AI-Assisted Career Preparation and Skill Gap Awareness: A Retrospective Pretest-Posttest Study

This study explores the effectiveness of an AI-enabled career preparation platform in enhancing undergraduate students’ awareness of their career readiness and skill development. The research was conducted within a localized context at a comprehensive university in Singapore, introduced as part of a career-preparation exercise for internship exploration and selection, allowing students to self-assess their current competencies and identify gaps vis-à-vis industry requirements. Students first evaluate their perceived knowledge of their skills and the deficiencies they need to address. This platform leverages artificial intelligence to help students profile their skills and discover tailored internship opportunities. By uploading their resumes, students receive a personalized skills profile identifying their relevant competencies. The platform then suggests potential career roles and automatically shows skills for development. Using a retrospective pretest-posttest survey with Likert-scale responses, statistical tests revealed significant improvements across all measured areas. The platform was further assessed across two constructs with high internal consistency, reflecting strong user engagement and satisfaction. Lastly, we highlight the potential of AI-driven tools in supporting student career preparedness and offer insights for further platform improvements. The findings from this study are not assumed to generalize directly to other institutional, cultural, or national settings, but instead offer initial context-specific indications of how such tools may support students’ perceived skill awareness and career planning.