What's new
New and innovative opportunities have emerged at Bowling Green State University Student Employment Services with the recent acceptance of the student employment team — a group within the Michael and Sara Kuhlin Hub for Career Design and Connections — into the Work+ Collective Institute. The
Data from NACE’s 2024 Student Survey and Job Outlook 2025 survey reveal that although both groups are in alignment when it comes to the high importance of communication, critical thinking, teamwork, and professionalism, for other competencies—most notably leadership and career and self-development—there is a sizable gap in the perception of importance between new graduates and employers. (See Figure 1.)
Similarly, the gap is quite large in the perception of new graduates’ proficiency in the career-readiness competencies; for leadership and professionalism the gap exceeds or approaches 30%, while for critical thinking and communication, it is approximately 25%. This means that students believe they are much more proficient in these area than do the employers that are recruiting them.
There are some instances where there is more agreement. For example, new graduates and employers are in line with the former’s level of proficiency in teamwork, and employers even feel that new grads are more proficient in technology than do the graduates themselves.
Still, the problem persists: What can be done to shrink this proficiency chasm? This general disconnect may occur because many students don’t fully understand the connection between the knowledge and experience they gain in college and the competencies employers seek, and, therefore, have difficulty effectively articulating this to employers on their resumes or during interviews.
To address this, career centers have implemented initiatives and programming and NACE offers resources—such as the NACE Competency Assessment Tool, sample behaviors, and more—to help students understand and effectively connect how their classroom work, internships, and other experiences have helped them develop their career readiness.
NACE’s 2024 Student Survey, sponsored by Indeed, was conducted March 13 through May 15, 2024; a total of 20,482 college students took part, including 2,281 graduating seniors earning bachelor’s degrees. Participants can access the report and dashboard through MyNACE. The report and dashboard are also available in the NACE Store.
Data for the Job Outlook 2025 survey were collected from August 5, 2024, through September 16, 2024. Of the 237 total respondents, 162 were NACE employer members, representing 19.2% of eligible member respondents. The Job Outlook 2025 survey was also distributed to nonmember companies, from which an additional 75 responses were received. The Job Outlook 2025 report is presented in slide format; slides can be downloaded and used as is, or adapted with permission.
BGSU relies on the 1,492 students who work in 100 different departments across campus, many of whom play a vital role in maintaining the university’s operations—all while still attending classes.
These awards celebrate unique and impactful career development initiatives that are related to at least one of the following: scaling career development or employer relations, using career data effectively, embedding career development into the campus ecosystem, DEI in career services, faculty
Arizona State University is reimagining the student-work experience to make it more valuable and to help Sun Devils on their career path.
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