CREATING CAREER-READY GRADUATES
With a focus on San Antonio and South Texas, UTSA is driving innovation and workforce development through classroom-to-career opportunities and collaborative partnerships — and preparing students with the knowledge and leadership skills they’ll need to take on life-changing careers and positively impact our community.
Classroom to Career Initiative
Learning is not limited just to the classroom. UTSA prepares students to apply their classroom learning in the real world by providing specific experiences – internships in industry or at non-profit service organizations, undergraduate research in laboratories and clinical settings, study abroad and more. Known as experiential learning, this approach deepens students’ learning and enables career exploration before graduation.
Whether learning in the workplace or in the laboratory, or through community service or study away, these handson experiences allow students to apply their classroom learning in career-specific contexts. Additionally, through experiential learning, students gain marketable skills, such as leadership, collaborative teaming and communication, that prepare them for career success and to be the trailblazers of tomorrow.
UTSA aims by 2028 to have 75% of students take part in hands-on learning opportunities by the time they graduate.
UTSA also is making sure students are job ready — no matter their degree — by introducing microcredentials directly into degree program or coursework. For example, the Coursera Google Project Management Certificate Program, which is provided free to students in select humanities courses, trains students to manage projects using traditional and agile methods, and to communicate strategically. As an Adobe Creative Campus, UTSA emphasizes digital technology literacy through the use of Creative Cloud tools to ensure all students are well prepared in the modern workforce.
TOP UTSA DEGREE AREAS
1. Health and Life Sciences
2. Cybersecurity and Computer Science
3. Management
For More Information
Jason Hassay
UTSA Government Relations
o: 210.458.5102
m: 512.413.9598
jason.hassay@utsa.edu
Albert Carrisalez
UTSA Government Relations
o: 210.458.5138
m: 210.452.7557
albert.carrisalez@utsa.edu
Updated October 18, 2024
CREATING CAREER-READY GRADUATES
Aligning Academic Programs to Workforce Needs
UTSA is preparing its students for their chosen careers — and building economic and social prosperity — by aligning academics with workforce needs in San Antonio and Texas. These efforts to boost return on investment for degreeseeking students are seeing results: UTSA ranks No. 2 out of 34 institutions in Texas for “Top Performers in Social Mobility” and No. 33 out of 439 schools nationally in U.S. News and World Report’s 2023 rankings.
» UTSA is a national exemplar with its award-winning cybersecurity-related degree programs, supported by the Alvarez College of Business, College of Sciences and other areas.
» The top growth employment sector is health. In 2020, UTSA launched the College for Health, Community and Policy to prepare students to pursue careers in modern healthcare settings.
» The new School of Public Health, a collaboration of UTSA and UT Health San Antonio, will address pressing community health challenges and prepare the next generation of public health professionals.
» San Antonio has a large concentration of architecture, engineering and construction firms working in integrated design and delivery contexts. The Klesse College for Engineering and Integrated Design, launched in 2021, connects academic programs to leverage synergies and better prepare students for the modern workforce.
» The new School of Data Science is a cornerstone in UTSA’s long-term plan to inspire and prepare a generation of diverse data scientists who can make the world more equitable, informed, and secure — right in the center of San Antonio.
» For the benefit of working professionals looking to broaden their skillsets and advance their careers, UTSA now offers several fully online degree programs — including the B.B.A. in Cybersecurity and M.S. in Facility Management.
HIGHLIGHT
Harvey E. Najim Center for Innovation and Career Advancement
The Najim Center serves as a hub for UTSA students in all majors to develop intentional pathways to careers by offering a host of experiential learning opportunities to hone career readiness. Students gain students direct experience with issues affecting their community and knowledge on how to connect that back to their classroom studies.
The center’s signature program is the Najim Strategist program, which is open to undergraduate and graduate students across all majors and disciplines. Najim Strategists work in small, interdisciplinary groups on a project in partnership with a local business. Combining classroom knowledge with on-the-job learning, the students conduct field research and develop inventive, viable solutions to challenges facing their partnering organization.
The Najim Center plans to offer 10 projects each fall and spring semester as it continues building partnerships with more San Antonio organizations.
