Career Centers Reimagined
Career centers in the higher education ecosystem have traditionally been known as the office where students go to seek advice from counselors about their long-term career plans.
Yet, fewer than 20% of undergraduates reach out to their school’s career centers for advice on finding jobs or identifying and applying to graduate programs, although such advice ranks among a center’s most valuable services, according to a 2017 Strada-Gallup survey.
As the global economy reels from the impact of months of lockdown due to COVID19, career outcomes as a consequence of a college degree matter far more.
Unfortunately, data from NACE gathered since the pandemic began, shows that 17% of career centers report that their budgets have been reduced by more than 10% for fall 2020, versus last year.
So how can career centers prove their worth to universities and establish themselves as an important driver of student enrollment?
Career centers need to be focused on making investments that clearly translate to employment outcomes for students.
Corporate America is increasingly demanding work experience prior to graduation. A high GPA and a strong academic track record might have been enough to receive a job offer straight out of college in the past, but today’s employers are more keen to see evidence that a candidate has problem-solving and communication skills and some real work experience before committing to a full-time hire.
This means that career centers at high schools and colleges need to establish themselves as the best pathway to high-quality work experience opportunities for students.
Career centers of the future will be called upon to take greater responsibility in matching students with internships and forming partnerships with industry to bring experiential learning opportunities to the student body, while “support services” like resume-editing and career counseling sessions will become increasingly redundant.
Securing a first internship is a struggle for all students, but those who don’t hail from backgrounds that have given them the social capital and networking opportunities to get a recruiter to take a second look at their resumes must rely almost entirely on career centers providing them with access to employers or pay for third-party resources like consultants or recruiters.
While the role of career centers has been evolving for some years now, 2020 has made it very clear that they need to think well beyond putting internship postings on the school job portal in order to truly contribute value.
With many internships being cancelled due to COVID19, career centers that already have established virtual work experience projects for their students were best equipped to support them in the ways they needed. Moreover, as the world gravitates towards a new normal of remote work, career centers that recognize their students need opportunities to demonstrate to future employers that they possess remote work skills stand a better chance of making their student body more attractive to campus recruiters. As companies grow culturally and geographically diverse, colleges need to play a role in preparing the future generation of employees to work alongside remote team members from around the world.
In order to stay competitive, career centers must move away from a broadly advisory role and actively seek ways to provide all students with access to experiential learning experiences that will one day become a mainstay of the overall university experience.
Even with limited budgets, career centers can leverage alumni networks or invest in internship, externship, work shadowing, apprenticeship and/or co-op programs that can help close the opportunity gap for students of all backgrounds.
An active move towards investing in better career support for students also stands to benefit schools themselves in the long run. Students who feel supported beyond the academic setting, in areas like mental health and career services, feel more emotionally connected to the school community and are more likely to be active in alumni philanthropy.
A career center with a reputation for truly delivering career outcomes also helps boost enrollment numbers at universities.
Over 80% of students say that getting a job is a key factor in their decision to attend university - one can only imagine that number rising in a world teetering on the brink of an economic downturn.
My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
I was born and raised in Colombia. A developing country, with a population of 51.52 M people. In 2019, around 2.5 M people lived on less than $1.90 per day. In 2021, Colombia was the most unequal country in Latin America based on the degree of inequality.
A few years ago, I enrolled in Social Enterprise courses. It was a great opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with others who are passionate about working on projects that had a social purpose.
A few years ago, I enrolled in Social Enterprise courses. It was a great opportunity to meet and exchange ideas with others who are passionate about working on projects that had a social purpose.
I was born and raised in Colombia. A developing country, with a population of 51.52 M people. In 2019, around 2.5 M people lived on less than $1.90 per day. In 2021, Colombia was the most unequal country in Latin America based on the degree of inequality.
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- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
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- providing jobs and economic growth through well run businesses
In short, corporations that aren’t participating in CSR based initiatives are being left behind.
What’s a Rich Text element?
The rich text element allows you to create and format headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, images, and video all in one place instead of having to add and format them individually. Just double-click and easily create content.
Static and dynamic content editing
A rich text element can be used with static or dynamic content. For static content, just drop it into any page and begin editing. For dynamic content, add a rich text field to any collection and then connect a rich text element to that field in the settings panel. Voila!
How to customize formatting for each rich text
Headings, paragraphs, blockquotes, figures, images, and figure captions can all be styled after a class is added to the rich text element using the "When inside of" nested selector system.
- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
- My parents: They are volunteers and leaders of social projects that target underserved and underprivileged populations. At a very early age, my parents made sure to engage me in the social projects they were part of.
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