FACULTY & STAFF
Incorporate career readiness into your classroom
Employer Engagement and Career Services:
Your Partner in Bringing Career Skills into the Classroom
Employer Engagement and Career Services are dedicated to helping faculty integrate career readiness skills into their courses, ensuring that students are prepared for success after graduation. Here’s how we can support you and your students:
Mock Interviews: We can help support mock interviews where students can practice their interview skills in a safe, supportive environment. These sessions help students build confidence and receive constructive feedback, giving them real-world experience they can apply during job searches.
Resume Workshops: We provide workshops and one-on-one sessions focused on crafting professional resumes that highlight students' skills and experiences. These sessions ensure that students are presenting themselves effectively to future employers. We can also assist with creating program-specific resumes, such as technical resumes, portfolios, and other tailored formats to highlight your students' unique skills and experiences.
Big Interview: Big Interview is an online platform that allows students to practice interviews at their own pace. We can guide students on how to use this resource and incorporate it into classroom assignments, helping them refine their interview techniques. Faculty can also assign Big Interview tasks to complement course content.
Big Interview Assignments: We assist faculty in creating assignments that utilize Big Interview, making it easy to integrate career readiness activities into your syllabus. These assignments can include practice interviews, self-assessments, and video critiques, providing a practical way to engage students in career preparation.
NACE Competencies: The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) has identified key competencies that employers value in college graduates. We can help you understand these competencies and show how to embed them into your curriculum, aligning your course content with skills that are critical in today’s job market.
Employer Partnerships: We connect faculty with employers who can provide valuable insights, internship opportunities, and networking experiences for students. These partnerships also allow for guest speakers, job fairs, and other career-focused activities that bring real-world knowledge directly into the classroom.
Career Readiness Resources: We provide additional resources to help students develop professional skills such as communication, teamwork, and problem-solving. From workshops to online resources, we ensure that your students have the tools they need to succeed beyond the classroom.
We’re here to work alongside you to ensure your students are not only academically prepared but also equipped with the essential career skills needed for their futures. Let’s collaborate to build a curriculum that prepares students for success in both the classroom and the workplace.
Competencies of a Career-Ready Workforce
There are eight career readiness competencies, each of which can be demonstrated in a variety of ways.
Career & Self Development
Proactively develop oneself and one’s career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one’s strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one’s organization.
Sample Behaviors
Show an awareness of own strengths and areas for development.
Identify areas for continual growth while pursuing and applying feedback.
Develop plans and goals for one’s future career.
Professionally advocate for oneself and others.
Display curiosity; seek out opportunities to learn.
Assume duties or positions that will help one progress professionally.
Establish, maintain, and/or leverage relationships with people who can help one professionally.
Seek and embrace development opportunities.
Voluntarily participate in further education, training, or other events to support one’s career.
Communication
Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.
Sample Behaviors
Understand the importance of and demonstrate verbal, written, and non-verbal/body language, abilities.
Employ active listening, persuasion, and influencing skills.
Communicate in a clear and organized manner so that others can effectively understand.
Frame communication with respect to diversity of learning styles, varied individual communication abilities, and cultural differences.
Ask appropriate questions for specific information from supervisors, specialists, and others.
Promptly inform relevant others when needing guidance with assigned tasks.
Critical Thinking
Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.
Sample Behaviors
Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgment.
Gather and analyze information from a diverse set of sources and individuals to fully understand a problem.
Proactively anticipate needs and prioritize action steps.
Accurately summarize and interpret data with an awareness of personal biases that may impact outcomes.
Effectively communicate actions and rationale, recognizing the diverse perspectives and lived experiences of stakeholders.
Multi-task well in a fast-paced environment.
Global Mindset and Fluency
Demonstrates an understanding of systemic, complex global and social issues, and how issues and actions have local and global implications for the future; appropriately challenges unfair and unjust behavior to make a positive difference in the community.
Sample Behaviors
Solicit and use feedback from multiple cultural perspectives to make inclusive and equity-minded decisions.
Seek global cross-cultural interactions and experiences that enhance one’s understanding of people from different demographic groups and that leads to personal growth.
Keep an open mind to diverse ideas and new ways of thinking.
Demonstrate flexibility by adapting to diverse environments.
Leadership
Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.
Sample Behaviors
Inspire, persuade, and motivate self and others under a shared vision.
Seek out and leverage diverse resources and feedback from others to inform direction.
Use innovative thinking to go beyond traditional methods.
Serve as a role model to others by approaching tasks with confidence and a positive attitude.
Motivate and inspire others by encouraging them and by building mutual trust.
Plan, initiate, manage, complete and evaluate projects.
Professionalism
Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.
Sample Behaviors
Act equitably with integrity and accountability to self, others, and the organization.
Maintain a positive personal brand in alignment with organization and personal career values.
Be present and prepared.
Demonstrate dependability (e.g., report consistently for work or meetings).
Prioritize and complete tasks to accomplish organizational goals.
Consistently meet or exceed goals and expectations.
Have an attention to detail, resulting in few if any errors in their work.
Show a high level of dedication toward doing a good job.
Teamwork
Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.
Sample Behaviors
Listen carefully to others, taking time to understand and ask appropriate questions without interrupting.
Effectively manage conflict, interact with and respect diverse personalities, and meet ambiguity with resilience.
Be accountable for individual and team responsibilities and deliverables.
Employ personal strengths, knowledge, and talents to complement those of others.
Exercise the ability to compromise and be agile.
Collaborate with others to achieve common goals.
Build strong, positive working relationships with supervisor and team members/coworkers.
Technology
Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals.
Sample Behaviors
Navigate change and be open to learning new technologies.
Use technology to improve efficiency and productivity of their work.
Identify appropriate technology for completing specific tasks.
Manage technology to integrate information to support relevant, effective, and timely decision-making.
Quickly adapt to new or unfamiliar technologies.
Manipulate information, construct ideas, and use technology to achieve strategic goals.
Learn more about the NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) at https://www.naceweb.org/career-readiness/competencies/career-readiness-defined/
Have Questions? Contact your Employer Engagement and Career Services team today!
