LDR-463

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 week’s meeting was productive. The agenda for this week’s meeting was to discuss the findings and ideas from the main takeaways of last week’s 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.