Further Research on an Undergraduate Measure of Professional Development Engagement

Professional Development Engagement (PDE) refers to the level of undergraduate engagement in professional development. Professional Development (PD) involves activities designed to help students prepare for a successful college-to-work transition. This study tested a new 12-item measure of PDE for a complete-data sample of 246 undergraduate business students aggregated across the fall of 2013 and spring of 2014. The "did not use" response to an activity for each of the ten Career/Professional Development Center (CPDC) items in the PDE measure resulted in a surprisingly high aggregated loss of respondents (61%). Further investigation showed that students who never joined a student professional organization (SPO) had a higher "did not use" response percentage across these ten items versus students who had joined an SPO. Overall, the results support a reliable 12-item PDE scale.