National Association of Colleges and Employers
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At William & Mary, the Office of Career Development & Professional Engagement (Career Development) has a unique collaboration with our Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) to co-design a self-paced course for faculty to better understand the importance of career readiness and how to increase elements of competencies into their course design. What started as a series of successful collaborations with faculty has become a collaborative, scalable approach to guiding faculty looking for career readiness support for their students.
Career Readiness in Higher Education provides a self-guided resource for faculty through three modules: They review their current course designs, explore examples of career readiness integration in the academic experience, and work through a scaffolded framework for incorporating and deepening elements of career readiness into their courses. This program takes competency integration to the next level since it is co-owned by an academic unit focused on faculty development.
In addition to faculty-career collaborations, we were inspired to create this course to support faculty preparation in career readiness since the combined report from AAC&U, NACE, and the Society for Experiential Education that stated, “An overwhelming majority (92%) of faculty reported that students in their disciplinary area asked them for career advice in the past year.” After a series of student-led design thinking exercises around career readiness, Tribe Innovation, a student organization, reported, “students are advocating for the integration of NACE competencies into their academic curriculum to make them relevant and impactful.”
This session will be co-presented by the Director of Career Readiness Pathways and the Digital & Professional Learning Program Manager from STLI. We will walk the participants through the design and pilot phases of the course, engaging the audience in group design-thinking brainstorming exercises to help them uncover opportunities for implementation in their own organizations. Attendees of this session will explore examples of resources provided to faculty, including sample assignments and collaboration strategies. We will break down the assignment ranges from smallest to largest lift for a faculty member and the level of support provided for each assignment type. Additionally, participants will have the opportunity to connect with each other to review materials and work through some of the sample exercises. After this session, participants will have the resources to begin or expand their own support for faculty ranging from a single workshop on explicit career readiness integration to an outline of a course for their own campuses.
We will then share how we promoted the program to faculty to build out the pilot review and expand the engagement from faculty across all academic departments. Participants will identify similar or new opportunities to connect with faculty on their own campuses. Additionally, this session will address the evolution of the partnership between our departments and how this mutually beneficial collaboration creates a stronger product. STLI inspires and advances teaching and learning across the university through community and collaboration at the intersection of learning, discovery, and innovation. We have paired their expertise in course design, faculty development, and student engagement with our experience connecting faculty with career readiness tools and content relevant to their various courses. Together, we created a resource far more useful than either of us could on our own housed on Academy, an online learning platform for continuing and professional learning opportunities.
Following this program, you will be able to:
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Registration includes three-month, post-event access to the webinar archive.
To view the presentation, supplemental materials, attendee list, your receipt, and your confirmation, use the "I’d Like To" option next to the Career Readiness in Higher Education: A Collaborative Course for Faculty listing in MyNACE > Events. Remember to download your copy of the presentation deck (available one to two days prior to the webinar). A video archive will be available there as well within five (5) business days of the webinar's completion.
To see the NACE cancellation policy, please visit our FAQ page.
During this one-hour webinar, the presenter will deliver a synchronized audio and PowerPoint presentation. Participants will have time for live Q&A throughout the program and may be asked to contribute opinions or feedback via live chat, virtual polling, and other mechanisms.
Kelly O'Shaughnessy, Director - Career Readiness Pathways, William & Mary
Kelly O’Shaughnessy, alumna of William & Mary (’05), joined the Cohen Career Center team in 2013. At William & Mary, she assists students in becoming career ready through first- and second-year programming, exploration, and decision-making assistance, and My Active Career Exploration (MACE). Additionally, she is the liaison to Tribe Athletics for student athlete career development. O’Shaughnessy has more than six years’ experience in the profession, including roles at Lasell College and Lesley University. She has a Master of Arts in higher education administration from Boston College and a Master of Science in secondary education.Diana Theisinger, Digital & Professional Learning Program Manager, William & Mary
Diana Theisinger is the Digital & Professional Learning Program Manager at William & Mary’s Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation. Currently, she oversees William & Mary’s microlearning initiative, Academy; facilitates course development seminars for faculty and staff; and consults with faculty in the areas of instructional design, adult learning, and student engagement. Outside of work, you can find Diana playing referee for her two young sons, reading popular fiction at the beach, or hiking the Appalachian Trail. Most recently, she shared the talk "Infusing Career Readiness into the Higher Education Curriculum: Career and Teaching Centers in Partnership" at AAC&U's 2025 Conference on Learning and Student Success.Visit the professional development FAQ page, or contact the NACE Professional Development Team via e-mail or phone, 610.625.1026.
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