Welcome back everyone! As we return from break, our team in the Career and Community Engagement Center (CCEC) is celebrating two great new publications for students to learn more about resources the college has for them to move toward their futures—the overhauled Whitman website as well as a new resource we created for first-year students.
To begin, a little background:
Research shows that the earlier college students start thinking about how their education allows them to access the jobs and careers they want, the more successful they will be in those pursuits.
First, a February 2022 updated report from the well-regarded higher education think tank EAB cites worrisome Gallup data revealing that more than a quarter of college graduates never once visited a career center during their time on campus. And just a little more than a fifth reported using their campus career center resources “often or very often.”
Second, college students who engage with their campus career center get more job offers on average than those who don’t. (National Association of Colleges and Employers 2022 Student Survey). In addition, “data show that students who use the career center’s help to find an internship are 2.2 times more likely to get a paid internship than an unpaid internship or no internship at all.”
Third, college students who begin this process during their first year benefit more than those who walk through that door (or visit that website) later. Parents’ Guide to the College Puzzle nicely makes this point in their article, “College Freshmen Should Visit the Career Services Office.“
To summarize: many students don’t visit their college resource for professional learning but those who do, and especially those who do so early, see positive results in achieving their goals.
Read the full article on the CCEC blog.
