. Jayne and Krizia both thought this was a fantastic idea and gave me full authority to pursue this endeavor on behalf of ACI. We all agreed to meet again via Zoom next Wednesday to review the information I was able to bring together for aninterconnected partnership. Problem Solving Reflection Form
Volunteer: Daniel Preston
Professionals recognize that problem solving is integral to being human.The work environment is a center for problem-solving activities. The IDEAL problem-solving process developed by Bradford and Stein (1993) is implemented by: (I) Identifying the problem, (D) Defining the problem, (E) Exploring strategies, (A) Acting on ideas, and (L) Looking for effects.
Instructions: Describe how you used problem-solving skills to resolve a problem you encountered during your volunteer experience.
Problem: During one of my several conversations with Arizona Career Institute staff members,a concern for how much they were paying for their printer ink was discussed. The school leases a large printer from a company, who supplies the ink and maintenance while the school is responsible for paying per print for black and white and more if its color. They stated that the only prints they are making are for textbooks and they are printing black and white. Based on their calculations the prints they are making sure be a third of what they are paying.
Activities or actions taken to solve the problem: I advised the school to contact the printer company and have them come out to perform a check of the machine to confirm it was calibrated correctly and not miscalculating the prints. The technicianconfirmed that the printer was working properly, and their inflated printing cost was not a manufacturing issue. I asked the school to email me the documents that they are printing, so I can review the content in hopes of figuring out what could be creating this problem. After reviewing the document, I noticed a colored line in the header of one of the textbooks. Although this colored line was less than a quarter inch in length, it was telling the printer it was a colored page. So, the school has been paying 3 times than normal amount per page because of this small colored line. I changed this to black and white, which ultimately solved the problem.
Who did this process affect?This process affected the school as a whole, as it created an expense that took money from other areas that could have benefited from more funding. However, the CEO Jayne Stephens was impacted the most, as she is still funding the majority of the schoolsexpenses, since the school is still new and they have not secured reliable consistent funding streams.
How were they affected?
Evaluate the effectiveness of this problem-solving activity:I tried to use a process of elimination model to narrow down the problem. My goal was to eliminate time and cost the school would have to use while analyzing the issue. I feel that having the printer company come out to perform the maintenance check was the most relevant option, as maintenance on the printer is free per the contract. My second option was to utilize my knowledge of computer technology to discover what could be causing these inflated prices. In the entirety of this analysis it took me only a couple of hours of my time. 1
Journal Entry 2
Journal Entry for Volunteer Work
– LDR-463
Engaging with Arizona State Board of Nursing has improved my nursing field experience as my interactions with employees and Jayne Stephens, the CEO of Arizona. In Arizona, they do provide better services to patients to ensure that their health care is successful. In my attachment as a demographic analysis student, I did gather and study every institution’s operation. Due to the current COVID 19 pandemic, the institute’s schedules have not run as usual as precautions and ensure distance measurements occur. To achieve registration at LNA and CAN, one has fees, fingerprints, and additional bio information. Nurses at the institution so hardworking and sure with the care they give to patients.
Moreover, the institute games me a chance to market every program that Arizona institute offers in their healthcare field. I did advertise on the CNA or LNA certificates that have a fee of 15 dollars for 120hours. The company is successful in its marketing strategy. It introduces new programs that every person wants to be part of the schedulefor instance, the introduction of the Bridge Program. As a volunteer, I learned that the institution offers more programs that involve sixty lecturers, forty clinical hours, and twenty killed hours. However, now 40 clinical hours have been waved away to meet the required COVID 19 standards. Although, students must pass 75 percent of their tests to be certified.
Arizona does update their schedules and programs on their websites. The institute has admissions and marketing managers who do organize and ensure practical marketing ideas. I discovered that Reed, a marketing manager, does ensure enrolling students have their best moments and achieve the education they deserve. For an organization to succeed, everything must have ordered, and everyone must perform his or her duties effectively.
