his article is aimed at career services advisors who are looking to transition from offline and website based careers services programmes and award initiatives to an integrated online experience. These include the following opportunities:
• Career-readiness awards
• Study abroad
• Online certificate courses
• Online courses and diplomas
• Workplace skills programmes
There are a number of reasons why you might want to move your offline and website based programmes to online platforms. First of all, you can encourage students to research career opportunities on their own initiative. Secondly, you can provide a more integrated learning experience by having the various parts of the programme all in one place.
Taking a blended approach helps you to focus on student learning and engagement. Using online content means that you can more easily align your award programmes with industry standards.
The benefits of moving online are considerable, but there are also some issues that you need to consider. For example, how do you make sure that everyone is accessing the materials? And how do you ensure that the students complete all of the components of the qualification? Ensuring quality control is an important step in any successful programme delivery programme.
Disadvantages of running career services programmes offline
If you are interested in moving your programmes to online platforms, you may find out that there are disadvantages of running them offline. These include the following:
• There is no opportunity for students to connect with each other while on courses.
• Students may feel that they have less flexibility, such as the ability to start and end the programme at different times.
• Students may be unwilling to commit to a course or course length on the basis of a single face-to-face interview.
• Assessments can be more costly and complicated – for example, if you are running an award programme, students may need to submit projects rather than a simple assignment.
• You may need to employ more staff.
The advantages of running career services programmes online
You will find that students are much more willing to attend online programmes, particularly if you are able to provide them with an integrated experience. Here are some key advantages of running online and integrated programmes:
• You can encourage students to research career opportunities on their own initiative by providing them with access to careers information at their leisure, whenever is convenient for them. This is particularly important if you are running a programme which is potentially credit-bearing, which students do not want to miss out on, such as a study abroad programme.
• Students can receive multiple pieces of information from their career advisor in the one location. This means that if they want to, they can go back and review parts of the advice at any time.
• Students can network with each other online and listen in on discussions with the knowledge that there will be no interruptions or distractions due to other students coming into the room. They can also discuss questions with other students directly via chat rooms over a longer period of time than would be possible in a face-to-face conversation.
• Online programmes are a great way for students who do not live near you to experience all the benefits of your programme, without having to travel all the way to your campus.
• You can allow students to log in securely at any time and from anywhere in the world, so long as they have an internet connection.
How Potential.ly helps career services deliver employability happily ever after
What is Potential.ly?
Potential.ly is a career services platform that combines the best aspects of online and offline programmes, so you can give your students the confidence to succeed in their future careers by providing them with a highly engaging and interactive experience which is easily integrated into your current career services programme.
By hosting programmes on Potential.ly, you can roll out awards, study abroad and digital skills programmes to thousands of students at your University with each student receiving their own personalised learning journey and feedback reports.
Universities who host their award programmes on Potential.ly typically see student enrolments go from 500 signups to 2000+ signups with a highly successful completion rate.
How Potential.ly makes it easy to manage careers services programmes
Potential.ly's intuitive editor combines the best elements of tools you already use so it instantly feels familiar saving time on training staff to use a new system. Adding resources to the platform and then organising takes a few moments and you can have a fully functional workspace up and running in no time.
Employability Awards
Employability Awards are our Bread and Butter: We save you time and effort in delivering highly engaging programmes to thousands of students.
Potential.ly supports any component of delivering an award online:
- Understanding yourself… playlists on psychometrics/ skills audits
- Attending events online/offiline
- Demonstrating skills and graduate attribute development
- Digital skills development
- Learn career readiness skills
- Evidencing volunteering or work experience
Skills audits
Skills audits are surveys that have been designed to help students discover their interests, strengths and how they relate to the skills employers are looking for. Skills audits make it easy for students to get started on discovering their interests and how these areas fit together into a strong career. Many students find that completing a skills audit is really helpful in making the shift from school to further study or work.
Skills audits are ideal starting points for students and they are also extremely useful for career advisors! By having a skills audit on the platform, you can:
• Find out what your students' strengths are.
• Easily identify if a student has the skills employers are looking for.
• Provide students with a clear idea of where they can enhance their employability.
• Connect your students with relevant opportunities based on their own skills portfolio.
If you are interested in learning more about how Potential.ly's platform can help you improve your institutions online transition, schedule a meeting with us. We would love to hear from you!
Tags: Potential.ly, skills audit, eligibility requirements, Continued learning, continued education, continuing professional development, career planning program, career services, careers professionals
Image credit: “image: Freepik.com”. This cover has been designed using resources from Freepik.com
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