Deirdre Parker Jackson

Excellence in Career Services
CHEP Status: Active
CHEP Awarded: 03/31/2022

Badge Evidence | Completed Courses (4 Hours Each)

This course offers strategies to provide employment and job search skills training that enables students to seek jobs in the field for which they are trained. You'll learn how to offer comprehensive career services regardless of whether your career services department is staffed full- or part-time. The course provides strategies for an institution to set up a Career Services Department, enhance and run it, and measure results. It describes how a successful career services department can ensure that your students have the skills and self-confidence to succeed in the workplace. You'll learn techniques to increase placement rates and reach out to the community to meet and maintain relationships with hiring decision-makers.
In this course, you will be given tools to help your students find the job that's right for them, present themselves impressively on paper, and interview with ease. This course is designed so you can successfully support your students in four phases of their job search: doing a targeted job search, writing a powerful resume and cover letter, presenting professionally, and developing effective interview skills.
Social media is critical tool for career services professionals to interact with and reach their constituent groups yet many career professionals aren't aware of how to develop a purposeful social media strategy. Without a social media strategy, career services departments risk losing relevance with their audience, and they also lose the opportunity of harnessing social media to achieve department goals. This course describes the phases of planning and implementing a social media strategy for your career services department. Each module is based on the fundamental steps of preparing a comprehensive and measurable plan to achieve the goals of the career services department.
Educational institutions have opportunities to create unique alumni associations which will look and feel more like alumni communities. This course will show you how you can create active alumni communities to increase enrollment, retention and placement for your entire institution. You will learn how to provide your alumni with valuable services and how to seek their help to enhance your educational programs and career services, as well as marketing and admissions. From getting started to setting up an alumni data base management system and determining the institution's return on investment, this course provides you with operational strategies for establishing an effective alumni association.
In today's world where jobs are posted online, matching algorithms screen digital résumés, and recruiters source candidates online, students must market themselves online. Writing a résumé and cover letter alone is no longer an adequate skill set for career seekers to successfully find and secure employment as well as manage, advance, and transition their career throughout life. Students must know how to digitally market themselves, and 21st century career advisors must know how to advise them. This course will help you advise students on developing digital career-marketing strategies for career success.
Military veterans represent a unique type of non-traditional student and must overcome distinctive challenges to reintegrate into the civilian workforce. With an influx of over one million veterans projected to enter higher education in the next several years, career services personnel must be prepared to provide the level of service these students need and deserve. This course helps career services practitioners understand the unique obstacles veterans face in the reintegration process, how to help them translate their military experience into civilian language and provides strategies & tools that can support veterans in becoming gainfully employed.
Securing gainful employment for students with an arrest or criminal conviction is filled with unique challenges. This course introduces many of the challenges your students have (and will face), not only from the student's perspective, but also from the employer's. Upon completion of the course, you will be in a position to counter potential stereotypes and 'negligent hiring' fears. Topics of study include reviewing effective interview practices and the importance of honesty, how attitude lays the foundation for success or failure, the value of developing a letter of explanation, as well as reviewing techniques to mend a problematic past.
Students with disabilities represent a unique minority group within higher education. Despite being the largest minority group in the world, all too often their access to and inclusion in programs and services comes as an afterthought. Career services practitioners pride themselves in their ability to serve diverse populations, yet many remain untrained in working with disabled students. This course helps career services practitioners understand federal legislation basics as they relate to disabled students, the unique challenges they face, and characteristics of the population as well as practical resources and career services strategies to help overcome their unique barriers to employment.
**While the course addresses interaction considerations for those with deafness, blindness, learning disabilities, acquired brain disabilities, and physical disabilities, it shouldn't be expected that the course will cover all possible disabilities you may want to specifically learn about. It provides a broad overview.
There are millions of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer (LGBTQ) job seekers struggling to find careers and even hold down a job, due in part to their sexual orientation and gender identity. What amplifies this issue is the fact that many college career advisors who are supposed to help struggling jobseekers are not trained to address the unique struggles their LGBTQ students face in their career development. This course equips career advisors with the perspective, knowledge, and practical skills necessary to provide quality career services for their LGBTQ students, who greatly need their assistance.
In the most competitive economy ever, crafting powerful job search documents, communicating strategically with employers, and presenting evidence of one’s qualifications won’t even necessarily get candidates jobs—it’ll barely get them interviews. This course covers advanced writing techniques, shows examples, and offers detailed strategy explanations to help career professionals enhance their ability to teach students how to craft modern job search documents and strategic employer communications. You'll be able to more effectively advise students on how to use impactful strategies that differentiate them from competitors through résumés, letters, portfolio evidence, and strategic post-interview correspondence. *This course also contains several downloadable resources to be used in your career center.
Effectively coaching students to achieve their goals in a way that builds autonomy, confidence, and accountability is fundamental to the role of a career services professional. Despite this fact, many career professionals have never engaged in professional development to build their coaching skills. This course helps career services professionals develop fundamental coaching skills so they can act as a catalyst and facilitator in assisting students to work towards their self-identified goals, with the belief that self-identified goals lead to increased student buy-in and motivation for attainment. Learn to put practical coaching techniques into action to maximize your results with students. *This course is relevant to a variety of career support professionals regardless of titles such as career counselors, advisors, coordinators, or "case managers" serving a variety of populations which may include students, out-of-school youth, or dislocated workers (youth or adults).
Establishing, developing, and maintaining employer relationships is a large aspect of a career-services practitioner’s responsibility. This involved process requires insight into your institution, your department, and your industry, as well as an understanding of key strategies that can assist in the building and nurturing of employer relationships. From acquiring industry knowledge to marketing your services and identifying opportunities for long-term employer engagement, this course can assist you in providing a roadmap intended to move you from a potential cold-call relationship to understanding an employer’s perspective on return on investment and gaining effective and long-lasting employer partnerships.
Nearly every career education institution needs to establish an effective Advisory Board; a group of employers and industry leaders who help maintain the requirements of existing programs, directing curriculum to meet industry needs and advising toward the creation of new programs. This course addresses the planning, operation, and management needed in the development of an Advisory Board. From prospecting for and nominating new members, to developing bylaws, conducting meetings, managing members, and sustaining your Board, this course covers the process for establishing your own Advisory Board while also providing a handful of supporting reference materials created for your use.
This course is an introduction to the foundation of work-based learning (WBL). Quality WBL is about a continuum of opportunities for students to connect to business. As a WBL coordinator, your roles are numerous and varied, but the position is rewarding when you can help students gain awareness to their future. WBL delivery models that are designed to provide WBL experiences for students in different community settings will be shared. Strategies for model implementation will be provided to facilitate WBL opportunities to and for all students.
Derived from the feedback of over 100 institutions, empirical research, and case studies, course participants are presented with specific strategies and best practices that promote graduate employment. This course is for all education professionals seeking to understand the institutional practices that maximize graduate employment outcomes. Because employment outcomes are as much a function of institutional behaviors as they are of student behaviors, this course is based in systems thinking, which challenges participants to examine the interdependent relationship among institutional infrastructure, student career-readiness, and graduate employment rates.
High quality high schools in America are creating blueprints for success through the use of career and technical education (CTE) programs in their curricular offerings. Successful CTE programs are keenly aware of their role in delivering academic skills and knowledge; likewise, successful academic high schools have embraced CTE programs to improve student achievement. This course defines school improvement, examines the defining characteristics of successful CTE programs, and reflects on the role of leadership, curriculum, and instruction in high school improvement.
Educators often express concern about accountability, limited resources, and overwhelming expectations. Leadership practices that energize staff and access community partners may not make the work less challenging, but these practices do encourage broader commitment to student success. This course provides authentic strategies for expanding community engagement as an effective way to add human resources and energy to school CTE programs. Learn how to create an organization that fosters these partnerships and provides more authentic and meaningful experiences for students and faculty.
A career readiness school culture adds relevancy to learning, increases student engagement, and gives staff a meaningful shared purpose. Creating a culture of career readiness within the school is essential to ensuring ongoing dedication and commitment to effective CTE programs. This course helps participants recognize the impact of existing school culture on developing student career readiness and student success. In addition, participants will explore the leadership skills needed for creating a supportive culture and will examine tools available for assessing and implementing a culture of career readiness.
Safety in CTE programs needs to be a top priority for educators who work in, supervise, and instruct students in laboratories, greenhouses, shops, and related facilities. It is essential that these teaching/learning environments are safely operated and maintained to assure that students are provided with supportive learning opportunities. This course introduces CTE administrators and instructors to proper safety procedures, maintenance, and emergency protocols. Strategies for the development and application of safety practices by students will be shared.
Soft skills are essential to career readiness. CTE students need to develop and utilize soft skills during their career preparation. This course defines soft skills and offers strategies that instructors can use to help their students integrate soft skills into their career skill sets. Reflection on current practices will assist participants in defining, measuring, and nurturing soft skills and work behaviors for their students. Strategies will show instructors how to measure soft skill development and growth.