Preparing Students for Purposeful Work
Faculty resources for connecting academic learning with career readiness
Preparing students for meaningful work is a shared responsibility. While the Center for Career and Calling provides specialized career resources, faculty play the most influential role in helping students connect what they are learning with the work God is preparing them to do.
Together, we can help every student:
- Understand how God has uniquely designed them
- Develop career readiness and professional competencies
- Pursue meaningful experiences that prepare them for the future
- Launch confidently into purposeful, God-honoring work
We believe that every student is uniquely gifted by God, and our desire is to help them steward those gifts to advance His kingdom wherever He leads them.
This page provides practical tools, classroom ideas, and resources to help you naturally integrate calling, vocation, and career readiness into your courses and conversations with students.
Why Your Partnership Matters
“Students seek guidance and advice from people they trust, and they tend to trust people in their academic departments or in the affinity, support or activity groups of which they are a part.”
(Jeremy Podany, The Career Ecosystem Era in Higher Education, p. 123-124)
Faculty and staff significantly influence whether students graduate:
- Confident in God’s calling
- Competent in their discipline
- Connected to mentors and opportunities
- Ready to serve Christ through meaningful work
When students hear a consistent message across campus, they begin to see that their education, career, and calling are all part of God’s purpose for their lives.
Our Career Readiness Framework
We believe students are prepared to pursue their calling when they:
- Understand God’s design by recognizing how their unique strengths, abilities, interests, and personality can be used to serve Him and others.
- Discern opportunities that align with their God-given design and values.
- Engage in meaningful, high-impact experiences that develop career competencies and Christlike character.
- Cultivate a strong network of mentors, peers, and professionals who encourage growth and accountability.
- Demonstrate confidence and clarity in taking next steps to pursue their career/calling.
These outcomes provide a framework you can be reinforced through classroom experiences, assignments, mentoring, and everyday interactions with students.
Ways We Can Partner Together
Below are meaningful, manageable ways to integrate career readiness into your academic area:
- Ask students to articulate how knowledge from a specific course will help them to live our their calling/career.
- Ask students to reflect on God’s design of their lives. Where is God currently at work and how can that provide direction for their future? (Advising session question)
- Ask students what their Target Career is. What career/industry are they pursuing and how is this course/program preparing them? (Advising session question)
- Based on their Target Career – ask students what electives, certifications, minor, and/or extracurricular activities they should choose? (Advising session question)
- Connect course concepts to stewardship: How can we us this knowledge to serve others well?
- Ask students to name one talent/strength they bring and how it benefits the group or project work.
Use 5 min in class to discuss:
- Show examples of career roles within your discipline and how they differ in fit for different personalities or strengths.
- Invite alumni to share how they discerned their path (including missteps).
- Explain typical next steps in your field (grad school, certification, portfolio, auditions, etc.)
- Internships, EXPs, and/or other high-impact practices students should consider for career preparation.
Connect assignments to real-world skills even if your course is not an EXP. Explain how coursework mirrors real-world tasks and whey they matter. Considering using the following ideas:
- Client-based projects
- Case studies
- Peer collaboration
- Research experiences
- Presentation experiences
- Field observations
- Job shadowing
You teach discipline-specific content, but many courses also reinforce the NACE career-readiness competencies: Critical Thinking & Problem-Solving, Communication, Teamwork, Leadership, Global & Intercultural Fluency, Professionalism & Work Ethic, & Technology, and Self-Awareness.
- Ask students to reflect on how a specific lesson, assignment, project helped them to develop one or more of the competencies.
- Specifically assign work that addresses the development of these skills.
A 10-second encouragement (“Have you visited the Career Center yet?”) is often all it takes to prompt a student to take action.
Encourage them to use the resources available to them here on Career Quest. They can get explore careers, learn about professionalism, get help with a resume or cover letter, prepare for an interview, learn how to job search, build their networks, and more all from this one platform.
Use these ready-made materials and ideas to integrate career readiness into your classes or advising.
