The purposes of this study were to: (a) provide a recent analysis of technology infusion in career services offices (CSOs) in the southwest region of the United States, (b) address the three recommendations from the 1998 Charoensri study of technology infusion in CSOs, and (c) provide an empirical examination of the impact of selected technologies in CSOs since 1998. Field survey methods were adopted and modified for use with electronic distribution of the survey. A pilot study was conducted and suggestions were incorporated into the final version of the survey. CSO members of the Southwest Association of Colleges and Employers were electronically surveyed in the summer of 2004. The overall usable response rate achieved was 72.62%, nearly mirroring the 1998 response rate. There are several findings from this study. First, significant differences existed in CSO use of computer and communication technology in the 2004 national study compared to the 1998 regional study. The majority of the uses of technology by CSOs increased significantly over time. Second, significant differences were found in the use of selected technologies/uses of technology from the 2002 national study to the 2004 regional study. Third, institutional size and type were significantly different related to the use of one-way and two-way methods of communication and 15 selected uses of technology between CSOs, other CSO staff, faculty, staff, students, alumni, and employers. Fourth, CSOs have not increased the number of computer workstations from 2002 to 2004. Fifth, newer national vendor technology products used for job search assistance tasks were slow to be utilized in the southwest region, but regionally developed products were used more often. Finally, technology used to provide many of the services provided to students, alumni, and employers received above average satisfaction ratings (although varied) by CSOs. Overall, the data gathered and analyzed through this study further support previous research and confirm significant changes in CSO technology use from 1998 to 2004. CSOs have also experienced significantly higher technology use from 2002 to 2004. CSOs are satisfied with technology products used in a variety of ways in their offices.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of the Witwatersrand, Faculty of Humanities, School of Human and Community Development (Psychology), 2013 / The prevalence, characteristics and causes of unemployment in the general population have been well researched in South Africa, however, the sub-population of unemployed graduates has been studied to a far lesser extent. In this mixed methods research, 2029 participants from the 23 public higher education institutions in South Africa were surveyed. The online survey was sent to approximately 20 000 participants via email, with an invitation to participate in the study and information on the study. The dependent variable was employment status; three categories described the employed and two categories described the unemployed. Survey results were analysed using frequency distributions, chi-squared analysis and binary logistic regression. Thereafter, ten Black, low socio-economic status, unemployed graduates were interviewed telephonically. The interview transcripts were analysed thematically looking for both variation and consistency. The results showed that unemployment in the sample was 5.1%. Black graduates, graduates of low socio-economic status and graduates with difficulty accessing resources showed the highest prevalence of unemployment. Having received career guidance was not associated with employment status. The perceived causes of unemployment were lack of resources available to look for a job, the lack of connections to the labour market and discriminatory recruitment practices.

Every year thousands of college graduates seek employment. In preparing for a career, many students turn to the Office of Career Services for assistance since it is a resource that they can use in their job searches as they navigate through an increasingly tight job market. Despite the obvious importance of Career Services in higher education, not enough is known about how these offices work and how they utilize the various resources available to them in assisting graduates to find employment. The core purpose of the present study is to fill this gap in the literature. This qualitative case study compared the activities of the Office of Career Services at two institutions of higher education (St. Peter and St. Thomas will be the names used throughout this dissertation). While both institutions are Jesuit, they differ in a number of ways that allowed meaningful comparisons about how the staff members in the Office of Career Services responded to the needs of undergraduate students in their employment searches. Data were collected through open-ended, semi-structured interviews of critical members of the staffs of both institutions. The interviews focused on how staff members provide services to their students and alumni as well as to the employers of these alumni. The study attempted to understand the formal and informal processes used by the Office of Career Services at these two universities as a measure of the institutions' organizational culture (Tierney, 1988). In addition, the study examined how the staff of the Office of Career Services develop and maintain connections to the academic community and to local and national businesses. The results of the study indicate that the Career Services staff members at these two universities informed students early in their academic careers of the services afforded them in preparing for their job searches. Both offices are focused on their students, but believe they are under-utilized by the students. St. Peter's has an advantage with employment opportunities for students due to its location. St. Thomas has a stronger relationship with the institution's academic community. The implications of these results for career services in general were discussed. / Educational Leadership

The general purpose of this national study was to document career services director use of the CAS professional standards by institutional size, career services experience level, director experience level, director degree level, CAS standards awareness, CAS standards possession, and barriers to use. Also considered were the types of CAS standards use and satisfaction from use. There were significant differences in CAS standards awareness by years of experience in career services and by years of experience as career services director. No differences were found with regard to perceived barriers to CAS standards use. Significant differences were discovered by institutional size, as well as by director degree level, regarding the extent of use and satisfaction from use of the CAS standards. Finally, key factors identified with regard to predicting CAS standards use included level of awareness, and the degree to which both previous CAS standards use had not been helpful and fear of finding non-compliance were perceived as barriers. This study suggests that future research should concentrate on the reasons why practitioners are either satisfied or dissatisfied with use of the CAS standards and how the self-assessment guide is perceived and used. Additionally, an examination of how the different types of use influence perceived barriers merits consideration. / Ph. D.

The purpose of this study is to explore the important factors that affect graduate employment such as human capital, social capital and university career services. It focuses on the graduate labour market in the UK and uses mixed methods. While quantitative data derive from a survey, qualitative data come from interviews and secondary sources in a case study. The survey includes 947 university graduates and qualitative data consist of 8 interviews, internal and external reports. The findings show that the level of human capital and social capital affect the way graduates find a job and the use of social capital in job searches varies by ethnicity, age and academic level. However, gender and academic discipline do not affect the use of social capital in the UK graduate labour market. Moreover, the study shows that university career services can play an important role in job searches. Overall, however, direct application and online career services are two most widely used methods to find a job. The originality of the research is twofold. Firstly, it illustrates the relationship between two important components in graduates’ job search processes: human capital and social capital. Secondly, it examines the role of an institution: university career services and displays the importance of institutional approaches in building a bridge between students and employers.

Career development practitioners have different experiences on how career services are rendered in the country. Working with groups and individuals from all walks of life; career practitioner’s expertise becomes invaluable to the career decision-making of learners and adults in career construction. In South Africa, there are various institutions rendering career services though many do so in silos. There is no monitoring or cohesive system to manage career services. This can impact how they render career services in a well-organized and productive manner. This study explored the experiences of a career development practitioner on career services rendered. The study utilised the qualitative research method to gain more insight into the career practitioner’s experiences of career services; including career services, career information, advice, as well as career guidance. The study was conducted at the Department of Labour in Pretoria west. The sample comprised of one participant who has experience as a career development practitioner. The study used purposive sampling to select the participant. The data was collected using semi-structured interviews and analysed using inductive thematic analysis; where themes, categories, and subcategories emerged. The findings of the study reflect both negative and positive experiences that the career development practitioner has encountered in rendering career services in the past. The findings furthermore highlight the need for adequate training for career practitioners and suggest a need for prescribed ethical conduct to regulate career development practitioners working at the entry-level. This study can contribute to the development of ethical conduct guidelines and influence the further development of training for career development practitioners. Lastly, the findings might assist in the development of a cohesive and coordinated system for monitoring and evaluation in the career development profession. / Dissertation (MEd)--University of Pretoria, 2019. / Educational Psychology / MEd / Unrestricted

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Career services in higher education has a long history of supporting student development and post-graduation success (American Council on Education, 1937; Rayman, 1999; Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014). However, there is a dearth of research identifying specific connections between engagement with career services and student success. College student thriving has been established in previous studies as positively contributing to traditional measures of college student success, including intention to persist, grade point average, institutional fit and satisfaction, and self-reported learning gains (Schreiner, 2013). Examining the relationship of student experience with career services and thriving provides a new way to evaluate the contribution of career services work to college student success. This study utilized the Thriving QuotientTM (Schreiner, 2016), a valid and reliable survey instrument, with 952 clients of Career Services at Brigham Young University. Three career services variables included are frequency of interaction, satisfaction, and quality of engagement with career services. Confirmatory factor analysis established thriving as a second order latent construct and confirmed other latent pathway variables to thriving in the model. The final model explains 72.1% of the total variance of student thriving with excellent model fit. Student experience with career services does not directly contribute to student thriving, but it does strengthen other thriving-supportive variables. Sense of community and major certainty has the strongest overall contribution to thriving. Satisfaction with career services has the largest effect of the career services variables on factors which contribute to thriving: spirituality, sense of community, major certainty, experience with faculty, feelings of institutional integrity, and campus involvement. The contribution of student experience with career services to thriving is indirect, with small to moderate correlations through thriving pathway variables. Thriving Quotient scores of various student demographic groups are compared using independent sample t-tests and one-way ANOVA tests. Students with higher grades and seniors have higher thriving quotient scores; sophomores have lower scores. No significant differences are noted for first-generation students or non-white students.

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Potential employees use organization career webpages as a first source of information about potential jobs. A content analysis of the career webpages of twenty organizations that recruit from male-dominant occupations and twenty organizations that recruit for female-dominant occupations were examined for gender-specific textual markers and for textual markers for the characteristics of job expectations of comfort, reward and responsibility. Specific focus was made on college recruitment pages for employment into first post-college jobs. This study found that there is an underlying gender issue on organization’s college recruiting online presence. Organizations that have a recruitment strategy to hire women are challenged to appropriately appeal to women in their online recruitment messaging frameworks. Additionally, the rhetoric of job expectations is elusive and so is inadequate to foster the development of accurate expectations for a first post-college job.