Career skills infused into core courses benefit students

Faculty at two Washington State University campuses are going beyond the norm to prepare students to be career ready. Fifty-one WSU Pullman and WSU Vancouver general education professors from 23 disciplines-fellows who have completed the Core to Career Program-are embedding career-oriented skill-building into their assignments.

Over the past three years at Pullman alone, nearly 9,000 students took courses from one or more fellows. These courses are specifically designed to include exercises that teach students skills they can pitch to a hiring manager-ones that go beyond knowledge in their major.

"The idea to build a program to help faculty help students become more career-ready beyond their majors began about five years ago thanks to retired faculty member and supporter Carl Hauser, and it has developed into an impactful initiative benefitting both students and the faculty who teach University Common Requirement (UCORE) classes," said Clif Stratton, WSU Pullman vice chancellor for academic engagement and former UCORE director.

The program uses the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career-readiness framework to integrate career-readiness skills into coursework. According to NACE, these skills are:

• Career- and self-development
• Communication
• Critical thinking
• Equity and inclusion
• Leadership
• Professionalism
• Teamwork, and
• Technology

Core to Career continues to grow. This fall, 13 Pullman faculty joined the program, and 10 at Vancouver joined its second cohort. They, like fellows from previous years, will spend several hours over the semester learning and networking with peers, and strategizing how to incorporate career-ready skills into their courses. Then, in spring semester, they will implement their plans.

Promoting student skill-building

A 2022-23 fellow, Tammy Crawford, assistant chair of the Department of Educational Leadership and Sport Management, strives to incorporate aspects of all NACE career skills into her SPMGT 101 class, "Sport and Popular Culture: Trends and Issues." A UCORE EQJS course, Crawford uses sports to draw on, for example, issues of equity and inclusion, race, gender, abilities, politics, and socioeconomic differences. She breaks members of each large-course section she teaches into small teams of five or so students who share a common career interest; one facilitates and four are participants each week, exploring a single topic. Facilitators prompt 25-minute discussions tied to the group's future field by presenting a podcast, scholarly or popular articles, a documentary, or more.

"Using sports as a basis, the exercise can allow future nurses to, say, consider if race impacts aspects of nursing jobs, taps into biases, or brings out stereotypes," said Crawford. "Students slow down, and consider 'How does this all apply to me?'" In reflections, a student said, "I didn't think before how it [the topic of the day] applies to me." Another commented, "I would say on a scale [the discussions are] a 6 out of 7 for me because it's cool seeing what different facilitators come up with and what people think about different topics."

UCORE ROOT's HISTORY 105 [Roots of Contemporary Issues] professor Eugene Smelyansky is a fellow from the 2021-2022 original Core to Career cohort who has since built the career skill of professionalism into his courses. Three times during a semester, students self-assess their goals and progress and ultimately suggest their own grade. They evaluate their attendance, class participation, note-taking, active listening, and more. At semester's end, they describe what they struggled with and improved on in the class.

"First-year students might grumble that history is not their favorite subject, but beyond that subject matter, they come to see that the skill of professionalism-setting goals and assessing their progress toward them-is a valuable asset to have in college and, importantly, beyond."

Department of English Assistant Director of Composition Rachel Sanchez, of the 2023-24 cohort, wove the NACE skill of career- and self-development into her English 201 [Research and Writing], UCORE WRTG, course. The final assignment was to write a cover letter to a professional-a scholarship committee member or a graduate program-touting their writing development throughout the semester.

"It was fascinating to see how well they responded to the exercise, reflecting on their growth and strengths to advocate for themselves," said Sanchez.

Benefitting faculty, as well

Learning and applying Core to Career concepts also benefits participating faculty in ways they never expected. Crawford, who was the head WSU Women's Rowing Coach prior to teaching, says she has become a better mentor to other teachers, helping them to develop new skills and be more aware they are part of a community. Smelyansky said he has become a more "effective, efficient, and intentional" teacher and worked on his own self-assessment. Sanchez said she appreciated learning career-readiness skill-building with professionals from many disciplines The program also helped her "think about obstacles and opportunities in my own English classes and become a more intentional teacher."

Faculty in the new Pullman cohort look forward to this Core to Career year. Erica Sawyer, Statistics 212 [Introduction to Statistical Methods], UCORE QUAN, coordinator, wants to "boost my arsenal of teaching tools" and hear how those in other disciplines will infuse career skills into classes. Alma Rocha, Department of Art instructor for Art 101 [Introduction to Art], UCORE ARTS, has continuously updated her course over the years with collaborative projects and has incorporated the use of artificial intelligence. She most looks forward to taking a "fresh look at UCORE criteria, getting innovative ideas from others and sharing my own, and expanding my focus.

"I'm anticipating a great experience. As educators, we, ourselves, are always learning, too."

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