A professional development program with an assessed ePortfolio: A practical solution for engaging undergraduates with their career development in large student cohorts

Abstract

Undergraduate biomedical science degree-programs are considered to be non-vocational, with a diverse range of career outcomes. At our university, student and academic feedback indicated that biomedical science students were anxious and uncertain about their career options. In response to this careers anxiety, an in-curriculum, course-wide and assessed professional development program (PDP) was developed and delivered into the biomedical science degree-program by an integrated team of careers educators and biomedical academics. This program aimed to engage a large cohort of biomedical students (>1000) with their career development, improving their careers awareness and reducing their anxiety about careers options. The impacts of the program on students’ career and employability skills development, as well as their self-reported levels of psychological distress, were evaluated with on-line anonymous student surveys. Student engagement with the program was linked with program assessment submission rates and student interactions with the University Careers Service. Completion of the program increased students’ careers knowledge and confidence, enhanced their awareness of career options and employability skills and increased their engagement with the University Careers Service. It did not alter students’ self-reported levels of depression, anxiety and stress, but students who rated themselves poorly on careers awareness and confidence statements were more likely to have severe depression, anxiety and stress. This program provides a practical approach for students’ career and employability skills development in large cohorts, but could be expanded to include an intervention to reduce student anxiety.

Ignorance is risk: An exploratory investigation of students’ perceptions of their education–employment pathways

“…These findings hold important implications with regard to curriculum design and, in particular, the delivery of support within the curriculum regarding career awareness (Choate, et al, 2019). If, as prior research suggests, a lack of confidence or clarity regarding career destinations impacts upon students' academic success, well-being, and satisfaction (Jackson & Wilton, 2017), then knowing that, across mixed, generalist, and dual-degree cohorts, 30-40% of students lack a clear career goal presents curriculum designers in such courses an important challenge.…”

Recommendations for a ‘Wellbeing Curriculum’ to Mitigate Undergraduate Psychological Distress Associated with Lack of Careers Confidence and Poor University Engagement

“…Our students were also more likely to be severely anxious if they had not selected graduate medicine as their top career intention. Possible explanations are that these students (who did not select graduate medicine as their top career intention) may be anxious because they lack a defined career goal or they may not feel supported to pursue, or are unaware of, non-medical career pathways (Choate et al, 2019).…”

“…Career awareness and careers confidence were investigated through eight career development statements, answered with a five-point Likert scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree. These statements were used in previous undergraduate careers publications (Choate et al, 2019). The university engagement statements used were from the Australasian Survey of Student Engagement (Coates, 2009).…”

Start with the end in mind: using student career aspirations and employment data to inform curriculum design for physiology undergraduate degree programs

“…Classified by industry, they are most likely to work in health services, followed by education services, retail trade, financial services, and public administration. This diversity in post-degree career options makes the point that undergraduate degree programs in physiology and pre-health preparation need to ingrain broad employability and professional skills in the major to prepare students for a range of careers (5)(6)(7).…”