Building Professional Confidence in UTA Libraries Student Employees

UTA Libraries has invested in new training and leadership programs focused on building professional confidence that will help student employees succeed in careers beyond their work in the Libraries.

This initiative, which saw its first organization-wide session in January 2019, supports the Libraries’ overall strategic objectives to create leaders and facilitate the academic and professional success of UTA students and faculty.

“Our student employees bring so much to their roles,” said Rebecca Bichel, Dean for UTA Libraries. “We are committed to our responsibility not only to provide them a place to work while they are in school, but to help them expand their professional skill-sets for the leadership roles they will assume after graduation.”

Before UTA Libraries launched this program, however, a few full-time staff members received specialized training, says Kerri Ressl, Director of Organizational Excellence and Leadership Strategy.

“We want the student supervisors to feel empowered with decision-making and other service skills before asking them to guide their students,” Ressl said.

The primary goal of the new training program is simple: that student employees will demonstrate more confidence toward achieving professional success as a direct result of the training and leadership they receive while employed by UTA Libraries.

The more specific goal is to have at least 80% of student employees report an increase in professional confidence after they receive the new training. This is measured through a post-training assessment, which asks participants to report whether they feel more, less, or the same confidence in their professional skills like problem solving and customer service after the session.

“About 83% of the 88 student employees who attended our second organization-wide session reported an increase in professional confidence after receiving the training,” Ressl said. “We are happy that the training is resonating with our student employees and hope their confidence grows even more in their time with us.”

UTA Libraries continues to explore ways to deepen its training initiatives, both for student employees and full-time staff, with plans to launch additional programs in 2020.