Gov. Kemp, Chancellor Perdue Announce Statewide Career Planning Resource Platform

Atlanta, GA – Governor Brian P. Kemp and University System of Georgia (USG) Chancellor Sonny Perdue today announced a new statewide career planning resource platform. Governor Kemp has awarded USG $650,000 from the Governors Emergency Education Relief Fund to set up the Career Planning Resource Platform, to which all 26 public institutions will have access.

"This is just our latest effort to ensure the academic and professional opportunities of Georgia students have fully recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic and that they are both well-prepared to meet our growing workforce needs and able to find dedicated careers which set them on a path of life-long success," said Governor Brian Kemp. "The Career Planning Resource Platform will provide USG students with use-at-your-own pace, virtual career planning, advice, and survey tools that will help them pursue customized degrees and professional paths."

“We appreciate Governor Kemp’s support for helping USG better serve students across Georgia as they gain resources to plan their careers and join the state’s highly skilled workforce,” said Chancellor Sonny Perdue. “Coupled with other USG initiatives that focus on matching the value of degree attainment to economic success, all USG students will have greater access to useful data and services to help them make career-focused decisions and build toward the future.”

The Career Planning Resource Platform will assist students and faculty in:

• Performing an analysis of the alumni population for each institution, empowering current students to gain insights into and connect their degree choices to graduates in that field while facilitating networking.
• Creating a customized portal for each institution so students, faculty, and administrators can securely access institutional and statewide resources to support student academic success.
• Building and connecting several analytic data-driven tools for students to use in order to construct individualized pathways towards degree success.
• Providing students with high-quality career counseling services in a one-stop, web-based location.

The COVID-19 pandemic negatively affected student career outlook, planning, and access to career advice due to a multitude of factors, including changes in the job market, the transition to online and remote learning environments, and changes to internship and externship options and modalities during the pandemic. To address these needs, USG will partner with the digital platform Steppingblocks to provide students access to online and use-at-your-own pace career advice, based on career insights that may not otherwise be available at their institution. This type of flexible programming is critical to addressing the ever-changing needs of students in the pandemic era, as campus offices were temporarily closed for in-person meetings and students lost ground in career advising during remote learning. As students continue to expect and benefit from virtual services, colleges and universities must operate in a more nimble environment to ensure their success.

About Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund (GEER)
The Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2021 (CRRSA), was signed into law on December 27, 2020. This Act provides funding to supplement the Governor’s Emergency Education Relief Fund awarded to each state under the previous CARES Act. Additionally, this Act provided for the transfer of remaining Emergency Assistance to Nonpublic Schools (EANS) funding to the Governor’s Office for designation of allowable use under GEER requirements. GEER funding is awarded for the purpose of providing local educational agencies, institutions of higher education, and other education-related entities with emergency assistance in response to COVID-19. The current total of additional funding available to award is $59.7 million. More awards will be announced in the coming months. More about the Governor's Emergency Education Relief Fund can be found here.