Rethinking Career Pathways
Photo provided by Rampage student photographer Rachel Hendrick.
Changes may soon be coming to Career Pathways classes. The General Education Committee is considering potential revisions, but no changes have been approved yet. Meanwhile, students and faculty have raised concerns over the efficacy of Career Pathways classes.
“We have diverse populations of students at different stages,” said Dr. Kim Farmer, dean and full-time professor of criminal justice. “While these courses are wonderful in their intent, their subject matter, and their goals . . . they’re kind of tailored toward the beginning student, the first-time freshman.”
For students who have work experience, learning the basic career skills these classes teach seems redundant.
“I love how they’re supposed to pull that person up through toward their senior year and prepare them to go on from here, but a lot of my students are older and they’re already out there,” Dr. Farmer explained.
Career Pathways teaches career readiness skills through technology trainings, mock interviews, practice creating resumes and cover letters, job posting research, and training in professional dispositions.
“We want to make sure that our graduates are well prepared,” said Dr. Shellie Brown, dean of the school of education and social sciences.
She noted that she did not have these types of courses in college and had to figure things out on her own.
“It would have been good to have some of that foundational knowledge,” Dr Brown said. “I think that is beneficial for students, and anything that we can do to help with career readiness and professional dispositions is always going to be helpful.”
Dr. Farmer appreciates the career readiness skills but wishes there was a better way to exempt students who already have those skills.
It’s a “tricky balance,” said Professor Allen Roberts, who teaches some Career Pathways courses. He noted the need to acclimate entry-level students and prepare them for success.
“It’s tough to try to find that balance of you’re not leaving a group of students behind but you’re not holding a group of students back,” Roberts said.
Some of the most common complaints students raise about Career Pathways are that it is “busywork” and too much work for a one-credit class. That one-credit hour format also creates some “advising obstacles,” Dr. Farmer said.
“Since students have to take one of these pretty much every semester from freshman through junior, I have difficulty trying to give a student a good full load of courses without putting them in overload because of that one credit hour,” Dr. Farmer said.
The one-credit hour structure is one of the many things that may change with Career Pathways. Roberts hopes any changes will include greater flexibility to adapt course material to fit the needs of various majors and concentrations.
“I would like to see flexibility maybe in the coursework on those junior level courses in particular,” Roberts said, “to allow a little bit more freedom for what a music major needs to get out in the job market. It’s not going to be the same as a graphic designer.”
That preparation for the job market is the reason Career Pathways exists in the first place. Dr. Shawn White, director of general education and chair of the General Education Committee, pointed to the disparity between the skills employers want students to have and what they assess students to have.
“When we look at the data, students rate themselves high in areas like critical thinking and communication skills and technology usage,” Dr. White said. “And then you look at the gap between how their employers rate them. There’s a big gap.”
Career Pathways was designed to help fill that gap. However, as students have proceeded through all six levels, the need for some adjustments has become clear.
“A constant thing in education is making adjustments,” Dr. Brown said, “because we always want to make continual improvements for the students.”
If the General Education Committee decides to implement changes, that proposal will go before the Traditional Undergraduate Curriculum Review Committee (TUGCR), then be submitted to faculty. At present, no proposal has been sent to TUGCR, but the General Education Committee anticipates changes being adopted by the fall semester.
Students have mixed feelings about the current Career Pathways. Senior Abbey Kitchens, a Christian Studies major, valued the collaboration it required.
“I had to learn how to work with other people,” Kitchens said. “Overall, I think they teach certain skills that aren’t in other classes.”
However, she described Career Pathways as “a little boring” where students mainly check off boxes.
Nakaya Nguyen, a freshman majoring in Accounting, appreciated the emphasis on communication and critical thinking skills.
“I think it’s pretty beneficial to actually get to learn a lot of the skills I’m going to use,” Nguyen said.
Morgan Wigg’s biggest takeaway was learning to build a resume. She is a junior majoring in Business Management.
Chesed Russell is a junior majoring in Graphic Communication, Digital Marketing, and Sports Communication.
“The coursework feels repetitive and aspects of it, like the Microsoft information, should be done on a smaller scale for freshman,” Russell said. “This time could be used to teach more life skills or used for portfolio-type classes.”
Russell also felt that the service-learning hours were rushed and not being served as intended.
Kaleb Morgan, a senior majoring in Exercise and Sports Science, said Career Pathways courses helped him think more strategically about structuring his goals in a realistic and intentional way.
“It pushed me to clarify both my short-term and long-term plans, while also identifying the transferable skills I’ve developed through athletics, academics, and internships,” Morgan said. “As a student-athlete, it can be easy to focus solely on sports, but this class emphasized the importance of preparing for life beyond competition.”
As the General Education Committee reviews Career Pathways and considers feedback, Roberts looks forward to seeing what changes, if any, are coming, and how students will respond. Dr. Farmer acknowledges that no solution will please everybody, but she is confident that Bluefield University will create “something that works the best for the most.”
“We’ve had some good discussions about it so far, and I think that we’ll move in the right direction with it,” Dr. Farmer said. “We need to listen to the students more and make something that most of them are going to be happy with.”