College to Career Evolution: Leveling the Playing Field

Abstract: With the Great Resignation happening in the workforce and the growing number of non-engaged students utilizing career service resources for their career development, it is a time of crisis for colleges and the workforce. Employers seek to hire well-educated, highly motivated, and highly skilled employees. Colleges strive to enroll and educate high school graduates and provide them with the knowledge that leads them to develop personally and professionally. Yet, in both camps, there is a lack of engagement, threatening the future of higher education (college) and workforce development (career). This has created new needs and opportunities.
The concept of portfolios, as well as virtual or e-portfolios, has been raised in the human resource development literature. For example, Doeze Jager-Van Vliet et al. (2019) present a portfolio-based approach for organizations to assess employee agility. Bennett and McWhorter (2014) discuss e-portfolios as a means for virtual HRD to benefit both organizations and employees. The use of e-portfolios by college students can benefit both students and employers. This is especially important to address diversity, equity, and inclusion.
In higher education, new opportunities for expanding career development education for a diverse student population exist to foster equity and inclusion. Students from low-income environments have less developed job-ready skills than their counterparts due to their financially challenged environment, lack of educational attainment, and lack of resources (Barnes, 2022). This being the case, in a college setting, a diverse student population receiving equal education has the wherewithal to be exposed to equal opportunities to grow and develop an e-portfolio. The e-portfolio displays the students' skills and knowledge and demonstrates their capabilities, aptitudes, and capacities to potential employers by which they may contribute to their work teams while demonstrating a level of commitment to their craft. In addition, the e-portfolio is evidence to the student of their competence which boosts their confidence (Simatele, 2014; Mitchell et al., 2021; Gutiérrez-Santiuste et al., 2022). One way to introduce equity to a diverse student population is to have them create their e-portfolio and share in the experience of displaying their skills, abilities, and capabilities as they develop them in college.
The display and demonstration of students' work and accomplishments in the e-portfolio boost their confidence and reminds them that they are valued and valuable. This is significant when considering that students who have been disadvantaged in the past can see that the future is predicated on the present and what has been achieved. According to extant research, there is a direct relationship between accomplishments and feeling valued (Plante et al., 2013; Vindeker et al., 2016) and feeling valuable (Kwang, et al, 1996; Meyer et al., 2019). However, little research on the impact of an e-portfolio on a college student attaining a career job and increasing engagement in career services has been done. Little is known regarding the rate of college graduates obtaining a career job versus a" placeholder job/non-career" using an e-portfolio during and after college. This conceptual poster provides a starting point for future research in this area.
Employers want to have reliable, committed, and retainable employees who have graduated from college. They also seek job candidates who are educated, motivated, and skilled to be significant contributors to their employer's success. Knowing this to be the case, the following research question emerges:
“What is the impact of a college student's e-portfolio on obtaining a career job before or immediately after graduation?”
The importance of this research is encompassed in the employability aspect of a college graduate and the equity, inclusion, and belonging factors in the diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging (DEI&B) evolution of college and career convergence. The career connection made by a diverse student population with equity, inclusion, and belonging is most likely to occur when there is shared learning and career development experience, such as creating an e-portfolio. Students and faculties have reported positive outcomes from using this technology. Students who created their e-portfolio were more engaged with their coursework and career service offices and had a brighter outlook on their future (Firoz, 2015; Thanaraj, 2012). Faculty facilitating the creation of e-portfolios reported positive learning integration, motivation, and engagement among their students.
Knowing the importance of integrating the knowledge gained in the classroom to build employability skills and foster an equitable educational and career experience, a methodological research investigation is proposed. The results of this investigation may drive policy and procedure for college career services and the direct involvement of faculty and employers for future hiring, engagement, and retention of college graduates.