In mid-November of last year, St. Clair learned that it had maintained its “Top Five In Ontario” position in many “student and graduate satisfaction” categories of a province-wide annual survey (http://stclair-src.org/news/need-know-news/st-clair-stays-top-five-grudge-less-kpi-results) …
… But results of a separate survey – this one of those enrolled in college-delivered apprenticeships – were not so complimentary, according to a report presented by the school’s administration to the Board of Governors (BofG) during a January 22nd meeting.
The surveys in question are called Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). They are mandated by the provincial Ministry of Training, Colleges and Universities (MTCU). Several of the KPI categories play a role in determining provincial funding to colleges.
Apprentices are not “students” per se. They don’t pay tuition, because a combination of special government grants and their on-the-job-training wages pay for their educations in the technology-and-trades fields. And they’re only here for relatively brief time-spans, in eight- or ten-weeks-long training periods.
Nevertheless, because they are at the college under the auspices of the MTCU, the government requires that their satisfaction – with their educations in classrooms, labs and workshops; and with the services and facilities of the college – be gauged every year.
And St. Clair has not “scored” particularly well among its apprentices since KPI surveying was initiated among this group in 2014-15. The college has, annually, been ranked almost at the bottom in “satisfaction” ratings among the 23 colleges offering apprenticeship training.
The most recent (2017-18) results of the questionnaire-style survey saw only 56.8 percent of apprentices say that they were “satisfied/very satisfied” with their overall experience at the college. Province-wide, 71.4 percent of college-enrolled apprentices said they were “satisfied/very satisfied”. Only Sheridan College in the Greater Toronto Area had a lower satisfaction rate than St. Clair (at 52.4 percent).
Under the “dissatisfied/very dissatisfied” heading, 14.4 percent of St. Clair apprentices were of that mind-set. Sheridan came in with the same number. The average “dissatisfaction” number among all 23 colleges was 7.2 percent.
St. Clair had 793 apprentices enrolled in 2017-18, but only 494 filled out the KPI questionnaire.
As the “bottom-dwellers” in the satisfaction list, there is one interesting thing about both St. Clair’s and Sheridan’s numbers: for whatever reason, they both have an unusually high percentage of “neutral” responses. Those come from survey-takers who say they are neither “satisfied nor dissatisfied” with what is going on with their educational lives. St. Clair’s percentage for that category was 28.8 percent …
… And that is a concern among the KPI surveying of “regular” (full-time) students too. Responses of that neutral nature – especially an inordinately high number of them – can somewhat skew the results, because they are thought more likely to reduce the satisfaction rate than to increase the dissatisfaction rate. In other words, the theory is that if respondents gave a bit more thought to their answers, they would be more likely to move away from their neutral position towards a more positive one – thereby automatically improving the results.
One of the college’s new strategies for improving the survey results among future apprentices, therefore, is to encourage them to be something other than neutral: to either express their positivity or negativity, but not to be “iffy”.
The report to the BofG also noted that the college’s poor KPI results among apprentices may have been caused, to a degree, by scheduling. The report to the BofG by President Patti France and Vice-President, Academic Waseem Habash, noted: “Start of semester (or curriculum blocks) (for apprentices) used to be one or two weeks prior to the beginning of (full-time) postsecondary classes (that is, mid-August). Hence, the services provided to the apprenticeship students – such as student cards, parking permits, food services, IT support, etc. – were not as robust as services provided to postsecondary students. St. Clair College administration met with Ministry officials and received approval to shift the apprenticeship start-dates to coincide with the start of postsecondary programs. The shifting of start dates should provide apprenticeship students with far greater levels of service. This was implemented for the start of the 2018 Fall semester.” …
… The inference being that, right from the start, apprentices didn’t feel particularly “welcome” or (at least) well-served by the college, That irritation probably lingered for several months, resurfacing in the form of dissatisfaction (and neutrality) when the KPI questionnaires were distributed.
In his at-the-podium presentation to the BofG, Habash also noted that, in the future, the college will couple the KPI survey forms with its own comment cards – enabling it to obtain specific complaints and suggestions-for-improvements from the apprentices.
Within a year, Habash added, the college expects to see major improvements in what, admittedly, have been “significantly poor” KPI results.
Among the other remedial actions implemented to boost the college’s servicing reputation among apprentices were these, according to the France/Habash report:
• The Registrar’s Office and IT personnel set-up an after-hours kiosk in the Ford Centre for Excellence in Manufacturing (FCEM) to support nighttime apprenticeship students who were unable to seek out those services during the day.
• The hours of the Tim Hortons kiosk in the FCEM were extended until 6 p.m. to minimize the students’ need to travel to the main building.
• The closing time of the Capri Pizza kiosk in the main building was extended to 8 p.m. on weeknights to allow food services to students.
It is the plan that corrective actions will improve the experience of the apprenticeship students and, hence, improve the KPI results. In order to ensure the college has captured and corrected all student concerns, the administration team have commenced visiting all classrooms to provide students the opportunity for direct input and suggestions. The reduction of neutral responses will also be discussed, as neutral responses do not provide useful feedback.
The report’s appendix contained a huge list of other changes and actions to improve the “apprenticeship experience” at the college:
– Increased staffing in cribs at peak times to reduce lineups.
– Implementation of the hiring process. Proactively creating pools of teachers to draw from. Less scrambling to find quality part-time teachers.
– Developed tooling blocks to group tools for mills and lathes to reduce traffic to the crib. Another advantage of tooling blocks is to identify and replace broken tooling more efficiently.
– Addition of nine mills and six lathes in the FCEM to increase capacity in and throughput.
– Decluttered the Automotive crib of items that have been stored for many years.
– Decluttered the FCEM of many items that have been accumulated and stored for many years.
– Consulted with Mike Ouellette, General Manager, St. Clair College Skilled Trades Regional Training Centre, and purchased new tooling for lathes.
– Added safety signage throughout the FCEM. Increased safety awareness.
– Purchased new digital tooling for the FCEM crib, height gages, micrometers, Vernier calipers, and replaced antiquated tooling.
– Implemented standard operating procedures (SOPs) for all equipment throughout the FCEM, Automotive, Woodworking, Welding, etc. areas.
– Organized and built shelving on the second floor of the Centre for Construction Innovation and Production (CCIP) building to organize plumbing supplies.
– Built five additional booths for Plumbing in the CCIP to increase capacity and throughput.
– Improved Electrical booths in the CCIP and added lighting and clipboards.
– Upgraded the Electrical Programmable Logic Controller (PLC) labs with new controls and maintenance items that were required.
– Cleared out the Automotive building over the summer and got rid of old instructional
supplies and replaced with new supplies.
– Implementation of quarantine area in the Automotive crib for repair of tooling and equipment. Utilizing Crib technicians to repair broken tooling and equipment.
– Application of lean manufacturing concepts in the Automotive building, painting lines on floors and walls to identify storage areas for equipment and tooling. (Plan to continue lean practices in other shops going forward.)
– Purchased new vehicles, scan tools, heat imaging tools, air conditioning test units, and additional learning aids for Automotive service technician students.
– Implemented an electronic maintenance system for reporting machine/equipment repair requirements.
– Implementation of outsources to fix machines promptly as required. We are on top of machine repairs, resulting in reduced downtime.
– The Manager, Apprenticeships has working hours from 12 to 8 p.m., as well as a part-time night-time administrative assistant from 4 to 9 p.m. to assist apprentices in the evenings.
– Implemented key boxes in each room in the FCEM. This is now the responsibility of the instructor, so students do not have to go to the crib to get machine keys. This reduces traffic to the crib and promotes better control of students not going into other classes unsupervised and unapproved; ensures better safety; ensures better maintenance reporting; ensures better housekeeping of machines.
– Purchase of three additional Amatrol units for 442A Electricians.
– Hired a dedicated technologist for 309A/442A courses. Also utilize the technologist for maintenance and upkeep of equipment, as required, in electrical labs.
– Working with the Windsor Essex Catholic District School Board and using their facility for Brick and Stone Mason Apprenticeship.
– New project implemented for Level II Mold Maker. Worked internally to design a compression mold for the students to build and run parts. Resurrected the spotting press that has not been utilized for spot compression molding and running compression tools.
– Called in industry contacts to help get the molding machine up and running so it can be used to run Level III Mold Making injection molds. (This is still in process.)
– Purchase of transmissions, differentials, and diesel engines for Truck and Coach Apprenticeship. The Truck and Coach Building remains a challenge as it is shared with the Pre-Service Firefighter and Education program.
– Power hoist being added to the Millwright area to aid in rigging, training etc.
– Millwright trainers purchased for Millwright programs.
– The Manager, Apprenticeships walks the floor every night and probes Apprenticeship classes for improvement initiatives. The Manager, Apprenticeships; General Manager, Operations – Engineering and Skilled Trades; and Chair, School of Skilled Trades meet weekly with an open issues’ list and implement items as they arise.
