Professional Enrichment

Welcome to Professional Enrichment

The Professional Enrichment (PE) program at the Cotsakos College of Business is designed to prepare and transition students for a highly competitive and demanding twenty-first century job market. Our Professional Enrichment Program is a degree requirement for business majors, including economics. The program was re-launched with incoming freshmen in the fall semester of 2022.

Desired Outcomes and Design of the PE Program

The desired outcome of the CCOB PE program is to improve the career readiness of CCOB graduates and have a majority of CCOB graduates perceived by the business community as job-market ready in terms of their soft skills. The program is designed to provide business majors with access to personal and professional development opportunities so that they graduate ready to perform to employers’ expectations in a variety of entry- and middle-level administrative and management positions.

Through the program, CCOB majors will:

Identify career opportunities and develop career and professional development plans
Enhance their personal responsibility, and collaboration, networking, interpersonal, technology, and communication skills
Gain experience as leaders and team members in group initiatives
Develop balance and resilience
Develop the foundation for lifelong learning.

Guiding Principles

The PE program is a co-curricular requirement for CCOB majors.
Individual parts of PE requirements can be waived at the request of the student’s advisor and with approval from the department chair.
The program includes a variety of PE activities from several “buckets” (see below) characterized by various features such as listening vs. observing vs. doing; duration and substantiveness.
Provide benchmarks for activities to be completed and outcomes to be achieved by specified timelines.
Require a reflection component for most PE experiences.

Yearly Program Goals

Year 1

Students successfully transition to William Paterson, develop a sense of belonging at the University, and prepare to meet the challenges they face here.

Year 2

Students become actively involved and socially integrated into the life of William Paterson.

Year 3

Students prepare and implement plans for a successful transition to their next steps as they continue to examine the world of work and assess the fit between their academic training, personality, abilities, and interests to determine career options.

Year 4