Career Development

Interventions in Higher
Education
Chapter 12

Career Needs of Students in

Higher Education
Todays students are diverse in background,
characteristics, developmental levels, and
career development needs.
Approximately 6 million adults (over the
age of 25) attend college each year.
Approximately 500,000 international
students were enrolled in higher education
in 2001.

Career Needs of Students in

Higher Education, continued
More than 130,000 students with learning
disabilities are currently attending college.
Women now constitute the majority
(57.5%) of students enrolled in higher
education.
Ethnic minorities made up 22.5% of
students in higher education in 1999.

Career Needs of Students in

Higher Education, continued
Career development needs of lesbian, gay,
and bisexual students have long been
ignored in higher education.
This increased heterogeneity suggests that
career development interventions in higher
education must be comprehensive and
systematic.

The Evolution of Career

Development Interventions

Professor/advocate
Job placement
Employment agencies
Placement offices
Diverse services (no single type of
counseling center or placement center)

Five Major Approaches for

Delivering Career Services

Macrocenter
Counseling orientation
General-level service
Career planning and placement
Minimal service

Why College Students Seek

Career Assistance

Learn more about themselves

Identify career goals
Become more certain of their career plans
Explore career options
Do educational planning
Learn job search skills

Career Development
Competencies in Adulthood
Self-Knowledge
Skills to maintain a positive self-concept
Skills to maintain effective behaviors
Ability to understand developmental changes
and transitions

Career Development
Competencies in Adulthood
Educational and Occupational
Exploration
Skills to enter and participate in education and training
Skills to participate in work and lifelong learning
Skills to locate, evaluate, and interpret career
information
Skills to seek, obtain, maintain, and change jobs
Ability to understand how the needs and functions of
society influence the nature and structure of work

Career Development
Competencies in Adulthood
Career Planning
Skills to make decisions
Ability to understand the impact of work on
individual and family life
Ability to understand the continuing changes in
male-female roles
Skills required to make career transitions

Goals of Career Interventions in

Higher Education
Help students learn to identify and transfer career
interests to a plan of action
Help students relate interests and goals to
opportunities
Help students relate their career plans to life goals
and opportunities
Help students learn how to evaluate their progress
toward career goals through academic preparation

Career Interventions in Higher

Education (Crites Model)
Explore a variety of options.
Crystallize a narrow range of specific
options.
Make a commitment to a choice and
specify college major.
Implement the choice of major.

Powell and Kirts Model

Proposes a systems approach to career
services in higher education
Starts by providing an overview of services
to new students
Continues by providing self-assessment
Then focuses on exposure as students
engage actively in career exploration
Finally provides training in job search skills

The Florida State Model

A curricular career information service
(CCIS) model with five modules, as
follows:
Introduction to the service
Orientation to the decision-making process
Self-assessment
Career information
Matching of majors and jobs

Career Services
Courses, workshops, and seminars -- structured
group experiences on topics such as career
decision making, career planning, and job search
skills
Group counseling activities for students dealing
with career indecision, career indecisiveness, and
job search anxiety
Individual career counseling
Placement programs

Components of Comprehensive
Career Services (Hale)
Structured, university-wide program of
career education
One-stop center that offers career
counseling, career planning, and placement
Specially trained and selected academic
advisers representing many academic areas
Central full-time administrator
Commission on academic advising and
career services

Goals of Career Interventions in

Higher Education (Herr & Kramer)

Provide assistance in the selection of a major

Provide self-assessment and self-analysis
Assist students to understand the world of work
Assist students to learn decision-making skills
Provide assistance with unique needs of subpopulations
Provide assistance with access to jobs

Career Development Goals in

Higher Education (Griff)
Increase career and self-awareness
Develop decision-making skills
Acquire knowledge of current and emerging
occupational options
Develop job search skills
Crystallize career goals
Participate in academic planning

Council for the Advancement of

Standards (CAS) Guidelines
Essential components of career services
Leadership
Organization and management
Human resources
Financial resources
Facilities, technology, and equipment
Acceptance of legal responsibilities

CAS Standards, continued

Equal opportunity, access, and affirmative
action
Campus and community relations
Diversity
Ethics
Assessment and evaluation

Advantages of Centralized
Services
More likely to have a critical mass of
professional staff
Efficiencies and economies of scale in use
of facilities and support staff
Vibrant, challenging environment because
of heterogeneity of student population

Disadvantages of Centralized
Services
May be viewed by students as less personal
due to size
May be located farther away from places
where students spend most of their time

Ten Imperatives for Career

Services (Rayman, 1999)
1: Acknowledge lifelong nature of career
development and challenge students to take
responsibility for their own career destiny
2: Accept and embrace technology as an ally in
service delivery
3: Continue to refine and strengthen professional
identity
4: Acknowledge and accept that individual career
counseling is at the core of our work

Ten Imperatives for Career

Services (Rayman, 1999)
5: Forge relationships with other
professionals and parents to achieve a
multiplier effect
6: Redouble efforts to meet needs of an
increasingly diverse student body
7: Maintain focus on quality career services
while also filling relationship role with
corporate America

Ten Imperatives for Career

Services (Rayman, 1999)
8: Acknowledge that on-campus recruiting is a
thing of the past and develop new approaches
9: Resolve the nature of the universitys role with
alumni, eliciting support rather than providing
services to them
10: Advocate effectively for resources to maintain
and increase services and use existing resources
efficiently

The End