The Inventory is...
- a great way for students to identify their personal strengths and areas for growth. It takes only 8-10 minutes, and can be completed year after year as students learn and grow.
- ideal for experiential learning & work-learning opportunities (e.g., internships, on-campus jobs) where a student can take the self-assessment AND their supervisor can rate them as well.
- an opportunity to earn Career Competency Badges. Any competency rated as "Advanced" by a supervisor will automatically generate a LinkedIn badge for that competency.
- an effective way to demonstrate how your program is supporting students' career readiness; a key metric for Pillar 1 of our Green, Gold, and Bold Strategic Plan.
- designed to assess the 8 skills that consistently rise to the top of what employers seek in their new hires. Read more on the Competencies for a Career-Ready Workforce (1 page PDF) identified by The National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE). NACE's 8 competencies are: Communication, Critical Thinking, Career & Self-Development, Equity & Inclusion, Leadership, Professionalism, Teamwork, and Technology.
Students...
Invest in your career confidence & readiness
with this 8-point inventory on the competencies most sought by employers.
The Inventory is not a test, there are no wrong answers and it is not graded. It is a self-assessment to help you own your strengths and understand your areas for growth. It takes 8-10 minutes to complete. You will receive an email with a PDF of your responses along with recommendations for how to improve any competency you wish to develop.
Take the assessment now and take it again later to track your growth!
Faculty & Staff
General Use
- Use the link go.uvm.edu/inventory to have students take the self-assessment at any time.
- Make it a required (or bonus) assignment/task and have students write up a 1-page reflection on what surprised them, what reassured them, and one goal for the next month to further develop one of their competencies.
- Invite the Career Center to join your group to discuss how to incorporate these competencies in a resume, cover letter, and interview stories; as well as exploring additional ways to advance the competencies.
Experiential Learning Use
- We strongly recommend you reach out the Career Center to set up a distinct "instance" for your internship/practicum/co-op/research/service-learning course or program cohort (no cost).
- This allows you to...
- Manage custom set-up options (e.g., including supervisor feedback, offering pre & post assessments)
- Access a user-friendly dashboard to track completion and view data trends.
- When the Inventory is set to include supervisor feedback, the student will be asked to include the name and email of their supervisor at the end of their self-assessment.
- The supervisor will automatically be emailed a link to complete the assessment. They do not have to log in or create an account. The assessment will take less than 10minutes.
- Any competency rated as "Advanced" by the supervisor will automatically generate a LinkedIn badge - specific to that competency, and backed by NACE (holding meaning for many employers) - see examples below.
- The supervisor will get an email with a PDF showing both the student's self-assessment and their feedback. This side by side comparison sets the stage for really meaningful from the supervisor in support of the student's growth in skill and confidence!
- The student will also be able to view the side by side comparison, along with recommendations on ways to further develop their competencies (see example in next section).
- Email career@uvm.edu to get your "instance" set up today. All costs are covered by the Career Center.
Student Staff Supervisors
On-campus employment = work-learning experience.
If you supervise a group of student worker on campus, we encourage you to set up an instance for your team!
Help your student staff build a strong portfolio of employable skills along with the ability to articulate how/where they developed them; and help them earn LinkedIn badges to show off the skills you helped them hone (see examples above).
While there are lots of ways you could do this, we recommend weaving the self-assessment into your annual review process.
- Have the student workers take the self-assessment at the start of the year, when they're setting goals.
- Have the students take it again at the end of the year, to track and reflect on their growth.
- The supervisor will complete an assessment for each student worker only at the end of the year. It takes less than 10minutes for each assessment.
- Student and supervisor will be receive a side by side comparison of the assessment. In the example below, the supervisor assessment (in black) is compared to the students' self-assessment (in blue).
- In your final review with each student, discuss their growth from the "pre" to the "post" assessment AND compare your observations with theirs. Helping them recognize strengths they might be underplaying as well as areas of growth they may not be completely self-aware of yet.
It's easier to have truly rich conversations / be a great mentor with the Inventory assessment guiding the way and specific competencies to discuss. The Career Center also has a supervisor guide to support these conversations - email career@uvm.edu to request a copy.
A meaningful measure of your program's impact on career readiness. Every instance comes with backend access to see trends in student data providing evidence of how your program supports student development and serve as an important metric for Pillar 1 of UVM's Green, Gold, and Bold Strategic Plan.
Email career@uvm.edu to get your instance set up today.
It's quick and easy and free - all costs are covered centrally by the Career Center.
