Case Study

Historically, a large percentage of first-generation college students have comprised the UW-Green Bay student body; today they still number about 50% of the freshman class. Many of these students lack the resources to develop professionalism or even know where to start. Career Director Linda Peacock-Landrum had addressed this need for years using the NACE career readiness competencies, often doing class visits to teach the material, but Linda had limited time and impact.

Linda realized that students don’t always learn career readiness in class settings as well as they do when they have more freedom to explore on their own: “With some of these topics, students are not comfortable to disclose certain things– that they’re not really culturally competent, they don’t feel they have strong written skills, etc.” Linda needed a resource to help her empower students—not just teach them—about career readiness.

The Career Ready Guide provided the answer: “The guide allows those students who are not going to say they need to develop some of those areas to be able to practice.” The guide empowered those who might not know about career readiness to learn “on their own and on their own time.”

The online, easily accessible format allows Linda to reach far more students with career readiness information than ever before. In fact, hundreds of students have now completed the guide at UW-Green Bay with bigger plans to reach more students in the months ahead.

“I would recommend it. If you don’t have the staff and resources to address the competencies in another way, this is a way you can do it where it doesn’t require a lot of work on your behalf.”