Training Student Workers in a Two Year College

Abstract

"At Delaware County Community College's library, the staff is implementing a system of training student workers which teaches professional job skills in an environment that is challenging as well as nurturing. Community colleges have a high turnover rate because students are here for only two years. Any reduction in turnover saves time training new students, increases the students' proficiency and job skills and allows staff to give them greater responsibilities as their depth of knowledge grows. Creating a feeling of community through group activities, newsletters, student appreciation days and all-staff parties is a great motivation for students to continue their employment at the library, while improvements in the student worker training process have kept work quality high despite the inevitable transition to new student workers. The library has between 25 & 40 students working at different levels of skill and responsibility at any one time. The professional application, training and evaluation process that the students undergo ensure a consistent quality to their work at each level. For years the staff was utilizing individual, on-the-job training as their main training tool, which wasted time and led to inconsistent results. Since then, the staff has developed customer service and practical skills classroom training that streamlined the process, saving time and leading to uniform instruction. The library staff is now creating a set of training films detailing each task performed by the student workers at every level of employment in hopes of gaining greater efficiency in their training method. Through these improvements and their community building exercises, the Delaware County Community College library is maintaining a high level of service despite the challenges presented by short term enrollment. This presentation will discuss the models that were tried, their challenges and successes, and present best practices for training student workers in a two-year college environment."