Creating career services that actually work.
The college-to-career handoff is “very ill-conceived,” said Bridget Burns, chief executive of the University Innovation Alliance, in a recent Chronicle virtual forum. “It is not intentional. It’s not centered. It’s not serious.”
Given that more than 80 percent of students say they’ve come to college to get a good job, redesigning career services to better serve their needs — especially for low-income, first-generation, and underrepresented-minority students — should be a campus priority.
The forum, which Burns moderated with Ian Wilhelm, an assistant managing editor at The Chronicle, was part of our yearlong series on student success, which has been produced with support from the Ascendium Education Group.
Here are two takeaways from the recent forum:
Take career prep to the students.
“The future has to be in the classroom,” said Burns. “It’s the one place where every student goes.” Faculty members can — and should — talk about career development, said Brenna Gomez, Oregon State University’s director of career integration. Students trust their professors, she said, and want them to talk about careers. Oregon State now encourages faculty members to integrate career-readiness activities into coursework and to put career competencies on syllabi.
“If you don’t actually make it curricular,” said Andy Chan, vice president for innovation and career development at Wake Forest University, “students will think it’s optional.”
More collaboration between employers and colleges would help.
“Historically, companies are just waiting for ready, experienced candidates to just arrive at the doorstep,” said Amir Badr, chief executive of the career-building platform Upkey. That leaves behind many first-gen and minority students. “You can’t just slap a job on Handshake, call it DEI, and hope for the best talent,” Badr said. Working with colleges, companies could communicate clearly about what skills they’re looking for — and conduct outreach like guest lectures and shadow days for students. —Maura Mahoney
What should I be following now?
Considering this moment, what are the innovation-related topics and themes you want to hear more about from me? What emerging cool ideas should I be following? Any interesting people I should be talking to? Examples of success — or failure — I should be digging into?
Part of the fun of writing The Edge is the connection it gives me to all of you. The two-way conversations we’ve created over the years continue to intrigue me. So please send your thoughts. As you know, I especially love fresh approaches to student success, the college-to-career transition, serving nontraditional students, digital equity, and the higher-ed business model. I’ll share back what I hear and, over the months to come, report more on these themes as well.
Meanwhile, I’m not really fishing, but I am at the beach with my bike, kayak, hammock, and a stack of great reads to tackle. Top of the pile is Parable of the Sower, by Octavia E. Butler, a book I was inspired to read after hearing the Washington Nationals pitcher Sean Doolittle rave about it this summer in a conversation with Carla Hayden at the Library of Congress. (You can catch a video of that delightful conversation here.)
And as in years past, I’m checking in with college pals from Colgate University on which selections from the open-to-everyone “Living Writers” course we plan to read and discuss ourselves this fall. Maybe this year I’ll even catch a few more of the author podcasts and on-demand streams of on-campus talks.
I’m trying to read more fiction these days: It makes me feel as if I’m on vacation even when I’m not, and I value the momentary respite from the news that I often surround myself with. I guess the organizers of the “Living Writers” course have been feeling a similar need. “Several of the writers on our list,” the website for the course says, “seem to be asking some variation on this question: How do we find hope in the face of an apocalypse?”
And on that cheery note, take care. I’ll be back in your inboxes soon.
Got a tip you’d like to share or a question you’d like me to answer? Let me know, at goldie@chronicle.com. If you have been forwarded this newsletter and would like to see past issues, find them here. To receive your own copy, free, register here. If you want to follow me on Twitter, @GoldieStandard is my handle.
