BETTER CONNECTED!

Record and report on your entire careers programme using Start

User Guide for Start’s Interactions Package Version: November 2018 startprofile.com

Mock interviews Careers fairs

Workplace visits

Volunteering

Tutor time activity

One-to-one guidance

Start… is a free careers guidance platform, created by U-Explore and used by students and teachers in schools and colleges across the UK. Start offers a single starting point to help simplify and personalise access to the most comprehensive source of careers and future study information. Students follow a programme of e-learning activities aligned to their year group. Start therefore provides much needed support and structure, as well as a solution for supporting students from an early age and throughout their journey to make more informed decisions about their study choices and future career options.

We’ve developed a number of packages to help schools and colleges do more with Start – from saving time by bulk creating user logins to accessing student activity data to help on the journey to reach more Gatsby benchmarks.

About this guide. This guide has been produced to help schools and colleges learn more about our Interactions Package – a subscription package that can be switched on so that teachers and careers guidance professionals can use Start to record and report on all of the careers activities students take part in.

Andy Pickles Founder, U-Explore

 

So, what would you like to know? PART 1

1.   Why should I use it and how can it help? .................................................... 4

2.   Who can use it? ...................................................................................................... 6

3.   How do I access it? ............................................................................................... 6 PART 2

4.   How do I get started? .......................................................................................... 8

5.   How do I record a student’s involvement in careers activities? ........... 8

6.   How do I record notes of one-to-one guidance interviews? ............... 12

7.   How do I share records with students? ........................................................ 15

8.   How do I record and manage student destinations? .............................. 16

9.   How do I report on the information recorded? ........................................ 19

 

PART 1 Why should I use it and how can it help? The Interactions Package transforms Start from a careers information and advice platform for students to one that is also the “go to” place for teachers to record the wide range of careers-related activities students take part in.

The time students spend exploring and learning on Start makes up for only part of their careers programme each year – and whilst Start tracks and reports on this activity, schools have relied on other more traditional methods to record the events, talks, placements and programmes. We’ve always tried to make things easier for schools and one of the ways we do this is to bring everything in to one place. The Interactions Package now means that schools can evidence everything they do to support the career development of students on one platform. Having a centralised resource, which is accessible to all staff has many benefits – whether it’s planning to go further on your journey to achieving the Gatsby benchmarks or simply looking to bring some order and visibility to all the great work being done already. We’ve explored a few of these benefits below.

Mock interviews Careers fairs

Workplace visits

Volunteering

Enterprise activities

Work experience

Tutor time activity Curriculum activity

One-to-one guidance University visit

CV workshop

 

Engage with destination choices early. The Interactions Package allows schools to start building a database of intended destinations. The benefits of doing this early include collecting more detail than what is available in the published statistics and using this to plan interventions or prioritise certain students for personal guidance interviews. Keep records of the advice given to individual students. Keeping systematic records of personal guidance meetings with students contributes to the data schools have available to measure the impact of their careers provision, especially when cross-referenced to destinations data. Record and evidence encounters with employers and providers. There is enormous value of meaningful encounters with employers to a student’s short and long-term career development. The package can track the volume and breadth of experiences offered to students, including the involvement of FE, HE and apprenticeship providers in your careers programme. Share with students a record of their involvement in careers activities. The main benefit of having your system for recording careers activities as part of the same platform students are using to access careers information, is the ability to share these records. With every student registered on Start, you can easily push a record of activities and interviews in to their personal Locker. Track the support offered to specific groups of students. Students have different career guidance needs at different stages and some students will require additional support. Using the Interactions Package allows you to record and report on this support for groups such as SEND, FSM etc. Gather evidence to review and improve your careers programme. Many schools use Compass (developed by the Careers & Enterprise Company) to evaluate their careers programme and the data collected in our Interactions Package provides essential evidence. Equally, it complements the CEC’s Tracker tool by providing the all-important student level data.

 

Who can use it? The package can be used by all staff – making it a whole school solution and one that will capture the wide range of activities that contribute to a student’s career development. As well as being able to input information about activities, guidance interviews and destination choices; all staff will also be able to access the report. This will include all information inputted but exclude confidential or sensitive details.

Coming soon! You’ll be able to tag each activity you record with your school’s unique values, skills or characteristics.

How do I access it? The Interactions Package functionality and report are available exclusively in Teacher View on Start for subscribing customers.

 

Registered teachers will be able to access Teacher View and from here:

Ø   Record details of activities students have taken part in Ø   Record notes of careers guidance interviews Ø   Record and manage student post-16 and post-18 destination choices Ø   Create student groups e.g. tutor groups, pupil premium etc Ø   Access the report on interactions and destinations

Important: having all students registered on Start will ensure that they all appear in the pick lists when adding interactions. If you need help to bulk upload your students, please contact support@startprofile.com.

Support. PART 2 of this guide will show you how to use the Interactions Package with step-by-step instructions and helpful visuals. If you require any further support, however, you can contact our customer support team via support@startprofile.com or call 0113 2768080.

 

PART 2 – “How do I…?” Get started… Before you start, there are a couple of things worth bearing in mind:

Ø   having all students registered on Start will ensure that they all appear in the pick lists when adding interactions. If you need help to bulk upload your students, please contact support@startprofile.com; and

Ø   if you’re planning to record activities for specific groups of students (e.g. those accessing Free School Meals etc) then you should consider setting up these groups first using the ‘Manage Student Groups’ option from the Tools section in Teacher View.

Once you’re ready to start using your Interactions Package, simply log in at startprofile.com and everything you need is available on the left-hand side of the page in Teacher View.

1. Record a student’s involvement in careers activities. Step 1 – access the Student Interactions section

Click ‘Add or Edit Student Interactions’ from the Interactions box located in the left-hand panel on Teacher View.

 

Step 2 – add a New Interaction

Click the ‘Add New Interaction’ button in the Student Interactions box at the top of the page.

Step 3 – select the student(s) involved

For individual students: Start typing the student’s name in the ‘Who’ field (minimum 3 characters) and select the student you’re looking for from the list when it appears.

OR

For groups of students: Click the ‘Add Multiple’ button and follow the steps below. From the Select Multiple Students view, either search for the student names or use the ‘Student Groups’ or ‘Year Groups’ filters to update the list view.

 

With the list filtered, either select ‘Add All’ or click the plus icon next to each student you’d like to include.

The number of students selected (and therefore those that will be recorded against the careers activity) will show in the counter at the top of the page. When you’re ready, click the ‘Done’ button.

Step 4 – choose the type of activity

Using the ‘Type’ drop down box, select the type of careers activity you’d like to record. Then, complete the rest of the fields, including any Confidential Notes that will only be seen by you and not included in the reports.

 

Step 5 (Optional) – add a record to student Locker(s)

Once you’ve filled in the activity details, you can choose* to share a record of this activity with students by adding an entry to their Locker(s) on Start. Click the down arrow next to ‘Add to Student Locker’. *If you don’t want to, simply click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page

Fill in the details you’d like to share with students, tag the experience type, skills developed and optionally upload a file or link. When you’re done, click ‘Save’. Your record will be saved and student’s will have a new entry in their Locker.

Step 6 – view and edit Student Interactions

You can view and edit any records you (or other staff) create. Use the filters at the top of the View/Edit Student Interactions list and click ‘View Notes’ for your chosen record.

 

From here, you can view the record in full including (if relevant) any details shared with students via their Locker. If required, you can also edit details of the record and click ‘Save’ to update (NB – changing the information shared with students and clicking ‘Save’ will also update their Locker entry).

2. Record notes of one-to-one careers guidance interviews. Step 1 – access the One-to-One Guidance Notes section

Click ‘Add or Edit One-to-One Careers Guidance Notes’ from the Interactions box located in the left-hand panel on Teacher View.

 

Step 2 – add a New Note

Click the ‘Add New Note’ button in the One-to-One Careers Guidance Notes box at the top of the page.

Step 3 – select the student involved

Start typing the student’s name in the ‘Who’ field (minimum 3 characters) and select the student you’re looking for from the list when it appears.

Step 4 – make your notes

Next, complete the rest of the fields including any Confidential Notes that will only be seen by you and not included in the reports.

 

Step 5 (Optional) – add a record to student Locker(s)

Once you’ve made your notes, you can choose* to share a record of this one-to-one guidance meeting with students by adding an entry to their Locker on Start. Click the down arrow next to ‘Add to Student Locker’. *If you don’t want to, simply click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page Fill in the details you’d like to share with students (the Experience Type is pre-populated with ‘One-to-One Guidance Session) and upload a file or link if required.

Step 6 (Optional) – add student destination choices

If you have discussed post-16 or post-18 options during the meeting, you can record details here*. Click the down arrow next to ‘Add Student Destination’. For full details on how to complete this section, see ‘4. Record and manage student destinations’ below. *If you don’t want to, simply click ‘Save’ at the bottom of the page

 

Step 7 – view and edit Careers Guidance Notes

You can view and edit any notes you (or other staff) create. Use the filters at the top of the View/Edit Careers Guidance Notes list and click ‘View Notes’ for your chosen record. From here, you can view the record in full including (if relevant) any details shared with students via their Locker.

3. Share records of attendance at career events and activities with students. You can share details of student involvement in career events and activities via their Locker on Start. To do this, follow the steps below.

Important! If you want to keep a record and report on these activities, we strongly recommend that you follow the sharing process in section 1 above.

Step 1 – access the Add to Student Locker section

Click ‘Add to Student Locker’ from the Interactions box located in the left-hand panel on Teacher View.

 

Step 2 – quickly add to student Lockers

Start typing the student’s name in the ‘Who’ field (minimum 3 characters) and select the student you’re looking for from the list when it appears. Alternatively, click the ‘Add Multiple’ button to select more than one student. Next, complete the remaining fields and click ‘Save’.

4. Record and manage student post-16 and post-18 destinations. Step 1 – access the Student Destinations section

Click ‘Add or Edit Student Destinations’ from the Interactions box located in the left-hand panel on Teacher View.

 

Step 2 – add a New Student Destination

Click the ‘Add New Student Destination’ button in the Student Destinations box at the top of the page.

Step 3 – select the student and destination

Start typing the student’s name in the ‘Who’ field (minimum 3 characters) and select the student you’re looking for from the list when it appears. Repeat the above process for the ‘Destination’ (if the one you’re looking for doesn’t appear, free-type the provider name and continue).

Step 4 – add the course details

For ‘Qualification Type’, ‘Subject Area’ and ‘Course’ start typing (minimum 3 characters) and select the entry from the list when it appears. If what you’re looking for isn’t available, free-type the information and continue. For further choices, click ‘Add Another Course’ and repeat.

 

Step 5 – set the option status and choice priority

Use ‘Option Status’ to set the current status for this choice e.g. Intended Destination (you can update this whenever the status changes). Use ‘Priority’ to set where this destination features in the student’s order to preference. Click ‘Save’ to continue.

Step 6 – view and edit Student Destinations

All students with one or more destination choices will appear in the View/Edit Student Destinations list. You can view and edit any records you (or other staff) create by using the filters at the top of the list and clicking the ‘View Destinations’ button for your chosen student.

Step 7 – manage student destinations

From here, you can drag and drop the order of destination choices to change the ‘Priority’. You can also quickly change the ‘Status’ of a destination choice using the drop-down list or click the pencil icon to view and edit full details of the entry.

 

5. Report on your data.

All of the information inputted by staff using the Interactions Package is available in the ‘Interactions & Destinations Report’ available from the Reports section in Teacher View.

Your report will be updated regularly and made available to download in spreadsheet format, including the following data:

Ø   Data dashboard summarising student engagement with: o   employer encounters o   experience of the workplace o   encounters with FE and HE providers o   personal guidance

Ø   Student interactions data Ø   One-to-one guidance interview data Ø   Destinations data