Background
The Career Foundations Course Designation is for undergraduate courses that integrate career exploration, self-assessment, and essential employability skills into the curriculum. Career Foundations is the first designation to go live in the Career Integration designation program, a streamlined structure that provides formal acknowledgment for participating faculty, distinctive course designation, and documented accomplishments for students. Implementation for Career Foundations began in May 2025 with the Classroom to Careers track of the Faculty Center for Teaching and Learning Institute.
Career Foundations Overview
A Career Foundations designated course introduces students to career development and readiness through emerging awareness and a basic understanding of career and self-development, focusing on building foundational knowledge and early exploration of career readiness concepts, while aiming to achieve alignment between course objectives, structured assignments, and general review criteria.
Getting Started
Before applying to the Career Foundations course designation, please review the following information to help you align your syllabus and curriculum to key career readiness elements.
Designation Requirements
Review the Evaluation Guide below for specific details on what is required to obtain the Career Foundations course designation. At minimum, a course must include the following requirements:
- Career Foundations Syllabus Statement
- Minimum of two Career Foundations learning objectives
- Minimum of two career exploration assignments with a clearly defined assessment plan
- Satisfy four of the seven evaluation criteria detailed below
EXAMPLE ASSIGNMENTS AND ACTIVITIES RELATED TO DESIGNATION CRITERIA
Expand the criteria below to learn more about each one and identify suggested activities and resources to infuse into your curriculum.
Synthesize knowledge of self through career self-assessments/reflections and relate results to academic programs and/or occupation pathways.
Students will develop self-awareness through written reflections, presentations, or self-assessments, then identify and articulate how their knowledge of self relates to their academic or professional goals.
- Assessment Integration Exercise: Students complete at least two different career assessments (such as MBTI, Strong Interest Inventory, or StrengthsFinder), then create a one-page summary identifying patterns across results and connecting these to specific academic majors and career fields.
- Values-Career Matching Reflection: Students identify their top 5 personal values through guided reflection, then research and write a structured analysis of how these values align with requirements and daily activities of 2-3 potential career paths.
- Major-to-Career Visualization Project: Following self-assessments, students create a visual map showing connections between their current/potential major, relevant courses that build key skills, and multiple career pathways that utilize those skills and align with their assessment results.
- Professional Shadowing and Reflection: Based on assessment outcomes, students arrange to shadow a professional in a field aligned with their results, then write a critical reflection analyzing how their own traits, skills, and values would be assets or challenges in that environment.
Resources:
Evaluate, create, or clarify their career and/or graduate school options and create a career action plan.
Students will investigate and articulate their future goals including graduate programs and/or career fields of interest, developing a clear action plan to follow and achieve these goals.
- Career Assessment Workshop – Guide students through formal assessments (like Myers-Briggs, CliftonStrengths, or Holland Code) and reflection exercises to identify strengths, interests, and values. Follow with facilitated discussion connecting assessment results to potential career paths.
- SMART Goal-Setting Session – Teach the framework (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant, Time-bound) through examples, then have students develop their own professional goals. Include peer review and instructor feedback components to refine goals into actionable steps.
- Informational Interview Project – Provide training on conducting informational interviews, including etiquette and question development. Students identify and interview 2-3 professionals in their target field, then synthesize findings into a reflection on career fit.
- Career Roadmap Creation – Students develop a visual timeline of their career/educational path, including specific milestones, skill-building opportunities, and decision points. This becomes a living document they can adjust throughout their program.
Resources:
Demonstrate knowledge of relevant skills, proficiencies, and ethical standards necessary for desired career path or degree program.
Students will investigate and articulate the specific educational qualifications, technical competencies, professional ethics, and workplace expectations required for success in targeted career fields through systematic research, analysis, and reflection.
- Industry Standards Research Project: Students investigate and present on professional standards, ethical guidelines, and certification requirements in their field. Includes finding examples of ethical dilemmas and discussing how professionals navigate them.
- Skills Gap Analysis Exercise: Students analyze 5-10 relevant job postings to identify common skills and requirements, then conduct a self-assessment to determine areas for growth. This results in a professional development plan addressing the identified gaps.
- Industry Trend Analysis: Students research emerging trends and technologies in their field, create a presentation explaining potential impacts on future job roles, and identify specific skills they must develop to stay competitive.
- Workplace Environment Exploration: Students examine different work environments in their field through job shadowing, virtual tours, or panel discussions with professionals. They document their observations about culture, daily responsibilities, and collaboration styles.
Resources:
Expose students to High-Impact Practices (i.e. study abroad, internships, research, HIP Courses), including what they are and have students reflect on the value of completing them to gain relevant experience.
Students will be introduced to transformative educational experiences such as study abroad, internships, and research opportunities while guiding critical reflection on how these experiences develop career-relevant skills and professional advantages.
- HIP Exploration Fair: Organize a classroom mini-fair with rotating small group discussions led by representatives from study abroad, undergraduate research, internship programs, and service learning, followed by students creating personalized HIP roadmaps aligned with their career goals.
- Alumni HIP Impact Panel: Host a panel of recent graduates who participated in various HIPs, with structured student questions about skill development and career outcomes, culminating in reflection assignments connecting specific HIPs to students’ own aspirations.
- HIP Skills Portfolio: After participating in or researching a HIP opportunity, students create a visual or digital portfolio documenting specific transferable skills gained, with concrete examples of how these skills apply to their target profession.
- HIP Integration Challenge: Small student teams identify a real-world industry problem, then develop proposals for how specific HIP experiences would prepare them to address it, presenting solution-focused approaches that highlight the unique value of experiential learning.
Resources:
Develop networking strategies by connecting with recruiters, alumni, or professionals in careers of interest.
Students will develop and implement a sustainable professional development strategy, including building a personal brand through in-person and digital networking, actively participating in professional organizations, contributing to industry discussions or blogs, and/or maintaining an up-to-date professional portfolio.
- Build or update LinkedIn profiles: develop a digital portfolio, and engage in professional online communities; Write a blog post related to their field or attend a professional networking event, then write a reflection on how these experiences contribute to their personal brand.
- Monthly LinkedIn Strategy: Post one industry insight article weekly, comment thoughtfully on three posts, and engage in virtual coffee chat. Track engagement and adjust content.
- Network Impact Plan: Choose two key industry conferences or meetings in person or virtually. Before each, identify three speakers to connect with, prepare specific mock questions, and plan a social media thread sharing your main takeaways. Follow up with new contacts within 48 hours with a personalized message referencing your conversation.
- Portfolio Power Hour: Block one hour every week to update your professional portfolio. Add latest project results, new skills learned, and one piece of content (like a case study or blog post) showcasing your expertise. Share updates across your class/social media pages and submit documentation.
Resources:
Explore opportunities to gain hands-on practical or shadowing experience related to field or occupation of interest.
Students will identify and pursue immersive learning opportunities that provide firsthand exposure to workplace environments, professional responsibilities, and industry cultures related to their career aspirations.
- Shadow Day Reflection Series: Participants in this series will participate in structured job shadowing with professionals in target fields. They will document their observations through guided prompts about workplace culture, daily responsibilities, and skill applications, then create action plans for skill development based on the insights gained.
- Virtual Work Simulation Project: Complete industry-specific virtual job simulations through platforms like Forage or InsideSherpa, analyzing tasks against career expectations, and presenting key learnings and competency development to peers.
- Professional Organization Engagement Plan: Research and join relevant student chapters of professional associations, creating semester-long participation goals including committee work, event attendance, and leadership opportunities that build industry-specific experience.
- Micro-Internship Initiative: Identify and secure short-term, project-based work experiences related to career interests, documenting the application process, skills utilized, and professional outcomes in a structured portfolio format.
- Career-Focused Campus Involvement Strategy: Analyze campus organizations through a career development lens, selecting involvement opportunities based on leadership, technical, and interpersonal skill development aligned with desired professions, then tracking and reflecting on growth through a skills journal.
Resources:
Develop career readiness document to record accomplishments, skills, competencies, and interests.
Illustrate the classroom-to-career connection by engaging students in case studies or simulations that replicate professional workplace challenges, demonstrating strategic problem-solving, teamwork, and communication skills, or developing professional documents to use in a job or graduate program search such as resumes, CVs, cover letters, personal statements, portfolios, or online professional profiles.
- Industry-related simulations or case study analyses: Role-play scenarios solving workplace problems. present solutions that align with workplace expectations.
- Graduate school application checklist: Develop a personalized checklist of steps needed to apply to a specific graduate program related to career goals.
- Informational interview questions: Prepare 5-10 targeted questions for an informational interview with a professional in the chosen field.
- Networking Strategy Plan: Explore professional organizations related to the area of study or target career and engage in virtual and/or in-person events.
- Resumes, Cover Letters, or Professional Profiles: Build a professional resume, develop a cover letter, and/or create an online professional profile such as LinkedIn.
Resources:
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