When the University of West Alabama held commencement exercises in May, nearly 40 graduates from the Division of Nursing decorated their robes with round medallions dangling from red-and-white ribbons.
Dr. Amy Jones, dean of the College of Liberal Arts, hopes people noticed.
The red medallions were worn by graduates who participated in the university’s new quality enhancement plan that just completed its pilot year. Officially called the Pro-Certified QEP, the plan is central to UWA’s accreditation efforts and is designed to ensure that graduates are fully prepared to enter the modern workforce.
“It’s a very big deal for students to have an academic honor that they get to wear at commencement,” said Jones, who directs UWA’s QEP efforts. “This does qualify for one of those honors, and there’s a lot of benefit to students because we’re really targeting things that help them.”
Universities accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, or SACSCOC, are required to submit a QEP every 10 years, said Bliss Adkison, director of UWA’s Office of Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Planning. The accrediting agency allows universities to select the specific areas QEPs target.
In UWA’s case, Jones and a team of faculty and staff from multiple departments turned to students, particularly the Student Government Association, to best understand students’ needs for additional support and for perspective on what the students felt would be their greatest challenges upon graduation. Together, with students leading conversations, the team chose workplace readiness as the focus that best fits the university and its students.
The goal is to provide graduates with an array of skills — soft skills, job-related skills, resume-building skills — they can use when looking for work in their chosen fields. Information regarding financial literacy and mental health is included, as are mock interviews and creating a professional resume specific to their major.
UWA’s decision to combine networking, skills and resources into a focused topic for its QEP wasn’t taken lightly, Adkison said.
“It’s something that has been thought about at every level of the university regarding how to further the mission and the strategic plan of the university,” she said. “It focuses on improving student-learning outcomes or student success.”
Jones said the demographics of UWA’s student population makes workplace readiness an obvious QEP choice. She cites two statistics: 76 percent of the university’s students qualify for federal financial aid, and 56 percent lack what she describes as “a lack of self-efficacy about success after college.” Jones is confident those outcomes will improve as more graduates complete the QEP program as they near graduation.
That confidence is bolstered by comments SACSCOC representatives made to Jones and her colleagues when they visited campus in recent months.
“The onsite team was very impressed with our QEP and how it has already shown to have a very positive impact for our students,” Jones said. “They talked with nursing students that participated in the QEP and got to see that data. They got student feedback specifically about their experience. And then in our exit interview with them, they told us how pleased they were with our plan and specifically how it targets the student needs we have that are unique to UWA.”
The QEP will roll out over a five-year window and will expand to additional colleges each year. Administrators selected the Division of Nursing for the pilot year because they wanted to prioritize students in two-year programs such as nursing and engineering and technology, which will be included in the QEP’s first official year that begins this fall.
“We wanted to launch those first because we could have the greatest impact on those students,” Jones said.
Similar to a snowball rolling downhill, Jones said, participation in the QEP will grow incrementally each year. The College of Business will join in year two. The QEP will add the College of Education in the third year. The College of Liberal Arts will be included in the fourth year, and year five will bring in the College of Natural Sciences and Mathematics.
The red medallions participants wear at commencement are emblazoned with the phrase, “Workplace Ready,” the central theme of UWA’s plan.
“It’s addressing the needs head on of what it’s like to live in a rural area,” Jones said. “It addresses those statewide needs of wanting to build a workforce right that is workplace ready and able to help their communities.”