Career Services & Readiness

The Career Services and Career Readiness QEP would focus on helping students identify pathways, articulate transferable skills, and navigate transitions such as transfer, career advancement, or employment. Grounded in the understanding that all students are preparing for a next step, this QEP frames pathway readiness as a shared student success responsibility rather than the work of a single office. It aligns with the University System of Georgia’s emphasis on career-ready competencies and builds on practices already occurring across courses, advising, and student support. The initiative prioritizes coordination, equity, and sustainability while supporting faculty and staff in making pathway learning more visible and intentional. 

What is the proposed QEP topic? 

Improve students’ ability to identify career pathways, articulate transferable skills, and successfully transition from college to employment or further education

What is the “big idea”? Why does this topic matter to GHC? 

The central idea of this QEP is that every GHC student is preparing for a transition, even if that transition is not immediate entry into the workforce. Students transfer to four-year institutions, advance within existing careers, change fields, or re-enter education with new goals. Success in each of these paths depends on the ability to understand options, articulate skills, and navigate unfamiliar systems.

Rather than focusing narrowly on job placement or Career Services alone, this QEP emphasizes pathway readiness as a universal student success competency. This approach ensures relevance for transfer students, workforce-bound students, and non-traditional learners alike, while strengthening the value of a GHC education and its impact on students’ lives and communities.

Why this idea & why now? 

Students increasingly expect higher education to lead to clear, meaningful outcomes, yet many struggle to connect coursework to future pathways or to articulate the value of what they are learning. At the same time, pathways have become more complex: transferring institutions, advancing within a profession, changing careers, or adapting to new industries all require navigation skills that students do not automatically acquire.

This moment is particularly important as the University System of Georgia’s Core Curriculum redesign places renewed emphasis on career-ready competencies, including communication, critical thinking, collaboration, and applied learning across general education. A Pathway Readiness QEP complements this system-wide shift by helping students intentionally recognize, practice, and articulate these competencies as they move through their coursework.

By aligning academic learning with the USG’s focus on transferable skills and workforce relevance, this QEP ensures that students are not only developing career-ready competencies, but also learning how to apply them to their individual next steps—whether transfer, advancement, or career transition. Now is the right time to embed this work intentionally across the student experience, rather than leaving it to chance or late-stage intervention.

What problem or opportunity does it address? 

Many students lack structured support to:

• Understand how academic experiences connect to future pathways
• Articulate transferable skills gained through coursework and prior experience
• Make informed decisions about transfer, advancement, or career change

Currently, these skills are developed unevenly and often depend on informal access or prior knowledge. This QEP addresses the opportunity to make pathway readiness intentional, equitable, and scalable across all programs, while respecting students who already possess professional experience or established pipelines.

How does it align with the mission and student success goals?  

This QEP directly supports GHC’s mission to provide high-value educational experiences that transform lives and enhance communities by helping students translate learning into intentional next steps.

It aligns with GHC’s vision of being a state and national leader in student success and a premier producer of talent by preparing graduates who can adapt, communicate their value, and navigate change.

The initiative supports GHC’s strategic priorities by contributing to:

• Access & Opportunity: clearer pathways for adult learners, career changers, and transfer students
• Community Impact: graduates prepared for advancement and economic mobility within Georgia
• Student Success: improved retention, graduation rates, ABC rates, and participation in HIPs
• Responsible Stewardship: leveraging existing courses, advising, and services rather than creating new or resource-intensive structures with GHC’s commitment to access, completion, and workforce relevance.

What impact do we expect on student learning or success? 

We would expect students to demonstrate: 

• Greater clarity about career goals and pathways 

• Improved ability to articulate skills gained through coursework 

• Increased confidence in professional communication 

• Higher engagement with advising and career services 

• Stronger post-graduation outcomes (employment, transfer, or advancement) 

Institutionally, we anticipate improvements in retention, completion, and employer satisfaction, along with clearer evidence of GHC’s value proposition. 

At a high level, what might implementation look like? 

At a high level, this QEP could be implemented through a tiered career readiness framework, including: 

• Career exploration and skill-mapping modules embedded in first-year or gateway courses 

• Structured engagement with Career Services (résumé reviews, mock interviews, career assessments) 

• Micro-credentials or badges aligned with career competencies 

• Faculty-supported reflection assignments linking course content to workplace skills 

• Co-curricular and experiential learning opportunities (internships, service learning, job shadowing) 

• Students might value optional micro-credentials or digital badges tied to demonstrated pathway readiness competencies. 

Career readiness would be reinforced across multiple touchpoints rather than confined to a single office or moment. 

Who would it affect most directly in terms of implementation? 

All students would benefit from clearer pathways and stronger transition skills, regardless of whether their next step is transfer, career advancement, or employment.  Implementation would involve shared participation across faculty, advisors, and staff in student support, academic, and administrative units, recognizing that GHC does not currently have a centralized Career Services center and that pathway readiness work is already occurring in distributed ways across the institution. 

At a very high level, what resources or support would be needed? 

Support would focus on: 

• Coordination among existing units rather than expansion of any single department 

• Development of reusable pathway readiness materials and assessments 

• Faculty professional development for integrating reflection and skill articulation into coursework 

• Use of existing technologies and partnerships where appropriate 

The emphasis is on strategic alignment and efficiency, not the creation of new, resource-intensive initiatives. 

How would we measure progress? What are the intended outcomes? 

Progress may be measured through: 

• Pre- and post-assessments of pathway readiness competencies 

• Student engagement with readiness activities embedded in courses 

• Retention, graduation, and ABC rates 

• Participation in HIPs and experiential learning 

• Transfer success, career advancement, and employment outcomes 

• Student self-efficacy and satisfaction surveys 

These measures align directly with GHC’s strategic metrics and student success goals. 

What challenges/downsides does this topic pose? 

One challenge is designing pathway readiness supports that are flexible enough to serve students with diverse goals, including transfer students, workforce-bound students, and non-traditional learners with prior professional experience. A one-size-fits-all approach risks either over-serving students who already possess pathway knowledge or under-serving those who need more structured guidance. 

A second challenge is resource capacity. GHC does not have a centralized Career Services office, and it is unlikely that this QEP would be supported by funding for separate, dedicated career services staff. As a result, implementation must rely on coordination among existing faculty, advisors, and staff whose primary responsibilities already include student support. Careful attention will be needed to ensure that pathway readiness work is embedded into existing structures rather than added as a new layer of responsibility. 

Additional challenges include maintaining consistency across programs while preserving disciplinary autonomy, avoiding employer-driven norms that could blur the line between institutional values and industry-specific expectations, and ensuring equitable access for online, part-time, and adult learners. Addressing these challenges will require phased implementation, clear communication, and ongoing collaboration to balance impact with sustainability.