Career Development and Student Success: Challenges and Future Impacts
The education students receive at Oregon State is for a purpose – and for most students, that purpose is the notion that a university education will empower them to find meaningful work once their studies at OSU have concluded.
Since the 2008 recession, calls for return on investment from a college degree have become increasingly loud, particularly as the price tag of that education continues to rise.
A 2021 opinion survey found that Oregon State University alumni rank "supporting university graduates in finding job placements" as the second-most critical issue currently facing higher education, just behind the overall affordability of a university education.
Connections between Career Readiness and Student Success
Evidence shows that career learning can greatly influence recruitment and retention, particularly among low-income students. Despite that, participation in career activities is an optional part of the OSU experience for many students – a reality that often has the greatest impact on students with high financial need.
Fifty percent of students who do not persist to graduation leave due to a perceived lack of course relevance to their lives or career aspirations.
In contrast, graduates who strongly agree that their college coursework was relevant to their career are 5.5 times more likely to strongly agree their education was worth the cost.
Additional impacts reported by graduates who have a "very helpful" experience with career services:
6
times more likely to strongly agree their alma mater prepared them for post-collegiate life.
3
times more likely to strongly agree their education was worth the cost.
3.4
times more likely to recommend their alma mater.
3
times more likely to donate to their alma mater.
Impactful practices
Career-related activities have also been shown to influence student success during the college experience.
Goal setting
When students create career-related goals, they are more likely to make positive persistence decisions than students who report having no job-related goals.
Career Advising
Mirroring national data, Oregon State's current students and recent graduates report that when they take the time to engage with a career advisor, they come away with helpful tools and insights that make them more confident and prepared to negotiate entering the workforce.
From a student:
"This winter term I attended a panel discussion hosted by the Career Development Center about getting a government job. I have applied to many student trainee internships with the U.S. Geological Survey prior to attending that panel, and my application was always rejected before being passed up to the hiring manager.
I applied some of the advice that I received in that discussion about how to adjust my CV and cover letter, and I applied to another USGS Pathways internship that same week. I ended up getting offered the position, which I will begin in June."
-J.L., Geology, Class of 2022
Challenges today
Marginalized populations experience more challenges when it comes to college affordability. First-generation students, Black students, Hispanic/Latinx students, Indigenous students, and low-income students often graduate with the highest levels of student debt. They are more likely to have difficulty with loan repayments. They are among the groups with the lowest rates of persistence beyond the first year, and the lowest four-year graduation rates.
Oregon State provides a number of tools that have been shown to positively affect students' post-graduation employment outcomes, but engagement with these services remains optional. For a variety of reasons, the students who may benefit the most from career services are also the students who are least likely to seek them out.
Barriers to student utilization of career services are sometimes as basic as understanding how to navigate university systems to access the help the career development center provides.
Sometimes these issues are more complex: a student who is already working a job to pay for living expenses may lack the flexibility to take on an internship. First-generation or low-income students may not have the option to engage with optional campus resources like career services due to overlapping challenges and outside-the-classroom obligations.
From a student:
"Nicole" described being intimated to go into resource centers at OSU to ask for help. She felt like she should have done better, and the people helping students looked flustered (too busy) to have time to help her.
She feels spread thin between working and school, and worries she is not giving enough attention to her studies. She says maybe she can use her winter and spring breaks to do "career-oriented things;" there is not enough time during the term.
Source: Campus interviews, UIA Bridging the Gap from Eduation to Employment project.
Current outcomes
Regardless of the reason, the outcome is the same:
- When career development experiences are not a required component to progress to graduation, we fail to impact all Oregon State students, and there are clear, data-backed equity issues that arise for low-income and first-generation college students.
- Students who do opt in to career services are often those who already know the value of early career development and non-curricular professional experiences, likely because someone in their family has previously navigated the college experience.
- Students who do not pro-actively pursue career development services wind up graduating
- less prepared to enter the workforce
- less connected to potential employers,
- and less able to advocate for themselves and to articulate the skill sets they’ve acquired through their education.
The way forward
Embedding career readiness into instruction and curriculum ensures that this important part of student development is not occurring by opt-in or by chance.
When career development is integrated into the university experience, all students, regardless of background, experience, or socio-economic status, are prepared to pursue meaningful work upon graduation and beyond.