On-site Training

Who Should Host

IWITTS has conducted over 100 contract workshops for clients from school districts and state departments of education to individual community colleges and four-year universities in 43 states (see full client list).

Our workshop is well-suited for many types of organizations, including:

• State, County, and Regional Education Departments
• Career Technical Education Networks
• Advanced Technology Education Centers/Projects
• Community Colleges
• High Schools
• Tech-Prep Consortiums
• Workforce Development and Job Training Programs
• Nonprofits

Who Should Attend

The workshop is designed for both male and female participants, including:

• Technology and science instructors
• School administrators
• Counselors
• Outreach, tech-prep, and equity coordinators

What You'll Learn

• Discover best practices.
• Learn new recruitment and retention strategies.
• Explore gender-specific learning styles.
• Work through recruitment and retention case studies.
• Create an action plan.
• Learn how to train others.
• Interact and have fun!

At our On-Site WomenTech Educators Workshop, you’ll learn strategies that work!

• Discover Best Practices. The WomenTech Training is based on best practices and is always solutions-oriented.
• Learn New Recruitment Strategies. Learn a menu of new recruitment strategies (video) that cost just a little or nothing at all based on proven best practice methods from urban, rural and suburban schools. Learn the secret to recruiting women and girls that spans across ALL recruitment strategies.
• Explore Gender-Specific Learning Styles. Concentrate on an in-depth module on gender differences in learning styles (video). Learn how to excite and engage female students in technology by teaching to their learning style; help technophobic female students overcome their fear of breaking the equipment; incorporate bridge activities and course modules that will enable ALL of your students to succeed in the technology classroom and much more. (Our strategies also improve the retention rates of male students!)
• Work through Retention Case Studies. Problem solve with colleagues on retention challenges that arise in classes where the number of female students is small. Help your female students succeed in the technology classroom.
• Create an Action Plan. Develop an action plan to recruit women to your traditionally male-dominated classes and then put the plan to action right away to retain women in your classrooms with both secondary and community college recruitment strategies.
• Interact and Have Fun! Through interactive video, case studies, online examples and lively PowerPoint presentations, you get an exciting and extremely informative session, plus everything you need to know to educate others. And, since the bulk of the workshop is group work, it's also a great opportunity to interact with and learn from others in your field.

Proven Results

• Increased Recruitment & Retention Rates. In IWITTS' NSF-funded
  CalWomenTech Project
  , the schools that implemented the recruitment strategies actually saw an increase in female enrollment of 10%-15% within 15 months. In addition, schools that successfully implemented the retention strategies had both an increase in the completion rates of women (some by as much as 20%-40%) as well as men (video).
• Project Highlighted by NSF. The Project was highlighted by NSF for demonstrating significant achievement and program effectiveness to the Committee for Government Performance and Results Act (GPRA) Performance Assessment.

Sample Agendas

Here are sample agendas for our onsite training. You may select from a one-day or two-day format.

Meet Your Workshop Leaders

Edie Slovin is an experienced and engaging trainer with a wonderful sense of humor who has trained for IWITTS since 1999. She consistently receives outstanding training participant evaluations. Her hands-on experience in the career technical education and gender equity fields makes her uniquely qualified to deliver training for IWITTS. Ms. Slovin has directed Employment Training programs since 1995 that have placed women and men into "nontraditional" jobs and her programs have had a placement rate of over 90%! She also has served on many boards and is the past President of the Florida Vocational Education Association.

Please read her full bio to learn more.

Carmen Lamha is a dynamic trainer with hands-on experience increasing the number of women in technology classrooms, having achieved impressive results in the Computer Networking Information Technology (CNIT) department, which she currently chairs, at the City College of San Francisco (CCSF), one of eight sites in the CalWomenTech Project -- a five-year National Science Foundation grant awarded to IWITTS. Her department experienced a significant increase both in recruiting and retaining women in targeted programs -- initial recruitment rates jumped from 18% to 30%; in spring 2009 retention rates increased from 64% to 90%.

Ms. Lahma is Co-Principal Investigator of the CalWomenTech Project. She is also Co-Chair of the California Joint Special Population Advisory Committee (JSPAC) and is a member of CCSF's Academic Senate Executive Council and serves as chair of the Diversity, Teaching, Learning and Technology Roundtable committee.

Please read her full bio to learn more.

Linda Meccouri is an experienced and creative trainer whose background includes over twenty-five years as a Computer Science and Information systems Professor at two-year colleges and a Doctorate in Instructional Technology and Multi-cultural Teacher Education.

Dr. Meccouri has taught at the community college, undergraduate and graduate level, and is the recipient of two Endowed Chairs for Teaching Excellence from two community colleges. For seventeen of those years, she was a Professor of Computer Science and Information Systems at Holyoke Community College, a department she co-chaired for eight years. She is currently a professor at Springfield Technical Community College in Massachusetts.

Throughout Dr. Meccouri's academic career she has participated in numerous curriculum development, gender-equity, and diversity initiatives. For example, as one of the first group of non-traditional "Community Research Associates" at Mount Holyoke, she joining Ford Fellows and International Research Associates in studying low-income women's persistence and success in higher education against the odds.

Please read her full bio to learn more.

Here is a sample of enthusiastic reviews IWITTS' on-site training has received from participants:

"Valuable information for anyone working with students/adults in career centers"

~ Miff Rosar, Vocational Director, Fort Smith Public Schools, University of Arkansas Training

"This workshop gave me ideas and great resources to use in my classroom to attract and retain female students in my Tech. Ed. Classes."

~ Tanya Flikka, Technology Education Teacher, Discovery Junior High, Fargo, ND Public Schools Training

"This is valuable training for male instructors to increase their awareness of non-traditional student barriers commonly found in our classrooms."

~ Marlon Thornburg, Vice President for Innovation, Coffeyville Community College, Kansas State Training

"I am shocked to find that problems I faced in the 1960s still exist today. This program gave me the tools I needed to help be a part of the solution."

~ Constance Schlosser, Tunxis Community College Training, Farmington, CT

"This workshop offered measures for practical application."

~ Kathie V. Bailey, Fletcher Technical College WomenTech Training: Thibodeaux, LA