Publisher
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Place of Publication
Chattanooga (Tenn.)
Abstract
Introduction Psychology students are underemployed after graduation despite being a part of one of the largest majors nationwide (Burning Glass Technologies, 2018; The Ladders, 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). In order to remedy this, our study will investigate how many and which careers psychology students are minimally qualified for. We hypothesize the knowledge skills and abilities (KSAOs) psychology students obtain during their undergraduate career will ensure they are minimally qualified for a wide range of careers across industries after graduation. Methods and Analyses In the previous stage of our research project (Todd et al., 2021), we compiled and validated a list of 42 KSAOs psychology students gained from their undergraduate curriculum by interviewing subject matter experts (i.e., faculty) via Qualtrics on the level of each KSAO obtained by a C student in a psychology class using a 1-7 Likert scale. In this stage, we will use those KSAO level scores in conjunction with O*Net data on the KSAOs necessary to perform a job to identify roles psychology students are minimally qualified for meaning they meet most, 80%, of the job requirements. Our analyses will involve compiling the KSAOs a student has from the courses they’ve taken and ranking their level of each KSAO on the highest level obtained (e.g. two courses with the same KSAO but different levels of expertise). That list of KSAOs will then be compared against O*Nets database of KSAO requirements for careers. Individuals will be returned a list of careers in which 80% of the required KSAOs for those careers match with those they obtained through their coursework. Expected Results and Implications We expect to confirm our hypothesis that the KSAOs psychology students obtain during their undergraduate career will make them minimally eligible for a range of careers across industries. The implications of this finding reside in its use with the website we plan to launch, Eugene. This program will allow psychology students to insert a list of classes and return the KSAOs they have and to which level and the careers correlated with those KSAOs. This will help students grasp a broader understanding of their competencies as well as careers they are eligible for.
Date
October 2022
Subject
Industrial and organizational psychology
Document Type
posters
Language
English
Rights
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
License
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
Included in
Helping Psych Students Understand Their Employable Skill Set
Introduction Psychology students are underemployed after graduation despite being a part of one of the largest majors nationwide (Burning Glass Technologies, 2018; The Ladders, 2019; National Center for Education Statistics, 2019). In order to remedy this, our study will investigate how many and which careers psychology students are minimally qualified for. We hypothesize the knowledge skills and abilities (KSAOs) psychology students obtain during their undergraduate career will ensure they are minimally qualified for a wide range of careers across industries after graduation. Methods and Analyses In the previous stage of our research project (Todd et al., 2021), we compiled and validated a list of 42 KSAOs psychology students gained from their undergraduate curriculum by interviewing subject matter experts (i.e., faculty) via Qualtrics on the level of each KSAO obtained by a C student in a psychology class using a 1-7 Likert scale. In this stage, we will use those KSAO level scores in conjunction with O*Net data on the KSAOs necessary to perform a job to identify roles psychology students are minimally qualified for meaning they meet most, 80%, of the job requirements. Our analyses will involve compiling the KSAOs a student has from the courses they’ve taken and ranking their level of each KSAO on the highest level obtained (e.g. two courses with the same KSAO but different levels of expertise). That list of KSAOs will then be compared against O*Nets database of KSAO requirements for careers. Individuals will be returned a list of careers in which 80% of the required KSAOs for those careers match with those they obtained through their coursework. Expected Results and Implications We expect to confirm our hypothesis that the KSAOs psychology students obtain during their undergraduate career will make them minimally eligible for a range of careers across industries. The implications of this finding reside in its use with the website we plan to launch, Eugene. This program will allow psychology students to insert a list of classes and return the KSAOs they have and to which level and the careers correlated with those KSAOs. This will help students grasp a broader understanding of their competencies as well as careers they are eligible for.
Department
University of Tennessee at Chattanooga. Dept. of Psychology