That’s where SMART goals are a lifesaver. You’ve likely come across or even use SMART goals for yourself – Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-bound goals. They help set realistic plans.
You can use SMART goals to help guide clients while also meeting your performance standards. Here are some tips and SMART goal examples for students to help you support adult learners and manage workforce cases.
Why SMART Goals Can Help Your Clients
SMART goals create structure and can help you monitor case progress. Specific goals give your clients an endpoint and add ways to check your own performance.
The best SMART goals connect with workforce measures, like earning credentials or employment results. Training partners with online, self-paced programs, such as MedCerts Partner Solutions, add easy ways to measure success.
Data dashboards allow you to track progress and see milestones, like completed modules or passed exams. These milestones keep clients motivated, and they help you meet reporting needs.
Writing SMART Goals for Adult Learners
The first step is to help your client understand their own goals. A few prompts for each SMART piece offer clarity and ground the goal in a realistic plan.
The following questions are a good starting point and tool to encourage focus:
- Specific: Define the goal.
- What exactly do you want to accomplish?
- What specific step will you finish this week?
- Measurable: Outline key milestones.
- How will you know you’re successful?
- How many?
- How much?
- Achievable: Outline the steps, and keep them manageable.
- How much time do you need?
- Can you manage it?
- Relevant: Confirm the goal gets them to the end result.
- Is this the right time?
- How does this goal help you achieve the end goal?
- Time-bound: Add a deadline.
- When will you start?
- When do you want to finish each module?
As you work with clients, you may find other helpful questions. However, these templates are reusable and will work for short- or long-term goals in the training process.
7 SMART Goals Examples for Students
Once these answers are clear, your clients can create SMART goals to follow. For instance, these SMART goals examples for adults might help your client finish a program or apply for jobs.
Here are a few examples to get you started:
- Progress goals:
- Schedule one module and one quiz for completion each week.
- Complete three modules and a midterm by Jan. 20th.
- Certification prep:
- Review two modules per week for six weeks.
- Write two practice exams before the certification exam.
- Career readiness:
- Create and edit a resume by Feb. 1st.
- Practice interview answers twice in the next two weeks.
SMART Goals in Practice
Once your client has SMART goals, build them into your sessions and encourage students to review them. Compare their goals and progress to the MedCerts’ tracking tools and celebrate each success.
Help your clients make adjustments as needed, and use the question template above to create clarity. Write updates in your case notes. With these strategies and a training partner like MedCerts, you can set each case up for success and monitor progress against program measures.
