College Career Courses: Design and Accountability

Abstract

This article examines 46 reports of career courses offered in colleges since the 1920s. The authors located approximately 80 references regarding the design, development, management, and evaluation of such courses in colleges and universities. There were 38 reports of studies indicating positive changes in output variables, for example, career decision making. There were 15 reporting a positive impact in outcomes, for example, retention.

Career Development Learning Frameworks for Work-Integrated Learning

“…Careerrelated self-efficacy, occupational decidedness, interests, and personality traits have been shown to have a predictive relationship with academic performance and engagement with studies (Brown et al, 2008;Rottinghaus, Lindley, Green, & Borgen, 2002;Sandler, 2000;Scott & Ciani, 2008). Career education coursework, for example, has been found to produce positive outputs: improved career decision-making skills, career decidedness, and vocational identity (Folsom & Reardon, 2003;Fouad, Cotter, & Kantamneni, 2009). Such outcomes assist students to more rationally explore and choose their courses of study and relevant graduate employment options.…”

Career Counseling and Career Courses: Process, Impact, and Outcomes

“…Career counseling has been present in the exigent literature since the early 1900s (Whiston & Oliver, 2005). Similarly, universities began offering career courses as early as the 1920s (Folsom & Reardon, 2003). Over time, these interventions have become so popular that they are now found (in some form) on the majority of college campuses across the country.…”

Career Development Research for Evidence-Based Policy

“…Moreover, it is evident that career-related selfefficacy, occupational decidedness, interests, and personality traits predict academic performance and engagement with studies (Steven D. Brown, et al, 2008;Rottinghaus, Lindley, Green, & Borgen, 2002;Sandler, 2000;Scott & Ciani, 2008) and that career education improves career decision-making skills, career decidedness, and vocational identity (Folsom & Reardon, 2003;Fouad, Cotter, & Kantamneni, 2009). In other words, career development learning can effectively facilitate students'entry into and transit through education, and onward toward the world-of-work.…”

“…Work-integrated learning is not simply a matter of bolting coursework and part-time work together; there must be a sound foundation to its curriculum (Patrick, et al, 2008) and it must address how students might best engage with their work and learning so as to achieve optimal experiences and outcomes according to their limitations, aspirations and use of available resources. Given the evidence that career development learning can serve as a specific personal pedagogy that improves career decision-making skills, career decidedness, and vocational identity (Folsom & Reardon, 2003;Fouad, et al, 2009) it could be used to facilitates students getting the most out of their work-integrated learning by enabling them to self-assess their capacities for the world-ofwork, and then enhance those capacities through formal coursework experiences that are targeted toward enabling their transition into and through the world-of-work (Smith, et al, 2009). Such an approach is well served by a career development learning framework which ultimately aims to facilitate students' career self-management as a graduate attribute (Bridgstock, 2009).…”