Understanding Career Readiness and NACE Resources

National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) provides essential insights and guidelines regarding internships and student hiring practices. Explore the following links to deepen your understanding:

These resources offer valuable insights into ethical and legal standards in student hiring, along with comprehensive information about internships. They are invaluable references as you navigate the landscape of internships and academic career development.

Understanding Career Readiness

Career readiness is fundamental for demonstrating core competencies essential for success in the workplace and lifelong career management. At Penn State Greater Allegheny, we adopt NACE (National Association of Colleges and Employers) competencies to guide internship learning objectives, ensuring students are well-prepared for professional environments.

For more information on the NACE Competencies, click here!

Each internship will be different. We’ve included some sample learning objectives for each NACE competency; please feel free to use these as a starting point for creating the internship learning agreement.

Career & Self Development

Proactively develop oneself and one's career through continual personal and professional learning, awareness of one's strengths and weaknesses, navigation of career opportunities, and networking to build relationships within and without one's organization.

Recognizes personal strengths and areas for improvement/development
Proactively analyzes and assumes opportunities to help advance goals while also advocating for others in the organization
Develops oneself and one’s career pathway through continual personal and professional learning, including leveraging relationships with people inside and outside of the organization and through establishment of a professional network

Communication

Clearly and effectively exchange information, ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of an organization.

Interpret, differentiate and produce clear and effective exchange of ideas, facts, and perspectives with persons inside and outside of the organization
Execute verbal and non-verbal communication that is respectful of others’ learning styles and cultural differences, that employs active listening and influencing skills
Produce communications that is organized and free of grammatical/mechanical errors
Incorporate timely and relevant communications and request support when needed
Communicate so others can understand

Critical Thinking

Identify and respond to needs based upon an understanding of situational context and logical analysis of relevant information.

Make decisions and solve problems using sound, inclusive reasoning and judgment
Demonstrate the ability to multi-task in a fast-paced and ever-changing environment
Gather, analyze and accurately summarize and interpret multiple data sets with the awareness to recognize personal biases that may impact the work assigned
Understand diverse perspectives of all stakeholders in the organization

Equity & Inclusion

Demonstrate the awareness, attitude, knowledge, and skills required to equitably engage and include people from different local and global cultures. Engage in anti-racist practices that actively challenge the systems, structures, and policies of racism.

Understand, demonstrate and actively contribute to inclusive and equitable practices that align with the values and mission of the organization
Include and engage people from different cultures and perspectives to make inclusive and equity-minded actions, resulting in inclusive outcomes/decisions
Engage and advocate for anti-racist practices

Leadership

Recognize and capitalize on personal and team strengths to achieve organizational goals.

Exemplify and emulate the valued qualities of the organizational leadership while learning to serve as a role model to others through confidence of self, respect for others and through sharing a positive attitude
Inspire, persuade and motivate others under a shared mission/vision of organization
Respect organizational leadership and seek to learn from all members of the team
Innovate, create and inspire others by building mutual trust
Plan, initiate, manage, complete and evaluate work assigned

Professionalism

Knowing work environments differ greatly, understand and demonstrate effective work habits, and act in the interest of the larger community and workplace.

Plan and produce work that is not only in the greater interest of the organization but is also produced, at all times, with respect to diversity of organization and co-workers
Demonstrate, in personal actions and communications, work that is completed equitably, with integrity and with attention to detail
Exhibit a high-level of dedication and dependability during the internship with assignments that are prioritized and completed within the deadlines established by the organization
Respect culture of organization in mannerisms, speech, and in dress-code

Teamwork

Build and maintain collaborative relationships to work effectively toward common goals, while appreciating diverse viewpoints and shared responsibilities.

Recognizes the need to build strong working relationships with all members of the organization
Accountable for individual and team responsibilities and deadlines
Analyzes and manages conflicts and challenges and is able to collaborate with others to achieve common goals
Respects diverse viewpoints and idea, and knows how to listen and ask questions while building positive relationships with supervisors and team members

Technology

Understand and leverage technologies ethically to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals.

Learning and Implementing, in an ethical manner, employer’s technology requirements in all work assignments, including Microsoft Office, InDesign, telephone, and scheduling software, among other proprietary programs
Understand and leverage technologies ethically and in a timely manner to enhance efficiencies, complete tasks, and accomplish goals
Utilize employer’s equipment in a respectful manner and in accordance with rules and regulations of the work site