Career Readiness and Employment Expectations: Interdisciplinary Freshman Experience

Teresa E Simpson,Paul G Latiolais,Mahdi Safa,Alexandra Sokolova

doi:10.12691/jbms-7-3-3

Abstract

The growing concern about employment outcomes adds to existing pressures on students to make career decisions early in the college experience. This study was designed to investigate the alignment of student career readiness obtained through quality programming targeting student success learning outcomes as designed by student affairs practitioners at Texas public institutions to those employers surveyed by The Hart Association for the American Association of College and Universities. This study revealed that there is an alignment between student affairs learning outcomes and employer’s expectations for career readiness. The results of this study show a need for common terminology across constituent groups making the student more comfortable in using their co-curricular activities as transferable skills during the interview process. An ideal co-curricular experience that will merge the development of such common langue is an innovative First Year Experience Course as presented in this article.

Highlights

Higher education institutions are concerned about graduates getting a great job placement because it is an outcome expected by students; it contributes to a positive image of the institution, and it can help provide accountability for institutional programs
This study identifies and evaluates the most effective and efficient programs offered by student affairs professionals and a comparison to employers’ expectations of career readiness to provide an effective guideline to create a Freshman Experience Program
Research Question One: Is student career readiness being achieved through student affairs designed learning outcomes to meet the needs of employer expectations for career readiness at Texas public universities?

Summary

Introduction

Higher education institutions are concerned about graduates getting a great job placement because it is an outcome expected by students; it contributes to a positive image of the institution, and it can help provide accountability for institutional programs. Institutions have become more concerned with meeting students’ expectations about their college experience and related career goals and face increasing pressure to demonstrate the value of programs and services offered [1]. The all-university Interdisciplinary Freshman Experience puts students of diverse backgrounds and interests into groups to work together toward a common goal. In achieving their specified goal, students will learn teamwork, problem evaluation, problem solving, time management, creativity, innovation, and interpersonal communication. The Freshman Experience is highly experiential in nature and will build bridges between diverse disciplines that do not traditionally interact in the undergraduate curriculum such as humanities, social sciences, natural sciences, engineering, computer science, and business

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Results

Conclusion