Enhancing Career Development Services Project Sponsor: Linda Deanna, AVCSA, Dean of Students Project Team Lead: Thy Nguyen Prepared by: Thy Nguyen Date: 5/26/2015 Content Purpose Scope Project Deliverables Project Management Deliverables Assumptions Assessment Plan Monitoring and Control Roles and Responsibilities Communications Plan Change Process Adapted from rethink PSU 2014 15 Project Management Template. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Purpose Enhancing Career Development Services focuses on developing, integrating and promoting career services education for undergraduate students across campus. The project team will: 1. Engage with faculty to develop and promote career development education focusing on integration with curriculum. 2. Develop and design an integrated strategy for communicating career development education and programming with stakeholders. 3. Further integrate the UIC Experience into Student Orientation as a way to promote and educate students on career development. 4. Expand the scale of career educational programming from the Student Employment Office. Scope The Career Development Initiative will seek to integrate career development education throughout the university for undergraduate students. Introducing the career planning process starting in orientation and giving students clear options for engaging in the process through the UIC Experience will be a focus of the initiative. Career development education will focus upon five core areas which include the following: 1) Career decision making which includes assessments 2) Career planning which includes resume/cover letter writing, interviewing, researching industries, job search strategies 3) identifying transferable skills (which are sought by employers ) and learning how to articulate these skills to employers and graduate/professional school programs 4) Identifying and articulating transferable skills learned through Student Employment on campus. 5) Emphasize career education professional development training for faculty and staff. A focus will be placed upon maximizing awareness and participation of career engagement options available through the UIC Experience placing special emphasis on refining communication to all stakeholders. Expected Outcomes Year one will establish baseline data in each deliverable area which will be utilized to plan and set future goals. 1) Faculty Engagement a. Coordinate and fund a faculty/staff council which includes representation across campus. b. Engage with the new Center for Excellence in Contemporary Teaching and Learning. c. Embed career education into first year experience and/or general education courses. 2) UIC Experience and Orientation a. Increase overall student participation in the career planning theme of the UIC Experience. b. Modify and adapt career planning theme and college based career services related themes to more closely align with skills sought by employers. 3) Communicating Career Development Education 2 P age
a. Determine focus and create a new career development web portal that links and connects the Office of Career Services to all College based Career Offices and programs b. Create brochures/flyers for faculty and students that effectively communicate the value of career planning and ensuring that there are linkages to the UIC Experience. 4) Connecting Career Development and Student Employment. a. Build upon the pilot Career Conversations educational program for supervisors and student employees. b. Develop materials that communicate the value of student employment to students, faculty and staff. Project Management Deliverables The project team will work with the project manager to develop the following documents and project management tools: Project Management Plan Project Work Structure Project Workplan Project Log Meeting documents Regular Status Reports End of Project Report Assumptions It is our assumption that this initiative is endorsed by the campus leadership and will be supported by the project sponsor as well as the Office of Project Management for Student Success Initiatives. We assume that the individual undergraduate colleges will support the career development initiatives. We also assume that some of the colleges may proceed with their own career development initiatives and expect coordination with the Office of Career Services and other colleges to avoid duplicative efforts and resources. A formal coordinating career services council can help address this. If there are issues with this initiative beyond the authority of the project team, we will refer these issues to the project sponsor. We assume the project participants and identified stakeholders have the time to accommodate this project in addition to their daily workload. Assessment Plan Initially, we seek to increase student participation in career planning activities for The UIC Experience. We also plan to measure new and repeat engagement opportunities with faculty and staff in the undergraduate colleges. Both satisfaction and participation numbers will be looked upon for Student Employment career related activities with special attention paid to learning outcomes. 3 P age
Monitoring and Control The project team will continue to meet regularly during the initiative. Presenting issues will be discussed in the group meeting. Any issues that arise beyond the authority of the project team will be referred to the sponsor for assistance. Roles and Responsibilities Role/Assigned Parties Provost and Vice Chancellor Barbara Henley, Vice Chancellor for Student Affairs Eric Gislason, Interim Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs and Provost Student Success Initiative Implementation Management Team Linda Deanna, Associate Vice Chancellor and Dean of Students Emanuel Pollack, Interim Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Tom Moss, Associate Vice Provost for Undergraduate Affairs Negar Mansourian Hadavi, Project Manager Project Manager (s) Negar Mansourian Hadavi, Project Manager List of Responsibilities Ultimate authority and responsibility for the project scope, timeline, and budget Provide high level leadership for the entirety of the project and its needs/goals Assure availability of essential project resources Provide guidelines and support for the initiative and act as the liaison for the leadership, the project teams, and the campus Provide support for executive level communications Assist in issue management by removing obstacles inhibiting the Project Team or its stakeholders from forward progress Ensure project objectives are being met, in collaboration with the Project Lead and/or Project Manager Manage overall scope and schedule for the Initiative, including regular reporting and communication Work closely with the Management Team and the Project Leads to ensure the objectives are being met and issues are addressed Assure alignment of project steps for achieving the project outcomes Dedicates time for initial training and continues to provide support for streamlining the process Mitigate issues and risks Own project management plan, and project documentation, including providing general support and project management framework to Project Lead 4 P age
Make sure there are clear communication paths between all identified project roles Updates the Students Success Initiative s website with regular status reports of all projects. Project Sponsor(s) Linda Deanna, AVCSA Project Team Thy Nguyen Christine Corral Kathyy Battee Freeman Carman Garza Stephanie O Leary Elizabeth Herrera Mryiam Del Angel Miranda Linda Landis Andrews Rose Capolla Conroy Zachary Disbrow Tom Pina Project Lead Thy Nguyen Provides necessary support to ensure the progress of the project Assures availability of essential resources for the project Receives updates on the Project Team meetings and participate as needed Responsible for executive level communication of the project as applicable Carry out and responsible for daily project tasks Create/contribute to project deliverables as applicable Ensure success of project by supporting, promoting and actively engaging in project objectives and deliverables Contribute to creation of project guidelines and procedures as well as regular project updates Serve as first line of defense in issue and risk mitigation Serve as liaisons and project advocate to all project stakeholders Coordinates Project Team meetings and share updates Serves as central point of communication for the project, with the sponsors, the team, and the project manager. Oversees day to day operations of the Project Team Co manages key project documentation with Project Manager Ensures project objectives are being met, in collaboration with the Management Team and/or Project Manager Mitigate issues & risks; address problems as they arise, reaching out to available resources, including the project sponsor. Support and execute project communications plan 5 P age
Project Coordinator Christine Corral Support meeting coordination and project documentation, including meeting minutes, project management plan, or status reports, Communication Plan The following chart exhibits how the entire target audiences will be communicated using the tools, channels and roles that have been defined. Tool Purpose Audience Owner Distributor/Channel Frequency Project Status Update Actions and issues follow up The Initiative Status Report Provide status on project Facilitate completing tasks and resolving issues A roll up of the individual status reports designated to communicate Student Success Initiative progress status with the campus Project Sponsor(s)/ Management Team/ Project Team All Project Participants The UIC Campus Project Lead Project Lead / Email Project Manager/ Project Lead Management Team / Project Manager Project Lead and or Project Manager / Email & Phone Calls Campus mass email/ Student Success Initiative website Once per month As needed At least once per term Change Process Any proposed changes to the project described here should be submitted in writing to the Student Success Initiative management team. 6 P age