2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice full paper presents the design and implementation of a modular Career Readiness Framework, grounded in the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) Career Readiness Competencies, across multiple engineering courses. It highlights the collaborative vision among engineering faculty, describes implementation strategies and assessment designs, and reports on the outcomes of embedding career readiness into the engineering curriculum.
Supporting students in achieving career success is a central goal of higher education. academic programs, particularly in STEM and engineering, strive to equip students with both technical expertise and transferable skills through coursework, internships, cooperative education, and other experiential opportunities. In this context, employers’ growing emphasis on skills-based hiring underscores the need for explicit attention to competencies such as communication, teamwork, leadership, professionalism, and critical thinking alongside technical knowledge.
NACE has articulated a widely recognized set of Career Readiness Competencies that employers expect from new graduates. The eight core competencies (career and self-development, communication, critical thinking, equity and inclusion, leadership, professionalism, teamwork, and technology) serve as the foundation for the three-domain Career Readiness Framework used in this work, which organizes coursebased efforts into in-course career activities, leveraging campus career resources, and professional and industry
engagement. Recent NACE reports highlight employers’ prioritization of competency-based hiring and emphasize the critical role of faculty in preparing students for successful careers.
As part of a university-wide mission to support students’ career success, faculty from four engineering areas (Computer Science and Engineering, Civil Engineering, Materials Science and Engineering, and Graduate Engineering Professional Development) at the University of Connecticut participated in institution-wide “Career Champion” and “Career Fellow” programs facilitated by the Center for Career Readiness and Life Skills. Drawing on this shared professional development, the authors collaboratively adapted the NACE competencies into the Career Readiness Framework and applied it across multiple
courses and levels.
The study examines the implementation of the framework in three undergraduate courses (Algorithms and Complexity, Principles of Construction I, and Materials Characterization and Processing Laboratory) and three graduate courses (Scientific Communication, Engineering Internships and Careers in Industry, and Scientific Writing). In each course, the framework was instantiated through disciplineappropriate activities such as mapped learning outcomes
and assignments aligned with NACE competencies, integration of career-center modules, and, in some cases, workshops, reflective writing, and structured interactions with industry professionals. Using a pre–post survey design administered at the beginning and end of the semester, The instructors examined students’ familiarity with the NACE competencies,
their confidence in securing a job in their chosen field, and their perceptions of how well the course prepared them for their future careers.
Findings show substantial gains in students’ reported familiarity with the NACE framework and high levels of perceived preparation across multiple competencies, providing initial evidence that the Career Readiness Framework is a practical, adaptable structure for embedding career readiness into engineering courses. The paper concludes with implications for instructors and programs seeking to scale this framework across curricula and to more systematically integrate NACE-aligned career development into engineering education.