How and why I use Success at School as a careers adviser

Careers advisor Lynda Mitchell tells Success at School why she recommends the site as a top online careers resource for her students.

A few years ago, one of the main sources of information for careers advisers used to be a huge book called ‘Occupations’.  It gave details of several hundred jobs, and I was no different to my colleagues – I referred to it when talking to students on a daily basis.

Technological advances have had a big impact on the delivery of careers guidance and as a result I can now draw upon a variety of media resources when advising students.

However, as there are a vast number of careers-based websites to choose from, how do careers advisers know which ones are good and which ones are mediocre, or worse?

I can only go by my own experience, in which I have spent many hours evaluating websites to find what I believe are the most user friendly, impartial, accurate and useful sources of information.

Being a careers adviser in a very large secondary school with a highly successful sixth form, my contact time with students is limited – so students need to be able to access quality information online too.

Success at School is one resource that I promote extensively.  Why?  Because it has been designed in such a way that students register to our own secure, local version of the site and staff and myself can monitor their usage and check CVs that students store securely online.  Students can also use the site to create their own skills profiles.

Success at School contains features that I have not come across elsewhere, such as the ’60 Second Interviews’. These are a brilliant, concise way of imparting information about a job, entry routes and how the post holder actually got to where they are now.

The interactive infographic ‘How to Find the Right Career for Me’ also appeals to students as simply clicking a box will send them directly to whichever part of the site they need  to go to access specific, impartial advice and information for their stage of careers education.

And another very important reason why I use it is it’s free!

So, in a nutshell, Success At School enables me, as a careers adviser, to direct students to a wealth of information, which has been carefully set out to demystify the process of working out ‘what do I do next?’….. ‘what qualifications might I need?’…… ‘how can I prepare a CV?’……. ‘how can I find work experience?’ and much more besides.

This is why I promote the site on our school’s intranet.  Students from Year 7 right up to Year 13 can access it either in school or at home, and demonstrating how to use it in assemblies ensures that they can use it with confidence.

When talking to students individually or in groups, it’s useful to be able to refer them to the website so that they can build upon their guidance interview by doing further research in their own time.  Feedback from students is always positive, the most common observation being that it is ‘really user friendly’.

If you would like to find out how to get a personalised careers intranet for your school or college, sign up for free today, or email us on info@successatschool.org.