It is ‘busy, busy, busy’ here at CASCAID as we get ready to launch our newly updated version of Kudos on Thursday 1st June. We’re all excited; it’s looking great!
At the same time, it is business as usual, as we continue to provide young people, teachers and advisers with the best services to inspire and deliver careers guidance.
Last week, one of our colleagues received some fantastic feedback about Kudos from one of her clients. This made us stop and think!
Here we are, about to release the latest version of Kudos, including changes to the user-interface and increased guidance, support and information to help the exploration of careers and post 16 options, but we shouldn’t forget what a brilliant job Kudos already does in supporting young people.
Here’s what our clients had to say…
Thomas West, Community Enterprise Co-ordinator and Paul Harrison, Careers Adviser of Horizon Community College use Kudos from year 7-11, all ability groups.
Thomas said, ‘Students use the programme during one to one careers interviews to research career ideas as well as researching existing thoughts and looking at the different requirements that are needed to do specific jobs. It is also used as a form time activity both as a standalone and bolted on to our internal IKIC* awards. This allows our younger students to get involved and start them thinking about the importance of their education and connecting it to the World of Work.’
‘We have found that the students really like the list of jobs generated once 100% of the quiz is complete. We have known students find jobs they didn’t know existed through doing the quiz and take a real interest in this.’
Paul added, ‘the students like to see what jobs are available to them when answering questions about their skills. Students also enjoy researching and finding out what types of qualifications, skills and abilities the different jobs require. Another area of interest is finding out the different salary bands and which jobs pay the most money.’
‘The CV builder is very useful for the students because it breaks down exactly what needs to be on the document and puts it in an order for them to understand. We incorporate the CV builder into our IKIC* awards and is one of the processes students have to complete to achieve their IKIC* level 1 award. Some of our older students have also used the CV builder as part of their CEIAG programme. We’ve found this very useful especially when they have their careers interview as we can look at their CV and make amendments where necessary.’
Thomas and Paul told us that they like how the subject areas link to careers in Kudos. They said students can easily understand how they are related and which subjects might be useful for them to study to enable them to make informed choices regarding their futures.
As for the students, they like that they are able to see why certain jobs come up as matches for them after completing the quiz; they are encouraged to look at their answers and check whether or not they understood the questions that were asked and see if they clearly understand what they mean.
About the information on careers and career areas, Paul said, ‘this section is invaluable to our students. They find it very interesting and informative and use this to enhance their own knowledge base to help them with their career/job choices.
As Thomas pointed out, ‘there are many different careers resources on the market at the moment for both students and staff to access. Kudos supports our already strong CEIAG programme and plays a pivotal role alongside all the activities our students get involved in. The advantage of using Kudos is that all the information and links are impartial and are not aimed at any specific route or pathway, which is crucial in the development of our young people.’
There is no doubt that both Thomas and Paul are very enthusiastic about using Kudos, but what do the students think?
- ‘Since Kudos was introduced to me, I now have a good knowledge of the range of jobs and opportunities there are for me when I leave school and go onto college and university.’ Sophia – Year 9
- ‘The quiz I did with Mr Harrison through Kudos helped me enormously to understand what types of jobs I could apply for and what qualifications and skills I would need.’ Stephen – Year 8
- ‘Being able to use Kudos in my own time at home, allows me to thoroughly research and find out everything I need to know.’ Michael – Year 11
In this fast pace world of technology, keeping our services and information up-to-date and accurate is vital to reflect the ever-changing workspace landscape. Receiving such positive comments, as those above, makes what we all do at CASCAID even more rewarding.
Looking very different to how it did over 25 years’ ago, the young person and their career journey still, and always will, remain at the heart of Kudos… explore, develop and maximise your potential!
The newly updated version of Kudos launches on Thursday 1st June 2017, subscribers will automatically be updated. For more information, click here or contact the CASCAID team on 01509 226868.
*Further information about IKIC Awards can be found here.
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