Work experience at colleges can be a messy affair. The administration efforts required are superhuman. Arranging placements for students, ensuring health and safety, liaising with the employer and managing the students time are all headaches that make the process difficult. Also, you have to ensure the student actually gets something out of the process.
Work experience should be adding value to a students CV; which is difficult to measure. One tried and tested method is the work experience journal. This can, however, create more administrative headaches, as it is often paper based, messy and inconsistent in participation.
Kloodle allows students to keep a better organised work experience journal. It allows students to attach skills tags to their diary entries, with each entry acting as a stand alone piece of skills evidence. Tutors can also access each journal entry and comment on its quality. The journal is then uploaded to the work experience section on a students Kloodle profile in a coherent and organised fashion, attached to the relevant work experience entry.
Heres how a student would add a journal to their work experience:-
1. Create an entry in the employment section on your Kloodle profile
The first step in the process is to create an entry in the employment section of your Kloodle profile. To do this, click on the Work Experience & Employment tab. Next, click Add New Employment. You will then be prompted to enter the details for the work experience placement you are about to undertake. Click Save and the entry will be saved to your Kloodle profile.
2. Add your first post
Navigate back to your profiles Work Experience section. You should see a button labelled Add Blog. Click this button. You are then taken to the new blog page where you can write your first journal entry. This can be a diary type entry, describing the days events, but the strongest entries usually pick a specific skill that you have displayed during your work experience and describes this. Click Save.
3. View your blog
Navigate back to your Work Experience tab. Click on the work experience entry. You will navigate to a page that lists the details of the work experience, along with all the associated blog posts. You can click on each entry, read the blog in its entirety and leave comments that can direct your students towards edits and improvements.
4. Your news feed
Students who belong to your groups on Kloodle will then appear in your newsfeed. Each time a student uploads a new blog post, the entry will be displayed in your newsfeed so you can click through to view the contents. By doing this, you are able to keep up with a students progress during work experience, whilst your student is simultaneously evidencing their employability skills.
Work experience is becoming increasingly important to potential employers or admissions tutors. By evidencing these experiences in a strong, coherent and organised fashion, you are helping your students towards securing their next progression milestone.
