About the Career Pathing Program

The Career Pathing Program is in the pilot stages at Northwest and is an enhanced Student Employment Program. The Program came about as a result of a collection of research. Northwest conducted its first Student Employment Satisfaction Survey in 2003. The information collected from the survey along with research conducted by a Marketing Research Class Project initiated the development of the Career Pathing Program.

Student Employment Satisfaction Survey

The Student Employment Satisfaction Survey was implemented to enhance student employment at Northwest by gaining insight into the attitudes and opinions of current on-campus student employees.

The Student Employment Satisfaction Survey is conducted annually. The participation of the survey has continually increased over the years since it has begun. In November 2006 nearly 80% of all student employees participated in the survey.

Some of the conclusions of the first survey conduced in November 2003 were:

Student employees wanted the opportunity for advancements in pay with increased responsibility and challenges
Student employees wanted the opportunity to build relations that would enhance future careers

Marketing Research Project

The objective of a Marketing Research Project completed by seven Northwest students was to gather information on other training/compensation based programs at other colleges and universities. The research was conducted in Spring 2004. There were 38 out of 41 peer institutions that were contacted by telephone and participated in a survey.

Conclusions of the Marketing Research Project

Jobs are on an application basis
The Student Employment Office is usually located in the Office of Financial Aid
Most peer institutions do NOT have student employment training/orientation of any kind
There is a lack of advancement opportunities offered to student employees.
A large amount of schools reported they would like to offer a training program or more training if they already had one.

Career Pathing Program Criteria for Advancement

Student employees have the opportunity to advance to a new level of pay and responsibility once they have completed the specified criteria.

A student employee must work both fall and spring in the same Pilot Program Department.
A student employee must attend at least 3 out of the 8 trainings offered per trimester.
A student employee must have a satisfactory performance evaluation completed by their supervisor.

Levels of Advancement

Level	Title	Wage Increase	Example
Level I	Student Employee	Starting Salary	$7.05
Level II	Student Assistant	Pay plus raise of $0.25	$7.30
Level III	Student Associate	Raise another $0.25	$7.55
Level IV	Student Manager	Raise another $0.25	$7.80
Level V	Student Trainer	Raise $0.50	$8.30

Career Pathing Results