Thanks to the University System of Georgia (USG), Columbus State University students have access to a new career-planning tool that will provide them with additional career counseling services and connect them to information about graduates and alumni in the field in which they want to work. The Career Resource Planning Platform positions the system and its 26 public colleges and universities as leaders in helping students with specific job services and career guidance—including potential degrees to pursue, job opportunities and salary ranges based on a student’s interests.

USG is the first university system in the nation to work with an Atlanta-based data analytics company to implement the platform systemwide.

“The Career Resource Planning Platform is the most comprehensive career tool USG has ever offered, and it will be the foundation for future career and workforce development initiatives being created within the university system and across Georgia,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “As we prioritize affordability, efficiency and degree attainment, our ongoing work to serve workforce development needs furthers our goals and sets the stage for our graduates’ prosperity and success.”

The platform complements services available to Columbus State students through the university's Center for Experiential Learning and Career Design. The center's team is committed to coaching and empowering students and alumni to identify and pursue career-oriented goals that ultimately lead to post-graduate employment and professional success in their chosen career fields. It is part of a larger state initiative to provide Georgia high school students with integrated career and college guidance—a collaborative effort that includes the Georgia Student Finance Commission, the Georgia Department of Education, the Technical College System of Georgia and USG.

It also builds on the university system’s Georgia Degrees Pay website, launched last fall to provide students and families with a one-stop website to compare the overall cost of attending college, majors and fields of study, average student borrowing and the average career earnings of USG graduates. 

USG updated the Georgia Degrees Pay site in January to include more data about students’ cost over time to earn a degree—including tuition, fees and foregone earnings—by institution and degree program. This “Time to Degree Cost Calculator” clarifies how taking less than a full course load increases the time to complete a degree and its total cost. 

With the Career Resource Planning Platform, USG students can access the platform through their regular campus portal and use it to research careers and specific jobs held by alumni of any of USG’s 26 institutions. Among other services, they can find which companies alumni work for, their average salaries and the potential majors and specific skills necessary to succeed in those career fields. They can also take an assessment that analyzes their strengths and offers potentially suitable work matches based on their interests.

This information is broken down by geographic region, state and county and can be general or specific to an individual USG institution. The software used by Steppingblocks® to power the platform collects, organizes and analyzes demographic, education and employment data from hundreds of different sources such as online profiles, job postings, public salary databases, public filings, company firmographic databases and government sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Columbus State students can access the Career Resource Planning Platform directly at columbusstate.steppingblocks.com.