Integrating Career Readiness with Curriculum

Embed one or more of the following links into your syllabus, Folio page, or email messages.

• General – main OCPD website or career planning resources for students
• Career Competencies –  NACE 8 main page or Grab & Go Content
• Your department’s internship, job, or career pages

We encourage faculty to use career competencies as part of new or existing assignments. Learn more about the “NACE 8” career competencies.

Here are a few examples of ways to integrate career competencies in assignments:

• When teaching persuasive writing, ask students to write a cover letter tailored to a specific job posting in Handshake
• For public speaking assignments, ask students to tell a story about themselves using the STAR method to prepare them for job interviews
• To prepare students to give feedback to each other on writing assignments, have them provide résumé feedback to each other in pairs

We know that faculty and staff serve as go-to resources for students for a variety of needs, including career-related questions. We’ve created career resources full of content for you to use. We welcome you to select any pieces you need and customize these materials to fit your goals.

In these modules you will find:

• a lesson plan guide if you would like to dedicate a full class session or meeting to a topic,
• an editable PowerPoint with suggested speaker’s notes and built-in activities,
• handouts, worksheets and activities guides,
• a variety of assignment ideas, and
• supplemental resources such as short videos created by the OCPD, TED talks, and videos and articles from external resources curated by our staff.  

We are happy to provide verification of attendance at events or completion of a career-related task facilitated by our office upon request. Please complete this quick form to let us know that you would like this information and we’ll be happy to provide the data or information you are seeking.

For additional questions or concerns, reach out to use at ocpd@georgiasouthern.edu!

OCPD staff enjoy speaking with classes!  We are happy to join a course for a few minutes to discuss our services or for longer to dive into any number of topics. You can request a speaker here.

We are also happy to support your efforts to connect students with employers in their field. If you are interested in making these connections with students, reach out to us at ocpd@georgiasouthern.edu. *Please note that at least three weeks are need to help facilitate this request!

Integrate career topics into department web pages, student messaging, and faculty meetings.

• If your department webpage has internship or career subpages, add links such as the Office of Career and Professional Development’s main page or Handshake.  If your department does not have such pages, inquire about the possibility of adding them by reaching out to Caitlyn Cofer, Director of Operations.
• If your department communicates with students via email newsletters, blogs, social media, etc., review for career-related content and, if missing, suggest adding links found on the OCPD’s main or corresponding pages.
• Invite an OCPD staff member to speak about career competencies at a faculty meeting.

Encourage continuous improvement, which is critical to success in any workplace.

• After group projects, ask each student to write about the strengths and liabilities they contributed to their team, and what they could do differently in future group projects to be a better team member.
• In conjunction with public speaking requirements, ask students to answer prompts about what they did well and what they would do differently in terms of research, preparation, and delivery.
• For research projects, ask students how they evaluated information they collected and how their view of a topic shifted as they read more perspectives or looked at more data.