Connecting Academic Advising and Career Advising Advisory Board for Advisor Training Committee Team Members Susan Koenig, L&S Academic Deans' Office (Co-chair) Shaylea Stensven, L&S Career Services (Co-chair) Tara Milliken, School of Business Todd Courtenay, Biology Diana Maki, CCAS
1 Executive Summary With a decentralized advising model and the recent addition of The Office of Undergraduate Advising (OUA) established to improve coordination for academic advising, the challenge of decentralized and various structures for career advising still persists. This report engages this conversation including many voices sharing their concerns, but most importantly their hopes for a campus where academic and career advisors can connect with the objective of serving students by meeting their academic and professional aspirations. History of Project The Office of Undergraduate Advising (OUA) is committed to assisting academic advisors in navigating UW-Madison s decentralized advising model. However, one challenge that continues to persist across campus is the connection between academic advising and career advising. One step OUA took to further investigate this challenge was to empower members of the Council for Academic Advising (CAA) to identify the academic advisors' role in the career development process. Overall it was found that the advising landscape, while decentralized and complex, is beneficial to students due to the access to specialists and experts that deliver tailored advising for their needs. In addition, the CAA Power Team developed a comprehensive report that highlighted the scope and identified recommendations at the individual, college/unit, and campus levels. At the individual level, advisors were encouraged to recognize that they may already be providing career exploration when asking open-ended questions requiring students to reflect on their interests. In addition, it was recommended for academic advisors to make quality referrals when students are looking for more resources and information regarding labor market information and trends; internship searching; or programming from career units. At the unit level it was recommended that units identify opportunities for more communication with career advisors to learn the benefits of career advising and when students should be referred. This included what academic advisors may communicate to students so that it would make the referral better quality and so students are more prepared when visiting a referred career advisor. At the campus level, recommendations to OUA included adding a career coordinator to their team that would assist with providing career development training skills to academic advisors and coordinating collaborations and communications between career and academic advisors. The CAA Power Team s report and recommendations provided an informative overview of academic advisors' present role in the career development process. However, most significantly the report identified the overwhelming need for more investigation, including how academic and career advisors could connect, communicate, and collaborate. As a result, OUA established a new team within the Advisory Board for Advisor Training (ABfAT). The Connecting Academic and Career Advising Crunch Team, underneath the structure of ABfAT, are charged with: Implementing the Council on Academic Advising Power Team document Academic Advisor s Role in the Career Development Process through existing OUA trainings and materials Helping OUA build connections with career advisors on campus Soliciting or developing conference proposals highlighting connections between academic and career advising Helping build relationships between academic and career advising offices via ABfAT and Career Services Council collaborations
2 Reviewing and expanding advising.wisc.edu/facstaff website materials on connection between academic and career advising Seeking feedback/input from ABfAT The Connecting Academic and Career Advising Crunch Team identified that a survey of perceptions directly from academic and career advisors should occur before they could implement the CAA Power Team recommendations. The following report identifies the research, results, and the recommendations identified after the data analysis phase. In addition to the survey, Crunch Team members interviewed career office directors and coordinators and investigated current training offerings from the Office of Undergraduate Advising. Overwhelmingly the data supported that both academic and career advisors desire more opportunities to collaborate. In addition to campus wide recommendations, the Crunch Team has identified assessments for both academic and career advisors to utilize that empower individuals and units by identifying opportunities they may implement to connect with each other (see Appendix A and B). These assessments provide a comprehensive overview of the suggestions and strengths identified through the survey and interviews where collaboration already exists. Research In December 2015, the Crunch Team surveyed 190 staff members with a direct or indirect advising role on campus. A Qualtrics survey was e-mailed to academic and career advisors campus-wide as well as staff who interact with career and/or academic issues but who don t focus explicitly on either area (International Student Services staff, for example). The survey had a response rate of 51%, with 97 staff responding. Of the respondents, 21(22%) identified their primary role as career advising. The survey sought to understand, broadly, three areas: how academic and career advisors understand each other s roles; what academic and career advisors most want from each other as they partner in working with students; and how comfortable academic advisors feel making referrals to career advisors and, conversely, how well-understood career advisors feel campus career resources are. (See Appendix E for survey questions and full quantitative results.) Additionally, Crunch Team members spoke with representatives of career advising units on campus to better understand how they currently collaborate with academic advisors and if they participate in (academic) advisor training in their schools/colleges. Results Our survey suggests that we have fertile ground to nourish partnerships among academic and career advising: both career and academic advisors feel that knowledge about each other s area would provide professional benefits; each understands the other to have a distinct and valuable role with students; there is a current symmetry of expectations and desires for what each role is and should be, tempered by some concern among advisors in each area that they would be expected to integrate and be able to do both academic and career advising. As one advisor noted, we should be enhancing and improving our career advising, but not necessarily through making academic advisors better career advisors. According to our survey, non-career advisors make and feel comfortable making referrals to career (99% report making referrals sometimes or all of the time ). Our survey indicated some discrepancy between the comfort non-career advisors feel with their knowledge of career offices and the knowledge career advisors think they have. Career advisors scored the others significantly lower than they scored
3 themselves on their knowledge of provided by career offices and when to refer students to career offices. The very good news here is that academic advisors express a clear desire to learn more about exactly these topics. For instance, the survey elicited many comments from academic advisors wanting more information about "what a student will experience when reaching out to the career exploration center and other careering advising opportunities on campus so that I can better make referrals and set the right expectations. Academic advisors are most comfortable discussing the career related issue that career advisors feel it most important and useful that non-career advisors discuss. Of five broad career-related topics in our survey, the one academic advisors feel most comfortable discussing with students is self-exploration (67 of 74 described themselves as "very comfortable" or "comfortable"). All of the career advisors who responded to this question rated this topic as "important" or "extremely important" that academic advisors be able to discuss with students. The area that career advisors feel is next most important for academic advisors to be able to discuss is career exploration, defined as "identifying potential career paths through research and informational interviews." Academic advisors feel significantly less comfortable with this topic only 16 are "very comfortable" and 41 more are "comfortable." This may reflect the great variation among majors, which may or may not be structured to lead directly to first jobs. One advisor expressed the desire for information on "how to have the conversations about exploring majors/careers more successfully. While I like to refer, there are times when it would be helpful in my academic conversations." Career exploration is one area of career advising that integrates well into academic advising and our survey suggests it is one fruitful area for individual units or advisors to consider partnerships. In free responses about the career-related knowledge that would be most useful to their advising practice, non-career advisors answers reflected four themes. Most mentioned is a broad content area that relates to the ability to make good referrals, including understanding the structures of and offered by career offices (within and outside their own colleges), and knowing what happens in an appointment with a career advisor. One advisor emphasized the value of this knowledge to referrals, wanting to know "how to better prepare students to go to career, what should they look up in advance, what to expect, etc. - often I have students come back and say it wasn't helpful so I want to better be able to set expectations. Career advisors, asked what knowledge would be most useful about academic advising, had something of an "other-side-of the-coin" response about academic advising practice, wanting to understand how and when career issues come up for academic advisors, what resources are shared, whether academic advisors rely on their own knowledge (or speculation) of career information or make referrals -- How often advisors are answering questions on career and job search matters. What percentage of their appointment is related to careers and how many feel trained to handle these issues or are guessing. That is, in general, the concern of all the professionals surveyed is about how academic advising can do its best as it plays out a role in students' career development. A related concern, and the second theme of the non-career advisors' responses, is concern about what career-related areas academic advisors should and should not discuss, areas of overlap in academic and career advising practice, and big-picture career milestones. It seems," said one career advisor, "that academic advisors think they need to know more about the job/internship/co-op search process and less about the exploration piece, when it would be my belief that it should be the opposite. The final two areas mentioned by academic advisors correlate to the areas on which they rated themselves as being least comfortable talking with students: first, questions about employers, how career offices work with companies and alums, and placement data; second, on-line and other resources like BuckyNet, career events and programs. A final area in which academic advisors rated themselves as less comfortable,
4 resume/cover letter writing and interviewing skills, did not rate much mention as one that they would find useful to know nor is it an area that career advisors said would be important for academic advisors to cover. Again, these results indicate significant alignment of purpose, knowledge, and desire among campus professionals with an advising model in which career and academic advising remain distinct but more strongly partnered enterprises as individuals build their capacity to make strong referrals. Recommendations While academic and career advising units share some broad goals, the structure, staffing, resources, and missions of academic and career advising units vary widely across campus. Additionally, with the advent of the Office of Undergraduate Advising, academic advising has a stable, and stably funded, central infrastructure that career advising lacks. In recognition of these disparities, first among our recommendations, and the main one for individuals and individual units, is the use of a self-assessment tool which incorporates many of the UW best practices uncovered in our work. Assess individual or unit practices using UW-Madison best practices collected in Appendix A. Include both academic and career advising representation on committees and work groups OUA collaborate with career advisors to design events on career exploration, transferrable skills and how students gain professional experience Insert career topics into existing OUA events or programs such as town halls, meet an advisor, and advising unit spotlights Include career advisors as facilitators in New Advisor Training or other OUA training series In training new advisors, emphasize the importance of shadowing and connecting with career advisors in the new advisor s school/college (see Appendix B) Include an academic advising resources on the OUA website to know Career Service unit, location, how to schedule an appointment and prepare, and link to their website Include additional resources developed in this report, appendices, to support the connection of academic and career advising advisors and units Appendices A: Self-Assessment for Career Advisors and/or Career Services Units B: Self-Assessment for Academic Advisors and/or Academic Advising Units C: Shadowing Program: Sample Invitation and Best Practices D: Template for a Strong Career Advising Referral E: Survey Questions and Quantitative Results
5 Appendix A Self-Assessment for Career Advisors and/or Career Services Units 1. Consider what academic advisors do you or does your office collaborate with? Who is best informed? Why is it working? 2. Consider who you may be disconnected to and how it may be helpful for them to know more about you or your office? 3. Could you host an event that would bring together career and academic advisors to discuss student needs or career paths? Examples: L&S may host an event for career and academic advisors to discuss the value of an L&S degree; Where do Business Alums work?; Engineering Career Paths 4. Could you host an open house for their academic advising community to promote networking and communication between career and academic advisors. 5. Could you host and promote a new academic advisor shadowing program (See recommended guidelines and example communication in Appendix C) 6. Could you collaborate with other staff members in your college to coordinate training(s) for new or existing academic advisors to learn about your office and career development? 7. Could you have a referral card to provide to academic advisors and to students to offer information about what students could do before their career advising appointment to prepare? (See template in Appendix D) 8. Could you visit classes with together with academic advisors? 9. Could you send joint emails to students you might share? This may explain who students would visit to for what and why and how would schedule with either advisor. 10. Could you use Advisor Note System to take advising notes? 11. Could you invite academic advisors to your committees or projects for their perspective when appropriate? and/or Could you participating in joint committees or projects? 12. Could you partner or have liaisons with auxiliary units? Examples: International Student Services and Center for Educational Opportunity
6 Appendix B Self-Assessment for Academic Advisors and/or Academic Advising Units *for individual advisors in departments **keep in mind CEC as well as school specific career advising units **auxiliary unit shape some questions with them in mind?? 1. Consider what career advisors do you or your office collaborate with? Who is best informed? Why is it working? 2. Consider who you may be disconnected from; would it be helpful for them to know more about you or your office? 3. Could you host an event that would bring together career and academic advisors to discuss student needs or career paths? Examples: L&S may host an event for career and academic advisors to discuss the value of an L&S degree; Where do Business Alums work?; Engineering Career Paths 4. Could you host an open house for their career advising community to promote networking/communication between career and academic advisors. 5. Could you visit classes with career advisors? (Consider re-phrasing for clarity) 6. Could you send joint emails to students you might share? This may explain who students would visit to for what and why and how would schedule with either advisor. 7. Could you attend a career fair? (Tip: Sometimes there are opportunities for staff to volunteer at the fair) 8. Could you use Advisor Note System to take advising notes? 9. Could you invite career advisors to your committees or projects for their perspective when appropriate? and/or Could you participating in joint committees or projects? 10. Could you partner or have liaisons with auxiliary units? Examples: International Student Services and Center for Educational Opportunity
7 Appendix C Shadowing Program: Sample Invitation and Best Practices Dear, Welcome to campus! I am reaching out on behalf of the (insert college) Career Services unit. As you may have already learned, UW-Madison offers a decentralized advising experience for students. While we think this is beneficial to students due to the access to specialists and experts to deliver tailored advising for their needs, it can be complex to navigate for both students and staff alike. For this reason, our office invites all academic advisors to shadow our career advisors. We extend this invitation to you if you would like to visit our office and observe what a student experience would be like entering our office, what resources and programs we provide, and what students hear in an advising appointment. Please consider this an open invitation for whenever you have time because we understand the busy schedules of academic advisors! On Wisconsin! Career Services Best Practices for Career Advisors/Units Reach out to academic advisors in your college Reach out to new academic advisors when they are announced on advisor link Schedule time for academic advisors to: o see your office/unit; o greet office staff and understand their roles; o learn how students are welcomed and checked in when they visit; o provide an overview of the website or resources helpful for students; o if possible listen in on an advising session; o and provide time for Q&A. Send a thank you to advisors who have participated in the program and follow up with resources or questions you couldn t answer at the time Implement what you learned was helpful from academic advisors and implement into future shadowing visits Best Practices for Academic Advisors Schedule a time to visit your college s career center and shadow career advisors Come prepared with questions about career advisors desired expectations for how students can prepare before an appointment Send a thank you to your host and follow up with what was helpful and questions or ideas that you may have come up with since your visit
8 Appendix D Template for a Strong Career Advising Referral Letters and Sciences Example Referral to Letters and Sciences Career Services Located in Middleton Building, 1305 Linden Drive Suite 205 Students can schedule an appointment online at: http://careers.ls.wisc.edu/undergraduate-advising.htm (front) Career Advising can help students with: internship and job search strategies, connecting to employers and learning how to network, deciding whether to attend graduate school or take a gap year, industry exploration, resume and cover letters and, interviewing preparation. How to get ready for your career advising appointment? Explore Career Services website (careers.ls.wisc.edu) Request a BuckyNet account on the Career Services website Explore BuckyNet internship and job opportunities to identify your interests Create and bring a rough draft of your resume and/or cover letter Create a list of questions for your Career Advisor (back)
9 Appendix E Advisor Survey 1. What do you think are the most valuable career advisors provide? (list up to three) Themes summarized in report results. 2. What do you think are the most valuable academic advisors provide? (list up to three) Themes summarized in report results. 3. Is your primary role career advising? Themes summarized in report results. # Answer Response % 1 Yes 21 22% 2 No 74 78% Total 95 100% 4. How comfortable are you talking to students about each of the following career related topics: # Question Very Comfortab Comfortab le Uncomforta ble Very Uncomforta Total Respons Mea n le ble es 1 Self exploration? 29 38 6 1 74 1.72 (identifying interests, skills, and values) 2 Career exploration? 16 41 17 0 74 2.01 (e.g. identifying potential career paths through research and informational interviews) 3 Application/intervie 15 36 23 0 74 2.11 wing preparation? (resume/cover letter/interviewing skills) 4 On-line tools? 3 24 40 7 74 2.69 (BuckyNet, LinkedIn) 5 Internship or job search process? 7 29 35 3 74 2.46
10 Statistic Self exploration? (identifying interests, skills, and values) Career exploration? (e.g. identifying potential career paths through research and informational interviews) Application/interviewing preparation? (resume/cover letter/interviewing skills) On-line tools? (BuckyNet, LinkedIn) Internship or job search process? Min Value 1 1 1 1 1 Max 4 3 3 4 4 Value Mean 1.72 2.01 2.11 2.69 2.46 Variance 0.45 0.45 0.51 0.49 0.53 Standard 0.67 0.67 0.71 0.70 0.73 Deviation Total Responses 74 74 74 74 74 5. How often do you refer students to seek out career advising/career? # Answer Response % 1 Never 0 0% 2 Rarely 1 1% 3 Sometimes 20 27% 4 All of the time 53 72% Total 74 100% 6. When I refer students to career advising I refer them to: (check all that apply) # Answer Response % 1 A specific career 49 66% advisor I know 2 A career 67 91% unit 3 Someone else on 18 24% campus that could answer the student's career questions, but is not a career advisor 4 Other 10 14% 5 Career related events 56 76%
11 Other Websites for individual units (CEC, L&S Career Services) and the Occupational Outlook Handbook website Student organizations/meetings for more personal experience types of answers I work with exploring students, so I find CEC and Jonathon Ferguson to be a great resource! (thanks) Resume Review Appointments Career-related online tools that career staff have built The professors in our department are usually the best resource for career-related questions for those interested in something directly related to our major. More general career-related material such as resumes or general job searches I typically send students to career units. websites Online career information, e.g. departmental or school/college career websites Faculty Instructors/Faculty Associates with industry expertise 7. How knowledgeable do you feel about career offered to students at UW-Madison? # Answer Response % 4 Very 32 43% Knowledgeable 5 Somewhat 42 57% Knowledgeable 6 Not At All 0 0% Knowledgeable Total 74 100%
12 8. Please rate the extent that you agree with the following statements regarding your knowledge about Career Services at UW-Madison. When answering each, think about the career unit your students are most likely to utilize. # Question Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly Total Mean 1 I know the location of career 2 I know the provided by career 3 I know when to refer a student to career 4 I know how a student can access career advising Statistic Disagree Agree Responses 2 1 17 54 74 3.66 I know the location of career 2 5 36 31 74 3.30 2 3 27 42 74 3.47 2 5 28 39 74 3.41 I know the provided by career I know when to refer a student to career I know how a student can access career advising Min Value 1 1 1 1 Max Value 4 4 4 4 Mean 3.66 3.30 3.47 3.41 Variance 0.42 0.51 0.50 0.55 Standard Deviation Total Responses 0.65 0.72 0.71 0.74 74 74 74 74 9. What information/knowledge about career advising and career would most help your advising practice? In other words, what do you wish you knew more about regarding career advising and career? Themes summarized in report results.
13 10. I believe academic advisors who work with my students know: # Question Strongly Disagree Agree Strongly Total Mean Disagree Agree Responses 1 The 0 1 9 11 21 3.48 location of my office 2 The 0 9 8 4 21 2.76 my office provides 3 When to 1 8 7 5 21 2.76 refer a student to my office 4 How a student can access our advising 0 2 11 8 21 3.29 Statistic The location of my office The my office provides When to refer a student to my office How a student can access our advising Min Value 2 2 1 2 Max Value 4 4 4 4 Mean 3.48 2.76 2.76 3.29 Variance 0.36 0.59 0.79 0.41 Standard Deviation Total Responses 0.60 0.77 0.89 0.64 21 21 21 21
14 11. How important is it that academic advisors are able to talk with students about each of the following career related topics: # Question Not at all Importan t Unimportan t Importan t Extremel y Important Total Response s Mea n 1 Self exploration? (identifying interests, skills, and values) 0 0 10 10 20 3.50 2 Career exploration? (e.g. 1 2 14 3 20 2.95 identifying potential career paths through research and informational interviews) 3 Application/interviewin 6 12 2 0 20 1.80 g preparation? (resume/cover letter/interviewing skills) 4 On-line tools? 4 6 9 1 20 2.35 (BuckyNet, LinkedIn) 5 Internship or job search process? 3 10 7 0 20 2.20 Statistic Self exploration? (identifying interests, skills, and values) Career exploration? (e.g. identifying potential career paths through research and informational interviews) Application/interviewing preparation? (resume/cover letter/interviewing skills) On-line tools? (BuckyNet, LinkedIn) Internship or job search process? Min Value 3 1 1 1 1 Max Value 4 4 3 4 3 Mean 3.50 2.95 1.80 2.35 2.20 Variance 0.26 0.47 0.38 0.77 0.48 Standard Deviation Total Responses 0.51 0.69 0.62 0.88 0.70 20 20 20 20 20 12. What information/knowledge about academic advising would most help your career advising practice? In other words, what do you wish you knew more about regarding academic advising? Themes summarized in report results. 13. If you have additional thoughts regarding this topic and/or this survey please include them here. Themes summarized in report results.