Professional Standards
for College & University Career Services
V. Human Resources cont'd
Career services develops and maintains job descriptions for all staff members and provides regular performance appraisals. Career services has a regular system of staff evaluation and provides access to professional development opportunities, including inservice training programs and professional conferences/workshops.
Salaries and benefits for staff are commensurate with similar positions within the institution, in similar institutions, and in the relevant geographic area.
All staff members are trained in legal, confidential, and ethical issues related to career services.
Career services professionals engage in continuing professional development activities to keep abreast of the research, theories, legislation, policies, and developments that affect career services. Staff training and development is ongoing to promote knowledge and skill development across program components.
Leadership by Career Services Managers:
Effective and ethical leadership is essential to the success of all organizations. In career services, that leadership comes from members of the management team, including the director, associate directors, and assistant directors.
The institution appoints, positions, and empowers career services leaders at various levels within the administrative structure to accomplish stated missions.
Career services leaders at various levels are selected on the basis of formal education and training, relevant work experience, personal skills and competencies, and relevant professional credentials. Career services leaders also demonstrate potential for promoting learning and development in students, applying effective practices to educational processes, and enhancing institutional effectiveness.
The institution determines expectations of accountability for leaders and fairly assesses their performance.
Leaders in the career services unit exercise authority over resources for which they are responsible to achieve their respective missions.
Career services leaders:
- articulate a vision for their organization;
- set goals and objectives based on the needs and capabilities of the population served;
- promote student learning and development;
- prescribe and practice ethical behavior;
- recruit, select, supervise, and develop others in the organization;
- manage financial resources;
- coordinate human resources;
- plan, budget for, and evaluate personnel and programs;
- apply effective practices to educational and administrative processes;
- communicate effectively; and
- initiate collaborative interaction between individuals and agencies that possess legitimate concerns and interests in the functional area.
Career services leaders identify and find means to address individual, organizational, or environmental conditions that inhibit goal achievement.
Career services leaders promote campus environments that result in multiple opportunities for student learning and development.
Career services leaders continuously improve programs and services in response to changing needs of students and other constituents, and evolving institutional priorities.
If career components are offered through multiple units, the institution designates a leader or leadership team to provide strategic direction and align career services with the mission of the institution and the needs of the constituencies served.
Career services leaders coordinate efforts with other units in the institution providing career components to integrate career services into the broader educational mission. Key constituencies served by each unit are clearly identified and reflected in the mission and goals of the unit.
Careers services leaders are advocates for the advancement of career services within the institution. Career services leaders participate in institutional decisions about career services objectives and policies.
Career services leaders participate in institutional decisions related to the identification and designation of students and others served. Decisions about students served include type and scope of services offered and the fees, if any, that are charged.
Professional Positions (career counselors and advisers, employer relations coordinators, consultants):
Career services professional staff members hold an earned graduate degree in a field relevant to the position they hold or possess an appropriate combination of educational credentials and related work experience. Professional staff members have the requisite qualifications and competencies to perform effectively in their defined roles with students, alumni, faculty, administrators, and employers, as well as in highly specialized functions, such as career and employment counseling, employment opportunities, cooperative education, internships, work-study, graduate school advising, computer technology, etc.
Pre-Professional Positions:
Paraprofessionals, interns, and graduate assistants are carefully selected, trained in helping skills and institutional procedures, closely supervised, and evaluated regularly. Degree or credential-seeking interns are qualified by enrollment in an appropriate field of study and by relevant experience. These individuals are trained and supervised adequately by professional staff members holding educational credentials and related work experience appropriate for supervision.
Student Employee and/or Volunteer Positions:
Student employees and volunteers are carefully selected, trained, supervised, and evaluated. They are trained in how and when to refer those in need of assistance to qualified staff members and have access to a supervisor for assistance in making these judgments. Student employees and volunteers are provided with clear and precise job descriptions, preservice training based on assessed needs, and continuing staff development. Training includes customer service, program procedures, and information and resource utilization.
Support Staff and Technical Positions:
Each organizational unit has adequate administrative and technical staff
adequate to accomplish its mission. Such staff are technologically proficient
and qualified to perform their duties, knowledgeable of ethical and legal
uses of technology, and have access to training. The level of staffing and
workloads are adequate and appropriate for program and service demands.
A technical support person or support service is available to maintain computer
and information technology systems for career services.
