Higher education prepares students for labor markets, yet institutions still struggle to answer a fundamental question: how do we know students are career-ready? This challenge is especially relevant at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), which play a critical role in developing talent pipelines. Langston University operates its Business School with three faculty and no assessment budget, a constraint that created a clear expectation: if a course claims to build career readiness, it must prove it in numbers. Drawing on NACE competency assessments from BA 4993, this session presents measurable growth across all eight competencies from Fall 2024 through Spring 2026, demonstrating sustained gains across terms. Presenters will walk through the course redesign, including structured engagement, pre/post NACE assessment, AI literacy assignments, LinkedIn portfolio development, professional certification, and employer evaluation. The session will also address how this course architecture has been adapted for adult and incarcerated learners and provide attendees with a transferable framework for building and measuring career readiness with limited resources.
Presented by: Daryl Green, Malayna Hasmanis, and Heidi O'Donnell
