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Faculty & Staff

Career Curriculum & Advising Resources for Faculty and Staff

Are you looking to engage your students with career exploration or development in your work or within your curriculum?

As the primary hub for Career Education across Queen’s, we provide a variety of resources to empower faculty and staff in guiding students through their journey of career exploration and development, as well as workplace skill articulation. On this page, you can explore various resources and learn about how we support our community through training and knowledge sharing.

 

Embedding Careers into Your Class/Course

We support faculty members in integrating workplace skills into courses or programs. It is essential to equip students with practical competencies alongside academic knowledge. Students are actively acquiring diverse and valuable transferable skills through their academic work, enhancing their academic performance and preparing them for future careers. 

Our Career Prep Modules are a series of self-directed resources for students designed to support their career development and exploration. These modules can be used in your class/course as one or more to complement your lesson planning. Additional quizzes and assignments are available to faculty. 

The modules cover skills and strategies on the following topics: 

  • Writing resumes  
  • Writing cover letters  
  • Preparing for interviews  
  • Expanding your network  
  • Exploring your career options

You can find the modules on onQ and contact us (mycareer@queensu.ca) to discuss how to use the modules in your class.

We offer workshops that complement your class or course, either by inviting our Career Educators as guest speakers to your class or including the workshops in your syllabus (with assignments or assessments provided). Examples of available topics: 

  • Resume/CV and Cover Letters 

  • Job Search & Networking Strategies 

  • Interview Strategies 

  • Leveraging LinkedIn 

  • Discover Your Skills 

  • Experiential Learning (various topics – see the Request Workshop page) 

  • Professional Development Plan (formerly IDP) for graduate students 

Our approach to career development is informed by evidence-based research, drawing on theoretical orientations including Chaos Theory & Careers, Planned Happenstance, and Narrative Counselling, Design Thinking, and other leading theories in the field. This is reflected in our model, core learning outcomes and activities associated with each stage, and in our teaching philosophy.

  • Career Development Model & Career Learning Outcomes
    • Career Services 4-dimensional model of Career development covering two levels of associated learning outcomes for each dimension.
  • Mapping Career Curriculum to Degree Level Expectations: Undergraduate & Graduate
    • Outcome area mapping explicitly onto DLEs and specific learning outcomes to facilitate course planning and cyclical program review (CPR).
  • Curriculum Design Chart 
    • A collection of questions to support a robust career development curriculum plan covering learning outcomes, curriculum design, evaluation, and resources.
  • Workshop observation form
    • An observation checklist to use for supervisor or peer observations to give feedback on career workshop delivery. Covers areas of initial greetings, structure & process, rapport & engagement, content, visuals, check-ins, and wrap up.
  • Useful websites
    • A vetted collection of diverse career-related websites arranged by the four quadrants of the Career Development Model.
  • Student Stages of Career Development
    • A 4-stage model of student phases of career development to support stage-appropriate curricular planning.

If you would like to receive a copy of any of the resources, please submit your request by email to mycareer@queensu.ca.

  • Major Maps & Grad Maps: Each Major & Grad Map has a specific skills section outlining workplace skills learned in each program. This tool can be used as an activity (self-directed or in a class) to get students a quick snapshot of key skills they are getting from their studies and thinking about future career plans. Find your program’s map here: Major Maps | Career Services (queensu.ca)  

  • Queen’s Skills Cards: Our deck of Skills Cards can be used to analyze any experience in a card sort to identify key skills. We provide a facilitator’s guide to help you lead an activity in your class, or you can request our Discover Your Skills workshop. An online card sorter is also available. 

  • Experiential Learning (EL) WrapAround Online Modules: These modules are designed to help students reflect on the skills they are developing in an EL opportunity and the impact they’ve had in the EL work or learning environment.  

  • Self-Assessment Worksheet: Evaluate workplace skills within your course or program.  

Career Advising Resources

Support your students in gaining clarity and confidence in their skills by integrating the Queen’s Skills Cards that can help students to:

  • Reflect on the connections between their academics (degree or specific courses) and the skills they have developed
  • Activate their learning from for-credit or not-for-credit experiential learning activities
  • Prepare to speak with employers or graduate programs
  • Gain confidence in telling their unique stories

What are Skills Cards? Skills Cards are a physical and digital set of 44 cards describing a comprehensive list of skills that students can develop during their studies (both in and outside of classes), and that correlate with workplace skills employers are seeking.

Learn more about Skills Cards

The Skills Cards are available as a physical deck of cards, an interactive digital tool, and a PDF. Whichever version students use, they will sort the cards based on their own strengths and preferences, and leave with a summary of their skills assessment. Students can use either of the digital versions on their own, or a Career Educator can guide them through using the physical or online version.

The CAACOP has been supporting members of the Queen’s Career and Academic Advising community for the past decade through our regular (2-3 times per year) professional development meetings where the community members benefit by:

  • Sharing updates on developments in advising across campus
  • Learning about resources and tools to support practice
  • Discussing best practices and skills
  • Having guest speakers on member driven topics
  • Building relationships across campus
  • Discovering opportunities to collaborate on innovative projects like Majors Night or the Major Maps
  • Download the Terms of Reference (PDF, 85 KB) 

If you are interested, please email mycareer@queensu.ca to ask questions, or to become a member and join our listserv. Meetings are generally twice a year either online or hybrid, depending on the season.

This program is designed to provide staff and faculty with the theory, skills, and practice needed to support students through effective 1-1 helping conversations. Based around the core competencies required for successful advising and coaching, each workshop covers different aspects of practice, preparing learners with a foundation for current and future work with students. Each session will balance learning about new concepts and theories, with discussion and case studies, and time to practice new skills. You will leave each session with useful handouts, tools, and tips, and recommendations for further learning.

This certificate is offered through the Queen’s HR Learning Catalogue, and was developed as a collaboration between Human Resources, the Faculty of Arts & Science Academic Advising, Smith Centre for Career Advancement, and Career Services.

  • Queen’s Career & Academic Advising Competencies Framework
    • The Queen’s Career & Academic Advising Competency Framework (QCAACF) gives us a shared language for best practices for advising across the Queen’s campus.
  • QCAACF workbook
    • This workbook is meant to support reflection and goal setting around the Career & Academic Advising Competency Framework.
  • Advising appointment observation form
    • A checklist based on the 7 main competencies from the CAACF to be used by supervisors or peers in giving feedback on advising appointments.
  • Training assignments for career advising
    • A training assignment covering 4 readings that touch on some commonly used modern career theories, including readings and reflection questions.
  • Career Theory articles and assignment
    • A training assignment covering 4 readings that touch on some commonly used modern career theories, including readings and reflection questions.
  • Career Services Career Coaching Method of Practice
    • This document is meant to orient staff to the coaching method of practice used at Queen’s Career Services including objectives, process, core skills, processes, and FAQs.
  • EDII Career Coaching Guide & Worksheet 
    • Meant as a companion to the above Method of Practice, this guide serves to delve deeper into more subtle aspects of coaching in consideration of Equity, Diversity, Indigeneity, and Inclusivity.
  • Career Coaching Recommended Readings
    • A collection of book recommendations spanning counselling, coaching, career coaching, career planning, psychology, job search and the labour market.

If you would like to receive a copy of any of the resources, please submit your request by email to mycareer@queensu.ca.

For support in planning and developing your career education or providing your class/group with a career development workshop, please reach out to our team by email.