Faculty invited to join Community of Practice focused on career competency integration

Ohio University faculty are invited to participate in the second phase of a Community of Practice that will focus on embedding NACE career readiness competencies into the general education curriculum in a systematic and sustainable way.

Funded through the Konneker Grant as part of the OHIO Advantage initiative, this effort will bring together faculty across disciplines to align coursework with the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) career readiness competencies. By doing so, the initiative aims to strengthen connections between classroom learning, co-curricular learning and the skills employers value most, supporting career readiness for OHIO students.

“This project builds on OHIO’s commitment to student success by highlighting career competencies in courses so students can be aware, develop and articulate these vital skills employers are seeking,” said Assistant Vice President for the Division of Student Affairs Imants Jaunarajs. “Through collaboration and shared expertise, we’ll ensure students can clearly see how their coursework connects to career competencies.”

The Community of Practice will provide participating faculty with tools, resources and a collaborative environment to support this integration. Faculty will engage in activities such as rubric development, tagging courses with career readiness competencies, creating a faculty toolkit that includes course redesign examples, assessment guidelines, and instructions for using the rubric, and encouraging faculty to explore examples of how career readiness is already embedded, especially in non-career-focused classes.

Additionally, the Konneker-funded initiative will include an alumni speaker series, titled “You Majored in That, But Now You Want to Do What?!” This engaging event series will feature two or three alumni speakers each semester. Students will gain insights into how skills developed at OHIO can translate across industries and lead to fulfilling, unconventional career trajectories.

To further advance this important work, the faculty workgroup is expanding from nine to 15. This fall, a small faculty-led Community of Practice designed a rubric that will guide how courses are evaluated and tagged for career readiness. This rubric will serve as the foundation for connecting our curriculum to the competencies students need to succeed after graduation, competencies such as communication, critical thinking, professionalism, and teamwork.

Additional faculty members are invited to start the process of ‘tagging courses’ with the competencies. The expanded workgroup will:

• Apply the rubric to their own as well as their department’s courses to determine appropriate competency tags; prioritize high-enrollment general education courses.
• Begin course tagging process.
• Collect examples of career readiness already embedded in courses.
• Draft a faculty toolkit including: course redesign examples, assessment guidelines and assignment examples.
• Collaborate and inform success advisors.
• Draft student facing materials for course catalogue and registration system.
• Meet monthly to share progress.

Participation will involve five meetings between January and May 2026. Faculty who participate will receive a stipend of $1,500 in recognition of their time and expertise.

Faculty interested in joining or learning more about the Community of Practice can contact Executive Director in Career Services Aaron Sturgill at sturgia1@ohio.edu or Jaunarajs at jaunaraj@ohio.edu for additional information or to express interest in participating by Dec. 19.