Journal article
Developing a Backup Plan: Implementing a Career-Planning Course for Undergraduate Biology Majors
Journal of microbiology & biology education, v 19(3)
2018
PMID: 30377467
Featured in Collection : UN Sustainable Development Goals @ Drexel
Abstract
Career-planning courses are known to be effective career interventions for undergraduates, but their effect on developing alternate career plans was previously unknown. Forming alternate career plans increases the likelihood that students have viable career options available to them upon graduation because it encourages students to realistically consider multiple possibilities. Here we describe a one-term career-planning course developed in the context of an undergraduate biology curriculum. We assessed whether this course promoted development of primary and alternate career plans using a pre/post survey. We saw a significant increase in the percentage of students indicating they had plans aimed at achieving primary (increase of 37%) and alternate (increase of 48%) career goals from the beginning to the end of the course. Preliminary outcomes suggest that implementation of this course correlates with an increase in the percentage of students who indicate they have a job after graduation (increase of 16%). This type of course could be implemented in many other contexts to support career development in diverse fields.
Metrics
Details
- Title
- Developing a Backup Plan: Implementing a Career-Planning Course for Undergraduate Biology Majors
- Creators
- Julianne M Winters - Department of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Berkeley, CA 94720-3140Haizhi Wang - Brown University, Butler Hospital, Providence, RI 02906Laura E Duwel - Department of Biology, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104Elizabeth A Spudich - Department of Pathology, Anatomy and Cell Biology, Thomas Jefferson University, Philadelphia, PA 19107Jennifer S Stanford - Department of Biology, CASTLE, Drexel University, Philadelphia, PA 19104
- Publication Details
- Journal of microbiology & biology education, v 19(3)
- Publisher
- American Society for Microbiology (ASM); United States
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Language
- English
- Academic Unit
- Biology
- Web of Science ID
- WOS:000512321100001
- Scopus ID
- 2-s2.0-85065485382
- Other Identifier
- 991014877804904721
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- Collaboration types
- Domestic collaboration
- Web of Science research areas
- Education, Scientific Disciplines