“We’re launching this centre to help students to wrestle with calling and purpose, and how to make a difference in the world, while preparing practically for their career and their life after graduation."
— Brian Kerr, Senior Vice President of Enrolment, Personal and Career Development
Introducing a new and innovative Centre for Calling and Career Development
TWU seeks to help our students solve a key challenge in their life: how will they communicate the very best of their Christian liberal arts education to their future employer or graduate school. We are focused on helping every graduate to demonstrate how their Trinity Western University education gave them the critical thinking skills, character, and ability to solve complex problems, collaborate, and lead well.
Our new Centre for Calling and Career Development is dedicated to helping our students effectively transition to life after university.
“We’re launching this centre to help students to wrestle with calling and purpose, and how to make a difference in the world, while preparing practically for their career and their life after graduation,” said Brian Kerr, Senior Vice President of Enrolment, Personal and Career Development, during a recent meeting with TWU Parents & Families and at the June 30 TWU Town Hall.
The project Kerr described is TWU’s new Centre for Calling and Career Development.
Many young adults launch into the world not knowing what they want to accomplish and unsure of their own identity and values, according to research by Barna Group. Others may be certain in what they want to do and confident in themselves, but lack the right job skills and professional network to pursue their dreams.
Trinity Western is recognizing these needs among young adults, and launching a new initiative to meet their needs.
Equipping graduates for their futures
The idea of purpose and calling is a priority for many TWU students. Students who apply to TWU are different from applicants to many other universities in that TWU students demonstrate a strong interest to make a positive impact in society. According to our survey data, the number one reason that students choose TWU is to learn how to make a difference in the world (61% of respondents chose this as their top reason), followed closely by preparing for a specific job or career (51%) and discovering one’s personal identity (41%).
“We have the opportunity to help students to understand their common calling, the calling towards God – to understand whose I am, to whom I belong – before understanding who I am and what I’m supposed to do."
Kerr has worked at Trinity Western for 19 years, and knows TWU students well. He also knows the distinctiveness of a TWU education.
“We have the opportunity to help students to understand their common calling, the calling towards God – to understand whose I am, to whom I belong – before understanding who I am and what I’m supposed to do,” he said.
Guided by the University’s Christian faith and worldview, the new Centre for Calling and Career Development has a distinct focus. The centre seeks to help students understand their personal identity and values, as well as their vocational calling and purpose in society. After this, students receive guidance in becoming equipped to pursue their calling with excellence, and to launch successfully into their chosen careers.
“What can I do with my degree?”
Kerr notes that typically the question that students ask is what they can do with their degree, whether it’s in arts, humanities, sciences or business.
“I think we can help a student to change the question,” he said.
“How can I package the skills and competencies I’ve curated around being a (dorm) resident assistant, running a student club, and volunteering in prison ministry? That’s a much different question than what do I do with a business degree."
Instead of focusing on academic titles, Kerr and his team are interested in helping students describe their full educational experiences to future employers in a compelling way. Kerr wants students to consider questions like, “How can I package the skills and competencies I’ve curated around being a (dorm) resident assistant, running a student club, and volunteering in prison ministry?”
“That’s a much different question than what do I do with a business degree,” he said.
The Centre for Calling and Career Development helps students translate their scholastic accomplishments into career-preparedness. Coaches train students in talking about their experiences with articulateness – how to present their full educational and personal journey in a job interview – in order to help students map their university experiences onto their future career goals.
Connecting the dots
Kerr explained that there is strong coherence among a student’s various experiences during their time at TWU. “There’s a distinct connection between the job you’re taking in the library and the class you’re taking in Philosophy, and the experience of something you’re participating in residence life,” he said.
“Those things are all connected, and can all play a role towards equipping you for your future career.”
“We’re helping a student think through how the totality of the time they’ve spent with us in university, how it is all working together,” he said.
“We are planting these seeds in students’ minds, that perhaps life is more than just gathering the skills you need to get a good job and earn lots of money. Those are valuable things, but (to consider) why we are doing those things."
Four stages of a preparation journey
To help students be equipped to launch well after graduation, TWU will lead students through four phases of preparation: Discover, Equip, Launch, Serve.
In the Discover phase, students are invited to understand their identity and explore questions such as: who am I, whose am I, what have I been uniquely created to do in this world, and why do I do these things. Students are invited to understand their own abilities and talents, and what they might be called to do in light of their giftedness.
“We are planting these seeds in students’ minds, that perhaps life is more than just gathering the skills you need to get a good job and earn lots of money. Those are valuable things, but (to consider) why we are doing those things,” said Kerr.
Get ahead by starting early
Kerr believes that these conversations with students should begin very early, even in high school. “Our foundation courses that we run for all our freshman and high school students, we’re revamping those courses over this summer and into next year, to focus specifically on the beginning this journey – a real wrestling with a sense of calling and purpose,” he said.
“We want to help them to navigate all of the rich offerings that we have at TWU, in an intentional way. How am I going to sequence my opportunities and what am I going to be involved with, and what are they mapping to?”
He provided examples of how TWU plans to help students consider their calling.
“We’re going to be running workshops on designing your life (an application of design thinking to life planning), to give students the opportunity to consider who am I, what do I believe, and what am I called to do in this world,” Kerr said.
Group coaching: journeying together
This summer, the TWU Recreation Services department is leading students on retreats that are designed to facilitate self-reflection. The nine-day canoe trips challenge students to be completely “off the grid.” The full experience includes a series of readings prior to the trip, engaging in fireside conversations about calling and purpose, followed by a series of life development workshops.
After students have refined their sense of identity and calling during the Discover phase, they are prepared to transition into their second and third year, where they explore becoming equipped to pursue their calling with excellence.
Aligning internship and co-op opportunities with career goals
The Equip and Launch phases are based around a student experiential record – a living curriculum vitae (CV) or résumé.
“We want to help students to navigate all of the rich offerings that we have at TWU, in an intentional way. How am I going to sequence my opportunities and what am I going to be involved with, and what are they mapping to?” Kerr explained.
Kerr and his team will help students align internship, co-op, and leadership opportunities to match their personal calling and career goals. Professional coaching workshops will be provided throughout a student's years at TWU, to help them make connections between their university experiences and their future life direction.
Building a living résumé: the TWU experiential record
Central to this equipping phase is the TWU experiential record, “The experiential record is a brand new thing we’re launching this September. It will track whatever experiences a student accumulates – including leadership roles, volunteerism, class assignments, team projects and more – and map those to specific career-readiness outcomes.” For example, through leading a discipleship group, a student is in fact building team management and communication skills. Through community life involvement, a student is growing in intercultural awareness, problem-solving, critical thinking and theological reflection. All these skills categories are the highly sought-after competencies among hiring managers, according to research by Burning Glass Technologies.
“The experiential record (also called a co-curricular transcript) gives students the opportunity to monitor how well they’re developing those career-ready skills through their various TWU experiences,” said Kerr.
“We’ll have a staff or faculty member come alongside them, to help them refine their thinking and truly deepen their understanding of who they’re becoming in the process,” Kerr said. “The platform then allows students to map those experiences onto their résumé, publish them to LinkedIn, and directly tie to a career-readiness framework.”
Professional coaching to advance student progress
TWU has invested in a digital platform that allows a student to log in and see all of their TWU experiences, both curricular and co-curricular, and what career skills and competencies these experiences produced. Professional coaches are further available to help students review and advance their progress.
“We’ll have a staff or faculty member come alongside them, to help them refine their thinking and truly deepen their understanding of who they’re becoming in the process,” Kerr said. “The platform then allows students to map those experiences onto their résumé, publish them to LinkedIn, and directly tie to a career-readiness framework.”
“So this experiential record helps a student to translate the TWU journey and to see just how prepared for their futures they really are.”
Launching into life and service
Kerr predicts that the journey to career launch is not going to be a linear process for many students. “It’s going to be moving back and forth between the discovery and equipping.”
Students will have the opportunity to prototype various options, and try some opportunities that map to specific skills and competencies. “If something doesn’t feel right, they can go back to the discovery phase and spend time refining this sense of purpose. Then, let’s try something else in the equipping phase,” said Kerr.
Kerr and his team will spend extensive time with students in their first three years, so that by the time students enter their fourth year, they are fully ready to launch well. In the Launch phase, students will engage in interview practice, résumé preparation, career fairs, networking and alumni connections.
Speaking of alumni connections, Janice Nikkel, TWU Executive Director of Alumni and Families, recently led a book club with graduating students, studying the book Five for Your First Five, which was gifted to all TWU 2021 graduates. The book introduces five things for new grads to focus on, which will prepare them for success in the rest of their careers.
“What’s more, graduates will leave with a résumé that will reflect the true depth of their preparation and a confidence as they go into their job interview, not only to land their first job but to be successful in their overall careers.”
Graduates and students in alumni mentorship programs
Through book clubs led by alumni, TWU hopes to invite new grads into alumni networks and mentorship programs. As students graduate, they are immediately invited into the TWU alumni community.
“That’s where the opportunity to serve comes in,” said Kerr, speaking of the last stage of the journey, Serve.
“Fourth year students can become a peer coach, to speak into the lives of first year students. Alumni can become mentors, speaking back into the lives of current students or recent graduates,” said Kerr.
Kerr hopes to see more alumni providing internships through their companies, serving as network builders, and inviting graduating students into their own professional spheres to help new grads launch successfully.
“We are taking these initial conversations on calling and purpose, and intentionally helping students map these all the way to the end so that they graduate with an understanding of who they are, what they believe, and what they are called to do in the world,” said Kerr.
“What’s more, graduates will leave with a résumé that will reflect the true depth of their preparation and a confidence as they go into their job interview, not only to land their first job but to be successful in their overall careers.”
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About Trinity Western University
Founded in 1962, Trinity Western University is Canada’s premier Christian liberal arts university dedicated to equipping students to establish meaningful connections between career, life, and the needs of the world. It is a fully accredited research institution offering liberal arts and sciences, as well as professional schools in business, nursing, education, human kinetics, graduate studies, and arts, media, and culture. It has four campuses and locations: Langley, Richmond-Lansdowne, Richmond-Minoru, and Ottawa. TWU emphasizes academic excellence, research, and student engagement in a vital faith community committed to forming leaders to have a transformational impact on culture. Learn more at www.twu.ca or follow us on Twitter @TrinityWestern, on Facebook and LinkedIn.
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