Graduate Employment Preparedness Assessment

Posted in Case Studies on Jul 16,2012

The Graduate Employment Preparedness Assessment℠ Utilized to Improve Career Search Competence and Placement

Following the successful completion of several university studies in 2010 and 2011, the Graduate Employment Preparedness Assessment℠ (GEPA℠) was introduced to the career services leadership team of Education Corporation of America. More than one hundred students, faculty and staff members took the online GEPA℠ Assessment to evaluate its effectiveness as a career education tool. As a result of ECA’s evaluation of GEPA℠, ECA decided to include GEPA℠ in its programs to prepare its students for their career search.

Multiple majors at ECA are required to complete an eleven week, forty-four hour Professionalism and Career Development course in order to graduate. Facing the pressure of the most challenging employment environment since the Great Depression, as well as the placement requirements to comply with the US Department of Education’s Gainful Employment Rules, ECA engaged BMG to assist in the development of new curriculum to utilize GEPA℠ as an integral part of its career search education. The GEPA℠ assessment is used to provide a baseline level of the student’s knowledge and awareness of the best practices of conducting an effective career search. The GEPA℠ Development Guide serves as the course’s principal textbook, and the final exam is a retake of the GEPA℠ assessment to measure learning outcomes.

In January 2012 the first campuses utilizing the new curriculum were launched, with the second wave in April, and the third wave in July. All ECA campuses are expected to offer the new curriculum beginning 2013. Students of the program have reported success when using the current and emerging best practice strategies, tactics, tools and technologies GEPA℠ provides.

BMG President Hank Boyer took the time to learn our company and our students so that he could design the program that we have now incorporated into our Professionalism and Career Development class. His Graduate Employment Preparedness Assessment Tool is going to allow us to better prepare our graduates for a new career. – Gregory Cox, Regional Director of Career Services, Virginia College

Hank was requested to develop his GEPA℠ into the structure of a local educational intuition where I serve as Director of Career Services. The materials laid the groundwork for a more successful graduate entering the workplace. As a career coach, I was impressed with the quality of the material. It is by far the best I have ever seen or used…EVER! – Valton Johnson, Director of Career Services, Virginia College Birmingham

About Education Corporation of America®

Education Corporation of America® owns and operates a network of thirty-seven private accredited colleges across the United States as well as via the Internet from its corporate headquarters near Birmingham, Alabama. ECA schools provide certificate, Associate, Bachelors, and Masters Degree programs through its four principal brands: Virginia College, Culinard Institute, Golf Academy of America, and Ecotech Institute, each of which is accredited by ACICS, the Accrediting Council for Independent Colleges and Schools. ECA schools provide administrative, management, medical, technical and professional programs that utilize a real-world approach to equip students with the technical and non-technical skills necessary for success in today’s challenging work environment.