How HBCUs are leveraging data to strengthen career services and connect students to strong first jobs

The labor market awaiting recent college graduates is one defined by uncertainty — entry-level jobs are declining, and artificial intelligence (AI) is fueling increases in the number of applications submitted per job and the adoption of screening tools that sort and rank job seekers. As of June, the unemployment rate for recent college graduates was 5.7%, higher than the overall rate of 4.1%

For employers, it can be hard to know which candidates to prioritize. For <a href="https://jiuniversity.com/ukrainian-students-receive-hec-paris-scholarships-to-study-in-france/” title=”Ukrainian Students Receive HEC Paris Scholarships to Study in France”>students, it can be hard to assess which job opportunities are the best fit for their career goals, let alone how to build genuine connections with employers

These challenges are often heightened for first-generation college students who, on average, earn lower incomes and have less wealth than their peers with college-educated parents — making the transition from college to career even more crucial

At Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) across North Carolina, efforts are underway to better connect students to the career navigation support and employer relationships they need to secure a strong first job, supported by a partnership with the nonprofit Basta

Through a $1.2 million investment fromThe Leon Levine Foundation, Basta is partnering with HBCUs in North and South Carolina to deploy Seekr, a digital career navigation tool that provides personalized next steps after students complete an assessment. Students also gain access to Discovery, Basta’s career preparation platform that includes live online workshops, resources, a customized job board, and more.

With students now taking Seekr at HBCUs across the state, career services teams at those colleges are starting to uncover insights into how they can better support students in their college-to-career journey

“We know through our Seekr data that there’s still a lot of knowledge gaps and false assumptions,” said Sheila Sarem, founder and CEO of Basta. “That I think was a really big ‘aha’ for several of our colleges — young people are applying (to jobs), andthey may be applying with limited information or wrong information.”

Ultimately, Sarem said, the hope is that colleges use the data they’ve received from Seekr to inform decisions about how to deploy their own refor example, efforts are underway to move toward a more coordinated, campuswide approach to career preparation

“This fall, the university plans to strengthen the collaboration between their TRIO team and career services. The idea is to reach students more consistently from first year through senior year, including through Seekr, rather than having career preparation sit primarily within one department,” said Amber Field, head of learning and experience at Basta

Another component of Basta’s work in the Carolinas included standing up a “What’s Working Group” that convenes career services leaders from HBCUs to discuss promising strategies already being deployed and opportunities for collaboration. Through that group, leaders from Johnson C. Smith heard about approaches being piloted at other institutions, informing the changes they are now making

“Partnering directly with the leaders across those HBCUs has been so illuminating in thinking about how we can be a part of an existing ecosystem and additive to that ecosystem,” said Sarem

Charles Jennings, executive director of career and student success at North Carolina Central University in Durham, said the data provided by Seekr was “eye-opening” and shaped conversations he and his team had about priorities and programming for this school year

“The biggest thing that was surprising to us was that students felt like they did not have enough clarity,” said Jennings of the Seekr results. “They have a sense of, ‘This is what I want to do, but I’m not clear if this is really what I’m passionate about doing.’”

That led Jennings and his team to think about how they can better help students build confidence and clarity around where they want to go in their career, and also help them understand that career journeys are not always linear

Another insight surfaced by Seekr is that N.C. Central students were applying for jobs but were not confident in their job search plan. That insight informed the college’s career service offerings this fall, including the creation of a new program specifically focused on the job search process, helping students better target job positions and build a follow-up plan for engaging with employers

As employers navigate large volumes of job applications driven by AI, with resumes and cover letters that increasingly look the same, they want to build connections with students earlier and try new strategies to “find the needle in the haystack,” said Sonia Atsegbua, director of strategic partnerships at Basta

To facilitate employer connections early in students’ college experience, this summer, Basta organized an exposure event for nearly 50 students at Wells Fargo’s offices in Charlotte. For many of those students, Sarem said, it was their first time in a corporate setting. 

Using students’ Seekr results, Basta strategically extended invitations to the event, targeting early-stage college students interested in careers in banking and finance

“That maximizes opportunities for the young people to turn an exposure event into an actual job opportunity, and it maximizes opportunities for our employers to look to Bosta as a talent pipeline,” Sarem said

During the event, students heard from a panel of Wells Fargo staff from different parts of the company, building familiarity with the kinds of roles students may be applying for and exposing them to tangible opportunities

Students showed up early and were eager to engage, Atsegbua said, with some driving two or three hours just to attend. Some of the local attendees from the Charlotte area said they had driven past the Wells Fargo building all their lives, but never been inside

“Being able to go inside, meet people, learn about the opportunities — it made them realize, ‘I belong here. I can have a fruitful career here,’” Atsegbua said

Following the event, many students submitted applications to Wells Fargo’s early career opportunities, with nearly 10 applicants reporting that they had moved to the interview stage

The Center for Racial Equity in Education (CREED) has provided capacity support for Basta’s work in North Carolina, facilitating relationship-building with HBCUs through the NC10 — a collaborative community of the 10 HBCUs in North Carolina

In conversations with the NC10 about Basta, Dr. James Ford, executive director of CREED, said college leaders were genuinely interested and excited to engage

“I think there’s a conversation going on in higher ed in general … which is the value of credentials and how they align with the workforce,” Ford said. “Being able to build these profiles in Seekr, and allowing that to feed into these other services that can provide supports … to supplement what these schools are already doing, I think has been a welcome addition.” 

This semester, Basta is focused on building employer partnerships across the Carolinas and expanding opportunities for students to engage directly with those employers. Students will also gain access to a job board that uses a recommendation engine to connect students to the best-fit jobs and internships based on their Seekr assessment

Sarem said Basta is also considering ways to expose students to different talent and hiring hubs across the state — for example, bringing students from the Triangle to Charlotte, and vice versa, to understand what local opportunities exist

“We need to prove our value to them (students) so they continue to bet on us and bet on themselves,” she said

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Source: www.ednc.org