Essential to Becoming Career Ready is the development of eight *Career Readiness Competencies. The one thing that all eight competencies share is that they are important to employers and how employers evaluate job candidates and employee performance. The experiences that students undertake at Southern Connecticut State University and beyond offer many opportunities to develop and enhance the Competencies. These opportunities and experiences include, participation in classroom learning, internships, co-ops, research, on-campus involvement, leadership programs, work experience, or other on- or off-campus endeavors. 

Why Becoming Career Ready and NACE Competencies are Important to Students

Why is Becoming Career Ready Important to Faculty and the University?

Engaging In and Integrating Competencies and Career Readiness

SCSU faculty have been integrating Career Readiness Competencies into courses and class assignments long before the phrase emerged in the higher education landscape. As you review the list of eight NACE Career Readiness competencies, you may realize that you already have course content or assignments that provide students with opportunities to enhance or develop one or more of them. 

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

Integration Ideas to Consider:

• Access the OCPD website that is populated with career-relevant content including syllabi, assignments, and advising tools already created by SCSU faculty & staff.
• You can review each Competency and the sample behaviors that demonstrate utilization of the competency here.
  • Consider identifying which competencies students will engage in while taking your course and highlight those on your syllabus, perhaps including them with learning objectives;
  • Taking a similar approach, review course assignments and consider adding proficiency indicators (sample behaviors) to grading rubrics;
• When having an outside presenter join the class, ask the individual which competencies they use most widely in their work and how;
• If journaling is part of your syllabus, consider creating reflection assignments relevant to each of the eight competencies as well as any other competencies that are integral to the course or academic field;
• When students have a final project, research poster, or capstone, require them to include which of the eight NACE Career Readiness competencies they engaged in while working on the project, including examples of how the project contributed to their competency development. 

• Find example syllabi that address NACE career-readiness competencies.  

• Use the Career Competencies in your syllabi, your PowerPoint presentations, and on Blackboard

  • Show how the liberal arts connect to life

  • Promote student engagement by demonstrating the real-life skills learned in projects and assignments

  • Identify the marketable skills gained in your course

• Students decide to go to college for many reasons, many related to career and economic mobility. 
• Receive more advice for faculty on How to Help Your Students Prepare for Life After College.  
• Dig into the survey data on how faculty and staff members can increase students’ confidence going into the workforce. 
• Goodwin, J.T., Goh, J., Verkoeyen, S., & Lithgow, K. (2019). Can students be taught to articulate employability skills? Education+ Training. https://www.emerald.com/insight/content/doi/10.1108/ET-08-2018-0186/full/pdf?title=can-students-be-taught-to-articulate-employability-skills 
• Ritzer, D.R., & Sleigh, M.J. (2019). College Students’ Value Judgments of Workplace Skills. Psychology Learning & Teaching, 18(2), 154–164. https://doi.org/10.1177/1475725718794999