Career Pathways

At the University of Florida, we know that major does not always equal career. The Career Connections Center has designed a Career Pathway model that customizes the career development experience for UF students while encouraging the exploration of different paths post-graduation. The goal of UF's Career Pathways model is to link learning opportunities that happen inside and outside the classroom to the employability skills needed for the future.

What is a Career Pathway?

Career Pathways link student learning to the knowledge and skills needed for future education and employment. This multi-year approach is a series of academic and nonacademic integrated experiences that prepares students for a full range of post-secondary options within a career cluster. Career pathways provide a context for exploring career options allowing UF to aid students in determining how best to reach their end goals, showcasing the university's commitment to students' post-graduation success.

Career Pathways are an essential element of the career development experience for students. All components of the model combined create an enhanced student experience at the University of Florida.

Benefits of Infusing Career Pathways into the University of Florida

• Customizes the UF experience to students by mapping Career Pathways to all 16
  colleges and university centers and institutes
• Exposes student s to the global work force, and the future of work
• Adjusts with students' needs and interests throughout their academic career
• Links student learning to the knowledge and skills needed for future education and
  employment

Pathways Strategic Themes

Pathways Strategic Themes Defined:

• Industry education exposes students to the possibilities available to them while making them aware of new and emerging trends in career. By providing industry education, UF is helping to expand options for students' futures.
• Social capital allows students to learn and create connections through people. The Gator Nation provides students with a strong network to advance their professional development and career opportunities.
• Post-Graduation success is tailored to each student to enhance possibilities for continued learning and future employment.
• Customization is vital to meet the unique career development needs of each UF student. Programs and services are adapted to educate students entering a diverse set of industries.

UF' s Career Pathways

Definitions Associated with Career Pathways:

• Careers: Career s are occupations (e.g. jobs ) that usually require special training or
  formal education.
• Industry: An industry is a group of companies that are related based on their
  primary business activities. Individual companies are generally classified into an
  industry based on their largest sources of revenue.
• Career Clusters: A group of occupations and industries that have a set of
  foundational knowledge and skills in common. There a re 16 nationally recognized
  career clusters which each contain multiple career pathways .
• Career Competencies: Learnable, measurable and/or observable knowledge and
  skill‐ sets gained. Competencies define the applied skills and knowledge that enable
  people to successfully perform their work while learning objectives are specific to a
  course of instruction.

Student Engagement within Career Pathways

Career Pathways exposes the UF student to all the ways the university is committed to their post-graduation success. This collaborative, campus -wide model aims to expose students to career options, industry trends, and the vast resources the university provides to support student success. UF students will utilize this model throughout their four years at the University of Florida.

Engaging with Career Pathways will help students to:

Key Collaborators for Career Pathways

Career Connections Center

The Career Connections Center has embedded career pathways into its model for student career development. The following are examples of how the C3 lives out this model:

• Met with college deans and administrators to introduce the model to the UF community
• Launched the model to campus and introduced the eight pathways in Summer 2022
• Aligned ten dedicated  career coaches to support Career Pathways and connect with
  students through customized experiences
• Established signature events and programs to showcase the strategic themes within
  each career pathway
• Incorporated various outlet s of marketing and engagement to ensure visibility and
  awareness of Career Pathways for faculty, staff, employers, and students throughout
  campus in academic and non-academic spaces

Academic Colleges and University Departments

Since Career Pathways is a collaborative model and customizes the UF experience it is
essential to engage the entire campus community . The following are opportunities for the
UF community to elevate career pathways for student success:

• Become aware of career pathways and UF resources to support student post-graduation planning
• Promote UF career development resources and experiential learning opportunities for student engagement
• Collaborate with the C3 to educate students and provide customized offerings to aid students career development