Beyond Learning: Leveraging Undergraduate Research into Marketable Workforce Skills

Learning outcomes can structure and enhance the undergraduate research experience, building skills such as critical thinking/problem solving, communication, and team-work/collaboration. These skills often correspond to what employers desire in their recruitment of recent college graduates: students possess career competencies that result from undergraduate research and prepare them for the workforce. However, students do not necessarily recognize the value of undergraduate research for workforce preparation, recognize how their research experience has prepared them, and/or are unable to fully articulate their preparedness. The authors discuss the value of integrating learning outcomes across the college experience to enhance undergraduate research and career readiness. They detail the implementation of an integrated model within a primarily undergraduate institution and suggest strategies to best leverage undergraduate research for workforce preparation.