The Ashland University Career Services Center (CSC) is currently hosting a series of workshops and presentations deemed “webinars,” that will cover a wide range of topics that are relevant to graduating seniors today, according to CSC Executive Director Diana Burns.

Burns said the Grad Career Webinar series is being held in partnership with TalentMarks, a firm dedicated to providing career coaching to recent college graduates and alumni.

According to a press release from TalentMarks, the eight webinars being offered will feature nationally known authors and experts speaking on career planning, network building and using LinkedIn and Facebook to find jobs, among other topics.

The series started March 30 with a webinar on building a mentoring network.

Since then, a webinar on LinkedIn was held April 6 and a session on behavior styles in interviews was held April 13.

Burns said the topics and dates were chosen by TalentMarks.

“We would like to have offered the series earlier, but we had to work with their schedule,” Burns said.

Burns noted that the series will continue every Wednesday from 3-4:30 p.m. in the Career Services Resources room in the Student Center.

All students, alumni, faculty and staff are welcome to attend the webinars, she said.

“It is our hope that students and alumni will take away new ways to market themselves while job searching and new methods for conducting their search,” Burns said.

The press release cited a 2009 survey from the National Association of Colleges and Employers, which reported that only 19.7 percent of the 2009 graduates who applied for a job had one by the time they graduated.

The National Association of College and Employer Association’s spring 2010 survey reported employers planned to hire only 5.3 percent more new college graduates than they did the previous year.

It is the CSC and TalentMarks’ hope to provide graduates with the necessary tools to succeed in a limited job market, according to the release.

Future webinars will feature sessions on Twitter, listening skills, networking for those afraid of it, getting one’s career prospects into shape and learning how to be successful in an uncertain career environment.