Dr Nancy Johnston & Mr Tony BotelhoCACUSS 2015

Situating Career Services at the Heart of

Strategic Enrolment Management

Overview

1. Introduction and Purpose

2. The Changing role, work and reporting of Career Services at SFU

3. Examples of programs that link Career Services to SEM and the academic agenda

4. How Career Services contributes to institutional accountability

5. Wrap Up and Questions

Introduction and Purpose

• Career Services has been re-thought and re-positioned at SFU in order to provide earlier, intentional and academically integrated career development and connections for students from prospect through to graduate.

• Initiatives from within recruitment and retention programming will be shared to illustrate

SFU: A Little Background

• As we enter our 50th year, SFU boasts some 30,000 students, 6,500 faculty and staff, and 120,000 alumni across three geographic campuses in the lower mainland of British Columbia.

• SFU is consistently ranked as Canada’s top comprehensive university and as one of the top 50 universities in the world under 50 years old.

• With a commitment to Engaging the World, SFU has one of highest number of international students in Canada at approximately 18% and a significant number of new immigrants.

• Co-op is available in all eight faculties and a centralized Career Services works across all faculties and campuses. The Beedie School of Business operates its own Career Management Centre.

The Journey of Career Services

• 1965: Began as a Centre sponsored by Canada Manpower

• 1980s: Run out of Student Services

• 1999: Combined with Counselling Services within the Health, Counselling, and Career Centre.

• Mid-2000’s: Joined with Co-operative Education to form one of the first WIL units in North America.

From 3 Doors to Fractals

• 2009: Began a review process that led to renewal and reinvention

• Change of theoretical focus and more conscious link to university priorities (retention and engagement)

• Emphasis on having students become more intentional with their time at SFU (focus on new admits and first years)

Connections to the University

• This shift is significant and the unit found itself working closely with recruiters, student advisors, and student enrolment folks.

• Career possibilities and their alignment with various academic options were seen as very important aspects of students recruitment decisions as well as early academic choices. Mis-alignment was negatively correlated to student retention and success.

• Careers knowledge and understanding was now seen as a key factor in strategic enrolment management (SEM) related outcomes. As a result the unit has just been moved from WIL (with whom it still works closely wrt specific job finding) to the Student Success unit which includes student recruitment and retention.

Example – Retention Programs

• Back on Track– For “Required to Withdraw”

(RTW) students

– 2 part workshop series focus on normalizing uncertainty, supporting clarity, and identifying short-term actions (Wise Wanderer)

– Students report increased optimism and sense of agency

– Career programming impacted success rates

Examples – Recruitment Programs

• What Can YOUth Do– Wise Wandering with Youth– Leadership opportunity for SFU student

volunteers– Use “campus wander” as a metaphor for career

exploration

• Counsellor’s Day talks

• Community Talks

Assessment and Accountability

• Embracing a “culture of evaluation” guided by the work of the CRWG

• Exploring ways of “measuring” effectiveness that extend beyond number of student appointment and number of jobs posted.

• Post-Pre Assessment used in 1-to-1 and program feedback

• 3-Minute Essays used in some programs

Standard Data

Trends

Range of Activities

SFU Example of Pre-Post (2 stage)

Post-Pre Evaluation

Assessment and Accountability (cont)

• Career Services’ work is being discussed differently and in different places – accreditation documents, – academic plan – graduate survey – provincial 2 and 5 years out surveys.

• And is an important component of major institutional SEM programs including Recruiting (WYCD, Counsellor’s Day, support videos), Transition (SFU 101),

and Retention (Back on Track, B2B).

Wrap Up

• The role of Career Services at SFU has changed dramatically over the years.

• We have moved its purpose much more into alignment with the core academic mission of the University.

• We have changed the underpinning and nature of the work it does to better contribute to SEM goals.

• From a reporting perspective, we have situated in various places at various times to best reflect its core mission and work and to capitalize on, and better contribute to, current institutional foci, trends and areas of accountability.

Parents Video

THANK YOU!

For more information please contact:

Tony Botelho, Director

Career Services & Volunteer Services

: botelho@sfu.ca

: Tony Botelho

: Tony_Botelho