Learn all the ways that our Competency Assessment Tool is being integrated on campuses around the country.
Presented by: NACE
What happens when a college embeds career readiness into the undergraduate experience?
At Spelman College, every sophomore takes a credit-bearing course built around NACE competencies like career and self-development, teamwork, communication, and critical thinking. Through a unique partnership with the nonprofit Braven, students also gain mentorship, networking opportunities, and job prep support that continues through graduation.
In this session, you’ll hear directly from the leaders behind this model: Dr. Venetta Coleman of Spelman and Ché Watkins of Braven. Together, they’ll share how they made career readiness a shared, campus-wide responsibility—and what it took to scale the program to serve over 2,000 students.
The results speak for themselves: 85% of Spelman Braven Fellows from the Class of 2024 completed an internship, and 70% landed quality first jobs or grad school placements—beating national outcomes by 25 percentage points.
You’ll walk away with practical steps for launching or expanding your own cross-campus efforts—and a clearer vision of what it looks like to truly prioritize career readiness for all.
Presented by: Representatives from Braven Atlanta
What if every student interaction. whether in a classroom, internship, research project, or leadership role, was a chance to intentionally develop and recognize career competencies? At the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC), we’re building a comprehensive microcredentialing framework to do just that. This session will explore how UMBC’s cross-campus initiative centers the NACE Career Competencies as a unifying thread across credit and non-credit, curricular and co-curricular learning.
Attendees will learn how we design microcredentials to embed NACE competencies into learning outcomes, use metadata to document that alignment, and scale implementation through collaborative governance and intentional design. Whether you’re just starting or looking to grow your efforts, this session will offer actionable strategies for institutions aiming to move from isolated skill-building to integrated, evidence-based competency recognition.
Presented by: Marykate Conroy and Collin Sullivan, University of Maryland, Baltimore County
This study investigates the relationship between internship participation, self-perceived career competencies, and early post-graduation outcomes among undergraduate students. Using data from the FSU 2023-2024 Graduating Senior Survey (First-Destination Survey) at a large public university, the final analytic sample includes 8,153 students out of a total graduating population of 8,449. The survey, administered at the point of graduation, captures students’ reflections on their academic, co-curricular, and career development experiences.
In addition to the general population analysis, the study features a focused case study on InternFSU, a structured university internship program. InternFSU participants completed pre- and post-assessments of their career competencies, offering deeper insight into how targeted internship experiences can directly influence students’ career development. Findings from both the survey and the case study underscore the role of internships in advancing students’ career readiness.
Objectives:
1. To examine whether participation in internships is associated with higher self-ratings across the eight NACE Career Readiness Competencies.
2. To explore the impact of a structured internship experience, through a case study of InternFSU, on students’ perceived career competency development.
Methodology: Researchers employed descriptive statistics, Chi-square tests, and logistic regression to assess associations between internship participation, competency self-assessments, and post-graduation outcomes (preliminary). The InternFSU case study utilized pre- and post-program survey data to track shifts in students’ self-perceived competency levels.
Key Findings:
• Association Between Internship Participation and Career Competencies: Students who engaged in at least one internship were significantly more likely to rate themselves highly across all eight NACE competencies, with strong statistical significance observed in each area. These findings suggest a robust positive relationship between internship and career readiness development.
• Insights from InternFSU: Among InternFSU participants from cohort 2023-2024, pre- and post-assessment data revealed consistent gains across all eight NACE competencies. Notably, the most substantial self-reported growth was observed in Communication and Career & Self-Development, the same two areas that showed the strongest associations with internship participation in the broader Graduating Senior Survey analysis.
Conclusion: The findings underscore the critical role of internships—particularly structured programs like InternFSU—in fostering career readiness among undergraduate students. By offering meaningful opportunities to apply and refine professional skills, internships contribute directly to both students’ development of key competencies and employment outcomes.
Presented by: Yang Li, Rob Liddell, and Li Pon, Florida State University
In an effort to bridge the persistent skills gap that exists between academia and industry, three offices and five academic programs at Duquesne University recently partnered to engage faculty in a series of provost-supported Faculty Learning Groups (FLGs) focused on integrating the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies (CRCs) into existing courses and expand the reach of this model across the institution. Eight faculty members across academic disciplines and programs participated in the FLG and committed to embedding the NACE CRCs into a course taught in the Spring 2025 semester. Ideas and strategies for implementation varied among the participants, with several faculty members developing new course proposals that center the NACE CRCs, while others adapted existing course structures and pedagogy to integrate the CRCs as critical learning outcomes.
This presentation will: provide an overview of the partnerships that led to this initiative and the process for developing the collaborative approach that led to its success; highlight the content and structure of the FLG series; and feature two of the course integration projects in an undergraduate and graduate business course and an undergraduate health sciences course that resulted from this initiative presented by the faculty members who integrated these changes.
Presented by: Erin Rentschler, Kate Sheridan, Duquesne University
This session will explore how Arizona State University is complementing traditional learning approaches by embedding the NACE Career Competencies into student employment through supervisor-facilitated development on the job. At the heart of this approach is the idea that supervisors can be powerful facilitators of career readiness when they are equipped with the tools and language to recognize and reinforce student learning.
We'll share how ASU’s Work+ framework prepares supervisors to actively support competency development through targeted onboarding, practical resources, and tools like the Career Readiness Inventory and the Student Employee Hub. We’ll also discuss our SkillsFWD pilot, which connected student work to digital credentials/Badges and Learning and Employment Records (LERs), endorsed by student employment supervisors and designed to support structured feedback conversations between supervisors and student employees. By embedding career development into the student employment experience, ASU is building a scalable, competency-rich experience that meets students where they are.
Attendees will walk away with practical strategies for helping supervisors move beyond tasks and job descriptions, toward intentional development conversations that help students recognize, build, and articulate the competencies they’re gaining.
Presented by: Amanda Kennedy, Arizona State University
The University at Buffalo Career Design Center manages campus-wide student employment programming through the Here to Career+ Student Employment Program. As a member of the Work+ Collective led by Arizona State University, our program seeks to transform the campus employment experience for students and supervisors through funding for increased student employment opportunities and investment in resources to support the professional growth of both groups. By incorporating NACE Competencies into the positions created through our funding and utilizing the Career Launch NACE Competency Pre- and Post-Assessments, we are supporting meaningful job creation, supervision and skills development of our working learners.
The Career Design Center and campus stakeholders with a vested interest in student employment had the opportunity to participate in a discovery sprint that examined the state of the student employment experience from the perspective of students and their supervisors, gaining insights on obstacles that both groups faced to inform potential solutions. Two of the top barriers identified were a lack of clarity around the role of supervisors and inadequate resources available for supervisors. Supervisors voiced desire for more guidance on best practices in hiring, training and supervising their working learners, as managing student employees was often identified as an additional part of their roles for which they had received little to no training.
Professionals on campus seeking funding for part-time workers apply directly to the program. In addition to sharing a position description, prospective supervisors are asked to select 2 NACE Career Competencies that they expect students to develop in their roles and explain plans to integrate opportunities for students to do so in their jobs. Once approved, supervisors are supported through posting their jobs in Handshake and are given tips for managing the hiring and onboarding process, with the Career Launch pre-assessment being a key step in the process.
Supervisors are asked to have their new hires complete the pre-assessment at the beginning of their students' work experience, where students rank their skill levels for all 8 NACE competencies from "I am just beginning to learn about this skill/behavior" to "Advanced Application - The behavior is consistent and integrated into my workplace behaviors". They then get hands-on experience and supervision in their roles as well as targeted programming for additional professional growth, including "skillshops" on a variety of career development topics facilitated by our Career Education team. A popular program offering is the Strengths Lunch & Learn, allowing working learners and their supervisors to take the CliftonStrengths assessment and debrief with a certified Strengths Coach. Near the conclusion of the work experience, both the student and supervisor complete the Career Launch post-assessment, discussing the overall employment experience and strategies for continued professional growth.
The data from our first year utilizing the Career Launch Assessment is noteworthy, with students reporting growth in all 8 NACE competencies, and their supervisors scoring their growth even higher. In fact, 85% of supervisors said they would hire their student again in the future, and a graduating student employee successfully interviewed and secured a full-time role within the department they worked with during the program this year. Students reported feeling significantly more confident in proactively making new professional connections and reaching out to alumni to learn about their career paths. They also felt more comfortable reaching out for help when they felt stuck in life and their career plans, and developing strategies to "become unstuck" by looking at problems from a different perspective. These metrics demonstrate the value of intentional on-campus employment experiences and will help inform the program's future expansion.
Presented by: Jenell Spitale, University at Buffalo
This session explores a proven framework for integrating career readiness into college internship programming, based on a summer internship model that delivers weekly development sessions alongside the traditional internship elements of job-specific training. Designed with equity and access in mind, the curriculum intentionally addresses the hidden curriculum of the workplace and those unwritten rules and expectations that can make or break early career success.
Participants will learn how to design and implement a curriculum that covers:
We’ll share pre- and post-assessment data demonstrating measurable growth in interns’ competencies, and offer practical tools for replicating this model in other organizations. Attendees will leave with a blueprint for transforming internships into launchpads for workforce success, leadership potential, and long-term career equity.
Presented by: Tracey Boggs, The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center
Demos: 1 - 2 p.m. ET |
What happens when career preparation becomes a built-in expectation, not just an optional add on? At CSU Channel Islands, that meant building a required one-unit career readiness course (BUS 411: Career Readiness) into the senior year experience, ensuring every graduating business student completes over 160 career preparation tasks, from LinkedIn development and resume uploads to mock interviews with employer partners. T
Designed by a former career services leader turned faculty member, the 16-week HyFlex course, offers in-person and online participation to support working, first-gen, and caregiving students. It blends professional skill building with identity affirming topics like culturally relevant salary negotiation. One student shared, “I used to feel invisible. Now I know how to present myself to an employer.” Another described it as “the most valuable class I’ve taken.
Over three semesters, more than 200 students completed the course, with measurable growth in communication, professionalism, and career confidence. Post-course surveys show 79% plan to work full time and 64% report their job aligns with their major.
This session will share how the course was developed collaboratively with employers, faculty, and career services, how digital platforms like Jobscan, LinkedIn, and Handshake are embedded for real world readiness, and how career development outcomes are tracked at scale through practical metrics and student feedback.
Presented by: Jessica Muth, California State University Channel Islands
How can on-campus employment become a transformative, competency-driven learning experience? This session will explore the Career Peer Intern Program at Cal Poly Pomona—an equity-minded, structured curriculum that integrates the NACE Career Competencies into every stage of the student employment journey. Using the NACE Competency Assessment Tool alongside CliftonStrengths and Working Genius, interns assess their growth from onboarding through final reflection, culminating in Lightning Talks and innovation projects that demonstrate real-world skill application.
We’ll share how career readiness is embedded into reflective check-ins, SMART goal setting, and scaffolded competency development—and how this framework is now being expanded through a partnership with College Corps to enhance volunteer site experiences. Attendees will gain practical tools for assessing and documenting career competency growth in the workplace, with a focus on scalable, inclusive design.
Presented by: Representatives from Career Center- Cal Poly Pomona, CA
In this session, faculty and career services professionals from the University of Georgia will present a collaborative case study of Look Ahead Georgia, an innovative internship model designed to connect undergraduate students with professional opportunities in their hometowns and rural communities across the state.
Built on a foundation of community engagement, cross-unit collaboration, and intentional curriculum design, Look Ahead Georgia is co-led by UGA’s Archway Partnership (a division of UGA Public Service and Outreach-PSO), The Fanning Institute for Leadership Development (another division of UGA PSO) and the UGA Career Center. The program incorporates structured professional development sessions designed to align NACE competencies with the University of Georgia’s Institutional Competencies. These sessions are paired with regular civic engagement projects, events, and networks. Faculty from Archway and Fanning, in collaboration with Career Services staff, co-developed a reflection-based model that scaffolds support before, during, and after the internship, informed by feedback from both students and their host employers.
Presenters will outline how the curriculum has evolved through its first two years, including:
Participants will take time to discern how they might adapt this model to their own institutions and contexts. Time will also be dedicated to collaborative discussion about how others are working to bridge career readiness and rural community context in their experiential learning models.
Whether you are seeking new ways to embed competencies into curriculum, deepen employer partnerships, or support students with strong place-based identities, this session will provide both strategic insight and tactical examples from a program that is helping students look ahead to their future—by creating pathways back to their rural communities.
Presented by: Jimmy Richardson, Brionna Johnson, The University of Georgia Archway Partnership
How do we help adult learners not only develop career competencies but also articulate them with clarity and confidence? In this session, we will share a practical strategy that supports faculty and career services collaboration by introducing a Student Articulation of Career Competencies Rubric. This tool was designed to help students reflect on, internalize, and communicate the NACE competencies they develop in academic courses—without adding grading burdens or duplicating existing assessments.
Rooted in the principles of adult learning and career development theory, the rubric complements curricular outcomes by guiding students to express their skills through the lens of professional relevance. It is particularly impactful for adult learners who may be reskilling, upskilling, or transitioning careers and need language to connect their learning to the workplace.
This session will explore how the rubric was designed, introduced institutionally, and used to support conversations between faculty and career services around curriculum alignment. Participants will leave with an adaptable rubric framework and ideas for integrating competency reflection and articulation into assignments, capstones, and advising interactions—especially in institutions that serve nontraditional, online, or adult learners.
Presented by: Camille Dumont, Excelsior University
Following the successful launch and pilot of a division-wide student staff training course grounded in the NACE Competencies for Career Readiness, this presentation offers a year-two update focused on expansion, evaluation, and cross-campus collaboration. In year one, our team developed and implemented an asynchronous Canvas training course that introduced divisional student employees to the NACE Competencies. Informed by feedback and assessment data, year two featured the addition of a new module focused entirely on helping students intentionally connect their on-campus employment to career interests, transferable skills, and the broader value of work-based learning.
This session will explore key findings from the pilot year, share lessons learned in the course expansion process, and highlight the evolving vision of building a broader infrastructure for supervisor engagement and training across the division. Presenters will share plans to launch a cross-campus Student Staff Supervisor Working Group designed to provide feedback on the course, foster community among supervisors, and explore shared strategies for competency-based supervision and evaluation practices.
Presented by: Sam Squyars, James Madison University
As higher education evolves to meet the demands of a competitive job market and strengthen the value of a college degree, integrating career readiness into academic settings has become essential. This session introduces The 4As—a scaffolded model co-developed by career services and faculty to transparently embed the NACE Career Readiness Competencies into curricula and co-curricular activities. The 4As—Awareness, Alignment, Articulation, and Assessment—offer a practical and replicable framework that empowers faculty to explicitly incorporate career readiness into their courses while emphasizing the need for students to recognize, practice, and communicate their career competencies. Participants will explore applications of the model, review adaptable tools and templates, and walk away with actionable strategies to engage faculty in highlighting career readiness in their courses.
Presented by: Kaitlyn Anderson, University of Connecticut
We will describe and discuss how incorporating the NACE Competencies and Assessment Tool helped to enrich our Maximus Summer 2025 Internship Program. We will describe the 2 webinar sessions we conducted, provide the slide deck and resources utilized and share Intern survey results from both sessions. If you're an employer and interested in leveraging the competencies into your internship program, come hear about how we used it to help develop your own strategy.
Presented by: Flore Dorcely-Mohr, Maximus
This presentation will explore how Fordham University is transforming career readiness by embedding experiential learning as a core part of the undergraduate journey. Central to this work is Fordham’s Internship Promise, a bold institutional commitment that guarantees all undergraduates access to at least one high-impact, career-aligned experience—such as an internship, research, or community-based project—before graduation.
The session will highlight strategies for aligning this promise with academic priorities, including partnerships with faculty to integrate real-world experiences into a student's four-year plan. The presenter will share how Handshake and PeopleGrove (RamConnect) are used to centralize opportunity tracking and student participation, and how tools like PathwayU guide students in connecting their values and interests to experiential learning.
Participants will also learn how Fordham is scaffolding the NACE Competency development across students’ four-year experience and uses First Destination Survey (FDS) completion as a strategic tool to assess and scale experiential learning outcomes. This session will offer practical takeaways for institutions seeking to move beyond isolated internships and toward an integrated, campus-wide model of experiential learning that drives access and long-term success.
Presented by: Cheretta Robson, Fordham University
This session highlights a collaborative initiative between the Mentor/Mentee Jobs on Campus Program and the Career Services Office at Hostos Community College to integrate career readiness into on-campus student employment and mentoring program. Together, the teams designed and delivered Career Development Days and administered a Career Competency Self-Assessment Tool aligned with NACE competencies. The tool, created in Microsoft Forms, was administered in Fall 2024 and Spring 2025 to evaluate students’ self-perceived career readiness.
In addition to student self-assessments, mentor/supervisors also completed evaluations, identifying targeted career readiness goals. Initial results including highlights of trends and themes identified in data analysis will be shared. Based on these insights, the program will focus on 1–2 key competencies in Fall 2025 to support targeted development. Attendees will learn how to implement assessments using Microsoft Forms, plan developmental programming tied to competencies, and use results to refine student employment and mentorship experiences.
Presented by: Sofia Oviedo, Hostos Community College
At the University of Missouri, we launched an institution-wide curriculum mapping initiative using a custom Educational Assessment App to align course objectives to NACE competencies. This session will demonstrate how we embedded NACE into the app across 384 academic programs and over 1,600 courses, with a spotlight on our College of Arts & Science's initiative to map as many courses and programs as possible to NACE.
We’ll present our Depth of Coverage Curriculum Maps—visual tools that help departments see how often and how deeply NACE competencies are addressed. These maps enable faculty to identify gaps, avoid redundancy, and prioritize the most relevant competencies for their disciplines.
By making NACE mapping visual, faculty-centered, and discipline-informed, we’ve found it also serves as an effective gateway into broader assessment conversations—especially in departments typically resistant to assessment work. Participants will leave with a practical process, visual examples, and scalable strategies for positioning NACE as a framework not only for employability, but for curricular relevance across disciplines.
Presented by: Jonathan Cisco, University of Missouri
This session presents a university-wide initiative that embeds NACE Career Competencies throughout the student experience across both 3-year and 4-year degree pathways. Participants will explore how the institution scaled experiential learning across all disciplines, integrated skill and competency development into the general education core and launched a new approach to career advising to ensure all graduates leave with an individualized career plan. The session also highlights structured reflection practices, a career readiness checklist, and employer partnerships that support skill development and workforce alignment.
Participants will learn how the university:
Presented by: Sheri Young, Michael Fein, Johnson & Wales University
This session shares a cross-unit collaboration between a mathematics teaching faculty member and a career success strategist to embed the NACE Career Readiness Competencies into a foundational support course serving STEM students. The initiative at New Jersey’s flagship institution, Rutgers University - New Brunswick, demonstrates how even non-major academic courses can meaningfully contribute to a student’s professional identity and employability when designed with intentional reflection and strategic partnership.
Course context:
Math 125: Methods of Mathematical Problem Solving is an interdisciplinary, hybrid learner-centered support course co-enrolled with calculus or precalculus, focused on building academic self-efficacy, metacognition, and problem-solving stamina. It is created by Dr. Sheila Tabanli, the faculty partner in this collaboration. Rutgers Office of Career Exploration and Success started a campus partnership program to invite faculty in order to further support students in their classrooms. Through this campus partnership program with Ava Aulisi, a senior assistant director of career success strategy from Career Exploration and Success (CES), the pair collaborated to design an interactive presentation on career readiness by recognizing the strong alignment between the course’s learning objectives and standards for mathematical practice with the eight NACE competencies.
Collaboration and innovation highlights:
Career Services Guest Session: Ava Aulisi led an in-class presentation connecting Rutgers-specific tools (e.g., networking events and platforms, and interview training platforms ) with the NACE competencies, busting myths and building student awareness of their agency in career development. Student engagement was ensured by offering a Q & A session with giveaways and a group picture taken to showcase the student involvement and partnership on social media.
NACE Reflection Assignment: Sheila Tabanli designed a timed online assignment as a low-stakes assignment, inviting students to reflect on the NACE competencies and recognize the importance of these competencies in their STEM work at Rutgers and beyond in their spaces of employment. Students were provided agency to select:
Anecdotal feedback showed students began to see how growth and perseverance in learning was also growth in leadership, teamwork, and communication—shifting their mindset from surviving to thriving as learners and future professionals.
Presented by: Sheila Tabanli, Rutgers University
While engaging students with NACE’s Career & Professionalism competency is key to preparing them for future professional roles, it’s equally important to listen and learn from university administrators regarding their understanding of the processes students undergo to obtain those roles within your company.
In this session, we’ll describe how Verizon’s teams engage university administrators directly with our recruiting teams to answer - and learn more about - their questions about the recruiting process. We’ll review our most recent findings and action items from Fall 2025 “Ask Me Anything” administrator sessions, and discuss models of mutual benefit to universities and businesses for fostering professional learning, helping students to navigate career opportunities, and networking for both students and administrators to build relationships.
Presented by: Liz Langemak, Tariq Brown, Verizon
The Student Professional Readiness Series (SPuRS) is a tiered, self-paced developmental program required of all undergraduate business students at Western Michigan University since 2016. Students’ progress through foundational and advanced levels of the SPuRS program and earn Bronze, Silver, or Gold recognition at graduation based on their level of engagement with program activities. Each experience within the program focuses on different dimensions of career readiness—from foundational knowledge to professional application. Activities range from structured workshops and employer events to reflective practice and experiential learning, all tied to the NACE competencies.
This presentation will include:
With a proven record of success and strong stakeholder engagement, SPuRS is positioned as a replicable framework for institutions seeking to operationalize career readiness competencies at scale. Attendees will leave with practical tools to initiate or evolve their career competency initiatives at their own institutions.
Presented by: Danielle Field, Haworth College of Business, Western Michigan University
How do we ensure that neurodiverse students are not only learning career readiness competencies but are also empowered to demonstrate them in ways that lead to meaningful employment? This session will explore inclusive and innovative approaches to assessing the eight NACE career competencies through a neurodiversity-informed lens.
Drawing from experience in both career development and student engagement, this presentation will offer insight into how educators, employers, and career services professionals can better recognize, support, and evaluate career competencies in neurodiverse students. Participants will walk away with practical tools and assessment ideas that can be applied in the classroom, in co-curricular programs, or in the workplace — all aimed at closing the gap between potential and opportunity.
Presented by: Lynne Free, Louisiana Delta Community College
In an increasingly competitive landscape, equipping students with robust career readiness skills is essential to successful student economic mobility. While career services offices play a vital role, the most impactful approach involves embedding career planning directly into the academic curriculum. Creating this unified approach to embedding career readiness and career competencies in the classroom is an essential driver of student career success at Montclair State University.
This presentation will offer an in-depth exploration of how an interdisciplinary team, comprising academic affairs, career services, and instructional design staff, used a case-study approach to develop and deliver a successful faculty workshop as part of a year-long fellowship, that taught faculty how to redesign courses and programs to highlight student career competencies and include experiential education. Using Montclair research on current faculty behavior and attitudes, the Teaching innovations Program (TIP), an immersive three-day learning experience, supported faculty in creating course enhancements that aid student experiential learning.
Participants in this session will gain practical insights into the entire process, from initial conceptualization and needs assessment to curriculum design, resource curation, and facilitation strategies. Attendees will explore effective interdisciplinary collaboration models, curriculum design principles for faculty development, and practical content integration strategies.
Presented by: Chantelle Wright, Dan Loughrey, Montclair State University
This session highlights a scalable approach to integrating the NACE Career Readiness Competencies into a co-op work experience course through structured reflection and peer engagement. Using behavior-based prompts aligned with each competency, students participate in discussion boards where they reflect on their workplace experiences and respond to peers. The asynchronous course also incorporates the NACE Career Readiness rubric as both a self-assessment and managerial evaluation tool, deepening students' understanding of their growth and readiness. This model is especially effective for graduate students offering a high-impact, low-barrier method for supporting intentional career development during experiential learning.
Presented by: Jessica Medeiros, Northeastern University
Penn State Career Services has been building a community of practice to identify and pilot scalable best practices for equitably infusing Career Decision-Making and Career Readiness into the student academic and co-curricular experience across the University.
In this session, attendees will learn more about how Penn State brought together a diverse group of colleagues and fostered a community of practice around a shared goal to more equitably prepare all students to be career ready and to leverage that readiness to engage in high impact practices like internships and other co-curricular experiences that lead to full-time employment. Collaborating with industry partners, this group paid special attention to what recruiters were seeing as the key skills/competency gaps and strategic ways in which the pilot could scaffold our students’ awareness of and proficiency within the NACE Career Readiness Competencies.
Participants will also be introduced to the resources and strategies used to pilot Career Decision-making and Career Readiness Infusion into the student experience.
Presented by: Bob Orndorff, Sue Chappell, Penn State
Career readiness competencies are essential for post-graduation success, yet many institutions struggle to embed and assess them in ways that are both meaningful and scalable. At the University of South Carolina, the Career Center is leading a campus-wide effort to bridge this gap using Suitable’s NACE Career Feedback Tool, now implemented across a growing range of student experiences including on-campus employment, internships, leadership roles, and academic enrichment programs.
This session will offer a comprehensive look at how USC is building a culture of reflection, feedback, and growth anchored in the eight NACE competencies. By aligning assessment tools, reflection templates, and supervisor engagement strategies, the Career Center is equipping students to identify, develop, and articulate essential career skills throughout their college experience.
A featured case study will spotlight Summer JAM, a six-week summer bridge program designed for incoming students who need additional math preparation prior to matriculation. In collaboration with the university’s GARNET office (Gamecock Advancement, Retention, and Next-level Engagement and Transformation), and with institutional backing from the President and the Vice President for Student Affairs and Academic Support, the Career Center introduced a structured externship experience into this academically focused program. The externship exposed students to campus employment, professional expectations, federal work-study opportunities, and reflective feedback practices, introducing them to competency development from day one and positioning work as an integral part of their broader college experience. For many participants, it was their first exposure to structured career guidance, laying a foundation for professional identity and long-term success.
As part of USC’s broader competency-focused initiatives, the Career Center has developed a scalable model that includes:
The session will also highlight how USC is leveraging competency data to drive program improvements, strengthen supervisor engagement, and build stakeholder buy-in. By integrating the NACE Career Feedback Tool into onboarding, training, and ongoing development, the Career Center is cultivating a campus-wide culture of feedback and growth.
The model is now being expanded to serve peer leaders, service-learning participants, and study abroad students, with customizable reflection prompts tailored to each context. Future plans include deeper curricular integration, enhanced supervisor training, and encouraging students to showcase their competency development in resumes, portfolios, and graduate school applications.
Attendees will gain practical insights and proven strategies they can tailor to elevate competency development efforts within their own institutional ecosystems.
Presented by: Helen Powers, University of South Carolina
Despite the growing emphasis on career readiness competencies, many undergraduates still feel unprepared for the interpersonal and communication challenges they face in their early career roles. To address this disconnect, we partnered with students to redesign an organizational communication capstone, shifting from a focus on predefined competencies to deeper conversations that surfaced students’ real concerns and insights.
This session shares findings from the first year of our grounded theory study on that redesigned course. Through in-class focus groups and reflective assignments, students identified and explored the communication challenges they expect to face in the workplace, ranging from navigating toxic environments and political tensions to managing feedback anxiety and team conflict.
Rather than emphasizing polished performance (résumés, interviews), this approach framed communication readiness as a reflective, relational, and adaptive process.
The session will translate these insights into actionable strategies for career services professionals who want to:
We’ll share sample student work, replicable tools, and practical ways to bridge the gap between institutional goals and Gen Z’s lived experiences.
Presented by: Karen McCullough, Fort Hays State University
Hear from NACE leadership about current trends in higher education and early talent recruitment. Learn about what is coming up for NACE and the NACE community. Get the NACE inside scoop and add your thoughts and ideas to the mix.
Presented by: NACE
*Schedule subject to change.