Career Coach Launched
Students who need guidance on how best to pursue their educational goals now have another tool at Alvin Community College to help them on their path to success.
ACC recently implemented Career Coach, a software platform that provides students with information about the careers they’re best suited for, information about the fields they are interested in, the conditions of the job market for that career and the ACC Career Pathway available to get them to their career goal.
“Career Coach is a practical tool. It’s easy to navigate and provides a wealth of information regarding careers,” said Akilah Martin, ACC director of College and Career Pathways. “Career Coach provides students with a glimpse of what a particular career actually entails and also provides students with job opportunities that they may have never heard of or considered.”
“Career Coach is a great resource for our students,” said Regan Metoyer, ACC Advising director. “It allows them to discover in-demand careers based on their interests. The program is free and will even assist students with creating a professional resume.”
The platform, which is free to use for anyone at www. alvincollege.edu, also provides other practical tools such as a resume builder and information on how to pursue a particular career.
“Career Coach provides students with a direct link from their desired career choice to our ACC program pathway,” Martin said. “Career Coach has aligned career opportunities to our Career Pathways and allows a student to see what ACC has to offer.”
ACC launched its Pathways Program in 2016. Closely based on the current national Pathways Project led by the American Association of Community Colleges, the Pathways Project is an initiative to help achieve the 60x30 goal set by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board to have 60 percent of 25- to 34-year-old Texans earn a certificate or degree by 2030.
The Career Coach tool is especially helpful for students who need help deciding their educational goals, Martin said.
“For students walking in with no idea of what career path to take, Career Coach offers two assessment opportunities,” she said. “The assessment ranks the students’ answers by areas of interest, and ACC has two career counselors on staff to assist students with processing through their assessment results.”
Career Coach also has a tool to assist veterans of military service.
“ACC has a large veteran population, and we are excited to offer a tool that helps our veterans identify their skills based on their military experience, matches it to a career and then directs them to the ACC Career Pathway needed to obtain the right degree,” Martin said.
Once students settle on the best career path for them, the software can then help create a resume.
“It is the most useful tool because it auto-populates job descriptions and skills related to the position that students often struggle to originate when writing a resume,” Martin said. “Students can truly benefit from having well-written sentences with key buzz words that are pre-formatted as part of this tool. ACC also provides additional support with the resume builder by visiting with Career Services here on campus.”
The tool is available to students and the public. To check it out, visit www.alvincollege.edu/CareerServices