How to Increase Student Engagement with your Career Center

A new report was published on March 27, 2015 by the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) regarding the 2014-2015 Career Services Benchmark Survey. Over 850 career centers were surveyed by NACE throughout the United States and across the world. Unsurprisingly, the report revealed low student usage and engagement.

NACE Survey Highlights

In fact, while two-thirds of career centers offered career counseling, it was sought out by alumni in about 90 percent of career centers. Furthermore, only one-third of seniors attended career fairs during the 2013-2014 academic year. So I ask, what is the disconnect? With over 90 percent of career centers offering career workshops to students, why are students not utilizing these valuable resources or seeking out help in the last hour?

The answer? Many students become overwhelmed thinking about how to prepare for life after college and starting out in the professional world when they’ve been so focused on college life for 4 years. Many have lived within a campus bubble solely centered around studies and social life - not career development.

Strategies to Increase Student Engagement

If career services centers wish to increase student usage and engagement, there are several actions that can be taken. The first and fundamental change must be integrating careers into student life at the beginning of the student life cycle. Not just by means of highlighting employers and jobs that alums have gone on to achieve; while this is inspiring to many students and motivating, offering information on potential career paths associated with certain majors and educating students on the types of opportunities available is far more valuable. This can be done as early as orientation to get students thinking about careers and over time be reinforced. Secondly, pairing students to peer mentors and enabling them to engage with alumni for advice can be game changing for a student’s career.

But how can career centers provide relevant information on career paths and match students to peers and alumni for support? They must reach students where they are and better understand them. It is commonly known that millennial students are more technologically advanced and "connected" than ever before but over two-thirds of the centers surveyed primarily use email as the mode of career counseling.

With these types of initiatives in place, providing educational resources at the beginning of the student’s experience at the college or university and offering a social, engaging medium to foster student to alumni connections, career centers will see lifts in student satisfaction, engagement and ultimately, positive career outcomes. While the focus has centered on placement and outcomes it really starts with understanding the student, their needs, goals and interests and then determining the right “job fit" for them to grow and succeed.

Comment below if you have any additional strategies that worked at your college or university to increase student engagement with the career center.

Nicole DeSantis is the Head of Marketing at CampusTap, a private social platform for colleges creating a connected community. You can follow her writing here, on Twitter @campustap, and learn more student engagement strategies on the CampusTap Blog.