Career Preparation Toolkit

Education student is talking at the career fair

Career Preparation Toolkit

Supporting our students in developing the skills and competencies to prepare them for successful careers is vital, and career preparation is one of UO's four Oregon Rising goals. Students need assignments and activities designed to help identify and develop transferrable, career-focused skills. 

To support faculty in meeting this student need, and to amplify the excellent work faculty have already done around career preparation, the Career Readiness CAIT, UO Career Center, and Teaching Engagement Program have collaborated to create resources that instructors can use to develop students' career competencies.

Table of Contents

slavka with her students looking at board of graphics

Why Career Preparation?

Becoming a leader in career preparation is one of the four Oregon Rising goals at UO. UO has proposed several actions to help achieve this goal, including embedding career-focused transferable skills into curriculum and establishing a common understanding and language across the university when we talk about "career preparation." 

"We have a responsibility to our students and families to ensure that our students’ time at the University of Oregon prepares them for the opportunities and challenges of a complex, globally connected world. We will meet this responsibility by increasing connections and experiences for students in ways that more directly prepare them for successful pursuits after graduation." (Oregon Rising)

What are Career Competencies?

The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) identifies key career readiness skills that employers are looking for and that resonate across UO’s Core Education and unit-level goals. These crosscutting competencies are relevant to students across a student's field of study - they are the broad skills that help students start successful careers regardless of their major. Read NACE's definitions of the competencies here; notably, several of the career competencies overlap well with UO's Areas of Inquiry and Cultural Literacy requirements.

  • Career and Self Development
  • Communication
  • Critical Thinking
  • Equity and Inclusion
  • Leadership
  • Professionalism
  • Teamwork
  • Technology

Tools for Teaching Career Competencies

Instructors teach career competency skills every day. However, for students, these skills are not always nameable and translatable. The goal is for students to be able to 1) name competencies and translate them to new contexts, 2) practice and reflect on their growing competencies and 3) translate their academic uses of the competencies into relevant careers. We can help them by using approaches and tools like those below.

Shared Language and Icons

Students develop career competencies throughout curricular and co-curricular experiences at UO. Using shared language and icons across campus can support students in making these connections and reflecting on how they can translate their skills toward relevant careers. Download the NACE icons and use them in assignments, syllabi, slides, and in communicating with students about the relevance of these competencies toward their career development. 
Download Career Competency Icons

"Transparent Design" for Assignments

Transparent design aims to make the knowledge and the skills practiced in an assignment clear so students can identify and articulate them. Transparently designed assignments explicitly call out the purpose, skills, tasks, and criteria for success associated with your assignment. The Transparency in Teaching and Learning framework (or TILT) notes that incorporating transparent assignments improves students academic confidence and self-rating of career competencies. Check out TEP's Transparent Assignment Design page, which includes our accessible template.
Explore Transparent Design

Opportunities for Reflection

Students need multiple opportunities to practice, and importantly, reflect on their growing competencies. Instructors can provide metacognitive and reflective activities to help students be able to articulate how they have developed career competencies and which competencies they want to continue to develop. 
 
peg boulay with students measuring a tree

Example Assignments with Icons Integrated

Career Readiness CAIT faculty shared transparent assignments they've used to call out career competencies and invite reflection:

front desk of tykeson hall

Bring the Career Center into Your Course

As UO students explore career paths, both academic advisors and career coaches can support them as they consider possible career paths and make decisions about the academic paths to follow. While some students are served by academic and career advisors in the UO professional schools, if students are in doubt, they are welcome to connect with the staff in Tykeson Hall:

The three assignments below are available in Canvas Commons, and once you find the page, you can import it directly into your own course (and modify it if you wish):

  • Using Handshake to Locate Jobs or Internships, and Writing an Effective Cover Letter
  • Informational Interview Assignment
  • Articulate Skills with BigInterview

If you haven't searched for content in Canvas Commons before or need a refresher, learn more on this Canvas Commons page.

Steps Departments Can Take

While UO has numerous opportunities for supporting student career readiness, the students who benefit the most may be the least likely to seek out development opportunities. The best way to ensure every student leaves UO with the career competencies to help them succeed is to build these opportunities directly into the curriculum. Below are some steps departments can take to help embed career readiness into every student's academic experience. For additional questions or support, contact tep@uoregon.edu.