Career centers and needs assessments: Getting the information you need to increase your success

Career Centers are experiencing increasing demands to justify the cost of t heir services, document the effectiveness of their services, increase their use of technology, and provide a broader range of services. Given the limi ted personnel and funding associated with most Career Centers, and it can s eem like an overwhelming set of demands to respond to. This article explore s the use of the needs assessment as a tool to provide evidence of Effectiv eness, justify costs, and make Effective decisions about the services they provide. This article will discuss the benefits of conducting a needs asses sment, the process of developing and implementing a needs assessment. using an needs assessment project conducted at a small, mid-western University.