Among the many approaches advocated for enhancing career preparation in higher education is to provide students more practice in the context of the workplace by increasing course-based opportunities with a career emphasis. Research explores the influence of course-based experiences and faculty on students’ career preparation, students’ perceptions of their career preparation outcomes, and the influence of interactions with faculty and advisers on students’ career plans.

The NACE Center and SkillSurvey collaborated on a pilot project to determine how to best measure career readiness; results of the initial phase are highlighted.

Systemic reform centered on active learning is essential to cultivate career competencies.

This is the time to marry two potent forces in higher education—college to career readiness and systematic focus on shared institutional outcomes. Career services has much to offer as the whole campus aligns to assure that students graduate with experiences and credentials that reflect genuine capacities that will serve them well in securing work with solid prospects and lives of meaning and agency.

In spring 2014, the National Association for Campus Activities (NACA) and NIRSA: Leaders in Collegiate Recreation launched a working group to look at how the soft skills gained through participation and employment in co-curricular experiences helped to prepare students for their careers. The goal was to identify ways that students are gaining skills that make them more desirable to employers by participating in programs in collegiate recreation and campus activities and by engaging in student employment in the fields of collegiate recreation and campus activities.