The Pressing Need for Colleges to Define Career Learning

By Jeremy Podany, CEO, The Career Leadership Collective

This post is written for senior campus leaders who realize that making student career success a priority will benefit their students and institution and are seeking practical ways to do so.  

It used to be an acceptable value proposition for higher education institutions to simply point to their optional office that assists students with career development. That office, the career center, was often just one of 20-30 student affairs offices. Student interactions with the career center and career preparation in general were optional experiences; a nicety; an added benefit.

Recently, the field has awakened to a move away from optional career services because a lot has changed: rising pressure on ROI, enrollment, retention, and the entry-level labor market, to name a few. Simultaneously, student career success has become the top reason students choose college. Data over the past 5-10 years from national studies by Lightcast/NACM, CIRP, Strada, and Gallup all point to this so often that it is now common language in career services gatherings. 

There is a growing list of vital non-negotiables in the student career success arena. In this post, I will discuss one of them, which is a key starting point toward building an effective career ecosystem that moves toward embedded career readiness: institutional clarity about the road to career success through Career Learning Outcomes. 

Defining Career Learning

The main value proposition of higher education is in learning. And that is exactly what needs to be defined: Career Learning Outcomes. Institutions already promise academic learning outcomes. They can do the same for career learning. Higher education cannot promise jobs with a clear conscience. Jobs trend, rise, fall, and disappear. However, it can promise career-related learning that illuminates the already existing academic learning. I am not suggesting a trade school mentality that seeks to replace academic learning, but rather a thoughtful and careful integrated approach to helping students articulate the value of their academic education. 

If your institution has yet to define a college-wide or university-wide roadmap for student career success, it is likely getting defined for you in the wrong ways. 

It is a dangerous assumption to think your stakeholders all probably know what career learning looks like. Ready? On the count of three, faculty, parents, employers, career staff, cabinet members, and students, let’s say together in unison what career preparation means…

Okay, you get it. When you don’t have a shared definition, students, their families, and the public will do it for you  — often in ways that don’t reflect the full value you are providing.

To further drive this point, if your main enrollment marketing tactics about student career success are that you have a great career center, commendable first-job rates, and big-name employers that hire your students, you are missing the main point that constituents want to know about: the career learning you provide. Pointing only to common data is like pointing to the legs of the table, not the beautiful buffet on top of the table that hungry students and parents are looking to eat from. 

The good news is that higher education is making progress. Based on our recent poll of 130 institutions, about 50% said they have defined Career Learning Outcomes or are in the process of doing so right now. Two years ago, I would have guessed that less than 10% were doing something about them. Career Learning Outcomes are trending at a fast pace. 

The even better news is that we know the actionable steps you can take to bring the appropriate level of prominence to your definitions and ensure student career readiness growth.

Creating Career Learning Outcomes

In my recent book, The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education, chapter 3 is dedicated to building Career Learning Outcomes, and I explain that “Career Learning Outcomes are statements that enumerate the various career-related competencies, skills, and knowledge students should have when they graduate from a particular institution. They are the roadmap and measuring rod for career readiness.” 

These are not career office goals and should not be created in isolation by the career center team, although career center leaders should be heavily involved. 

The process and effort needed to develop Career Learning Outcomes are important, but not a herculean change effort. A simple task force of academic and career leaders that meets approximately 3-5 times should be able to accomplish the work. We often facilitate these task forces, and we have learned that there is no need to ‘reinvent the wheel,’ but there is a need to make the wheel your unique wheel. In other words, your Career Learning Outcomes need to sound like your unique learning environment and campus culture. 

Below is a recommended set of career learning concepts from the book, informed by high-impact practices from multiple data sets, that can serve as a launch point for any institution to begin creating its Career Learning Outcomes. Even better, all of the below can integrate into the instructional environment without major efforts toward curriculum change.

• Career Design – Every student will explore career possibilities and intentionally design a plan for their future.

• Experiential Learning – Every student will engage in hands-on experiences — internships, research, or applied projects — that connect their learning to real-world career paths.

• Skills and Competencies – Every student will graduate with the core skills and professional competencies required to thrive in their chosen field.

• Connections – Every student will cultivate meaningful relationships with alumni, employers, mentors, or community leaders in their areas of interest.

• Articulation – Every student will be able to clearly articulate their skills, experiences, and strengths in ways that resonate with employers, graduate programs, and professional communities.

• Career Launch – Every student will know how to effectively run a job and internship search campaign tailored to their career goals.

These are the concepts that higher education cannot afford to leave to chance. 

Of course, they will sound different on each campus. You might even add, bolster, subtract, or combine some of these concepts, but the above six themes are the most common that come up as my team helps institutions along the strategic planning process for building a career ecosystem. 

Think of them as the North Star of your career ecosystem — five to seven high-impact, context-specific career practices that every student will experience before graduation.

What to do next?

Having ‘Career Readiness’ listed as a strategic value in your campus strategic plan is a good step, but if you wish to gain genuine credibility among parents and students and win the war on ROI, below are three action steps you can take to ensure you are walking the talk. 

1. Create a task force to define Career Learning Outcomes. Engage a small strategic working group of faculty chairs, associate deans, career center leaders, and student affairs leaders to define what career success means for your institution. Again, these should not be defined solely by a career office, or you will remain “that office over there” and won't integrate into the campus ecosystem. Specifically lay out your top-5-7 critical Career Learning Outcomes. Note: in a highly federated academic environment, it may be helpful to define career learning values as an institution and allow the academic colleges to independently wordsmith and activate their own cultivated career learning outcomes. This has been a large success for us when we have consulted with decentralized campuses.

2. Don’t put them in a drawer. Career Learning Outcomes need their own university webpage. They are now your north star for student career success! Prospective students need to know what you believe and how you live it out. Current students will have less anxiety when they know how to connect learning to their future. Employers, alumni, and donors will see your institutional commitment toward transforming your career ecosystem.

3. Cheat ahead and consider integration as you define. As you define your Career Learning Outcomes, identify the low-hanging fruit where each can be integrated into the student experience. Definitions are the beginning, but they beg for action steps. Optional, high-profile programs will help, but won’t do the job. You are defining the essentials that every student needs, and integration is the heartbeat of a functioning career ecosystem. 

In summary, when you work together as an institution to define your Career Learning Outcomes, you stop playing defense against public skepticism and start telling a proactive, inspiring story about your graduates’ preparedness and the true value you offer them: academic AND career learning.

Best wishes as you cultivate your campus career ecosystem! 

Jeremy Podany

Founder and CEO of The Career Leadership Collective

Jeremy is the Founder and CEO of The Career Leadership Collective, a consultancy that has done business with over 1,100 colleges and universities since 2017 on the systemic career development needs of higher education. Jeremy is the author of the 2025 book The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education. The Collective is the inventor of the National Alumni Career Mobility (NACM) survey and the EMBARK first destination data service, which were both acquired by Lightcast in 2023.

Jeremy enjoyed nearly 20 years working in higher education, primarily in career services. His inventions and consulting solutions have systemically helped thousands of university leaders and hundreds of thousands of college students with career education and career mobility.