Career Readiness: Piloting a Successful Program in a College of Business
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Authors
Margaret A Thompson
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Journal Article, Academic Journal
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Abstract
CAREER READINESS 2 <br>Abstract <br>Employers want employees who are career ready. “Career readiness” is the extent to which an individual is perceived to possess the necessary attributes and attitudes that would allow him or her to be successful in the workforce (Doe, 2015). Employers are seeing a gap between the skills they need their employees to have and those held by college graduate applicants. They want to hire college graduates who have the necessary skills to perform effectively in the job, not those who just have a degree (Cappelli, 2014). Universities need to intentionally prepare students who are “career ready.” The purpose of this paper is to review the implementation and evaluation of the “Career Spine,” a career development model piloted in a business school at a medium-sized regional university in the Southeastern United States. This program embeds required career readiness activities and assessments into eight core courses within the business school undergraduate curriculum. This paper will present how the program was designed, the success measures established, and the impact this program had on the students’ “career readiness.” Additionally, the authors will make recommendations for future successful career development models. <br>Keywords: career readiness, Business School, career development, skills gap