Time for Students to Take the Stage: Improving Career Readiness via a Deliberate-Practice Case Pedagogy

Abstract:What skills do supply chain students need to be career ready? The answer: Critical thinking, communication, collaboration, and professionalism. Regrettably, recruiters lament today's graduates too often lack these core skills. Worse, declining student learning and diminished engagement, especially post-pandemic, are undermining the value of a supply chain education. To help close the supply chain skills gap and re-engage students, we describe a deliberate-practice case pedagogy. We begin by reviewing the pros and cons of various case pedagogies to highlight how they might fit in a professor's case-teaching portfolio. We then discuss deliberate practice and show how professors can embed it into a student-led case pedagogy. We conclude by sharing post-graduation student feedback that shows this approach not only closes career-readiness gaps but also helps students build the confidence needed to achieve early career success.