Utilization and Impact of Career Services Among Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Career readiness is a concern within the American educational system, particularly among student-athletes that must manage intense time commitments both on and off the field. Student services have emerged in higher education to support career preparation, but the utilization and impact of these services for collegiate athletes is largely unknown. The systems-theory framework (STF) of career development identifies a multitude of internal and external factors that influence individual career development. Guided by STF, the purpose of this study was to predict the factors that influence collegiate athletes' utilization of career services and resulting perceived career skills. An online questionnaire was distributed to collegiate athletes at a Division I university, resulting in 143 collegiate athletes completing the questionnaire. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated collegiate athletes’ familiarity with career services significantly predicted their utilization of career services. In turn, utilization of only four of nine career services investigated (i.e., Careers Online, Career Fairs, Career Workshops, and Athletic Academic Advisor) significantly predicted perceived career skills positively. Implications for the design and marketing of career services for collegiate athletes are discussed.

"From Sweats to Suits": Administrators' Recommendations For Student-Athlete Career Development Services.

“…While exploring career development programming, it is necessary to consider the academic and career preparedness challenges student-athletes face during their time in college (Davis et al, 2022;Huml et al, 2019). Some of these are spurred by the institutional and structural nature of athletics within a university, such as competing interests between the university, athletic department, and the student-athlete which may lead to conflict of interest amongst these groups.…”

“…Currently, student-athlete support centers offer a much greater set of services which include, but are not limited to, academic advising, tutoring, mentoring, life skills training, career development, community service opportunities, networking events, internships, volunteering opportunities, job shadowing, career transition workshops, financial literacy training and more (Botelho, 2019). Despite expanded student-athlete support centers, student-athletes experience a list of academic and career preparedness challenges (Davis et al, 2022;Huml et al, 2019). Many of these challenges may be out of the student-athlete's control (Fearon et al, 2011).…”

“…Because of the power and scope of college athletics, student-athletes often choose to prioritize sport, as that is the entity that pays their cost of attendance (Huml, 2019). In addition to this issue, multiple researchers note that many student-athletes' graduate unaware of the many student-athlete support services that are offered (Davis, 2022;Dietsch, 2012;Fouad et al, 2009). This outcome may naturally lead to an unpleasant career transition following college sport due to lack of preparedness (Zvosec et al, 2023).…”