Student employability investment and measuring program · BE-EDGE For educators
Your graduates now compete with AI and a global remote workforce. Help them craft their edge, and measure it while they are still yours.
An annual subscription that takes every student along one research-based route, from a clear professional CORE to a portfolio of stepping-stone projects with real companies. Your institution receives employability data by program, by year of study and by cohort.
The future of work has already arrived for your graduates
Diploma and certificates are the entry ticket. They no longer decide who gets chosen.
of workers’ core skills are expected to change by 2030. Employers expect 170 million roles to be created and 92 million displaced.
World Economic Forum, Future of Jobs Report 2025relative decline in employment for 22–25-year-olds in the occupations most exposed to AI, while more experienced workers in the same jobs held steady.
Brynjolfsson, Chandar & Chen, Stanford Digital Economy Lab, 2025Remote work turned every entry-level opening into a global competition. Your graduate is compared with talent from dozens of countries, often at a lower cost.
BE-EDGE Center for Global Talents, FAQ #6Graduates who wait to be placed into a job compete on price. Graduates who craft their edge and prove it with projects compete on value.
Craft an edge that AI and a cheaper remote hire cannot copy
Students turn their unique mix of background, disciplines and experience into a professional CORE, then empower it with stepping-stone projects for companies in the industry they target.
- Clarity: a value proposition for the next professional move
- Proof: a consulting case and report for a real company
- Voice: signals that make employers want to meet them
Measure employability as an investment, not a single outcome
Every step a student takes is scored, saved and aggregated. You see which programs and which years build which capital, where students get stuck, and what to change in the curriculum.
- By program, year in college, cohort and student group
- Leading indicators each semester, not one lagging number a year later
- Evidence for accreditation, boards, donors and rankings narratives
What it gives students and their instructors
Portfolio of consulting cases (C-cases): practice, recognition, publication and proof.
Consulting cases (C-cases) students build on the route is real work for real companies, meamingful to their career choices. It can also enter an international competition and go to peer review, so it counts in industry and in academia.
A portfolio that speaks for them before the interview
- A clear professional CORE they can explain in one message
- A stepping-stone project with a company in the industry they target
- A competition entry in the international Making Your Consulting Case (MYCC) competition
- A path to a peer-reviewed publication, rare on a graduate’s CV
- Connections earned through the case, not cold applications
Problem-solving turns into scholarship
- Ready assignments and rubrics; the AI agent gives first-round feedback and support for students
- Industry experience and live C-cases, brought to a classroom
- The role of a mentor for consulting cases, submitted to the MYCC competition
- Co-authorship for peer-reviewed publications that counts for scholarship
- Industry ties that lead to partnerships and guest speakers arrangements
From a class project to a published case
- ChoiceStudent makes a roadmap
of c-cases as stepping-stones for their career journey.
- PracticeStudent builds a c-case
for a chosen company, with an instructors as mentor.
- CompetitionMYCC international competition
c-cases compete with entries from partner schools across countries.
- Publication = LegitimacyA credential that travels
strong cases can be submitted for double-blind review. Recognized where evidence and rigor decide who gets hired.
How it works · The BE-EDGE route
One straight line. Detours when a student needs them.
Each student follows the same evidence-based sequence in the Employability Investment Lab, with an AI agent scoring every investment. Where a student is not ready to pass a checkpoint, a detour helps: a diagnostic test, a course, a guide, or a live consulting event.
Students experience the route as a climb, with camps, badges and a capital bank. See the student map →
Hear it from the author
Why students must invest in their edge, not wait to be placed
Dr. Ivy explains the thinking behind the route: how students turn a multidimensional background into a CORE, and why a stepping-stone case for a chosen company is the strongest proof of employability.
Employability Investment Report
Stop waiting six months to get employability data your college needs now.
The first-destination rate remains a useful lagging outcome. Alone, it is too late, too coarse for the current reality, and too detached from teaching and program services to guide decisions. BE-EDGE adds the predictive indicators: how much each student invests in employability capital that research links to sustainable career success.
| “Employed within 6 months” | Employability Investment Report | |
|---|---|---|
| When you know | Six months or more after students have left | Every semester, from first year to graduation |
| What it counts | A job at the moment, even if it disappears within a month or the graduate changes positioning in the market | Investments in personal, social, professional and impression capital over time |
| Where data comes from | Surveys with incomplete responses | Students’ competitiveness in gaining jobs and projects of their choice |
| Can you act on it? | No action possible once the cohort has graduated | Action by program, year, cohort and student group |
| Explains why | No explanation behind the number | Which capital is weak and at which checkpoint students get stuck |
| View of the future of work | A job that exists and a graduate who must fit it | A graduate who creates a place by proving value to a chosen employer |
Research supports the shift. Employability is a process of identity construction, not a possession at graduation (Zhang et al., 2023). The view of employability as the ability to obtain and maintain a job has become obsolete, as graduates face multiple and more frequent occupational transitions (Lo Presti et al., 2021). Employability has changed from support for individuals looking for a job into a competitive edge that individuals need to enter and navigate their professional lives (Grosemans et al., 2023). The time to identify the edge is before graduation: across 11 years and 12 programs, students described their consulting cases as investments in employability capital (Ivy, 2024).
Your report, every semester
Average capital scores (0–100) and route completion
Annual subscription · per institution
Two levels. Five sizes. A quote for your program.
Choose the straight line for every student, or the full route with every detour. Tell us the size and shape of your program, and Dr. Ivy will send a quote to your email.
Base · The straight line
- A seat in the Employability Investment Lab for every student, with the AI agent
- The full route: Ready check, MY CORE, CASE, CONSULTING, SIGNALS, MY EDGE
- Rubric scoring of every investment across the four capitals
- A saved portfolio of deliverables for each student
- Institutional dashboard and semester Employability Investment Report
- Staff onboarding and a virtual kickoff keynote by Dr. Ivy
Full · Line + all detours
Everything in Base, plus- Diagnostic tests for each step for student awereness
- Courses and guides for each step to support students and instructors
- BE-EDGE team help at checkpoints and a ConsultPro guide
- Seats in the IMPACT Consult-a-thon® for your students
- Entry to the international MYCC C-Case Competition and a path to publication
- EDGE Master track to train your staff and senior students as tutors
- Annual research brief, faculty workshop and co-publication opportunity
Annual subscriptions, billed per academic year. Reduced pricing for universities in emerging markets. Invoicing in USD or EUR.
Any subscription, three ways to run it
Fit it to your institution, not the other way round.
Extra-curricular
Offered through the career center, a student club or directed study. Students join on their own schedule; you still receive the report.
One distinguished group
Honors students, international students, career changers, veterans. Tailored to the group, with joint research on its employability.
Inside the curriculum
A gate course, a midterm project and a capstone carry the route, as in the MS in International Management where BE-EDGE began.
Fit call
30-min with Dr. Ivy to choose the programs, the level and the format, and to agree which questions your report should answer.
Faculty workshop and student keynote
“Become an investor in your own edge” for students, and a buy-in workshop where faculty and staff shape the pilot.
Founding Partner Pilot, then scale
One cohort of up to 50 students for one semester gives you a baseline report. Five places; pilot fee is credited to the annual subscription, with no obligation to continue.
Built on research
Traditionally, educators prepared students to fit jobs. The future of work rewards graduates who can create their own place in it.
Julia Ivy, Ph.D. Psychology and Ph.D. Management, Executive Professor of Strategy and International Business, designed BE-EDGE from two research programs: how young adults make significant choices (“I should,” “I would,” “I wouldn’t”), and how newcomers build social capital in low-trust markets.
Author of Crafting Your Edge for Today’s Job Market (Emerald, 2019) and “Making Your Consulting Case as a Tool for Employability Investments” (IJBMR, 2024).
Questions educators ask
Before you decide: frequently asked questions
Does this replace our career center?
No. It gives the career center a method and a pipeline of students who arrive with a CORE, a case and a portfolio. Advisors spend their time on strategy, not on first drafts.
How much faculty time does it take?
Base runs without faculty involvement. In the Integrated format, faculty use ready assignments and rubrics; the AI agent gives first-round feedback on every submission.
Who owns the data?
Students own their portfolios. The university receives aggregated reports by program, year and group. Students may use a pseudonym; we sign a data agreement aligned with FERPA and GDPR before launch.
Where do the companies for cases come from?
Students choose companies in the industry they target. The Full level adds BE-EDGE partner companies through the Consult-a-thon® and the MYCC competition network.
How is the AI agent used?
It coaches and scores against BE-EDGE rubrics. It does not write the deliverables. Students coach the agent on their goals, so the work stays theirs.
Should we still measure the employment rate after graduation?
Yes. Accreditors, rankings and governments still ask for it. The Employability Investment Report adds what that number cannot show: predictive indicators, collected while students are still enrolled, that point to the programs and student groups needing support before graduation.
Let’s make your case for the future of work.
Start with one program and one semester. You will see your students’ employability investment before the next cohort graduates.
julia.ivy@be-edge.com · info@be-edge.com · +1 617-949-0040
About the BE-EDGE student employability program
Graduates enter the future of work facing a “what’s next?” question that a degree alone no longer answers. They compete with AI and with a global remote workforce, and the traditional advice to “fit the job” makes them one of many. The BE-EDGE student employability program offers another strategy: craft the edge. Students elucidate their professional CORE, develop trust with a company in the industry they target, generate value through a consulting case, and excite the market with their voice. This quadruple investment in personal, social, professional and impression capital builds Boutique Employability, a competitive edge that is hard to imitate. Students work in the Employability Investment Lab, where an AI agent scores each investment and educators see the data by program and year of study. Strong cases enter the international MYCC competition. For educators, the program turns career readiness from a service at the end of studies into a strategy students own from the start.