FVSU’s Big Idea integrated career assessment and career development. Specifically, advancing soft skills as it related to job and careers, in tandem with utilizing career assessments for incoming freshmen to make the connection to Momentum Year. Multiple workshops were created for students related to professional dress, career inventories, and internships. Additionally, Career Week was held virtually allowing students to attend multiple sessions for career exposure and experience. Career assessments were introduced in the FVSU 0100 course with connections to the Office of Career and Professional Development. Overall, more than twenty workshops were provided during the academic year. While these activities were seen as effective, their overall effectiveness cannot be fully measured as this was the first year of implementation and enough data has not been collected to fully assess and support their effectiveness. Some of the measurements that will be considered for assessments are:
- Percentage of completions relating to career assessments
- Percentage of attendees at career events
- Measurement of which career events were most attended to assess popularity of fields and organizations.
In the future, career assessments will be provided before and/or during New Student Orientation. This will provide additional information for academic advisors as they discuss course options for students. Returning to the face-to-face environment will increase involvement in activities. Using Presence, data will be collected to determine which sessions are most beneficial. Additionally, demographic information provided (classification, major, etc.) will also be used to determine specific areas to address for future workshops.
Evaluation Plan and measures: Students will have to turn this assignment in for a grade in their Intro to University course. The FVSU freshmen seminar faculty will keep track of students who complete/do not complete this assignment. We will introduce our first-time freshmen to the NACE competencies in the following areas: Career and Self Development, Communication, Critical Thinking, Equity and Inclusion, Leadership, Professionalism, Teamwork, and Technology. These are the industry standards established by NACE.org identifying what current employers are looking for in students graduating from college entering the workforce.
KPIs:
100% of newly enrolled freshmen will be introduced to the career assessment survey.
50% of students enrolled in FVSU 0100 will complete the career assessment.
30% of newly enrolled freshmen will be introduced to the NACE Competencies
Baseline measure (for each KPI): We will collect baseline data in Spring 2024
Current/most recent data (for each KPI): The most recent data we found is that within the past year 1.15% of students have changed their major. In the past two years 1.84% have changed their majors. We need to mine the data more to see if students are solid in their majors upon arrival OR if there are other challenges with students needing assistance with declaring the appropriate major. Most major changes made this past year were students declaring a biology major to the pre-nursing program. In years prior, students changed from Veterinary Technology to Animal Science and Biology to Psychology.
Goal or targets (for each KPI): Students will continue to take the career assessment in their intro to freshmen seminar course to ensure they are in the correct major.
Time period/duration: Spring 2024
Our first goal was to administer the career assessment during the new student orientation, however, due to time constraints and technology logistics, we had to pivot. Incorporating the assessment into the freshmen seminar course as a mandatory assignment is a better fit. We will utilize the new platform presence to continue to capture attendance of the students attending the sessions. Students must also complete a research assignment on their career path.
We will continue to administer the career assessment and keep track of students completing this assignment. We will also keep track of the major change data to see if there are any correlations to the assignment and updates in major changes.
