Academic Advisor: A Necessity for Student Career Choice - Essay Sample

Introduction

The academic advisor industry is a growing one since many students are usually at a tight fix and in complete webs of confusion while coming up with a career choice. Students want to pursue their passions, hobbies, career choices together with what their parents want them to do all at the same time. The students need to gain a sense of belonging and academic self-concept (Curtin, Stewart, & Joan, 2013). This thus makes them perplexed and overwhelmed with their career choice when they join higher learning institutions. Students that have graduated from high school and the freshmen who have just joined colleges and universities are the main targets for the business enterprise.

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Firstly, I would prefer starting my business in Vermont State as it has a total of 194 universities both public and private which is the largest number compared to the other states. This state would form a good location for my business as the market segment is vast due to the many students joining the institutions of higher learning. This career choice is growing daily as many advisors are in need to steer students into the right career path. In the U.S, the industry is a competitor mainly to counselors. The market segmentation consists of students that are yet to graduate and those who have graduated from high school as well as freshmen who have already joined colleges and universities. Since market segmentations consist of a group of individuals who share one or more common attributes (Swecker, Fifolt, & Searby, 2013). Its trends are characterized to be of long-term frames as students joining universities and college are on an annual rate.

The business venture has great potential to grow because it is of great significance to students. Academic advisors are tasked to help students define and come up with plans in their educational career by scheduling their semester, help to advise first-year students during their orientation and give assistance in adjusting initially to the university. They also help in taking them through career days, creating linkages and reinforcements between the instructional program and the career choice that have been discussed, monitor the progress of their students, etc. Through these roles together with its location and my skills, the business has a great potential of prospering. The services are to deliver at the comfort of the office, through advertisements, school visitations, career talks, and social media, etc.

With any startups, risks are always incurred in one way or another. Legislative and policy risks associated with licensing and regulating the business that leads to high startup costs. Financial risks like lack of sufficient capital in starting the business that stalls the business idea from being implemented. Moreover, lack of a steady paycheck is a major issue since the peak seasons would be when the high school students have graduated and when the freshmen students have joined their respective institutions. Also, risks of operation when the cost of operations surpasses the estimated budget value of the business. This thus means that the venture is incurring losses instead of profits (Somers, 2013). Reputation risks are also incurred depending on the quality of services being offered in the business venture. Estimation of the popular interests in the student will also prove to be a risk since it can never be estimated accurately. People are somehow unpredictable.

An academic advisor would be vital in this community because there is a ready market with students who need guidance in their career choices. Even in the presence of my competitors including student counselors, psychologists, life coaches, mentors, and even teachers, it possible to build my enterprise into a reality. The business venture will work to develop the relationship between the academic advisor and the students, facilitation of decision making, identification of resources needed, problem-solving, and goal setting towards the advisee professional, personal, and academic interactions, (Swecker, Fifolt, & Searby, 2013). This serves as the opportunity of the franchise to interact with students from different backgrounds, with different career choices, and requiring different forms of advice and direction. It serves as the creation of a job opportunity for other academic advisors.

Information Needed to Begin the Business

The market size is large considering that there are about 194 higher education learning institutions in the area. This shows that the number of students is a lot and a large number of them require these services. It accounts for 62.9% six-year graduation rate for its students that averages with 56% in the nation (Somers, 2013). This thus shows that the rate of growth is gradual but high especially during peak season, as many students join these universities. It is also not predictable since students do not need these services throughout the whole year. However, the growth of any enterprise is measured by the quality of the services being offered by the professionals. The competitors include therapists, psychologists, mentors, life coaches, and teachers. All they serve students and give them advice with regards to their career choices as well as other related issues. During career days in schools, all the mentioned professionals are usually present to give ideas of the many courses found in higher learning institutions (Somers, 2013). These competitors encourage the academic advisors to be innovative, efficient in their work and to attract more customers' thus expanding, and bringing growth to the enterprise.

Annotated Bibliography

Swecker, H, Fifolt M., Searby L. (2013). Academic Advising and First Generation colleges' students: A Quantitative Study on Student Retention. Nacada Journal

The article talks about how advising is beneficial to the first generation students joining colleges. In academic advising, it establishes the functions of an academic advisor like decision making facilitation, resource identification, and problem-solving, etc.

Curtin N, Stewart A, Joan M. (2013). American Educational Research Journal: fostering academic self-concept. Sage Journals

The journal elaborates on the self-concept required by the student both international and domestic. It shows the relationship between academic self-concept, advisory support, and a sense of belonging. These students have a stronger sense of belonging through advisory support given by academic advisors. This helps them to possess academic self-concept.

Somers D. (2013). Best five steps to help your high-school student choose a career path.

Dixie elaborates the significance of academic advisor to high-school students like helping them discover their talents and interests, determining expectations and plans ahead, visiting career days. These career days ensure all professionals are present including psychologists, academic advisors, therapists, mentors, doctors, and engineers, etc.

Strayhorn T. (2015). Reframing academic advising for students' success; from advisor to the cultural navigator. NACADA Journal

The journal is about how society wants college students' success to be justified. It explains with the help of an academic advisor, the major results from learning in higher education together with learning that is integrated provides the measure of success in students. The success of these students is a critical goal in colleges and universities.

Taha K, (2012). Automatic academic advisor. IEEE Xplore digital library. Ieeexplore.ieee.org

This article elaborates on the issues faced by the academic advisor. The main problem is identifying the courses that suit best the interests of the student and their academic skills from the variety of elective courses. It also elaborates that people are unpredictable and have different desires.

Robbins R, Miller M. Ghanes J, Grites T. (2016). Beyond foundations: Developing as a master academic advisor. John Wiley and Sons.

The effectiveness of how higher education functions must be measured to explain how they affect the student's learning and development process. Therefore, assessment of academic advising is based on how its functions will be used to benefit the student in his/ her achievements, development, and outcomes of learning.

References

Curtin N, Stewart A, Joan M. (2013). American Educational Research Journal: fostering academic self-concept. Sage Journals

Somers D. (2013). Best five steps to help your high-school student choose a career path.

Swecker, H, Fifolt M., Searby L. (2013). Academic Advising and First Generation colleges' students: A Quantitative Study on Student Retention. Nacada Journal