Blueprint

Our award-winning education-to-career curriculum model supports our students' professional development — every student graduates with the knowledge, skills and network needed to excel in the workplace.

Two students sitting at a table
Preparing for your future

The Blueprint Model

Blueprint, our education-to-career model, is a 12-course series on professional development and personal finance. It’s the foundation of every business and design major, embedding career advising, student-employer interactions, and work-based learning into the student experience.

Your path to a meaningful career.

Students are introduced to an overview of business disciplines (e.g., accounting, marketing, management) and participate in career planning activities such as company visits and workshops with industry representatives. Each year, over 500 business professionals share their knowledge and experiences with our students.

A focus on transferable skills.

All 12 courses have a strong focus on work-based learning that helps develop transferable skills such as adaptability, teamwork, and communication - qualities that employers seek in any industry.

Launch a revenue-generating microenterprise in your first year, gain hands-on experience at a networking and business etiquette dinner in your second, participate in an ethics case competition in your third, and engage with company-sponsored academies focusing on in-demand industries in your fourth.

More than work skills, these are life skills.

With a strong emphasis on personal financial literacy, students learn about financial goal setting, budgeting, credit management, loan repayment, taxes, savings/investing, major purchases, salary/benefit negotiation and more.

Award-winning

Our breakthrough curricular model earned national recognition and funding from Strada Education Network.

From an employer

Soft skills are much harder skills to teach than the technical aspects of running a business. OSU students have extremely good communication and soft skills. It makes the OSU business students stand out.

Eric Nelson ‘84, president and CEO of Mutual of Enumclaw
Cutting edge

Redefining business education

Studies show that the demands for new workforce preparation are changing at a rate most four-year colleges cannot match. Simultaneously, retention and graduation rates are lagging. Students who do graduate increasingly finish college with debt, and the average student loan balance now exceeds $34,000. Only a third of college students today believe they will graduate prepared to be successful in the workplace, and just half believe their major will lead to a good job.

Our goal is that every OSU College of Business graduate is ready to make an immediate, meaningful impact. Our Blueprint model:

  1. Improves alignment between how we prepare our students for the workforce and what the workforce needs.
  2. Increases access, retention and graduation rates among all students regardless of their race/ethnicity, socioeconomic status, etc.
  3. Supports students as they transition into careers.
Students in a first-year Blueprint class

12 

12 courses over four years focus on personal, professional and leadership development.

100%

100% of OSU College of Business students participate in Blueprint. You'll graduate with the knowledge, skills and network you need to excel in the workplace.

450 

More than 450 employers recruit at the College of Business each year.

Sample courses

  • BA161/162, Awareness to Action and Ideas to Reality: earn real profits and navigate team dynamics while running a successful microenterprise with your peers
  • BA283, Creativity, Culture & the Workplace: reflect on your personal ideals in a workplace, discover the power diversity brings to a team and organization, and learn how to navigate difficult conversations effectively
  • BA284, Foundations of Personal Finance I: explore your money mindset, learn strategies to track expenses and budget, and plan your path to graduation
  • BA311, Framing Your Career Plan: create a plan for professional growth, participate in experiential learning within your industry, and practice articulating your ideas and experiences effectively during interviews
  • BA313, The Orange & Black Case Competition: engage in civil discourse and debate trending topics at the intersection of business, government, and society
  • BA411, Navigating Your Workplace: prepare for industry by analyzing job offers, practicing negotiation skills, and advocating for self and others at work
  • Professional financial literacy: job offers, salary negotiations and benefits
From a student

Not only did we get to create our own product, but we learned how to interview, how to create resumes, how to network at events and so many other important steps to succeeding in the business world.

Emma Zomerman

In partnership with:

 

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AACSC