Students Need to Build Employment-

Ready Competencies

Coaches Illuminate Passions and Possibilities

As this recent article in The Hechinger Report indicates, colleges are taking ever more concrete action in the push to prepare students for career success, including increasing the size of career services staff, embedding career counseling in schools and departments, and more clearly articulating how coursework is designed to support students' building core workplace competencies. 

With the extraordinary financial outlay and time commitment of college, the need for students to graduate workplace-ready has never been stronger. Coaches can provide targeted support for the college-workplace pipeline in two ways: 

1. Connecting students with career services events, resources, and personnel so that they can learn what's possible
2. Asking powerful questions that help students clarify their passions and understand the essential transferable skills they are building in their coursework

When coaches have the opportunity -- for example, when students lose motivation due to confusion about majors or fuzzy career goals, or when they struggle to find meaning in general education courses -- they can ask questions like these to help illuminate the college-career connection:

• What do you know about the types of jobs that students with your major pursue after graduation? 

• Who can help you explore the range of career possibilities for your area of interest?

• When your interests doesn't seem to link with your practical goals, how can you open your mind to new ways to bring in that interest to your coursework or extracurricular activities?

• If you are struggling to care about a required gen ed course, consider: What transferable core competencies are you building in that coursework that will impress employers and impact career success?

Expand your college-career-connection powerful question library with a LifeBound training. Upcoming sessions include December 14, 15, 18 and, for those having completed the three-day course, the LifeBound Certification Spring Cohort begins meeting at the end of January.  

Learn more coaching skills in our

Three-day Inclusive Coaching Class

​ December 14, 15, 18