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Career services have traditionally been opt-in. Students use it if they know it is there, understand why it matters, and choose to seek it out.
For Mario Vela, Assistant Vice Provost of Career Engaged Learning and Executive Director of the University Career Center at the University of Texas at San Antonio (UTSA), that model no longer works. Part of the pressure is external. New federal accountability measures are tying degree programs more closely to employment outcomes. But there is also a more basic problem with opt-in career services: they tend to work best for students who already know how to navigate them. At UTSA, where about half of students are first-generation, that gap matters.
UTSA’s response has been to make career development part of the academic experience across colleges, degree programs, and courses. Now the university is working with Civitas Learning to make that work measurable through a career readiness index that brings career engagement data into a real-time view of whether students are on track for life after graduation.
In this episode of Next Practices, Vela shares how UTSA built its classroom-to-career model, how the career readiness index will work, and what career center leaders can do to build support across their institutions.
NEXT PRACTICES
What You’ll Learn in This Episode
01
Why is career readiness becoming a requirement?
New accountability measures are tying programs more closely to employment outcomes. At the same time, opt-in career services tend to reach students who already know how to navigate them. Both are pushing institutions to build career readiness into the student experience.
02
What is a career readiness index?
A real-time view of a student’s career progress, including internships, experiential learning, career programming, and resume development. Think of it like a degree plan for career readiness.
03
How is it different from employment outcome data?
Employment data usually comes after graduation. A career readiness index shows what is happening while there is still time to act.
04
How can career leaders build institutional support?
Start with leadership alignment, then bring deans and chairs program-level outcome data they can act on. Position career readiness as a shared responsibility across the institution.
Career Services Was Built for Students Who Already Knew to Show Up
Opt-in career services tend to work best for students who already know how to use them. Students with professional networks or family experience navigating college and careers are more likely to seek out the career center. First-generation students may not have the same roadmap.
UTSA is trying to change that by making career development part of the student experience instead of something students have to find on their own.
Federal accountability measures have added more urgency. Under the Department of Education’s new earnings accountability framework — finalized in 2026 and effective July 2027 — every Title IV-eligible degree program will be measured against graduates’ earnings, with programs that repeatedly fall short losing federal loan eligibility. Deans, department chairs, and faculty are paying closer attention to where graduates work, what they earn, and how academic programs prepare them for what comes next.
PARTNER STORY
See how UT San Antonio is using data to support student success
Explore how UTSA connects data, advising, and institutional strategy to help teams act earlier and support more students.
From a Career Center to Career Engaged Learning
Before Vela arrived, UTSA’s president made classroom-to-career work an institutional priority. That gave the university a clear mandate to bring together areas that had been separate, including the career center, pre-law, pre-health, and experiential learning, under one Career Engaged Learning division.
The goal is to make career development part of the academic experience, not something students have to seek out on their own. Students are not just getting help with resumes. They are building a career plan alongside their degree plan.
That work also looks different across colleges. Career readiness in Liberal and Fine Arts is not the same as career readiness in Business or Engineering, so UTSA tailors the approach to each college’s programs and outcomes. The basics stay the same: negotiation, resumes, networking, and learning how to explain your skills to an employer.
A Diagnostic, Not an Autopsy
Career centers have a lot of data. UTSA tracks participation in career expos, career labs, internships, experiential learning, mentorship, and resume development. The challenge is that the data that matters most, employment outcomes, has usually come too late.
“It’s already after the fact that we look at it, more of an autopsy rather than a diagnostic tool that’s happening in real time.”
The career readiness index is designed to change that. In partnership with Civitas Learning, UTSA is connecting persistence, retention, and graduation data with career engagement to define and measure what career ready looks like. A student can have a strong GPA and still be underprepared for the job market. The index gives UTSA a way to see that earlier, while there is still time to respond.
Because the index is built on UTSA’s own data, the university can also compare readiness across student groups, including first-generation students, veterans, and students in different colleges. That helps teams see which efforts are working for which students.
ON-DEMAND WEBINAR
See how UT San Antonio built the data foundation behind this work
Learn how UTSA connected institutional data to give teams a clearer, more current view of student success.
Answering Questions No One in the Field Can Answer Yet
UTSA has already worked with institutional research to measure impact. Students who met with career consultants or received mentorship showed statistically significant gains in retention and persistence. But there are still important questions to answer. Does mentorship improve career outcomes? Does interview preparation make a difference? Which combination of programs makes the biggest difference?
The career readiness index is designed to help answer those questions. Over time, UTSA expects to see which efforts are working best and use that evidence to guide decisions, including technology decisions. If a tool is not delivering the value it promised, the data should make that clear.
For Vela, this matters because about half of UTSA’s students are first-generation. Better real-time insight can help the institution understand what is working for those students and adjust support sooner. As he puts it, they deserve that level of attention, and the institution has a responsibility to provide it.
Advice for Career Center Leaders: Build the Coalition First
For leaders wondering where to start, Vela’s advice is simple:
- Get leadership aligned first. UTSA’s model works because the president and provost have made classroom-to-career an institutional priority. That gives the career team a clear mandate to move the work forward.
- Build support across the institution. Lasting change takes more than one champion. Bring deans, chairs, and faculty into the work and show them outcome data that connects to their programs.
- Be creative about funding. UTSA has shared technology costs across colleges, which lowers the burden on any one unit and gives more teams a stake in the work. Vela also points to grant and federal funding as opportunities to support larger initiatives.
His closing message to career center leaders is straightforward: this is a moment of real opportunity. Career outcomes have the institution’s attention. Use that momentum, and keep the focus on students.
READY TO TALK? See what this could look like at your institution. The career readiness index and the earnings test are on the career outcomes and accountability page. Talk with our team →
Resources
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Shari Veil, Provost, NDSU
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Listen →EpisodeAccess Isn’t Readiness: How First-Gen Students Build Financial Confidence
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