The effect of the CUNY Service Corps Program on undergraduates' employability skills acquisition and professional success

Abstract

Experiential learning and its importance in the professional success of college students has been at the forefront on recent debate about the value of a college education. The low number of recent college graduates acquiring jobs has spurred this debate. Also contributing to this debate is the employers concern for the lack of employability skills that the traditional education is failing to provide the graduates, but that is necessary for them to perform on the job. The purpose of this quantitative evaluative study was to assess the effect of the CUNY Service Corps program, an experiential learning initiative, on its participants' ability to acquire employability skills and achieve professional success by acquiring a job within two years after program completion. The study used the program participants' supervisors' evaluations, an archival data, and a survey data administered to program graduates from 2013-2017 to assess their employability skills acquisition level, the program impact on their personal development and their academic and professional plans, and their job acquisition status after program completion. The study found that the data was consistent with an improvement in participants' employability skills, in addition to a positive impact on their personal development and their academic and professional plans, as reported by the participants. Finally, the study showed that the employability skills acquired through the program were not a good predictor of professional success, although a very high number of program alumni had reported obtaining a job (part or full-time) within two years after program completion. Keywords: Experiential learning, employability skills, professional success, logic model, CUNY Service Corps program, the City University of New York, paired sample t-test, binary logistic regression, factor analysis, program evaluation.