The impact of university co‐curricular activities on competency articulation proficiency: A mediated model

Abstract

To succeed after graduating, university students must develop and communicate their career‐related competencies to hiring managers or graduate admissions committees. Co‐curricular activities (e.g., volunteering, mentoring) coupled with reflection can facilitate students’ career exploration and help them understand, develop, and apply their career‐related competencies. Yet, as a scientific community, we need to learn more about the role of co‐curricular programming in helping students to effectively articulate their learned competencies. We draw on past research to develop and test a model of university student competency articulation proficiency. A serial mediation model predicted students’ learning goal orientation would influence their co‐curricular engagement, which, in turn, would predict career exploration and decision‐making self‐efficacy and self‐reported competency articulation proficiency. We surveyed 126 students enrolled in co‐curricular programming at a university in North America. Results largely supported the hypothesized model. Learning goal orientation, directly and indirectly, affected career exploration and decision‐making self‐efficacy and competency articulation proficiency.