1. Research Problem
Students may lack sufficient opportunities to develop “real world”
experience during their undergraduate studies. Arizona State
University Career Services offers many different opportunities for
students to get involved such as internships, shadowing, and even
taking students behind the scenes of a variety of companies.
However, more could be done to promote the development of
skills needed in the workforce. I believe that there is an “untapped
source” that institutions could draw from for this purpose: parents.
Parents have a variety of experiences and backgrounds that
could assist Arizona State University students.
Study Purpose
The purpose of this study is to describe parents’ interest in
engaging in career development programs to support college
student workforce preparation. This information can then help
create a base that would be able to sustain parent involvement
and support in career and professional development for our ASU
students to help close that graduate – workforce gap. This leads
to the addressing of the following question:
Would parents of current or past ASU students be interested in
engaging in a career development program(s) to support college
student workforce preparation?
Methodology
A qualitative research design was used to gain an
insight to parent curiosity in Career Services. An online
survey was distributed on social media. Data was
collected for eleven days. Participants included eight
parents with current ASU students, five parents of ASU
Alums and one parent of each. The survey included
open-ended and interval scale questions.
Figure 1. Parent Familiarity with ASU Career Services
Parent Involvement in Career Services:
Discovering the Curiosity of Parent Involvement in College Student's Career Services
Katherine Andruszak
Arizona State University
Figure 2. Parent Interest in Specific Career Services
Key Findings
• Majority were not familiar with Career Services
• All agreed that parents needed to be involved
in college student's career and professional
development
• Demonstrated the highest interest in job
shadowing and informative interviews
Conclusion
The most shocking discovery was how little
familiarity parents had with Career Services and
what resources are offered. Parents are definitely
an unutilized sources that can be vital to the success
of ASU students in career and professional
development. This study opens doors to develop
new initiatives with the help of parent curiosity and
involvement in student career and professional
development opportunities. This can lead to
creating a parent network to implement job
shadowing and informative interview possibilities.
In addition, this can lead to new connections and
relationships to develop between Career Services
and other associations at the University that have
high parent involvement. Furthermore, this could
lead to a professional course with parent
participation that would in result close the
graduate to workforce gap
“Students can learn from the
experiences from their families.”
-Participant Quote
Mentoring
Informative Interviews
Career Blog
Networking Events
Site Visits
Professional Parent
Network
Job Shadowing
“I want to know the resources and
services are there at graduation and
beyond for my student/alum.”
-Participant Quote