Online platform further enhances students’ access to best careers advice

As part of the College’s comprehensive Careers Programme, the Student Development Team use the latest and most intuitive digital software to help students plan, organise and keep on top of their career and life goals.

Unifrog allows students and tutors to collaborate on each individual’s career plan; parents also have access to the platform enabling them to support their sons and daughters with their career research.

Unifrog is a digital hub of university and apprenticeship opportunities, and students can use the software to store essential documents such as CVs, build a portfolio of skills and experience for their university (UCAS) and apprenticeship applications, and start to plan how best to promote themselves to open doors for their careers.

What used to be a collection of papers and thoughts is now an online store that not only helps students accumulate their crucial information but also offers guidance on how to go about choosing their path.

Jobs and career suggestions based upon students’ favoured subjects and activities are supplemented with up to date labour market information such as how many jobs in the field are available in a given area, meaning that each student has a bespoke experience and all the information required is at hand.

Tutors have access to the students’ information and can then offer best advice based on the portfolio within Unifrog to help each students achieve their aspirational targets.

The interactive online platform that Unifrog offers between tutor and student has also revolutionised the process of the students writing their personal statements for UCAS applications, where they must sell themselves to universities and explain why they are both dedicated to and suited to the chosen course.

The statements are an ongoing, iterative process, with edits and amendments naturally evolving over time, so the ability for the tutor to overlook students’ progress and advise on content and sculpture of the statement digitally has proved invaluable to both parties.

Head of Student Development and Careers Programme Leader, Jo Wood, said: “Unifrog has become central to the way we support our students with their career planning. Young people invest heavily in higher education and it’s therefore vital that students progressing to university have done their research properly – the same applies for degree and higher apprenticeship opportunities which are highly competitive and sought after. It’s our mission to ensure that all of our students, no matter what their background, have access to the best careers advice - and Unifrog is fundamental in enabling us to achieve this goal.”

Along with weekly tutorial sessions, one-to-one meetings and ad hoc guidance from the tutors, students are also able to access expert careers advice from the specialist tutors in the Careers Clinic every Friday lunchtime. No appointment is necessary and students can drop in to ask any number of questions and receive help based on their own personal situation.

Jo said: “The Careers Clinic offers students the opportunity to meet with one of our advisers on a drop-in basis. As well as offering support such as CV writing, applications and interview guidance, advisers are currently planning a programme of sessions informed by local labour market information – this will enable our students to learn more about growth areas in our local economy and help them to make more informed decisions about their next steps.”