Class of 2011:Two percent claim unemployment

UVM is trying some new ways to get more students jobs after college.

Career Services will be getting a makeover in the coming months, focusing on supplying students with more employment opportunities and internships, said Pamela Gardner, director of Career Services.

Career Services is constantly undergoing improvements, she said.

In the past, Career Services has had problems getting students internships due to a lack of resources and graduates on the alumni network helping students attain them, Gardner said.

“Internships are really important to students,” she said. “We don’t feel that UVM has as strong of a unified internship as it could have.”

This year, Gardner said Career Services and the Career Center have focused their attention on bringing in more employers from the Burlington area, getting involved in more networking and encouraging student involvement earlier in their academic careers. 

Students like junior Will Hofmann said they would like to see Career Services involved in more student outreach.

“I’ve never gone into Career Services,” he said. “I found their website really helpful though.”

A year after graduation, 85.7 percent of 2011 UVM graduates said that they had been able to find a job upon graduation, 19.3 percent had enrolled in graduate or professional school, and 1.7 percent were unemployed, according to a Career Services survey that just under one-third of the class responded to. 

Dean of the Honors College Abu Rizvi heads a task force called the Career Development work group, made up of representatives from a number of academic units and various student services, to meet over the course of a year and make recommendations on career development. 

“We want to emphasize when students come to UVM, there are people who’ll support you in career exploration and give you the tools that will help you succeed,” Rizvi said. 

Rizvi said he plans to submit his recommendations for Career Services to the Office of the Provost at the end of the fall semester.

The goals of the task force are to emphasize the importance of student experience through learning opportunities, internships, co-op programs, undergraduate research and service learning.

“Not only do these enhance student learning, but they also show students how what they’re learning can be applied outside the classroom,” Rizvi said. 

Senior Lisa Rogers said she found the Career Center useful when she applied to graduate schools. 

“I think they were extremely helpful throughout the whole process,” she said.