With our new NACE Career Readiness Competency Assessment Tool, students have profound access to their professionalism and competency development.
Like any new technology, optimized usage is key for optimal results. In this blog, we’ll explore the capabilities of the skills assessment and share top tips for leveraging its data!
The NACE Career Readiness Competency Assessment is a comprehensive skills survey based on multi-level feedback. It begins with a self-assessment — where students share their own understanding of their capabilities. Then, students share the assessment with a handful of Observers who then rate them on those some capabilities.
What is an Observer?
An Observer can be anyone who can speak to a student’s competencies but most commonly, a prior manager or supervisor. Other examples include a peer, an advisor, or even a faculty member. Depending on your specific use case for the NACE Assessment, there may be an array of different Observer responses you want to elicit from students.
Ideally, you want students to choose Observers from different experiences they are having in order to get the most holistic and unbiased view of their true competency levels. We’ve laid out some examples of Observers to give you the best possible assessment results.
Supervisor at On-Campus Job
Supervisors, even outside of a student’s intended career field, have a unique perspective into their career competencies. They know how punctual the student is and how they show up to work. Believe it or not, that is one of the biggest determiners of career success — consistently showing up, on time and ready.
Additionally, a manager has insight into a student’s communication, problem-solving, leadership and critical thinking skills, so they can give students an unbiased view of where they stand on these important competencies.
Peer or Coworker
Peers and coworkers have an intimate picture into exactly how students do business. They can uniquely advocate for a student’s competencies since they have spent a significant amount of time working directly alongside them.
They know if the student tends to be a leader. They know their problem solving skills, and they know how attuned the student is toward advocating for underrepresented groups in the workplace.
For all of these reasons, peers, specifically those that have worked alongside a student, are a great option for an Observer in the NACE Assessment.
Of course, it’s imperative for students to choose someone who they believe would answer honestly, not one of their dorm buddies, who may be swayed to score them higher than their actual skill levels.
Remember, this validated data is your gold mine to student career success.
Career Counselor or Academic Advisor
Career and academic advisors can speak directly to a specific student's career and self-development, which is a big piece of the competency development puzzle.
Some of the biggest indicators of success in a student’s career mobility is being prepared, setting goals, and completing responsibilities in a timely manner. All of these things a career advisor can speak to.
For this reason, you’ll also want to make sure that students utilize all of the resources available via the career center, so that when it comes time to send over the skills assessment, they know their advisor by name and can speak to the student’s career readiness.
Mentor
Mentors are another great option to recognize students’ strengths and the tangible impacts they could make in a professional environment.
Mentors usually have a closer view of the student as a person, and their unique abilities that will serve them well on their career path. Mentors can speak to a student's character, drive, goals, and the steps they’ve taken toward their goals.
Ideally, you want to encourage students to choose someone that they know has the ability to respond constructively as well as encouragingly.
Professors/Faculty
Professors are a good touch point as Observers. Since they consistently and unbiasedly review students’ work, they have a gauge on where their strengths are and where they may need to put more focus.
They can likely share insights on the students ability to problem-solve, think critically, and communicate.
It’s preferred that students find a professor in a class with more project or presentation-based work, or even a class that requires group projects. These professors would have even more insight into the student’s leadership and teamwork skills specifically.
You may also want to allow students to choose more than one professor if they have several classes that showcase different abilities and skill levels.
Internship Manager
A supervisor or manager for an internship is really the bread and butter of observing student career competencies.
If students have them take your skills assessment, they will be able to provide invaluable feedback into exactly how the student performed in the workplace. They have a good sense of the student’s working style, strengths and weaknesses, ability to communicate, ability to be a part of a team, and more.
Even if the work experience wasn’t in their desired post-grad industry, the supervisor will be able to provide the data student needs on irreplaceable soft skills that can ultimately be transferable to most desired industries and positions.
When looking for an Observer, students have a plethora of options. You just want to make sure students are sending the assessment to people who can unbiasedly and holistically speak to their working style and skills.
For example, if a student feels that a volunteer manager has seen them in their groove, whereas their advisor may not be as familiar with their working style, opt for letting the student choose the individual who they feel has the most accurate perspective on their skills.
You can find some other ideas for Observers in the graphic below!
We hope this blog was helpful in detailing some of our recommended choices for Observers for the NACE Ready Career Readiness Competency Assessment Tool.
When using this powerful tool to its capacity, it is a one-of-a-kind, data-backed and validated way to assess student proficiencies in core workplace competencies, as well as a tool for students to optimize their post-grad career outcomes.