Steppingblocks provides faculty access to graduate outcomes data, including employer, salary, skills, and career-path data. Steppingblocks data can be used in course design, major/career advising, curriculum alignment, internship and employer engagement, program review, and accreditation evidence, among others.
Steppingblocks provides two different tools for two different use cases:
Digital Career Counselor: Our student-facing platform, best for advising and in-class exploration of your institution’s alumni outcomes.
Graduate Insights Our platform for faculty and staff, consisting of Graduate Outcomes and Graduate Explorer, best for curriculum review, program evidence, and accreditation reports.
Note: Your department may have access to one or both, depending on your institution's configuration.
Best-fit Strategies at a Glance
Goal | Best Tool | Best Use |
Support first-year or gateway courses | Digital Career Counselor | Add an early-term assignment where students research major and career interests |
Connect majors to careers | Digital Career Counselor | Use the Personality Assessment, Outcomes, and Search360 modules to help students explore career paths tied to their major |
Revise assignments or review curriculum | Graduate Insights | Review top skills, job functions, and employer trends for graduates in your field |
Document program effectiveness | Graduate Insights | Pull outcomes, salary, employer, location, and skills evidence by program |
Strengthen capstone or internship preparation | Both | Analyze target employers, skills, job titles, and alumni pathways |
Student Success & Career Readiness
Help students connect majors to careers: Use career-path, employer, and skills data to make advising conversations concrete, especially for "what can I do with this major" or internship and graduate school questions.
Revise course content with employer demand: Review skills and job functions tied to your graduates and top employers to update readings, projects, software exposure, certifications, or case studies. This works well as a student-facing exercise too: have students identify top technical and transferable skills for their target roles and build a personal learning plan.
Support first-year or gateway courses: Introduce Steppingblocks early so students see the careers, employers, salaries, and skills tied to different majors. Digital Career Counselor can serve as a tool used throughout their academic career to prepare them for their future career.
Strengthen capstone or internship prep: Before an internship or capstone search, identify common employers, job titles, and skills so students can tailor resumes, LinkedIn profiles, project topics, and interview prep.
Support equity-minded student success: Shared, transparent career data helps level the playing field for students who may not have strong existing professional networks.
Sample Classroom Applications
Course Type | Activity | Student Output |
First-year seminar | Compare two majors/career paths | 1-page reflection + action plan |
Intro course in the major | Identify top employers, job titles, and 5 key skills | Career pathway worksheet |
Methods, lab, or studio | Match assignments to in-demand skills | Skills-to-course map |
Capstone | Research top employers and alumni pathways | Employer brief + interview prep notes |
Internship or practicum | Identify likely employers and needed skills | Target employer list + resume revision |
Senior seminar | Evaluate major fit vs. outcomes and skill gaps | Exit reflection or portfolio narrative |
Program Review & Accreditation
Document program effectiveness: Use graduate outcomes data to supplement first-destination survey data with a fuller picture: employment industry, geographic outcomes, top employers, salary ranges, and skill patterns. Especially useful for annual reports, strategic planning, and program support requests.
Support accreditation and continuous improvement: Use outcomes evidence to show how curriculum, student support, and career readiness connect to institutional effectiveness in order to support your institutional and programmatic accreditation compliance and reporting efforts.
Best Practices
Use it as a conversation starter, not a script. Pair the data with faculty judgment and student goals.
Focus on patterns, not single data points. Trends are more reliable than one anecdote.
Embed it into existing coursework rather than adding standalone projects.
Keep assignments short. 10–20 minute activities tend to work better than large projects.
End every activity with a next step — revise a resume, target a skill, pick an employer, refine a course outcome.
Partner with colleagues in Career Services, Institutional Research, and Assessment for stronger, more consistent evidence.
Use Digital Career Counselor at key moments — before major declaration, before internships, before graduation.
Be transparent about limits. Steppingblocks complements, but doesn't replace, faculty mentoring and local knowledge.
30-day Adoption Plan
Week 1: Pick one course or touchpoint where Steppingblocks could help (such as major exploration, internship prep, program review, accreditation).
Week 2: Meet with your campus Steppingblocks lead, Career Services, or Institutional Research to review how Steppingblocks can enhance existing courses or accreditation cycles.
Week 3: Pilot one lightweight activity, tied to an existing learning outcome.
Week 4: Review what students learned and what evidence could feed into assessment, annual reporting, or curriculum discussion.
Related Resources
Want a custom strategy for your department? Connect with your Partner Success Associate to set up a strategy session.