Training for the Work-Study Supervisor

Introduction The work-study program at Trident Technical College is an excellent way for our students to earn extra money to help with expenses, gain professional experience, add to their resume, and learn more about the institution. The program is equally beneficial to the College with the increase in workforce population. It is the responsibility of supervisors to ensure that: students do not sacrifice academics to concentrate on work guidelines and procedures are followed in the workplace contract requests and paperwork are completed as required timesheets are turned in to human resources on time (with evaluation on back) new work-study students complete orientation With proper oversight of the program, we can avoid delays in hiring, mis-management of funds, and problems for the student. This tutorial is intended to supplement the Work-Study Employer Handbook.

Hiring Process Advertising for a work-study position is up to the discretion of the supervisor, however, we highly recommend maximum usage of “Career Connection” as this is generally where we refer students that are looking for openings. You must request an account if you do not already have one. Call 574-6119 to complete this step. *Do not attempt to create one on your own.* Once you have advertised, it is your decision on whom to hire. You may interview one or several students before you make a decision. Regardless of your process, please contact all students that respond to let them know of your decision. *One of the most common complaints from students is that they never receive a reply after applying on-line or in person. Wages and hours: please refer to the on-line handbook for a wage table and the maximum hours of employment for work-study students. You must now complete all required paperwork prior to the student beginning work.

Contracts and Processing Complete a request for a contract through your Outlook account using the on-line form. (Tools…forms…choose a form) The student’s eligibility will be verified by Career & Employment Services (CES). Any student that qualifies will have a Federal Work-Study contract written before an Institutional one. *This saves you and the College money! The contract will be mailed to you for signatures and routing to HR. If this is a first time work-study, they will also have to complete an I-9, a W-4, and have copies of two forms of identification listed on the I-9. All students are required to sign a confidentiality statement. All of these forms (except the contract) are available on-line on the CES web page.

Contracts and Processing cont’d Ensure that all forms are complete. The confidentiality form requires a signature by the student and the supervisor (as does the I-9). Ensure you review the form with the student and that they fully understand the importance of the content. Retain your copy of the contract and ensure the student receives a copy. Mail the entire package to HR-C. You will receive an email receipt from either HR or CES confirming the package is complete. Now the student may begin working…

Do’s & Don’ts Do… Plan for your needs. Request well in advance. Pay attention to dates and amounts. Supervise your employee. Notify CES if you terminate a student or do not implement a requested contract. Don’t… Expect an immediate turnaround. Procrastinate. Ignore the paperwork. Forget about the needs of the student. Operate by your own rules. Exceed the 20 hr/week guideline.

General Discussion There have been many changes in the operation of this program over the past couple of years. While not always convenient, all changes are made to protect the integrity of the program and to ensure we do not risk losing federal funding due to mismanagement. I will attempt to explain some of the major changes in more detail. Contract length. We changed the length of contracts from the full school year to one semester for several reasons. Students that did not return for subsequent semesters still had open contracts and CES was never notified. Federal work-study students were exceeding their hours and award amounts in some cases. This results in divisions having to come up with Institutional funding to cover the overpayments. Not all supervisors were verifying eligibility after grades were posted. This violates federal guidelines.

Pay scale. There has never been a standardized pay scale for work-study students. In some cases, this resulted in students performing the same jobs, but receiving different rates of pay and arbitrary figures presented on contracts. In order to correct this problem, a pay scale was set for federal work-study students. Institutional pay rates are determined by the appropriate Vice President since the funds are from their budget. Refer to the on-line handbook for the scale. **Institutional contracts are generally written in line with the federal work-study pay rates. Contract review. CES reviews each contract to see if students are eligible for federal work-study even if the request is for an institutional contract. Many times a supervisor requests an institutional contract just because they have a slot. We will always attempt to spend the federal funds before we spend institutional funds. This helps all of us. Centralized processing. CES began writing all contracts in order to maintain better accountability of expenditure of funds and to reduce the amount of processing errors. Many times in the past, supervisors would forget to send a copy of the contract to CES and tracking of that student would be lost.

Conclusion This concludes the tutorial. I hope it cleared up some of the process in hiring a work-study student. Between this and the Handbook, most of your questions should have been answered. If not, feel free to contact the Career & Employment office for clarification. To register as having completed the supervisor tutorial, please send an email to our office that includes your name, department, division, and contact info. We are requiring that all supervisors complete this training prior to issuing any further contracts. Thank you for your time and cooperation.