WomenTech Educators Onsite Training & Coaching Program

Based on the successes of 10 community colleges who participated in The Womentech Educators Training & Coaching System and saw real results in less than a year.

Womentech Educators Training & Coaching System

With national attention being directed toward increasing the presence of female students in Science, Technology, Engineering & Math (STEM) and Career & Technical Education (CTE), community colleges need to ramp up their efforts to improve female enrollment. Many employers specifically ask for female students in career pathways ranging from Construction to Information Technology. Many community colleges invest in outreach activities to increase female participation in STEM, but don’t see results. In the WomenTech Educators Onsite Training and Coaching Program you will:

Learn easy-to-implement recruitment strategies that will enable your school to target the low hanging fruit.

Learn from community colleges that have had success recruiting female students in 1 year or less (and male students, too).

Learn how to appeal to female interests so female students won’t drop out.

Create a Recruitment and Retention Plan by the end of the training.

Receive Recruitment and Retention Plan Feedback from your Coach Donna Milgram and Support for Implementation Coaching.

Build teams of 6-10 members at your college – for each career pathway - so you don’t have to carry this out all by yourself.

The Importance of Target Audience

Program Results and Case Studies

IWITTS has helped dozens of schools increase the number of women (and men) enrolled in a wide range of CTE career pathways in which women are under-represented AND improve the retention of both female and male students in a year or less. 

CASE STUDY #1

City College of San Francisco, *New* Makerspace 100 Course

Timeline:

May 2019 WomenTech Training/Fall 2019 Enrollment

Training Type:

Customized WomenTech Training to Makerspace and to Makerspace Grant

Training Outcomes:

50% female enrollment first time running *new* Maker 100 course. National average 20%.

50%

12 women. 12 men. Maximum seats 25. Maintained over 2 consecutive semesters.

12

Makerspace Club grew from 4 males to 65 students – 40% female.

40%

       The WomenTech Makerspace Training brought our team together and was expertly facilitated. It led us through the process of capturing our busy faculty's ideas and collected them in a very effective way. Now we have an action plan for a short timeframe, so we can be ready for students the next semester. I don’t think we could have gotten to this point without Donna's facilitation. I knew from my past experience with IWITTS that Donna could help us create a plan that would produce results. It’s very challenging work to change a culture and do these kinds of projects, and anytime I feel lost at sea I fall back on the plan.

Maura Devlin-Clancy

MakerSPHERE Coordinator, Faculty, CNIT Department - Web Development Programs, City College of San Francisco, CA

CASE STUDY #2

City College of San Francisco, Automotive Pre-Apprenticeship Program

Timeline:

May 2019 WomenTech Training/Fall 2019 Enrollment

Training Type:

Customized WomenTech Training to Makerspace and to Makerspace Grant

Training Outcomes:

0 to 7 women of 21, 33% female in 2.5 months (students had to be hired by the City of SF to participate), 38% female enrollment in one-year

38%

94%

53% Underrepresented Minorities (URM) to 94% in 1-year

100%

100% of females URM, 100% completion 2.5 months

        There was a big difference in how we recruited for our 1st cohort of Pre-Apprentices—which had no women—and our 2nd cohort that had 7. We thought it would be a lot easier than it turned out to be. The first time we partnered with community-based organizations to help us with recruitment, but after the WomenTech Training I realized we weren’t welcoming to women. The WomenTech Training gave us a robust Version 2.0 Outreach Strategy. We had an entire platform and the messaging including: a Women and Automotive website, flyers featuring female role models, and a fact sheet with talking points about why automotive and apprenticeship is a good field for women. 

Monique Forster Pascual

Director of Apprenticeship & Instructional Service Agreements, Workforce Development,  City College of San Francisco, CA

CASE STUDY #3

Fayetteville Technical Community College

Timeline:

March 2019 WomenTech Training/Fall 2019 Enrollment

Training Type:

Standard WomenTech Onsite Training for 4 teams from school

Training Outcomes:

Female enrollment in IT Security increased from 12 to 22 women 

22

Male enrollment in IT Security also increased from 58 to 101 men

101

Fayetteville Technical Community College (FTCC) created a 5-minute video about the WomenTech Educators Training held onsite at their college. narrated by FTCC’s Dean of Engineering and Applied Technology. Watching this video narrated will enable you to see the training in action and hear from its participants – FTCC faculty and staff.

Carpentry went from 1 to 6 female students and so many more male students enrolled a new section had to be added

6

Increases in number of students in Manufacturing and Engineering

Donna Milgram

IWITTS’s Executive Director Donna Milgram is happy to talk with you about how your school can achieve its goals for broadening participation and what type of WomenTech Educators training would be the best fit for your school or district. Ms. Milgram has been a Principal Investigator on 5 National Science Foundation (NSF) grants including the CalWomenTech Project which was highlighted by NSF for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness and chosen as 1 of 3 model projects by the American Association of University Women.  

Schedule a Time to Talk with Donna Milgram about an Onsite Training

Onsite Training & Coaching Benefits

Real enrollment and retention results in 1 year or less

Robust Recruitment and Retention Plan for your college fully vetted by Donna Milgram

Team buy-in and help with implementation

A template strategy that can be institutionalized and rolled out across career pathways

Standard Program

Womentech Onsite Training & Coaching Program

Team buy-in and help with implementation

Participation by up to 4 teams (Maximum 40 participants)

Colleges participate in teams of 6-10

Team Building Coaching Call before Onsite Training starts

Each team targets one STEM/CTE career pathway (ex: IT Security)

Laser Coaching Call on Low Handing Fruit for Target Audience

A WomenTech Data Dashboard that makes tracking female metrics easy

Recruitment and Retention Plan Feedback Call results in fully vetted plan by Donna Milgram.

Support for Implementation Coaching Call

Unlimited email support for 6 months

Virtual Group Presentation by each team 6 months after training

Recording and transcripts of all Coaching Calls

Key Program Elements of a Standard WomenTech Onsite Training

Each WomenTech Onsite Training can accommodate up to 4 college teams.

Each team is made up of 6 to 10 key stakeholders including a Key Leader and Co-leader.

Each team must select and must map to one career pathway (ex: IT Security). Once the college has the model, they’ll be able to roll it out to other career pathways.

Nonstandard, Customized to Your Career Pathway/Grant

WomenTech Onsite Training & Coaching Program

WomenTech Onsite Training customized to one career pathway and grant deliverables.

One team made up of 6 to 15 key stakeholders including a Key Leader and Co-leader.

Greater number of hours of Support for Implementation Coaching with Donna.

Donna Milgram facilitates the Recruitment & Retention Plans during the training and drafts them in Google Docs with team input.

Some colleges choose to have IWITTS develop Plug & Play Outreach Materials for them.

Womentech Training Materials

Examples of outreach materials from successful community colleges.

Templates so you don’t have to do everything from scratch.

WomenTech Classroom eBook: A Treasure Trove of Hard-to-Find Women in STEM Resources  for Educators

WomenTech Recruitment Program Checklist

Tell Her Story: STEM Female Role Model Template & Guide

Women in Technology Outreach Kit

Keys for Success

The proven formula that makes this system so effective includes the following elements:

Focus on One STEM Career Pathway:

Each team that participates in the WomenTech Onsite Training program will need to choose one career pathway/program (example: Engineering Technology or Welding) in which women are underrepresented to focus on. Once your team has had success with one career pathway, you will have all the tools you need to then expand your efforts to reach more programs. Starting with one program means your Recruitment Plan will be more targeted, more manageable, and easier to implement right away. Keep in mind that your team’s recruitment strategies will differ by program because your outreach materials, talking points, prerequisites, and female role models will all be unique to each program. We also recommend you pick a career pathway in a high-demand area where employers are hiring at relatively high wages, so you can share this information with prospective female (and male) students!

Schools Working as a Team:

The WomenTech Online Training System recommends schools participate in teams of 6-10 because working as a team has proven critical to helping other colleges see real results and enact institutional change. Participating as a team ensures that all the key stakeholders are represented and invested in the WomenTech Recruitment Plan your college develops as part of the training, while also improving the infrastructure of your college to broaden participation. The plan template includes the required key elements that set teams up to be successful.

Who Should Be on Your Team:

To be most effective, each team consists of a group of 6-10 members with a variety of stakeholders from your college related to the career pathway you are focusing on. Below are the recommended core team members (not every team will have every job title):

Dean or Chair of the Department of the targeted program (recommended)

Minimum of two instructors in targeted courses (highly recommended)

Principal Investigator of grant (if applicable)

Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent)

Outreach & Recruitment Director/Staff

STEM Coordinator

Learning Center Director/Staff

Counselor/Advisor

Workforce Development Director/Staff

STEM CoordinatorResearch & Planning Officer

Coordinators of Potential Recruitment Sources (i.e. ESL, One Stop, Feeder High School Programs)

What people say about the Program!

"Increased female enrollment from 11% to 37% in Computer Drafting after participating in a WomenTech Training. Completely made me re-evaluate the approach that we have been taking. I realized the many mistakes and plan to make changes that I learned from the training. Great information!"

Hector Yanez

Department Chair/CADD Manager of Computer Drafting and Design Technology, Texas State Technical College - Harlingen, TX

"One thing that was especially valuable about the WomenTech Educators Training was having a variety of people come to the table to talk about all the issues. It was interesting for faculty to learn how they can engage students who might be on the fringes of the class, not necessarily just female students either. Also, in our publications and brochures, we're now as likely to use images of women as of men. As a result of working with IWITTS, over two years the percentage of women in targeted classes at CCRI went from 10.8% to 14.3%."

Peter Woodberry

PhD, Dean of Business, Science and Technology, Community College of Rhode Island, Newport, RI

"The most valuable things I received from working with IWITTS were strategies that have been researched and have data to support them. There are also many inexpensive strategies; "inexpensive" is a key term in these difficult economic times. I anticipate additional increased retention in my programs. I have already implemented retention strategies from IWITTS with much success. The workshop has empowered me!"

Jessica J. du Maine

Assistant Professor/Program Coordinator, Electrical/Electronic Engineering & Technology, St. Louis Community College, St. Louis, MO

About IWITTS

The National Institute for Women in Trades, Technology & Science (IWITTS) has been helping educators nationwide close the gender gap for women and girls in technology since 1994. IWITTS provides tools, resources, and professional development for educators to help them broaden female participation in STEM and CTE programs where they are underrepresented.