Co-ordinator has been working with the College for four years and has been a full time employee of the College for the last 12 months. Having previously worked for the local Connexions service, Vicky was already working with the College towards their goal of providing a full programme of careers guidance and was approached by the College to take on the role full time when the Connexions service was disbanded.
“My first goal was to establish effective resources for our students to access in College and at home impartial careers guidance information. We wanted a system that provided them with the ability to identify subject options, look at careers and identify next steps in terms of further and higher education options”.
Vicky worked with the Careers Champion students who are ambassadors for the CEIAG team and their role is assisting at careers events, meeting regularly to evaluate the CEIAG programme and events taking place throughout the academic year. The Careers Champions evaluated several options before committing to Fast Tomato. “I was aware of Fast Tomato via several careers guidance colleagues but wanted the students to ‘road test’ the system to ensure it was the right one for Hamble College. We wanted something that would deliver on our ambition for exceptional careers guidance from Year 7 onwards”.
Starting in Year 7 with an introduction to the system the students then complete their preferences questionnaire. That is followed up in Year 8 with more detailed research looking at the career from the hundreds of job profiles available and the qualification requirements which allows informed choices for choosing subject options. They then move into options for Higher Education and details of courses available in subsequent years.
“We also use the profile reports to communicate to parents the student personality and learning styles which can make a major impact on career choices. With the cost of education becoming more and more expensive it is reassuring to know that we have helped them find the right fit”.
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Fast Tomato is a careers and education website with over 1 million users developed for use in schools via the Morrisby organisation. www.fasttomato.com
Set up in 1967 The Morrisby Organisation specialise in tools and services for Career and Educational Guidance. Best known for the Morrisby Profile which was originally set up to deliver testing for specialised recruitment, it is now the most widely used system in careers guidance in the UK.
For more information visit: www.morrisby.com
