The WomenTech Educators Training System for Success

IWITTS has cracked the code to helping community colleges broaden participation as soon as the next semester with the WomenTech Educators Training System – developed during our 5 National Science Foundation (NSF) projects and now available to all community colleges through IWITTS's WomenTech Online Training program. The proven formula that makes this system so effective includes the following elements:

Why a Team-Based Training System?

The WomenTech Educators 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 in teams ensures that all the key stakeholders are represented and invested in the Women in STEM Recruitment and Retention Plans your college develops as part of the training, while also improving the infrastructure of your college to broaden participation. (See “The Power of Teams” below for recommendations on potential team members.)

Pre-Training Activities and Support

A pre-training consultation with your trainer will help set your college up for success. Trainer will meet with you to help with: 1) Team composition and development; 2) Baseline data collection and analysis for targeted career pathway of each team; and if appropriate, 3) Review of a related grant proposal and discussion on how to meet grant goals.

Focus on 1 STEM Career Pathway

Each team that participates in the WomenTech Educators Training program will need to choose 1 career pathway/program (example: engineering technology) in which women are underrepresented to focus on. Keep in mind that each team’s recruitment and retention strategies will differ by program because the outreach materials, talking points, prerequisites, building block skills, and female role models will all be unique to each program. We recommend teams 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!

Training Modules and Plan Development

Based on proven practices, the WomenTech Educators Training curriculum includes the "best-of-the-best" of our strategies, culled from our 5 NSF projects and over 20 years of success in assisting educational institutions in recruiting and retaining female students in programs around the country. As part of the training, each team develops a custom Women in STEM Recruitment Plan and a Retention Plan using a proven template. The plan templates include required key elements that set teams up to be successful. (See the Training Learning Outcomes and Take Aways for more details.)

Team Building and Customized Feedback for Each Team
Note: Each team receives transcripts and recordings of all coaching calls

In our successful NSF CalWomenTech Project, the external evaluators found that along with the training itself, support for implementation with trainer Donna Milgram was one of the top 2 most important things that helped schools achieve their impressive recruitment and retention results. The WomenTech Educators Training program includes 6 hours of call time for each team with Donna:

1. Team-Building Orientation Call (Includes Laser Coaching on Target Audience) – This first 1.5 hour call with each team and trainer sets them up to be high-functioning Leadership Teams and takes them through the nuts and bolts of training logistics, such as choosing a weekly meeting time for homework/plan development. Trainer will also help each team take the critical, first step of their Recruitment Plan – choosing the best target audience for your school. Target audience impacts every portion of a team’s Recruitment Plan, so it’s critical to get it right at the start.
2. Recruitment Plan Feedback Call and Retention Plan Feedback Call in Weeks Following Training – Trainer will provide an hour of customized feedback on each action plan – 1 call on a team’s Recruitment Plan and 1 on their Retention Plan. Teams will also receive another round of written feedback when they revise and finalize plans after these calls.
3. Team Support for Implementation Call 3 Months After Training – Teams receive personalized support from their trainer on implementing Recruitment and Retention Plans during this 1-hour team call.
4. Final Group Presentation Call Presentation 6 Months After Training –Teams will have a chance to present and hear from the other teams in the training. The information your teams present can be included in reports to funders and in future grant proposals.

“The [Customized Feedback] sessions really keep you on task. It’s too easy for this to be just one project among dozens, and the calls give you just-in-time reminders. It’s very helpful when you’re in the middle of implementing your plan to be reminded of something from the training you might want to go back and look at, or to receive new information from Donna [Trainer] that you need just at that moment."

~ Patrick J. Enright, Dean for Business, Mathematics, Engineering and Technologies, County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ

Who is this WomenTech Educators Training System for?

This program is recommended for community colleges that are serious about broadening participation in their institution’s STEM programs where women are underrepresented, and are ready to do so in 1-years’ time.

The Power of Teams:

Each in-person training accommodates up to 6 teams, with a total of up to 40 participants. After the initial training at your location, team members work together to implement the Recruitment and Retention Action Plans they developed during the training. To achieve these results, each team is required to focus on one career pathway.

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. 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)
• Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent)
• Principal Investigator of grant (if applicable)
• Dean of Instruction
• Minimum of 2 instructors in targeted courses (highly recommended)
• Math administrator if your core targeted courses have math prerequisites
• Outreach & Recruitment Director/Staff
• Curriculum Developer
• STEM Coordinator
• Learning Center Director/Staff
• Counselor/Advisor
• Workforce Development Director
• Research & Planning Officer

Who is the Audience for the Training:

Training is not limited to women – men benefit from the training just as much and often more. The WomenTech Educators Training will be customized to focus on your school's grade level(s): two-year colleges, four-year colleges and universities, high schools, middle schools. Whether you're looking to have more women in engineering, women in technology, women in computer science or women in the trades, these strategies will work for you! We work with individual educational institutions as well as at the regional and state level.

How to Recruit Participants to the Training:

We'll help you get other educators as excited as you are about the WomenTech Educators Training. We'll also provide you with a series of customizable emails to recruit participants.

Start Recruiting Right Away with Ready-To-Go Outreach Materials:

The WomenTech Classroom eBook: A Treasure Trove of Hard-to-Find Women in STEM Resources for Educators
Instantly access hard to find women in STEM classroom resources and online role model resources that will help women and girls see themselves in all career pathways. This downloadable guide includes links to sample curriculums and websites that teach STEM in a female-friendly way. 

Women in Technology Outreach Kit
This easy-to-use downloadable kit has examples and fill-in-the-blank templates for program brochures, flyers, recruitment presentations, and school website sections that all include female role models. The female role model questionnaire has all the proven questions to ask your role models.

Role Model Banner
Each team receives a 6’ x 2’ banner in the career pathway of their choice.

Training Schedule and What's Included:

Training starts March 20, 2017. Register Now
Time period: 1-week Orientation, 4 weeks on Recruitment, 1-week Break, and 4 weeks on Retention.
Hours required: 1 hour per week asynchronous, high quality video modules + 1 hour meeting as a team to develop YOUR school’s Recruitment and Retention Action Plans
Team building during the orientation week call
Target audience laser coaching call during week 1 to help your team get this critical first step right
2 Recruitment and Retention Plan Feedback Calls per team
Support for Implementation Call 3 months out and unlimited email support
Virtual presentation report on outcomes by all teams at 6-month mark
Total of 5.5 hours of Customized Feedback per team
Each team receives transcripts and recordings of all coaching calls

Continuing Education Credit:

Fresno Pacific University is now offering one unit of continuing education credit to online training participants! Note: You can sign up for the continuing education credit starting 4 weeks in advance of training.

Pricing:

‣ Recommended Team (6-10 people): $5700

Terms of Payment:

Team registration is confirmed on receipt of payment by check or credit card. We do not accept purchase orders. Please note, we cannot reserve a space for your school team without payment.

Print Order Form

The Power of Teams:

Teams communicate as a single voice during the program. Team members join together weekly to synthesize and apply the information into a group assignment; assignments build to create full Recruitment and Retention Action Plans during the training. To achieve these results, each team is required to focus on one career pathway which can be scaled and/or replicated later on.

What WomenTech Educator Participants Said About Their Teams in the Training:

“We have a fabulous team. So many people have different varied areas of expertise. We meet Wednesday mornings and everybody is energized and works hard.”

~ Patti Williams, Faculty, Surveying & Mapping Technologies, Mid-west College

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. 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)
• Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent)
• Principal Investigator of grant (if applicable)
• Dean of Instruction
• Minimum of two instructors in targeted courses (highly recommended)
• Math administrator (if your core targeted courses have math prerequisites)
• Outreach & Recruitment Director/Staff
• Curriculum Developer
• STEM Coordinator
• Learning Center Director/Staff
• Counselor/Advisor
• Workforce Development Director
• Research & Planning Officer

Download a Sample "Join My Team" Letter (DOC)

New Team Support Calls and Customized Feedback led to AMAZING results from the Online Training in 2015!

We’ve unlocked the proven path to increasing the number of female students in your STEM program. Community colleges in our National Science Foundation-funded February 2015 Online Training group have seen remarkable results: 5 of 7 colleges started enrolling an average of 4.8 more female students in their STEM courses and 6 of 7 increased female retention from an average baseline of 58% to 100% in only 8 months.

Including...

A Georgia community college that went from only 1 female student in an introductory Emerging Technology course to 15 of 17 students just one semester after the Online Training.

A Massachusetts community college that went from 1 female student in manufacturing to 9 out of 13 students in its introductory course the next semester. Plus, 100% of the female students were retained!

NEVER let anyone tell you again that nothing can be done, or that making change happen for female students in your STEM program will take decades or require a huge budget. We have the evidence to prove your institution can start seeing real increases in as little as one year!

In light of these groundbreaking results, I’ve updated the WomenTech Educators Online Training so that all schools get the same benefits as our successful NSF-funded model. I'm excited to announce that we can now provide this same level of support for your school--your team will be getting access to 6 new calls with me, significantly more individualized feedback, and help with the implementation of your plans in the 6 months after the online training ends. Plus your team now gets an orientation call and a Laser Coaching Call on the #1 most important aspect of your Recruitment Plan. I know this proven model can help your team see the same kinds of successful results that as schools in our NSF-funded Online Training!

This training is designed to provide you with a roadmap that will enable you to achieve your goals and because the training is over 10 weeks, you will receive support for implementation of your plan strategies.

We are committed to helping educators succeed in creating a gender balance in STEM. Once you have achieved results in increasing the number of female students in your programs, you may be featured in case studies or webinars to highlight your team’s accomplishments while inspiring other educators!

Have more questions? Sign Up to Talk with Donna Milgram about the WomenTech Educators Online Training

Bonuses Included with the WomenTech Educators Online Training:

The WomenTech Classroom eBook: A Treasure Trove of Hard-to-Find Women in STEM Resources for Educators
Instantly access hard to find women in STEM classroom resources and online role model resources that will help women and girls see themselves in all career pathways. This downloadable guide includes links to sample curriculums and websites that teach STEM in a female-friendly way. 

Women in Technology Outreach Kit ($1,500 value)
This easy-to-use downloadable kit has examples and fill-in-the-blank templates for program brochures, flyers, recruitment presentations, and school website sections that all include female role models. The female role model questionnaire has all the proven questions to ask your role models.

Schedule and What's Included:

• Time period: 10-12 weeks of online training plus 6 months of customized feedback and coaching
• Hours required: 1 hour per week asynchronous, high-quality video modules + 1 hour meeting as a team to develop
  YOUR school’s Recruitment and Retention Action Plans!
• Team building during the orientation week call
• Target audience laser coaching call during week 1 to help your team get this critical first step right
• 2 hour-long Recruitment and Retention Plan feedback calls per team
• Support for Implementation Call 3 months out and unlimited email support
• Virtual presentation report on outcomes by all teams at 6-month mark
• Total of 5.5 hours of customized feedback per team
• Each team receives transcripts and recordings of all coaching calls
• Optional: Hold online training in a live 4-day online Bootcamp style format

The WomenTech Educators Online Training System for Success

IWITTS has cracked the code to helping community colleges broaden participation as soon as the next semester with the WomenTech Educators Training System – developed during our 5 National Science Foundation (NSF) projects and now available to all community colleges through IWITTS's WomenTech Online Training program. The proven formula that makes this system so effective includes the following elements:

Why a Team-Based Training System?

The WomenTech Educators 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 in teams ensures that all the key stakeholders are represented and invested in the Women in STEM Recruitment and Retention Plans your college develops as part of the training, while also improving the infrastructure of your college to broaden participation. (See “The Power of Teams” below for recommendations on potential team members.)

Pre-Training Activities and Support

A pre-training consultation with your trainer will help set your college up for success. Trainer will meet with you to help with: 1) Team composition and development; 2) Baseline data collection and analysis for targeted career pathway of each team; and if appropriate, 3) Review of related grant proposal and discussion on how to meet grant goals.

Focus on 1 STEM Career Pathway

Each team that participates in the WomenTech Educators Online Training program will need to choose 1 career pathway/program (example: engineering technology) in which women are underrepresented to focus on. Keep in mind that each team’s recruitment and retention strategies will differ by program because the outreach materials, talking points, prerequisites, building block skills, and female role models will all be unique to each program. We recommend teams 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!

Training Modules and Plan Development

Based on proven practices, the WomenTech Educators Training curriculum includes the "best-of-the-best" of our strategies, culled from our 5 NSF projects and over 20 years of success in assisting educational institutions in recruiting and retaining female students in programs around the country. As part of the training, each team will develop a custom Women in STEM Recruitment Plan and a Retention Plan using a proven template. The plan templates include required key elements that set teams up to be successful. (See the Training Learning Outcomes and Take Aways for more details.)

Team Building and Customized Feedback for Each Team
Note: Each team receives transcripts and recordings of all coaching calls

In our successful NSF CalWomenTech Project, the external evaluators found that along with the training itself, support for implementation with trainer Donna Milgram was one of the top 2 most important things that helped schools achieve their impressive recruitment and retention results. The WomenTech Educators Online Training program includes 6 hours of call time for each team with Donna:

1. Team-Building Orientation Call (Includes Laser Coaching on Target Audience) – This first 1.5 hour call with each team and trainer sets them up to be high-functioning Leadership Teams and takes them through the nuts and bolts of training logistics, such as choosing a weekly meeting time for homework/plan development. Trainer will also help each team take the critical, first step of their Recruitment Plan – choosing the best target audience for your school. Target audience impacts every portion of a team’s Recruitment Plan, so it’s critical to get it right at the start.
2. Recruitment Plan Feedback Call and Retention Plan Feedback Call in Weeks Following Training – Trainer will provide an hour of customized feedback on each action plan – 1 call on a team’s Recruitment Plan and 1 on their Retention Plan. Teams will also receive another round of written feedback when they revise and finalize plans after these calls.
3. Team Support for Implementation Call 3 Months After Training – Teams receive personalized support from their trainer on implementing Recruitment and Retention Plans during this 1-hour team call.
4. Final Group Presentation Call Presentation 6 Months After Training –Teams will have a chance to present and hear from the other teams in the training. The information your teams present can be included in reports to funders and in future grant proposals.

“The [Customized Feedback] sessions really keep you on task. It’s too easy for this to be just one project among dozens, and the calls give you just-in-time reminders. It’s very helpful when you’re in the middle of implementing your plan to be reminded of something from the training you might want to go back and look at, or to receive new information from Donna [Trainer] that you need just at that moment."

~ Patrick J. Enright, Dean for Business, Mathematics, Engineering and Technologies, County College of Morris, Randolph, NJ

Who is this WomenTech Educators Online Training System for?

This program is recommended for community colleges that are serious about broadening participation in their institution’s STEM programs where women are underrepresented, and are ready to do so in 1-years’ time.

The Power of Teams:

Teams communicate as a single voice during the program. Team members join together weekly to synthesize and apply the information into a group assignment; assignments build to create full Recruitment and Retention Action Plans during the training. To achieve these results, each team is required to focus on one career pathway which can be scaled and/or replicated later on.

What WomenTech Educator Participants Said About Their Teams in the Training:

“We have a fabulous team. So many people have different varied areas of expertise. We meet Wednesday mornings and everybody is energized and works hard.”

~ Patti Williams, Faculty, Surveying & Mapping Technologies, Mid-west College

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. 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)
• Director of the Technology Center (or equivalent)
• Principal Investigator of grant (if applicable)
• Dean of Instruction Minimum of two instructors in targeted courses (highly recommended)
• Math administrator (if your core targeted courses have math prerequisites)
• Outreach & Recruitment Director/Staff
• Curriculum Developer
• STEM Coordinator Learning Center Director/Staff
• Counselor/Advisor
• Workforce Development Director
• Research & Planning Officer

Download a sample "Join My Team" letter (DOC)

Bonuses Included with the Dedicated WomenTech Educators Online Training:

The WomenTech Classroom eBook: A Treasure Trove of Hard-to-Find Women in STEM Resources for Educators
Instantly access hard to find women in STEM classroom resources and online role model resources that will help women and girls see themselves in all career pathways. This downloadable guide includes links to sample curriculums and websites that teach STEM in a female-friendly way. 

Women in Technology Outreach Kit
This easy-to-use downloadable kit has examples and fill-in-the-blank templates for program brochures, flyers, recruitment presentations, and school website sections that all include female role models. The female role model questionnaire has all the proven questions to ask your role models.

NEW: STEM Success for Women Master Class
12, hour-long audio interviews and transcripts from educators who have successfully recruited and retained female students in STEM, sharing the step-by-step *recipe* for how they achieved this. The Master Class is the recorded version of our recent powerful STEM Success for Women Telesummit.

Unlimited Potential Posters (Set of 6)
Each team receives a set of 6 posters! Images of female role models on the job help women and girls picture themselves in STEM career pathways.

Role Model Banner
Each team receives a 6’ x 2’ banner in the career pathway of their choice.