Going Beyond the Gap: Helping Students Recognize and Articulate Career Readiness
- Janine Bower
- Apr 28
- 3 min read
Updated: Apr 30
Students Are Building Skills — Let’s Help Them See It
In today’s classrooms, students are doing more than mastering academic content — they are building the critical skills that will shape their futures.
But too often, they don’t recognize the full extent of what they’re developing, nor how to articulate it confidently across different professional settings.
The opportunity for educators is clear: We can help students activate, elevate, and communicate their career competencies — and in doing so, empower their future success.
Skill Recognition and Articulation
Research (e.g., Jackson & Bridgstock, 2021) reveals that the challenge isn’t just skill development — it’s skill visibility and transfer. Students may deeply engage in problem-solving, communication, teamwork, and leadership without realizing these experiences form the foundation of career readiness.
Our role is not to “close a gap” — it’s to illuminate the career competencies students are already cultivating.
Two Key Ideas to Empower Student Skill Awareness
To help students recognize and articulate their skills, they must internalize two transformative ideas: Simultaneity and Ubiquity.
Simultaneity
Students build career competencies while engaging in academic work — these processes are not separate, but deeply intertwined.
“Mastery of content and development of career competencies are not separate processes — they are simultaneous and mutually reinforcing.”
Ubiquity
The skills students develop in one setting (classroom, lab, project) are transferable across life’s many domains — extracurriculars, internships, service learning, and future careers.
"Career competencies are not bound to one context; they grow and evolve across diverse experiences."
When students grasp these two ideas, they are better equipped to transfer and articulate their skills — a major marker of career readiness.
Why One Assignment Isn’t Enough
How Can Faculty Make Career Skills Visible, Valuable, and Verbal for Students...without a curricular overhaul?
Faculty in any discipline can reflect on their current teaching practices and guide students to make the connections in their courses by making small, strategic shifts in their teaching:
The Bigger Picture
When we help students see beyond individual achievements and recognize their evolving professional selves, we are doing more than building career readiness —we are preparing them to lead, innovate, and thrive in a future they help shape.
Together, we can go beyond the gap — and empower students to step confidently into their futures.
What's Next?
⭐ Download our free, classroom-ready toolkit for integrating the STAR Method (Situation, Task, Action, Result) into your classroom as a proven way to help them reflect on major assignments and talk confidently about their experiences in job interviews, applications, and more.
🔎 Explore our growing collection of classroom-ready tools for Educators
About Janine Bower
Janine Bower is a Principal Learning Strategist, educator, and leader in career readiness and mentoring. With a Ph.D. in Sociology and over 20 years of experience as a professor and academic leader in higher education, Janine has collaborated with multi-national corporations and leadership development firms to design professional development programs, work-integrated learning projects, and organizational change strategies that align learning with industry and organizational needs.
Janine is dedicated to helping educators, coaches, and leaders create transformative learning experiences that connect academic success with real-world career competencies, and prepare students for success in both academia and the professional world..
Follow along for insights on leadership, mentoring, and career readiness in higher education.
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