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By Chelsea Collins

AMERICUS – Georgia Southwestern State University has a new career-planning platform for students, Steppingblocks, that provides additional career counseling services and connects them to information about graduates and alumni in the field they want to work in.

The University System of Georgia (USG) provided Steppingblocks to its 26 public colleges and universities to help students with specific job services and career guidance including potential degrees to pursue, job opportunities and salary ranges based on a student’s interests.

“The Career Resource Planning Platform is the most comprehensive career tool USG has ever offered, and it will be the foundation for future career and workforce development initiatives being created within the university system and across Georgia,” USG Chancellor Sonny Perdue said. “As we prioritize affordability, efficiency and degree attainment, our ongoing work to serve workforce development needs furthers our goals and sets the stage for our graduates’ prosperity and success.”

GSW students can access Steppingblocks anytime through their myGSW account. By completing a short personality quiz within Digital Career Counselor, students are given recommendations for majors and career paths that best fit their personalities. Additionally, they can find which companies GSW alumni work for, their average salaries and the potential majors and specific skills necessary to succeed in those career fields.

Within Steppingblocks, GSW can also access insight about alumni placement through Graduate Insights such as major trends, top employers of graduates, top positions held by graduates, and high-demand skills.

“We are excited to have the new Steppingblocks tool that will help our students with their career planning goals,” said David Jenkins, EdD, director of First-Year Experience. “Through a personalized career assessment, students will be able to select an academic path that best fits their future career goals.”

The software used by Steppingblocks to power the platform collects, organizes and analyzes demographic, education and employment data from hundreds of different sources such as online profiles, job postings, public salary databases, public filings, company firmographic databases and government sources such as the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.