Making a Case for University Career Centers

At a time when the higher education industry faces enrollment and revenue challenges like no other time in recent history, reflection is all the more important relative to resource allocations for various departments in any university. It’s particularly important to consider the emphasis being placed on student retention and persistence as well as graduate outcomes, especially in light of enrollment and retention challenges tied to rapidly fluctuating high school graduation rates and population (Ellucian, 2016). Major media channels are certainly paying attention to these higher education issues, thus bringing more scrutiny to college student and graduate success. Such success is being defined by many as any one or more of the following: staying in school and graduating within a reasonable amount of time; being employed part-time or full-time after graduation; pursuing additional education part-time or full-time after graduation; serving in the military or in another service organization (e.g., AmeriCorps, Peace Corps) after graduation. In fact, “Today, accrediting agencies are demanding higher levels of accountability around outcomes, as are policy makers and citizens concerned over the value that education delivers” (Ellucian, 2016).

According to research, factors that contribute significantly to student success (i.e., retention, persistence, graduation, and post-graduation productivity) are: effective academic advising, social connectedness, involvement and engagement, faculty and staff approachability, business procedures, learning experiences, and student support services (Ellucian, 2016). Career centers offer multiple ways for students to be engaged as well as identify life purpose and a well thought-out career path. Freshmen or students in general with defined job-related career goals are more likely to persist than those without targeted career goals (Hull-Blanks, Kurpius, Befort, Sollenberger, Nicpon, & Huser, 2005; Tinto, 1987a). Once students are on a productive academic path, they are more likely to be prepared for post-graduation success. Unfortunately, some students are not likely to use career services; in particular, first-generation and transfer students are the least likely to do so (New, 2016). What we know, though, is that graduates who visit career centers, even if only once, are more likely to be employed full time (67%) after college, than those who didn’t visit (59%) (New, 2016). If we consider ethnicity in this regard, nearly 2/3 of black graduates who visited the career center (at least once) were employed full-time, only 54% of those who didn’t visit were employed full-time after graduation (New, 2016). Efforts around student success need to not only integrate career coaching and education to ensure students identify a major as well as goals associated with career-readiness and post-graduation employment, but also ensure a diversity strategy is in place.

Student success initiatives integrate efforts from all academic departments as well as various other campus departments providing services and conducting activities and programs for students. Such efforts may include high-impact practices and certainly need to ensure students are engaged. We know that engagement contributes positively to retention, persistence, and graduation as well as post-graduation outcomes. As long ago as the 1980s, Tinto (1987a) was advocating for integration of admissions with other university services, namely academic advising and career coaching. He continued over the course of nearly 20 years to underscore the importance of good advising to retention (Tinto, 2004), indicating that students are more likely to persist when they have declared a major (Anderson, 2002; Blau & Snell, 2013; Feduccia, 2003; French, 2014) and have engaged in career coaching (Anderson, 2002). We’ve also known for many years that students who are undecided about their academic major are those with one of the highest dropout rates (Beal & Noel, 1980). Career centers have the propensity to contribute to students’ major identification through major and career exploration efforts. Certainly, one of the main focuses of colleges and universities today is ensuring that they’re producing career-ready graduates. For graduates to be career-ready, they need a variety of experiences and achievements during their undergraduate studies, including the development of soft skills, real-world work experience in an industry that is career-path relevant, networking opportunities, and of course, academic success. University leaders, administrators, and faculty members need to recognize the importance of work experiences, internships, and other such field experiences to student retention and persistence (Moxley, Najor-Durack, & Dumbrigue, 2001; Tinto, 1987b). University personnel also need to acknowledge and act on the understanding that students pursue higher education based on career and professional aspirations more than academics (Moxley et al., 2001).

Brandon Busteed, executive director of education and work force development at Gallup shared perspective on the most recent annual Gallup-Purdue University study of college graduates that reported only 17% of those who graduated from 2010-2016 said they found their college career centers to be very helpful and 17% indicated their interactions were not helpful at all (New, 2016). Busteed indicated, “The good news, though, is that graduates who had very helpful experiences had entirely different experiences after college. It’s encouraging news, and I think it shows if we put more emphasis on career services, it’s going to be something very valuable.” Currently, however, the majority of university career centers are significantly under-resourced, especially relative to staffing.

“College and university administrations need to recognize that changes in the economy will require a more prominent place for career education within their institutions and make it a priority to provide adequate levels of support for their career services offices” (Koc & Tsang, 2015). Career centers need to be an increasingly fundamental and significant part of a university’s academic culture and appropriately resourced to deliver the most effective services and programs for students, graduates, alumni, and employers. Enrollment challenges as well as economic changes further emphasize the need for increased resources for career centers to ensure they are adequately contributing to students’ career-readiness, thus contributing to positive employment opportunities and outcomes for students and graduates (e.g., internships and jobs). According to NACE (2012) 60% of students participating in internships received at least one job offer and organizations converted 58.6% of their interns into full-time hires. Among 2014 graduates, 52% of those receiving job offers before graduation had held internships (NACE, 2014). Furthermore, 95% of employers are seeking college graduates with experience (NACE, 2012). University career centers provides multiple opportunities for students to develop themselves professionally and to be career-ready.

The university career center contributes significantly to providing students opportunities for soft skills development and relevant real-world experience. At the same time, career centers seemingly fall under the radar on far too many campuses. The colleges and universities making significant and appropriate resource allocations to their respective career centers clearly see the need to ensure career education and professional development are a part of the fabric of the university. Meaningful consideration of the contributions of university career centers reveals the significant ways they contribute to student recruitment, matriculation, retention, persistence, and success, as well as better graduate outcomes. Satisfied, successful graduates represent the institution well, and are more likely to speak highly of and give back to the institution in multiple ways. The colleges and universities who aptly recognize the importance of a career-readiness culture are those that are and will continue to be at the forefront of success from recruitment to enrollment to retention and persistence, and ultimately to graduation and employment.

The provision of quality career services support for students has been impeded and jeopardized for a great number of years at many institutions of higher learning. Funding sources have been depleted for a variety of reasons, including diminishing state appropriations, declining enrollment, and the failure of tuition prices to maintain pace with inflation (i.e., programming and staffing costs). At a time when there is a necessary and increased focus on student retention, persistence, and overall success as well as return on investment for graduates, the focus on career education and professional development is crucial. Effective, productive delivery of services to students has never been more critical as universities compete for enrollment and need to demonstrate post-graduation success. We know that the one of the most prevalent reasons students pursue higher education is to get a better job, with in fact, 87.9% of incoming first-year students indicating this in a fall 2012 national study (CIRP, 2012). Shindell (2013) supported the notion that career centers play a central role in students’ integration into the academic and social milieu of a university community as well as assist in students’ career preparation.

Institutions of higher learning are wise to identify funding sources to increase career center resources and, at the very least, staffing levels. Sufficient funding allows career centers to provide increased quality and quantity of services, programs, relationships, and opportunities for students. Some component of the services and programs needs to speak to serving diverse, underserved, and underrepresented populations. When the career center is staffed adequately, the team is better positioned to provide much-needed services and programs with the appropriate levels of expertise necessary for serving various populations and working with employers and faculty members across all industries. This work and these relationships not only allow students to be career ready but also provide for the development of more viable employment opportunities and graduate school options. University career services professionals must continue to dream, believe, educate, and advocate for appropriate staffing levels and resources while also becoming more creative relative to funding sources and revenue generation to allow career centers the ability to deliver programs and services more effectively and thoroughly, thus contributing to student retention, persistence, and overall success. For those who’ve beaten the resource challenge, please share your stories of success with those of us still struggling to strategically position our career centers on our respective campuses.

References

Anderson, T. B. (2002). Effect of Career Counseling and its process on retention (Doctoral Dissertation). Southern Illinois University Carbondale, IL.

Beal, P. E., & Noel, L. (1980). What works in student retention: The Report of a Joint Project of the American College Testing Program and the National Center for Higher Education Management Systems. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED197635

Blau, G., & Snell, C. M. (2013). Understanding undergraduate professional development engagement and its impact. College Student Journal, 47(4), 689-702.

Cooperative Institutional Research Program (CIRP). (2012). The American freshman: National norms fall 2012. University of California, Higher Education Research Institute (HERI).

Ellucian. (2016). Retention and student success: Implementing strategies that make a difference. www.ellucian.com

Feduccia, M.D. (2003). Career Counseling for college students: The influence of a computer-assisted career decision-making program on the stability of college major selection at a research-extensive university (Doctoral dissertation). Retrieved from http://etd.lsu.edu/docs/available/etd-0320103-135616/

French, B. F. (2014). The influence of a career exploration course on new first-time student retention at a public Midwest community college. 74, ProQuest Information & Learning, US. Retrieved from http://libezp.lib.lsu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=psyh&AN=2014-99090-372&site=ehost-live&scope=site Available from EBSCOhost psych database.

Hull-Blanks, E., Kurpius, S. E. R., Befort, C., Sollenberger, S., Nicpon, M. F., & Huser, L. (2005). Career goals and retention-related factors among college freshmen. Journal of Career Development, 32(1), 16-30.

Koc, E. W., & Tsang, K.C. (2015). The university commitment to career services. NACE Journal. http://www.naceweb.org/j022015/university-commitment-to-career-services.aspx

Moxley, D., Najor-Durack, A., & Dumbrigue, C. (2001). Keeping students in higher education. London: Kogan Page.

NACE. (2014). The class of 2014 student survey report: Results from NACE’s annual survey of college students. NACE. http://career.sa.ucsb.edu/files/docs/handouts/2014-student-survey.pdf

NACE. (2012). The class of 2012 student survey report: Results from NACE’s annual survey of college students. NACE.

New, J. (2016). Looking for career help. Inside Higher Ed. https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2016/12/13/only-17-percent-recent-graduates-say-career-centers-are-very-helpful

Shindell, R. (2013, September 15). What role does career services play in effective retention? [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://www.internbridge.com/blog/what-role-does-careerservices-play-in-effective-retention

Tinto, V. (2004). Student retention and graduation: Facing the truth, living with the consequences. Occasional Paper 1: Pell Institute for the Study of Opportunity in Higher Education. Retrieved from http://www.eric.ed.gov/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=ED519709

Tinto, V. (1987a). The principles of effective retention. Paper presented at the Fall Conference of The Maryland College Personnel Association, Largo, MD. Retrieved from http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED301267.pdf

Tinto, V. (1987b). Leaving college: Rethinking the causes and cures of student attrition. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.

Article first appeared on LinkedIn on October 13, 2017. View this and other articles by Dr. Manko here.