Effects of Transferable Skills Workshops on the Career Self-Efficacy of College Student-Athletes

Abstract

This study was designed to investigate the effects of two types of transferable skills workshops on the career self-efficacy of intercollegiate student-athletes. Participants were 79 college student-athletes (45 males [30 football players and 15 basketball players] and 34 females [14 softball players and 20 soccer players]) enrolled at a small NCAA Division III institution. Student-athletes (N=79) were randomly assigned to one of three conditions: (a) a control condition that involved viewing a video on sports nutrition, (b) an unaugmented transferable skills workshop that was based on the model suggested by Petitpas and Schwartz (1989), and (c) an augmented transferable skills workshop similar to the unaugmented workshop but including completion of a self-report inventory designed to help athletes identify sport-related skills that can transfer to other domains. All participants completed the Career Decision Self-Efficacy Short-Form (COSE-SF; Betz & Taylor, 200 I) before and after the workshops. Analyses of covariance (ANCOVAs) with COSE-SF pretest scores as a covariate revealed that the augmented transferable skills workshop produced significantly greater increases in career self-efficacy than the unaugmented transferable skills workshop and the control condition. Paired samples t-tests indicated that both transferable skills workshops, but not the control condition, produced statistically significant gains in career self-efficacy. The results suggest that both transferable skills workshops can have a positive influence on the career self-efficacy of student-athletes and that a standardized transferable skills inventory can be a helpful tool in enhancing the ability of student-athletes to identify transferable skills that can increase their career self-efficacy. The career self-efficacy level of student-athletes who participated in the transferable skills workshops increased significantly compared to that of the control group. In addition, participants who completed the TSI as part of their transferable skills workshop showed higher levels of career self-efficacy than student-athletes who did not complete the TSI.