The purpose of the Capstone Project in the Career Success Specialization is for you to apply the methods and techniques you learned in the series of courses to a personal experience, giving you a way to communicate your value to potential employers. You’ll focus your communication, management, negotiation, problem solving, business writing, time management, finance, entrepreneurship, and project management skills into a single project that demonstrates your career readiness.
Upon completing this course, you will be able to:
1. Apply the methods, techniques and skills you have learned throughout the Specialization to add value, every day, to your organization by effectively gathering, synthesizing, analyzing and presenting information
2. Develop and hone your critical thinking skills as you evaluate ideas, concepts, approaches and assumptions to arrive at a practical, yet innovative, solution to an organizational problem
3. Learn to skillfully use a powerful strategic planning tool
4. Effectively communicate information, ideas, problems and solutions to senior-level decision makers
Overview
Syllabus
- Capstone Project Assignment
- Welcome to the Career Success Capstone course! This week you will review the directions for the assignment and begin researching a business to evaluate using the knowledge and skills acquired throughout the coursework in the Career Success Specialization.
- Week 2 Progress Check
- In Week 2, you will conduct a SWOT analysis to better understand and describe the organization, its resources and its environment.
- Week 3 Progress Check
- In Weeks 3 and 4, you will use your SWOT matrix, created in Week 2, to write your SWOT Analysis Report. You will select and focus on one specific people- or process-related current problem (identified as a weakness or threat through the SWOT analysis you have conducted) facing the organization that would be of personal and professional interest to you; develop a detailed analysis of the problem, including affected stakeholders and impact; explore options; and select and write about a viable solution to the problem.
- (Optional) Project Peer Feedback
- You have the optional opportunity to submit a draft of your project for Peer Feedback. You can also self-evaluate your project draft to see how you would do on the grading rubric and identify areas to improve.
- Final Assignment Submission and Graded Peer Review
- Submit your Final Capstone Project and Peer Review the projects of 3 classmates.
- Specialization Wrap-Up
- Congratulations on making it to the end of the Career Success Capstone and Specialization! Make sure you have submitted your Final Project and completed your 3 required Peer Reviews well before the final deadline.
Taught by
Margaret Meloni, Dave Nagy, Patricia Bravo, MBA, SPHR , David Standen, Rob Stone and Sue Robins, M.S. Ed.
