Quality Enhancement Plan

Career Compass will provide intentional career conversations and exploration activities in the first year of curriculum students’ structured advising experience. It will ensure students have the necessary tools to make informed educational and academic program decisions to align to their career goals.

Goal: Students will clarify their academic and career path during their first year with these outcomes:

• Students will explore career information.
• Students will be confident with their career choice.
• Students will enroll in a program of study.

• taking important introductory courses earlier in the educational journey
• access to a variety of career explorations activities
• familiarity with academic advisors assigned in MyConnect
• intentional career discussions will assist with graduating quicker with fewer excess credits

Students will meet with their assigned academic advisor in their first year to help them reach their career goals at Central Piedmont. Advisors will provide career exploration activities to evaluate student progress and to ensure the students’ confidence in their career choice.

In their first semester, students may:

- Take ACA-122 (Transfer & Career Success). Career-focused activities in ACA-122 include:

Take the career assessments on Career Coach to learn what programs match their interests.

• Do career research using Career Coach or NC Careers.

• Use the Reality Check tool to learn about cost of living expectations and compare them to potential careers.

- Meet with a career counselor.

- Complete the health careers orientation (required of all pre-health program students).

Set up a job shadowing experience to learn from people employed in the career field of interest.

Complete any assigned tasks in Element451.

• Talk to students about your own career — you're an industry expert!
• Help students understand the "unwritten rules" for success.
• Help students see the connection between their classes and their future career.
• Remind students of career-related tasks their advisor assigned to them in MyConnect.
• Refer students to Career Services.

Choosing a Program of Study Toolkit: find career exploration tasks organized by level of career decidedness.

Career Coach: explore the Career Assessment and Occupational Database that contains job descriptions, labor market, and salary information for careers related to Central Piedmont programs.

North Carolina's Reality Check: check out the salary calculator hosted by North Carolina Department of Commerce.

Central Piedmont Career Services: take advantage of professional career counseling and assessment.

Under Career Compass, new student orientation includes a career exploration activity and advising sessions involve career choice discussions. During their first year, more new students than ever are completing ACA-122 College Transfer Success, which provides students with important career exploration activities.

Students choose one of 14 academic and career pathways when they apply, and their advisor is assigned to them on that basis. Most new students get moved from a pathway into a degree program fairly quickly, but we want to make sure that all students make a career choice and get placed in a program by the end of their first year, even if they later change their mind.