Context For A New Direction
“In the past, careers were stable, linear and singular. People chose a path and pursued it over the course of their lives from college to retirement. In our modern age of technology driven exponential change - this model no longer works.”
Sparks & Honey, 20 Jobs of The Future Report
The ever-evolving world of work, significant technological and generational shifts, and changing dynamics and expectations around the role of education have spurred the need for major paradigm shifts in the role and delivery of career services in higher education. Our students will be going out and entering an ever-changing world, working in organizations that are evolving in focus and in structure. Additionally, students nationwide are increasingly placing value on how well their education prepares them for the world outside of their learning institutions.
85%
OF THE JOBS THAT GEN Z (b. 1995-2015) WILL BE DOING IN 2030 HAVEN’T BEEN INVENTED YET.
85.2%
OF STUDENTS DECIDED TO GO TO COLLEGE BECAUSE IT WAS VERY IMPORTANT "TO BE ABLE TO GET A BETTER JOB."
EXTERNAL PROGRAM REVIEW
In the Summer of 2017, The Career Center completed an extensive program review process involving external reviewers who interviewed and collected feedback from 50 Santa Clara faculty, administrators and staff about student career development and preparation needs, gaps and opportunities. This process culminated in a comprehensive final report providing the institution with 40+ recommendations. A major theme from the report -
SCU has a unique opportunity to capitalize on our geographic location in the heart of Silicon Valley and the changing nature of work. We need to reinvest in and build a comprehensive and vibrant centralized career services office, one that is agile and responsive to needs and can scale impact to prepare all undergraduate students for career success after Santa Clara.
SCU Career Center External Program Review Report
ABOUT THE CAREER CENTER
The Career Center is a centralized career services office that supports all SCU undergraduate students, university alumni and graduate students from the School of Education and Counseling Psychology and the School of Engineering. The current FTE of the center is 8 (7 full time and 2 part time employees) for a current student population of 7,000.
All programs, staff, and resources are designed to help students:
- Identify their values, interests, and strengths
- Explore a variety of industries and careers that reflect their values, interests, and goals
- Identify and pursue opportunities to build experience, skills and awareness through transformational and practical experiences
- Prepare for career success after SCU
RE-IMAGINING CAREER SERVICES AT SCU
In the absence of new resources following the program review process, Career Center leadership and staff embarked on a process of evaluating and making critical decisions about where and how to invest existing resources to meet short-term objectives.
In order to move in a new direction and in thinking differently about our service-delivery, Career Center leadership developed a timeline in phases for re-imagining internal systems and operations.
The Re-Imagine Process In Phases
1
Design
In Spring of 2018, Career Center staff began the design phase of the strategic planning process which involved:
- Evaluating cutting edge practices
- Clarifying the problems we are solving as a centralized career services office
- Empathy and exploring the needs of our students and Generation Z
- Developing prototypes of new operational priorities
2
New Operational Priorities and Vision
In the Summer of 2018, the Career Center staff began the planning process by:
- Solidifying the Career Center's new operational priorities
- Building new infrastructure
- Overhauling existing systems to support newly emerged departmental focus areas
- Engaging in a vision creation process to bring together the Career Center's beliefs, values, vision, mission and new operational initiatives for the launch of a new strategic direction
3
Systematic and Operational Changes
This department-wide process began in Summer 2018 and will continue over the next several years and will involve:
- Ongoing operational and systematic enhancements
- The incorporation of new resources and assets