Career Development Interventions in Higher

Education

Chapter 12

Career Needs of Students in Higher Education

• Today’s students are diverse in background, characteristics, developmental levels, and career development needs.

• Approximately 6 million adults (over the age of 25) attend college each year.

• Approximately 500,000 international students were enrolled in higher education in 2001.

Career Needs of Students in Higher Education, continued

• More than 130,000 students with learning disabilities are currently attending college.

• Women now constitute the majority (57.5%) of students enrolled in higher education.

• Ethnic minorities made up 22.5% of students in higher education in 1999.

Career Needs of Students in Higher Education, continued

• Career development needs of lesbian, gay, and bisexual students have long been ignored in higher education.

• This increased heterogeneity suggests that career development interventions in higher education must be comprehensive and systematic.

The Evolution of Career Development Interventions

• Professor/advocate

• Job placement

• Employment agencies

• Placement offices

• Diverse services (no single type of counseling center or placement center)

Five Major Approaches for Delivering Career Services

• Macrocenter

• Counseling orientation

• General-level service

• Career planning and placement

• Minimal service

Why College Students Seek Career Assistance

• Learn more about themselves

• Identify career goals

• Become more certain of their career plans

• Explore career options

• Do educational planning

• Learn job search skills

Career Development Competencies in Adulthood

• Self-Knowledge– Skills to maintain a positive self-concept– Skills to maintain effective behaviors– Ability to understand developmental changes

and transitions

Career Development Competencies in Adulthood

• Educational and Occupational Exploration– Skills to enter and participate in education and training

– Skills to participate in work and lifelong learning

– Skills to locate, evaluate, and interpret career information

– Skills to seek, obtain, maintain, and change jobs

– Ability to understand how the needs and functions of society influence the nature and structure of work

Career Development Competencies in Adulthood

• Career Planning– Skills to make decisions– Ability to understand the impact of work on

individual and family life– Ability to understand the continuing changes in

male-female roles– Skills required to make career transitions

Goals of Career Interventions in Higher Education

• Help students learn to identify and transfer career interests to a plan of action

• Help students relate interests and goals to opportunities

• Help students relate their career plans to life goals and opportunities

• Help students learn how to evaluate their progress toward career goals through academic preparation

Career Interventions in Higher Education (Crites’ Model)

• Explore a variety of options.

• Crystallize a narrow range of specific options.

• Make a commitment to a choice and specify college major.

• Implement the choice of major.

Powell and Kirts Model

• Proposes a systems approach to career services in higher education

• Starts by providing an overview of services to new students

• Continues by providing self-assessment• Then focuses on exposure as students engage

actively in career exploration• Finally provides training in job search skills

The Florida State Model

• A curricular career information service (CCIS) model with five modules, as follows:– Introduction to the service– Orientation to the decision-making process– Self-assessment– Career information– Matching of majors and jobs

Career Services

• Courses, workshops, and seminars -- structured group experiences on topics such as career decision making, career planning, and job search skills

• Group counseling activities for students dealing with career indecision, career indecisiveness, and job search anxiety

• Individual career counseling• Placement programs

Components of Comprehensive Career Services (Hale)

• Structured, university-wide program of career education

• One-stop center that offers career counseling, career planning, and placement

• Specially trained and selected academic advisers representing many academic areas

• Central full-time administrator

• Commission on academic advising and career services

Goals of Career Interventions in Higher Education (Herr & Kramer)

• Provide assistance in the selection of a major• Provide self-assessment and self-analysis• Assist students to understand the world of work• Assist students to learn decision-making skills• Provide assistance with unique needs of sub-

populations• Provide assistance with access to jobs

Career Development Goals in Higher Education (Griff)

• Increase career and self-awareness

• Develop decision-making skills

• Acquire knowledge of current and emerging occupational options

• Develop job search skills

• Crystallize career goals

• Participate in academic planning

Council for the Advancement of Standards (CAS) Guidelines

• Essential components of career services– Leadership– Organization and management– Human resources– Financial resources– Facilities, technology, and equipment– Acceptance of legal responsibilities

CAS Standards, continued

• Equal opportunity, access, and affirmative action

• Campus and community relations

• Diversity

• Ethics

• Assessment and evaluation

Advantages of Centralized Services

• More likely to have a critical mass of professional staff

• Efficiencies and economies of scale in use of facilities and support staff

• Vibrant, challenging environment because of heterogeneity of student population

Disadvantages of Centralized Services

• May be viewed by students as less personal due to size

• May be located farther away from places where students spend most of their time

Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)

• 1: Acknowledge lifelong nature of career development and challenge students to take responsibility for their own career destiny

• 2: Accept and embrace technology as an ally in service delivery

• 3: Continue to refine and strengthen professional identity

• 4: Acknowledge and accept that individual career counseling is at the core of our work

Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)

• 5: Forge relationships with other professionals and parents to achieve a “multiplier effect”

• 6: Redouble efforts to meet needs of an increasingly diverse student body

• 7: Maintain focus on quality career services while also filling relationship role with corporate America

Ten Imperatives for Career Services (Rayman, 1999)

• 8: Acknowledge that on-campus recruiting is a thing of the past and develop new approaches

• 9: Resolve the nature of the university’s role with alumni, eliciting support rather than providing services to them

• 10: Advocate effectively for resources to maintain and increase services and use existing resources efficiently