Staff and Faculty

As partners in our shared mission for student success, we’re excited to work with faculty and staff through the MySkills program.

Encouraging students to build career-relevant skills with their academics helps them develop confidence and resilience. It also gives them a competitive edge during their college years and beyond.

Here are some tips to help increase awareness around skill-building and resources to use when working with students.

Building awareness

If students don’t have enough time to plan for and pursue skill-building, they may approach graduation with some apprehension. They may also lack the necessary skills to be competitive in the job market. Early involvement with MySkills is crucial to career preparation.

Incorporating MySkills into common experiences will help students see the importance of getting involved and pursuing skill development.

There are many ways you can help spread the word about MySkills. Do you share the skills that students are building through your program, maybe in your syllabi or other course materials? Consider adding a MySkills graphic to bring awareness to the program. You can also request a MySkills presentation, or share our list of foundational skills to introduce students to the practice of building career-relevant skills and encourage engagement in the program.

Mentoring and advising

Career advisors are not the only folks on campus who can help students with career preparation and connect them with opportunities to build skills. If you work closely with students, here are key activities they can complete to understand which skills they have and what skills employers want. These activities can also help students create a plan to get involved and build skills, whether they know what career they want or are still deciding.

• Identify the skills a student has.
• Discover the skills employers want.
• Decide which skills to start building.
• Request a report of top skills requested for a specific occupation.
• Find opportunities to build skills.

Student supervision with a focus on skills

One of the most important connections students have on campus is with the supervisor of their on-campus job. Some students may struggle to evaluate their own skill level by either under- or over-estimating their performance. Student employment supervisors have firsthand knowledge of their work and can speak directly to their performance. Evaluation is also a natural part of this professional relationship. Supervisors can

• Include career readiness skills information in your student job postings.
• Introduce and encourage students to focus on skill building within your orientation process.
• Request a MySkills intro for your student employee meeting.

Research and insights 

If you would like to learn more about the foundations of MySkills, review the following research articles contributing to core components of our program.

• National Association of Colleges and Employers competencies research.
• 55 years of longitudinal data highlighting career goals as a top reason for attending college.
• Career Services in Higher Education industry trends highlighting embedding within academics as the primary way to increase social mobility for marginalized students.
• Labor market-driven insights highlighting the success of a focus on specific skills in the job search.
• Research on the skills gap and the importance of learning to build new skills early and often to meet the demands of the continually evolving world of work.