Career Services and Recruitment in 2018:
Addressing the Seismic Shifts in Work Force Development
Summary of Issues and Opportunities Discussed at the 2008 NACE Annual Conference
By the NACE Future Directions Committee
At the recent annual conference in New Orleans, members of the NACE Future Directions Committee led an invigorating discussion with conference participants about the projected “state of the profession” in 2018. The committee has spent the past year examining numerous changes that are rapidly affecting the way we make decisions about process revisions, technological upgrades, and the management of institutional and alumni relationships.
Four cornerstone issues—process, technology, education, and relationship management—were discussed in depth during mini-breakout sessions. Here is a summary of that discussion:
Process: The focus is clearly becoming one of measuring candidates’ employment readiness via skills identification/training and an ability to quantify skills in candidates’ profiles. The group also discussed potential strategic partnerships in experiential learning.
Technology: How to be best prepared for using technology in effective ways was the dominant theme, with participants citing an increased need for workshops and timely information on how to use new technology tools. People also expressed the need to be able to stay on top of next practices as well as best practices in technology use.
Education: This group’s dominant theme focused on the increasing influence of alumni and parents, with increased demand for career coaching of alumni and dedicated alumni career services functions. The weight of recruiting statistics’ influence on parental/student decisions on matriculation, as well as the less-than-adequate communication and data base connections between career services and alumni relations offices was also cited.
Relationship Management: The heart of any future work force development still lies in building/enhancing strong working relationships. Publications and action groups need to focus on relationship-building between career services and recruiting offices. Career counselors need to work with students to develop a strategic manner of focus in their job searches in order to stay competitive in the marketplace.
From our discussions, several opportunities were identified as potential next steps for NACE to address:
- Develop career coaching training models, focusing on decision-making, strategic planning, and ethics, that career services professionals can deliver to their students.
- Explore strategic partnerships with organizations focusing on experiential learning opportunities.
- Offer a technology-focused program devoted to learning how to use Web 2.0 and related technologies.
- Reach out to organizations to develop partnerships focused on career awareness and work force development.
- Consider initiating an ongoing action group that addresses the strengthening and enhancement of professional relationships, and publish periodic articles on trends in this area.
There is considerable momentum among those attending the session to continue pursuing solutions to the issues that the committee raised this year. As always, NACE welcomes feedback and recommendations from its members. You can let NACE know your thoughts by contacting Manny Contomanolis, NACE president, at emcoce@rit.edu.
2007-2008 NACE Future Directions Committee
Julie Bonnie, Pacific Gas & Electric
Mark Case, College of William & Mary, Chairperson
Marva Gumbs-Jennings, The George Washington University
Tom Halasz, University of South Carolina
Kelly Harris, Bradley University
Marilyn Mackes, NACE, Staff Liaison
Carl Martellino, Pomona College
Jim McBride, University of Virginia
Kitty McGrath, Arizona State University
Christopher Miciek, Drexel University
Kent Phillips, Walt Disney World, Board Liaison
Ken Rogers, Dominion Enterprises
