SIGUCCS Academy Sessions in Student Supervision: Developing Career-Ready Student Teams

This series is designed to progressively develop your ability to manage, train, and empower student IT workers while fostering their career readiness. Each session builds on the last, creating a comprehensive framework for success.

Session 1: Crafting Career-Ready Student Tech Gurus

Instructors – Amy Kullgren and Tom Bohlke

Headshot of Instructor Amy Kullgren

We begin by exploring how to prepare student employees for career readiness while improving institutional IT services. Participants will explore NACE Career Readiness Competencies, Gen Z learning styles, Cognitive Load Theory, and chunked training methods to address skill gaps and improve student development. Through discussion and hands-on activities, participants will:

  • Assess student workers’ career readiness and learn how to design tools like handbooks and chunked training resources to support development.
  • Learn strategies to implement certification opportunities that increase engagement, retention, and career readiness.
  • Develop techniques to empower student workers as valuable contributors who enhance IT services and support the campus community.

Session 2: Leveraging LinkedIn Learning for Student Training

Instructor – Karl Owens

Headshot of instructor Karl Owens

The second session focuses on how to leverage LinkedIn Learning to build your own formal training program. For busy student worker supervisors, balancing the need to provide consistent and effective formal training to student employees with other responsibilities can be difficult. LinkedIn Learning offers a practical solution with its professional-quality training resources, covering both soft skills like customer service and professionalism, and technical skills such as hardware, software, and network services. Additionally, many public libraries and institutional partnerships provide access to LinkedIn Learning, making it an affordable and accessible option for supervisors.

  • Through demonstrations and hands-on activities, participants will:
  • Learn strategies for selecting relevant LinkedIn Learning content to meet both technical and soft skill training needs.
  • Explore how to build tailored training programs using LinkedIn Learning tools to address student worker development needs.
  • Develop strategies to implement and scale LinkedIn Learning programs for flexible, accessible training delivery.
  • Gain practical guidance on creating custom training modules to fill gaps not covered by existing resources.

Session 3: Fun and Frames: Play-Based Project Management for Student Employees

Instructor – Reagan Chesnut

Headshot of instructor Reagan Chestnut

In the final session, participants will explore how play-based training provides an engaging and immersive complement to formal LinkedIn Learning or LMS-based content and is well suited to introduce skills like project management to beginners. Many student workers start with routine tasks, but as they gain experience, they are often ready to take on responsibilities like peer management, independent work, or team collaboration. Play-based methods create low-stakes, real-world scenarios where students can practice and develop skill in delegation, prioritization, and collaboration while gaining confidence in their abilities. Skill development in these areas enables student employees to confidently tackle complex responsibilities, making them highly effective contributors to IT teams and future workplaces.

Through guided demonstrations and discussions, participants will:

  • Discover play-based activities like “Project Acornaut,” “Soup / Salad / Sandwich,” and “Delegation Poker” to teach project management skills interactively.
  • Learn strategies to foster student engagement and full participation in training sessions.
  • Explore how to transition skills from play-based training into meaningful contributions to departmental projects.