Assessing the Effectiveness of Teaching Career Readiness in the Political Science Classroom

In response to the growing need for colleges and universities to engage with students on career readiness, I developed a course that focuses on student career competencies and that fosters engagement in career exploration. This “Working in Politics” course introduces the career competencies that students will need in the 21st century, and allows students the opportunity to connect their curricular, co-curricular, and life experiences to these competencies to develop their understanding of how these experiences map onto what employers are looking for. This course is a required course in our major geared toward second-year students. I investigate the effectiveness of implementing career planning and development in a course designed for such purposes.