At a Glance: Best Practices for Recruiting and Retaining Students in CTE Programs that are Nontraditional for their Genders

1. Promote flexible scheduling of classes and meetings with advisors with weekend and evening availability 
   
2. Facilitate collaboration  between two-year and four year institutions
3. Provide mentoring programs to school aged children that will help overcome barriers of gender discrimination and inspire individuals from a young age. Start early!
4. Showcase role-models and their success stories, make them visible and allow these role-models to act as support systems to decrease feelings of isolation due to gender differences
   
5. Provide financial assistance, tutoring, child care and job placements.
6. Provide a straightforward and simple application with good and easy to reach customer service 
7. Promote the benefits of nontraditional occupations, such as higher wages, economic self-sufficiency, job satisfaction and broader
   opportunities.
8. Provide face to face academic and career counseling.
9. Use the media to your advantage in running a recruitment campaign, sending out press releases to local media outlets.
10. Place non-traditional opportunities for women in women magazines and vice versa for men.
11. Provide orientations, internships, and job shadowing.
12. Ensure equal education and training for both male and female students and employees.
13.  Adopt a proactive approach to incidents of sexual harassment.
14. Provide teachers' trainings to address unconscious bias.
15. Evaluate the curricula to de-gender contents and address bias.
16. Develop recruitment messages that are de-gendered.
17. Use social media and information and communication technologies to reach younger and older audience.
18. Build partnerships with businesses and community organizations to strengthen outreach.
19. Evaluate, evaluate, evaluate! What gets evaluated gets done!