What does the future hold for the profession? This looks at the implications raised at the “Future of We” session, held at the 2018 NACE Conference.

NACE members discussed the “Future of We” at a special session at the NACE 2018 Conference & Expo in New Orleans. The presentations, scripts, and other materials are provided.

A significant percentage of career centers have implemented employer partnership programs, and the trend is for more schools to add these programs.

Centralized remains far and away the most common career services office structure, even with the introduction of the hybrid structure as an option.

Data analytics are viewed as important skills, and the vast majority of institutions already have courses in place to teach these skills.

The average salaries and years of experience for career center directors and associate directors were highest among all career services positions.

NACE looks at five trends and how they may play out by 2021. NACE polled members about megatrends affecting the field, then continued the conversation at the NACE 2016 Conference & Expo, with Millennial guru Lindsey Pollak facilitating.

NACE Poll: Technology (Career Services)

During its 60th anniversary year, NACE is honoring its service to the profession, in part, by asking its members to look forward to the year 2021 and help model a vision of the future through polls posted on NACEWeb. The third poll asked members about their predictions for how employers and students will most often make their initial connections in 2021.

Arlene Kaukus, director of career services at the University at Buffalo, believes that by 2021 career services will have to shift its approach to account for changes in the marketplace in order to meet its goal of preparing students for success in the workplace.

Matt Meltzer, founder and CEO of Sage Corps, believes that by 2021, universities will award course credit for substantive internships as experiential learning will receive the academic recognition and value it deserves. This shift, he says, is already occurring.

During its 60th anniversary year, NACE is honoring its service to the profession, in part, by asking its members to look forward to the year 2021 and help model a vision of the future through polls posted on NACEWeb. The second poll asked members about their predictions regarding the operational challenges they anticipate facing in 2021.

When they are considering new college graduates for jobs, employers look for leadership, teamwork, communication, and problem-solving skills, and a strong work ethic.

The current drive to better understand and anticipate the future of career services may be distinctive in that it is influenced by certain environmental factors that threaten a potential sea change in higher education.

Given the increased attention to career outcomes from both government and university administrations, one would expect a significant commitment on the part of the university to the career services office. This commitment could be measured in terms of critical resources expressed as either added dollars or increased personnel to handle the increasing difficulty of counseling students to succeed in a depressed job market. Using data from two installments of NACE’s annual Career Services Benchmark Survey for Colleges and Universities (2007 and 2014), this article examines the strength of that commitment.