Career Development Courses and Educational Outcomes

Abstract

Research suggests that career development courses have positive impacts on college students’ career development outputs. What is less established is the impact of these career courses on educational outcomes like retention, graduation rate, and academic performance. This study compared two groups of undergraduate students: one that successfully completed a career development course (n = 3,546) and a matched group of students who did not take the career course (n = 3,510). The groups were compared on graduation rate, time to graduation, course withdrawals, and cumulative grade point averages (GPAs). The career development course was not a significant predictor of graduation within 6 years, the number of semesters to graduate, or the number of withdrawals incurred. However, the career development course did significantly predict the total number of credits (participants graduated with about five more credits) and cumulative GPA at graduation (participants graduated with higher GPAs).

Keywords

career class career development career outcome career output academic performance

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