Work +
Work+ at ASU, designed by University College, integrates work and learning to foster student professional and personal growth. By aligning student employment with career goals, Work+ offers a transformative educational experience that cultivates a strong sense of identity, agency, and purpose.
Key outcomes of Work+ include increased career readiness, enriched supervisor relationships, and improved ability to articulate transferable skills, all of which contribute to their long-term career growth. Supported by the framework offered by Work+, ASU students are empowered to transform their employment into a platform for significant personal and professional development.
Students are provided with resources and storytelling frameworks to take ownership of their work opportunities, leveraging them for personal and career development. This approach encourages students to engage deeply with their work, utilizing their experiences to shape their future aspirations.
Enhanced supervision is also a cornerstone of the Work+ experience. Students build meaningful relationships with their supervisors, gaining insights and guidance that enrich their professional journey. This relationship, combined with a community framework, ensures students are supported and connected.
Work+ utilizes design thinking to better build tools and resources to address needs at their core. Supervisors and students have been involved in every step of the approach through listening sessions and design sprints. To further scale to the entirety of the institution, Work+ utilizes shared outcomes they will measure different aspects of the student employment experience with. The tools and resources available through Work+ are available for supervisors to design their own experience in the way they need to achieve the shared outcomes of increased career readiness, enriched supervisor relationships, and improved ability to articulate transferable skills.
… |
Strada Education FoundationStudent Work Reimagined |
|
… |
ASU NewsThe thing that turns a liberal arts education into a meaningful job |
|
… |
LearningWellASU’s Work+ Program is rethinking student employment. |
- As gathered from a Spring 2023 survey of students engaged in Work+:
- 77.8% (n=99) of students were “satisfied” or “very satisfied” with their overall level of satisfaction with Work+
- 64.2% (n=98) of students indicated that Work+ helps them connect their student employee position with my future career goals (agreed or strongly agreed)
- 46.9% (n=98) of students indicated that Work+ helps them to recognize the skills they are developing in their student employment position (agreed or strongly agreed)
- All time engagement in Work+ includes 475 supervisors and 2,452 students
- The supervisor is the linchpin of the student employment experience. Instead of focusing on adding more on for a student to do, we have moved to focus on supporting supervisors and ensuring they have the tools and resources they need.
- A one-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work for scale. We have had to allow for flexibility in how departments design their student employment experience.
- Identifying and communicating outcomes is important to get the entire community to understand what we are trying to achieve.