Career Services & Externship Coordinator APEX Health Education Glendale, AZ Job Details Full-time $25 - $30 an hour 1 hour ago Qualifications Experience working with post-secondary students School experience Student supervision Business development management Database systems Student record keeping Policy & process development Recruiting Job search strategy workshop facilitation Building employer relationships Business development within healthcare CRM system proficiency Workforce development File organization Full Job Description Career Services & Externship Coordinator APEX Health Education Full-Time | On-Site & Off- Site Reports to: Executive Director Position Summary APEX Health Education is seeking an experienced Career Services & Externship Coordinator to build and manage the bridge between our students' classroom education and their transition into the healthcare workforce. This position will be responsible for two critical areas of student success: developing and maintaining healthcare externship partnerships and preparing students to successfully enter, complete, and transition from externship into employment. We are looking for someone who understands that externship placement is not simply finding an available site. The right candidate will develop relationships with healthcare employers, understand site requirements, prepare students before placement, coordinate required documentation, monitor students while they are on-site, resolve placement issues, and build a repeatable externship process that can be used across APEX programs and campuses. The ideal candidate has experience in career services, externship/clinical coordination, healthcare education, workforce development, employer relations, or allied health education. Key ResponsibilitiesExternship Site Development & Employer Partnerships Proactively identify and develop new externship partnerships with hospitals, physician practices, cardiology groups, imaging centers, clinics, specialty practices, and other appropriate healthcare employers. Conduct consistent outbound employer outreach by phone, email, networking, and in-person relationship development. Build and maintain a sufficient pipeline of qualified externship sites to support current enrollment and projected future cohorts. Develop relationships with employers that can potentially progress from externship partner → hiring partner → long-term APEX workforce partner . Coordinate affiliation agreements and required site documentation with APEX leadership and compliance personnel. Maintain an accurate database of active sites, contacts, available capacity, program compatibility, requirements, expiration dates, and placement history. Regularly communicate with externship partners to understand staffing needs, student performance, site capacity, and future opportunities. Identify partnership gaps early enough that students are not waiting for placement after becoming eligible. Student Externship Readiness Own the student's transition from classroom completion into externship.

Responsibilities include:

Maintain a forward-looking tracker showing which students are approaching externship eligibility. Review each student's readiness before placement. Coordinate with instructors and academic leadership to verify required classroom, lab, competency, attendance, and academic requirements. Ensure required externship documentation is completed before placement. Conduct mandatory externship-readiness orientation. Educate students on attendance, professionalism, dress code, communication, confidentiality, workplace expectations, and site-specific requirements. Ensure students understand that externship is a professional healthcare environment and should be treated as an extended employment interview. Identify students who are not ready for placement and coordinate an improvement plan with academic/campus leadership. Career Readiness & Employment Preparation Prepare students to successfully compete for healthcare employment by providing: Resume development and review Interview preparation Mock interviews Professional communication training Workplace professionalism Job-search strategies Employer expectations Application assistance Certification-readiness coordination Professional presentation and dress expectations Career preparation should begin before graduation , not after a student completes the program. Placement & Matching Match students with appropriate externship sites based on program, competencies, geographic considerations, site requirements, student readiness, and available capacity. Communicate placement information clearly to students and employers. Confirm placement start dates, schedules, contacts, reporting instructions, and documentation requirements. Prevent students from being sent to sites without complete authorization and required documentation. Maintain accurate records of student placement status. Develop contingency placement options when a site becomes unavailable. Externship Monitoring The Career Services & Externship Coordinator remains responsible for tracking the student after placement. Maintain regular communication with students and externship sites. Monitor attendance, required hours, professionalism, competencies, and site feedback. Track completed externship hours against program requirements. Follow up immediately on missed shifts, performance concerns, communication issues, or site complaints. Coordinate intervention with APEX leadership when problems arise. Document all material site and student communications. Ensure required evaluations and completion documentation are returned. Confirm externship completion before the student's file moves into graduation/completion processing. Employer & Site Quality Management Not every available site should automatically become an APEX externship site. The coordinator will help ensure sites: Provide appropriate experiences for the student's program. Have qualified personnel available to supervise students. Provide sufficient opportunities for students to practice required skills. Maintain an appropriate professional environment. Understand APEX expectations and communication protocols. Complete required student evaluations. Maintain required agreements and documentation. Site performance should be reviewed regularly, and sites that consistently create poor student experiences should be escalated for review. Career Placement & Graduate Follow-Up Maintain contact with students approaching program completion. Identify employment opportunities with existing externship partners and other healthcare employers. Encourage high-performing externship sites to consider qualified APEX students for employment. Track interviews, offers, placements, and employment outcomes. Maintain required graduate employment documentation. Conduct graduate follow-up according to APEX and applicable accreditation requirements. Collect employer feedback regarding graduate performance. Use employer feedback to identify opportunities for improving student preparation and curriculum. Externship Pipeline Standard The individual in this role should always be able to identify: Students Enrolled → Students Approaching Eligibility → Students Ready for Externship → Sites Available → Students Matched → Students Active at Site → Hours Completed → Externship Completed → Certification Ready → Interviewing → Employed No student should reach externship eligibility without Career Services already knowing that student is approaching placement. Required Tracking & Reporting The Career Services & Externship Coordinator will maintain, at minimum: Master externship site database Active affiliation agreement tracker Site capacity tracker Student externship-readiness tracker Student placement tracker Externship hours/completion tracker Site and student evaluation records Employer outreach/contact log Career-readiness tracker Graduate employment tracker Employer hiring-partner database Placement issues/corrective-action log A weekly report should be provided to leadership showing upcoming placements, students waiting for sites, active externships, site capacity, new employer relationships, unresolved issues, upcoming graduates, and employment outcomes. Key Performance Indicators Performance will be measured using defined student-success and employer-development metrics, including: KPIPerformance FocusExternship ReadinessStudents prepared before eligibilityPlacement TimelinessMinimal/no avoidable gap between eligibility and placementSite CapacitySufficient sites for current and projected cohortsNew Site DevelopmentConsistent growth of qualified healthcare partnersAgreement ComplianceCurrent documentation for active sitesExternship CompletionStudents completing required hours successfullyEmployer SatisfactionPositive partner feedback and retentionStudent PreparednessStudents meeting professional/site expectationsEmployment PlacementGraduates transitioning into healthcare employmentGraduate Follow-UpComplete and timely outcome documentation

Qualifications Required:

Experience in career services, externship/clinical coordination, healthcare education, workforce development, recruiting, employer relations, or a related field. Strong relationship-building and business-development skills. Comfortable conducting consistent outreach to healthcare employers. Ability to manage multiple students, sites, deadlines, and documentation requirements simultaneously. Strong written and verbal communication. Strong organizational and follow-up skills. Experience maintaining detailed trackers, records, databases, or CRM systems. Ability to coach students professionally while also holding them accountable. Ability to work collaboratively with instructors, administration, compliance, employers, and executive leadership.

Strongly Preferred:

Previous experience working for a vocational school, career college, allied health program, or postsecondary healthcare institution. Direct experience coordinating healthcare externships or clinical placements. Existing relationships with healthcare employers. Experience working with Medical Assistant, Echocardiography/Sonography, EKG, Phlebotomy, or similar allied-health programs. Understanding of accreditation documentation related to externships, graduate outcomes, and career services. Experience with employer development and healthcare recruiting. Decision-Making Authority The Career Services & Externship Coordinator has authority to manage routine employer outreach, student career preparation, externship coordination, site communication, placement tracking, and follow-up within established APEX policies and procedures. The position may recommend new externship partners but may not independently execute contracts, affiliation agreements, financial commitments, or material changes to company policy without appropriate approval. Any significant decisions involving student exceptions, removal from externship, termination of an employer relationship, changes to externship requirements, contractual commitments, or matters that could create regulatory or accreditation exposure must be communicated to and approved by the Executive Director and/or appropriate company leadership . What Success Looks Like The objective is to build an externship and career-services operation where APEX is proactive rather than reactive . Students should know exactly what is required of them before externship. Leadership should know months in advance how many students will require placement. Employers should know what to expect from APEX students. Every placement should be documented and monitored. Graduates should transition from training into employment through a structured process. As APEX grows, the person in this role will help create the company-wide Career Services and Externship model used across future campuses. APEX Health Education is an Equal Opportunity Employer.

Pay:

$25.00 - $30.00 per hour Expected hours: 25.0 - 40.0 per week

Work Location:

In person