January 6, 2024—Public health schools and programs are designed to prepare graduates for the public health workforce, and enrolling more diverse students, but whether their graduates land jobs at equal rates has not been evaluated. Until now, the role of career service offices (CSOs) within Schools and Programs of Public Health has not been comprehensively studied, and even less information has been available on whether these programs serve students equitably.
A new study by Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health has evaluated both the career services programs, and employment outcomes, of its graduates. The study found that neither program usage nor employment outcomes were statistically different by race or ethnicity; and that to ensure that programs are equitably designed and utilized by students of all backgrounds, the Office of Career Services can improve their services by assessing the resources they offer and evaluating their usage. The study is published in the journal Pedagogy in Health Promotion.
CSOs typically provide career counseling, review resumes, interview practice, job search guidance, and recruiting and networking events as well as connections with employers, with the goal of preparing public health graduates for careers in their fields of choice. The Mailman School Office of Career Services serves an enrollment of approximately 1,750 students and 11,000 alumni who receive lifetime career services access. Each year since 2017 the office has provided between 1,500 and 2,000 individual student advising appointments.
"Ensuring diverse graduates enter the workforce is an important aspect of career services programs, but these programs have been rarely evaluated regarding whether they serve diverse students equitably," said Heather Krasna, PhD, EdM, MS, associate dean of Career and Professional Development at Columbia Mailman School. "Our goal was to design an evaluation for the career services programming offered at Columbia Mailman School and to assess whether career services were inclusively and equitably utilized by diverse students. We also assessed whether employment outcomes were equitable."
The review found that certain resources fully met diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) guidelines, while there was room for improvement in other areas. The number of counseling appointments scheduled was not found to differ significantly by race or ethnicity; and neither employment outcome, job search length, nor salary were found to differ significantly by race or ethnicity.
Based on articles identified in the literature review, the researchers designed a rubric of guidelines to assess the extent to which resources provided to graduate public health students by career services offices were inclusive and accessible for students of diverse backgrounds. The researchers also evaluated the CSO's virtual career development course on Canvas, an online Learning Management System.
The researchers both qualitatively evaluated career services programs and resources and quantitatively assessed whether students equitably utilized career services appointments. They also analyzed whether there were disparities in appointment utilization and employment outcomes by race, ethnicity and other variables by collecting appointment records and employment outcome data, de-identifying and encrypting the data, matching the data to enrollment records, and conducting a statistical analysis. The evaluation of services primarily comprised anonymous feedback surveys sent after each career advising appointment, learning outcomes from the session; and student opinion surveys for job fairs and workshops. Employer evaluation included ad-hoc discussions with recruiters and their comments from surveys at job fairs.
According to Krasna, rigorously evaluating career services resources to determine whether they are inclusive was a challenging but rewarding endeavor. "The data collection process for employment outcomes records alone is very labor intensive and many schools and programs of public health are very understaffed in career services support," she says.
"Career Services professionals at schools and programs of public health can play an important role in reducing disparities in graduates' career trajectories because career service providers advise students on how to apply, interview, and negotiate for professional opportunities, and connect students to employers in the public health field," noted Krasna.
Krasna notes that CSOs serve as a crucial, but under-researched, link in the chain, guiding public health students as they become public health professionals. "We must continually invest in career services programs, ensure that its services are inclusive for all, and evaluate the office and its programs on an ongoing basis, in order to deliver on the promise of a diverse public health student population and ultimately diversify our public health workforce."
Jessica Yuen of Columbia Mailman School is a co-author.
Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health
