King's University College to offer job guarantee to class of 2025
Article content
King’s University College will offer a job guarantee to students who enrol next year.
“The promise is, six months post-graduation, if students don’t have meaningful employment – defining meaningful employment as a full time, part time, contract, self-employment – we will allow students to come back to King’s for up to one year” for free, said Joe Henry, dean of students at King’s.
Graduates will be able to take up to five additional undergraduate courses, as well as access career supports.
“What we are saying is, ‘If you invest your time with us, we are going to continue to invest in you,'” Henry said.
King’s will implement the new program in the fall of 2021.
Students must maintain a B average (75 per cent), and fulfil other requirements.
“They (must) participate in a number of career-related activities and supports, as well as complete a portfolio so they will get a better understanding of their competencies, their values and their talents as they transition to market,” Henry said.
The school’s promise is based on King’s recent research that determined 88 per cent of students enrol at King’s “to secure a better employment outcome,” he said.
“At the same time, 51 per cent of our students say they were concerned about that first job post-graduation,” Henry said. “(We also found) students weren’t accessing career services until the very end of their career with us.”
In the future, students will begin focusing on building career skills right from the start, he said.
“They will be building their career competencies and understand their talents all the way from first year through to graduation,” he said. “The hope is that no one will come back for the guarantee, if we’ve done our job right.”
As part of the deal, King’s will work closely with employers with the understanding “that they are going to get access to great King’s talent,” Henry said.
“We’re also going to be telling better stories about the impact of our grads.”
