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Resident Staff In-Service Training: Guidelines for Success
By Robert O.
Jose,
Associate Director for Residential Life,
Boston College
In preparing for the academic year, virtually all Residential Life professionals engage in some sort of training for their para professional staff. This is a rite of summer. These programs, while differing in style and length cover very similar material. However, after the fall training component is over, ten months lie ahead. Although residential life professionals can provide a comprehensive summer training program, it is impossible to cover everything a RA needs to know for the rest of the year. For example, at Boston College in the fall on '96, it was discovered that gambling was a wide spread problem amongst the student population. Unfortunately, gambling at BC never crossed the minds of the professionals who prepared the fall training component. As result, some type of in-service training was needed to prepare staff to understand and handle this problem. Inservice training programs provide a means of augmenting the skills that RA's learn during the course of the year and take on a myriad of styles and forms. Over my twelve years at Boston College we have done inservice training just about every way you can do it. Yet, the object is always the same - to provide the staff with a meaningful experience that will enhance their skills in serving the residential population. Despite this goal, I have met few Resident Assistants (at my institution or others) who feel that inservice training is necessary. At the point when inservice training begins (usually about a month to 6 weeks into the academic year) RA's tend to feel that training of any sort is not a good use of their time. Many RA's see workshops that professionals have put considerable time and effort into as completely useless. Even colleagues have voiced great frustration with inservice programs and several view these programs as RA's do. What can/should be done to make inservice training the valuable, educational, worthwhile experience it should be?
If you accept the premise that inservice training programs are important, then I have few suggestions that can make it a positive experience for Resident Staff.
- Have
a solid philosophy behind inservice training and make sure all staff
members understand it.
As with all training programs, there must be "rhyme and reason". At Boston College it is clearly stated during the first fall training session that there will be inservice training programs and that their purpose is to build upon the skills that RA's will learn during the fall training component. Why it is important and why staff need to be present is clearly explained.
- Have
RA input in the program development.
People will support that which they help to create. As well, resident staff input will assist in understanding what areas RA's really need help in. If staff are involved in determining topics to be presented and they see that it is intended to assist them in better serving their students, their responses to the training will be more enthusiastic and appreciative. If staff see that training is ill prepared or not applicable to their experience as RA's, the training will be resisted and considered a waste of time.
- Allow
staff input into the choice of programs they attend.
At Boston College, we use a conference style format for our inservices that occurs twice a year. There is a keynote speech, which all staff attends. As well, the staff must attend three programs out of an offering of fifteen. This allows staff members to choose programs that they see as beneficial instead of being told what they must attend.
- Make
it Practical
In service training should occur throughout the year. Generally speaking, it is most effective when focused around an issue or a problem and, when it is designed to provide practical solutions to issues or problems that staff experience. These problems/issues can and should be identified through the supervision process.
- Evaluation
and Review
As professionals, we often fall in to the trap where we feel that if something has worked, it will always work. The evolution of the inservice training program at Boston College is living proof that this is not the case. For three years our inservice program consisted of one program a month that every RA attended. This had worked and we saw no reason to change it. After evaluation and review we found that it was no longer meeting the needs of the staff in terms of format and content. Needless to say, the evaluation of any type of training program must to be thorough and on going.
These guidelines, while not foolproof, will provide a solid foundation for the development of an inservice program. I believe that inservice training is very important for resident assistants. It provides them with the additional skills needed to handle the many human issues they will face. Given this, we must constantly insure that we are purposefully educating our staffs and providing that training in a manner from which they can best receive the information we need them to have.
About the Author
Robert O. Jose has been Associate Director for Residential Life at Boston College for 12 years and has been in the field of Student Housing for 17 years. He has made numerous presentations on the training and development of student staff. He is a Past President of the Northeast Association of College and University Housing Officers and has held various leadership positions within the Association of College and University Housing Officers International and other national and local organizations.