Career Counseling Centers in Colleges and Universities have become extremely common but have not been discussed over the last decade. Gone are the days when college counseling centers were crowded with students looking for advice and recommendations on their future career paths.

Even college career counseling centers on college campuses suffer the wrath of the student’s lack of interest. Recent research found that over 50 percent of all college students have ever believed they have not attended their college’s career center. One would expect a college career center to buzz with activity, but this eeriness inside the center is a sign of the need for innovation.

A recent college career center study looked into the dwindling interest in college career centers and studied the reasons behind it. The research found that college career centers, the way they are, could be more effective. More than 61 percent of all the students interviewed as part of this process believed that their college career center could have helped them get the job role they were looking for.

Additionally, 57 percent of the students interviewed believed their career center didn’t help them choose a career. Only 8 percent of all students thought their career center was consistently helpful.

These figures go on to state that college career centers don’t fall in favor of students anymore. Career counseling is becoming outdated and does not “make the cut” anymore. Students from Generation Z entering colleges need help finding a purpose in going to a career counseling center when so much is happening rapidly in the outside world.

Where Career Counseling Falls Short

One cannot deny that there are shortcomings in career counseling at the college level. However, these shortcomings have yet to be pinpointed by anyone specifically. Here we look at the specifics of these shortcomings and what can be done to overcome them.

Lack of Proper Counselors

One of the biggest reasons career counseling centers cannot invoke the same response as before is because of the poor representation of counselors on a college campus. A study organized by the National Association of Colleges and Employees found that the average ratio of students to career counseling professionals on campus is 1,889 to 1.

The statistics suggest that 1,889 students head over to 1 career counselor for recommendations related to their careers. This disparity in the number of students and career counseling professionals proves a fundamental flaw in the process. How can one single career counseling professional go on to counsel so many students with diverse needs and different backgrounds? The lack of individual attention is also one thing that is pushing students away from career counseling.

Lack of Innovation

Lack of innovation in career counseling methods and the inability of career counselors to ensure that they know about all the recent updates outside the job market are reasons behind falling interest within the market. Most students often know more about the job market than career counselors. The recent innovations in the market for cloud, data science, and data architecture have meant that new jobs are coming up every once in a while. Knowing this, counselors need to keep track of appointments and learn all there is to know about these opportunities.

Many of the students asked about the career center in their college responded that the center needed to be in unity with all the innovation happening inside and outside. A career center should be more than just a place for outdated and traditional jobs. It would help if you headed to a career center for ideas on updating your skills and being a better part of the job market.

Lack of Empathy toward Depression and Anxiety

Depression and anxiety are two prevalent mental ailments in today’s youth. College students are typically expected to fall prey to severe depression and anxiety. Due to these mental ailments, college students need more than just career counseling from their counselor. They want their counselor to take a calculated approach to the method and not overwhelm them with the complexities around them.

Career counselors must empathize with the mental ailments troubling today’s youth and fully understand these matters. They should hence adjust their counseling in a way that best benefits the students coming towards them.

Alternatives to Career Counseling

Knowing students’ lack of interest in career counseling, students and colleges must work towards alternatives to this method.

Mentorship programs are possible alternatives to career counseling, as they tackle all the aspects that trouble a student. Career counselors can never offer one-to-one mentoring centered on individuals, which is why mentoring is the need of the hour among students.

Research by Purdue University and Gallup found that mentoring almost doubled the odds of a student achieving career success. The study conducted by Gallup asked students whether the college supported them and whether they had a professor who mentored them and made them feel excited about the learning prospects at hand, and encouraged them to achieve their goals in life.

All college graduates who answered in the affirmative to this question were more likely to be happy in their current jobs and with their overall financial well-being. Instead, unfortunately, only 14 percent of all students in the research pool answered in the affirmative.

Mentorship can play an essential role in building career satisfaction after college. But, with so many students not benefiting from it, there is a good enough reason to believe that this is the perfect alternative to career counseling.