Unemployment for college graduates aged 20-24 reached 10.6 percent in the third quarter of 2009; in 2008, 50 percent of Maryland college students graduated with an average student loan debt of $18,647, according to the nonprofit Institute for College Access & Success. To prepare students these unemployment rates, local college career centers have ramped up career-oriented initiatives. At the beginning of the recession in 2008, UMBC’s Career Services Center partnered with academic departments to deliver a series of career workshops intended to get students thinking about their professional options and how prospective employers might perceive them.“We take students through a series of experiences intended to help them identify dependable strengths and, in turn, to develop their brand,” said Anne Scholl-Fiedler, director of the Career Services Center. “If they’re memorable in the mind of the employer, they’re a good job candidate.”
The article, “Baltimore career counselors get ‘in the face’ of seniors facing a difficult job market,” ran Friday, February 12, in the Baltimore Business Journal.
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