Since lockdown everyone, including Complete Careers, has found themselves working in different and innovative ways. These unprecedented times have required us to think more creatively, find alternative ways to conduct our normal business, and in my case, become less of a technological dinosaur, embracing the communication platform Zoom!
Zoom was recently used to carry out Complete-Careers first remote Quality in Careers Standard assessment using the Career Mark approach at New College Leicester.
When the suggestion was made that this re-validation might be carried out remotely, I have to admit to being slightly sceptical. As a career guidance professional, I am naturally a people person who thrives on human contact and face to face conversation and the most important element of a Career Mark approach assessment is the focus groups conducted with the learners. I was therefore concerned that meeting them in a virtual environment as opposed to an actual room would dull the senses, and all the tiny nuances and behaviours that I would normally be able to detect, would be lost in translation. Despite my scepticism, we were keen to pilot this new way of working and after discussions with colleagues and the school we decided to proceed.
The school was incredibly supportive; organising students to take part in the assessment from their homes. The Careers Leader at New College Leicester set up a series of Zoom links to connect us remotely and the assessment took place as scheduled. The learners were a delight to engage with; they were not fazed by the process in any way and spoke with the ease of a generation bought up with advanced technology. Initial concerns around safeguarding were overcome by a member of staff attending the focus groups; they did not have their microphone muted for obvious reasons but left the students to answer all my questions without any interference or prompting.
The downside of a remote assessment was the dependence on the availability and willingness of learners to participate as well as the need to check the effective working of the technology in advance. I ended up with smaller focus groups than I would have liked and was limited to particular year groups due to availability of students and concerns voiced by the school around key stage 3 participation. However, if like New College Leicester, a school is open to the idea of on-line assessment, if the technology is available and learners are willing and able to participate, present circumstances are well suited to this alternative model. I count my first remote assessment as a success with the Careers Leader providing encouraging feedback by commenting “holding the assessment on-line was not problematic, we found it to be a smooth process”.
As a Licensed Awarding Body with national coverage for the Quality in Careers Standard, we find ourselves travelling the width and breadth of England at times and although we have assessors in many locations the option to conduct remote assessments could provide us with increased flexibility and ensure academies, schools and colleges can be assessed to retain and potentially achieve the national Quality in Careers Standard award using the Career March approach.
If you want to find out more do get in touch at contact@careermark.co.uk or call us on 01522 262922.