A Formative Evaluation of a Master's‐Level Career‐Coaching Course for Performance Improvement Students

Abstract

The authors conducted a formative evaluation of an iteratively evolving career‐coaching course. All 11 master's students who had enrolled in the course between Winter 2016 and Fall 2017 participated in the evaluation. Our evaluation addressed three research questions: (1) To what extent does participation in the career‐coaching course affect participant confidence? (2) To what extent did participants attain their stated course goals? (3) To what extent did career coaching contribute to participants' current job situation? Analysis of quantitative and qualitative survey responses indicated that participants consistently reported increased levels of confidence after career coaching in terms of their ability to identify appropriate job positions, pursue job opportunities, and reflect on their own development and their overall career readiness. Most participants also reported that they had met their goals and valued their career‐coaching experience. At the time of the survey, five of the participants reported that they had found jobs within the field.

Motivations Behind the Master’s Degree Choices of Colombian Undergraduate Students

“…Similar to the belief that employment and educational competitiveness can have an impact on perceived usefulness (Villachica et al, 2020), it is also logical to posit that in order for the usefulness of studying a graduate degree to be recognized by people, they must somehow perceive the graduate degree as academically demanding and as something that can provide them with the competitive tools and skills necessary to work in their occupation and career (Martínez and Toledo, 2013;To, Lai, Lung and Lai, 2014). This leads to the following hypothesis: H3: The academic demand for a Master's degree impacts its perceived usefulness.…”

“…Reasons people decide to enroll in graduate studies are i) they allow people to acquire basic management skills, which help them deal with and solve complex problems creatively and systemically (Villachica et al, 2020); ii) they provide additional skills which cannot easily acquire, such as creating networks between students and industry representatives, as well as the skills necessary to manage these kinds of networks, and iii) the fast-paced changes of globalization and industry development create a great demand among organizations to hire, promote and retain employees who can work within diverse business cultures and environments (Santini et al, 2017;Berthelsen et al 2020;Juusola & Räihä, 2020, Neagu, 2020.…”