04/18/2018

Do you know of a college/university-based career advisement for all entering students?

I understand there are stand-alone career advisement services for adults thinking of changing their careers. Could you point me to such a service in the southeast? The VP and I need visit such a service to see how a professional career service operates. Do you know of a college/university-based career advisement for all entering students?

In working with a small university, I am suggesting to the VP who oversees student recruitment and admissions that he develop a pre-college career advisement program for high school graduates and older adults. To this end, I am urging this VP to establish a summer, one-week, intensive career advisement for recent high school graduates. This would include helping the students find the post-secondary education that most effectively and economically enter the career of their choice. Perhaps at other times in the year, the university could offer similar career advisement to older adults wishing to change careers. Such a week should include writing an extensive guided biography on variables associated career compatibility and success, taking tests on abilities associated with particular vocations, and interests inventories that compare the advisee's interest patterns to those in various careers. The VP and I need to find the best practices based on imperial evidence.

My Ed.D. is in Counseling and Educational Psychology. Near the beginning of my higher education career, I was the educational and career counselor in the Counseling Center at the University of N C at Greensboro, which was led by a clinical psychologist. Later I moved into other areas of higher education; but through the years, I’ve worked with older adults looking for different careers and with pre-college students trying to select a major. Over many years in public and private universities, I’ve sadly concluded that higher education institutions rarely, if ever, provide intensive, systematic career advisement. The university I’m working with is Christian; its motto is, “Teaching how to live, and how to make a living.” The faculty, administration, and staff actually believe and make every effort to live by it.

We need your advice as we begin this exploration.

John


Duck River,  TN