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Northwest Missouri State University


(Photo by University Photography)

About the Career Pathing Program

The Career Pathing Program 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 survey results, along with research conducted by a Marketing Research Class Project, initiated the development of the Career Pathing Program. The Career Pathing Program addresses the needs of students to advance the development of student skills and build connections in the workforce.

 

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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 Department.
  • A student employee must attend at least 3 out of the 8 development sessions offered per semester for both fall and spring semester, for a total of six sessions.
  • 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 $7.70
Level II Student Assistant Increase of $0.25 $7.95
Level III Student Associate Increase another $0.25 $8.20
Level IV Student Manager Increase another $0.25 $8.45

Career Pathing Results

  • Promotes increased student employee responsibility
  • Creates opportunities for pay advancement
  • Encourages continual feedback for personal development and professional development
  • Promotes long-term employment relationships with departments
  • Contributes to Northwest's Service Initiative and Culture

Why 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

From this came more information from the Marketing Research Project.

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

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

The Career Pathing Program addresses these concerns while giving the Student a chance to develop their skills in the workforce, while building valuable connections. Also, it gives the opportunity for each student to grow and receive a pay increase for all of their hard work in a particular position.