UW-Platteville offers new certificate to help students find career paths, polish workplace skills

UW-Platteville career development specialists have created a new certificate program designed to help students explore career paths and sharpen workplace skills.

Jane Laufenberg, a career development coordinator in UW-Platteville's Career and Professional Development Office, launched the online course last summer after a National Association of Colleges and Employers survey found graduates across the country lacked workplace skills in a number of areas ranging from communication to critical thinking. 

The new UW-Platteville certificate, entitled Pioneer's Edge: A Career Readiness Adventure, is a free online course that puts students through dozens of exercises and assessments to shore up those gaps. 

Assignments include matching careers with personality traits, polishing job application materials, preparing for interviews, sending professional-sounding emails, improving listening skills and a crash course in etiquette at meetings, meals and networking events. Also on the syllabus are courses in how to use job shadows to build experience, budgeting using a starting salary, recognizing bias, dressing professionally and strategies for the first 90 days on a job.

"These skills are crucial in the workplace and hiring process, making students more employable regardless of the job markets graduates find themselves navigating," Laufenberg said. "The beauty of this tool is that they can select from the different assignments based on what they want to gain from the tool for their specific major and career path. And that it’s self-paced so they don’t have to feel rushed to get it done." 

The certificate gives students another credential they can point to on resumes and their LinkedIn pages, she said. 

Ava Seymour, a sophomore mechanical engineering major from Edina, Minnesota, accepted the certificate Tuesday after taking the course as a freshman. She learned that she needed to improve her communication skills, especially when she's nervous, and how to conduct herself during a business meal. Keeping your elbows off the table and taking small bites so you can talk were two of the big tips, she said.

"I thought why not (take the course). I did it in my free time, just kept chug-a-lugging along on it," Seymour said. "It definitely made me think about my strengths and weaknesses. It makes me feel more prepared and more sure of myself going into my future. I definitely recommend it."