Within an ever-evolving society, the social environment within the workplace continues to be an arena of conflict between currently held professional decorum and the up and coming trends of a laid-back popular culture. Increasing numbers of under-prepared students are exhibiting unprofessional behavior and skills while searching for employment. For example, a student may feel it is acceptable to send a text message or answer a call while in an interview, while someone who has been properly prepared would know that this is inappropriate in such a setting.

Faculty perceive that student coursework is aimed at preparing the student for successful employment following completion of a degree. As such, the skills obtained during higher education are meant to foster an increased degree of professionalism compared to solely relying upon a secondary education.

A great deal of evidence indicates that professionalism courses involving hands-on learning positively effect student sense of responsibility to display professional behavior within the workforce. This approach in particular has also been shown to increase student rate of learning. A substantial amount of research supports the idea that career education assists in landing a desired job.

This research study proposes that under-prepared students who complete hands-on activities to practice professionalism in the classroom will be as successful as, or more successful than, those who do not take a career education course. It is proposed that this increase is due to students’ greater awareness of proper practical applications of professionalism as well as finding better-suited opportunities in correlation to their particular skills gained within higher education. Specifically, the study will focus on the use of hands-on learning as a way to make the course’s objectives more durable and concrete, since the majority of under prepared learners show substantial benefits through utilizing this approach.