NACE Quick Poll: More Than 83% of Respondents Implementing Career Readiness Competencies

With the new school year underway, an overwhelming majority of colleges are implementing career readiness competencies this academic year. Specifically, 83.3% of respondents to our Career Services Benchmarks Quick Poll reported their institutions are implementing the career readiness competencies this year. This is nearly a 9% increase from the 2022-23 academic year and highlights a high level of scaling of competencies throughout higher education.

Further, 31% of colleges report that the competency integration is institution-wide, 37% are implementing competencies at the department level, 15% at the division level, and 17% in other ways (such as specific classes, first-year experience programs, and other programs). And the integration is consistent across different types of schools. (See Figure 1.)

Career services professionals tend to be the leaders of the competency implementation initiatives on campus. Eighty-two percent of respondents told us that the career services director/executive director is among the leaders of this work on campus, and almost a quarter (24.3%) of initiatives have an academic leader who is among the leaders of the competency implementation. (See Figure 2.)

Integration often involves a variety of practices—foremost among these is faculty engagement. Seventy-two percent of respondents report that they collaborate with faculty, and 69% report they engage in classroom presentations. In addition, integration is occurring throughout students’ college career, with 57% of respondents integrating career competencies into first-year experience programs/classes, 48% integrating them into internship programs, 38% integrating them into on-campus jobs, and 22% making them part of senior-year capstone experiences.

Schools are also developing practices to assist students with articulating their competency proficiency with employers. This is occurring on campus in a variety of ways in both the career center and classroom. Specifically, 79% of schools use student appointments to assist students and 70% are providing workshops led by career services staff. Seventy-seven percent of schools report there are presentations inside academic classes that help students articulate their competency attainment. Slightly more than one-fifth of schools (22%) use badging, passport, or certificate programs, and 14% use a vendor’s tool or product. Twenty-eight percent of schools engage in employer partner workshops to help students articulate their competencies. Just 6% of schools reported that they do not have any practices in place to help students articulate their competency attainment.

Despite the integration, there is still work to be done to move toward the full integration of career readiness competencies. More than half of higher education institutions (56.3%) have not aligned career competences with learning outcomes. Amongst those that have, 26% have aligned at the course level, 16% at the academic department level, and 14% at the institution level.

Opportunities to engage in campus- or program-wide professional development and conversations to align competencies and learning outcomes help to create a shared language and understanding of the skills employers are looking for in college graduates and allow for more seamless integration across the campus. This, perhaps most importantly, helps to ensure students have a clear understanding of the skills they are attaining during their college years in both the curriculum and co-curricular arenas; and that they can articulate that to employers. NACE has launched a career readiness program to help schools work toward this level of competency integration.

Further, while competency integration is spread throughout higher education, slightly less than one-quarter of schools (24.4%) have developed an assessment plan for their competency integration. Among those that do have a plan, 55% have created an assessment themselves, 42% are using the NACE Competency Assessment Tool, 28% are using badging/passports/certificate programs, 27% are partnering with institutional research, and 15% are using a vendor’s assessment product. The development and implementation of an assessment plan is central to strong integration, and the findings can also provide ways to continually improve them.

Finally, in our quick poll, we asked broader questions about the integration of career services into academic classes. We found that 97% of respondents have made career development presentations in academic classes, with the majority of respondents (73%) presenting in classes during the past academic year (2024-25). Additionally, 47% of respondents told us that the career center offers or is involved in designing and/or instructing courses on career readiness for academic credit.

We know that college graduates’ skills and articulation of those skills are critical for successful first destinations after graduation. In our Job Outlook 2025 Spring Update, just 38% of employers reported that they use the GPA as a filter for recent college graduate applicants. Instead, employers are turning to industry and internship experiences along with demonstrated skill proficiency. Sixty-five percent of employers also told us that they are using skill-based hiring practices in their recruitment of college graduates. Competency integration in higher education is critical to ensure that students are prepared for and successful in their employment journey.

NACE conducted the Career Services Benchmark Quick Poll in late summer to assess trends around competency and career readiness integration in higher education. The survey was in the field from August 12, 2025, to September 6, 2025. A total of 448 colleges and universities responded.

Figure 1

Figure 2