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Pathway Planner Tool - Gatsby Benchmark 8

Pathway Planner Triage Tool 23-24

For 23-24 the Pathway Planner will be included in the funded Careerpilot package for many schools in the South, and for those paying their own subscriptions 

In 2023 - 24, the Careerpilot and the Pathway Planner will be free to all state secondary schools in Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Swindon and Berkshire*, 

If you are a school out of these areas that is paying your own subscription, then the Pathway Planner will now also be included and for most schools the subscription costs will be reduced (see below).

That means, if you are mentioned above you can now access both the Four Zones of Careerpilot AND the Pathway Planner as part of your subscription or free access! 

If you are interested in the Pathway Planner and are not mentioned above then please contact our Helpline careerpilot@bath.ac.uk

*In these areas a group of universities, Uni Connects and Career Hubs contribute funding to give all schools free access.

If you are a college

Please follow this link to see what you can access for free or whether you need to subscribe.

Background to the development and roll-out of the Pathway Planner

In 2019-20, Careerpilot based at the University of Bath, secured funding from the national Careers and Enterprise Company Investment Fund for Personal Guidance (Gatsby 8) to pilot a new approach to Personal Guidance.

The Careerpilot Pathway Planner (PP) is a model and online tool, which provide effective, efficient and targeted personal guidance to meet the individual needs of young people, using triage and a whole-school, integrated approach.. 

The Pathway Planner helps careers leaders/SLT use data to identify the guidance needs of students – at three levels, saving staff time and ensuring students receive the guidance they need. 

Initially piloted in 2019-20 with 360 Y11 students and 240 Y12 students across 6 schools, since then access to the Pathway Planner has been available for a small annual fee, which resulted in an additional 100 schools signing up to use the Pathway Planner tool.

Now, in 23-24, the Pathway Planner will become part of the Careerpilot offer.

The Pathway Planner Model:

The Pathway Planner model explained:

1. One-hour lesson - explore options, complete the Pathway Planner, students receive a RAG readiness score.

Students attend a 1 hour structured, online, pre guidance session that summarises their future options and enables them to explore those of interest to them on Careerpilot. An interactive lesson and a video recorded lesson is available to help teachers deliver this session. 

At the end of the pre-guidance session students complete the Pathway Planner quiz, which is accessed through their Careerpilot account (within Career Tools). This asks them which pathways they are interested in and they complete 'quiz' questions to see how ready they are for their chosen pathway. Students are given a red, amber, green score for each pathway and a pop-up to tell them they will all be getting a guidance session.

2. Use data reports to allocate career guidance at three levels - book sessions on the site

The Careers Adviser/Career Leader can then view a report of the pathways students are interested in and see the 'red, amber, green' score showing how ready students are for each pathway. This information can be used, alongside other available school information, to offer three levels of guidance according to student need. Reports also show student's answers to the quiz questions so career staff can see where the barriers might be and be ready to address them in the session. In addition to 1:1 sessions a school could offer group work sessions to support students with a similar issue e.g. if students indicate they are not sure about funding for HE. The RAG data can also be used to help a school see how to improve their careers programme e.g. if there are a lot of 'reds' for the apprenticeship pathway then maybe the students need more input on this before they complete the Pathway  Planner.

All guidance sessions can be booked and recorded within the Reporting Zone section of Careerpilot and all career sessions will be recorded on the student's Pathway Planner timeline.

3. Deliver guidance and track how your student's needs are being met and show how your support is helping them be well-prepared for their next step

The system offers a range of tools to manage the booking and guidance process and can generate reports to show the next step plans of students before and after guidance, through the visual, individual timeline and also through a progression report which can be viewed/downloaded by any group e.g TG, year group. Additional reports allow all reports and actions written through the guidance sessions to be shared with other staff members.

Finding out more or signing up for the Pathway Planner:

Introduction to the Pathway Planner webinar, 45 minutes:

If you would like to know more about the Pathway Planner then we offer a free, 45 minute webinars called 'An Introduction to the Pathway Planner'. This session will explain the process, show the Pathway Planner and give you the opportunity to ask questions.

Book and Introduction to the Pathway Planner session here.

Training - How to get started using the Pathway Planner, 1.5 hours:

This Pathway Planner compulsory training session is for any mainstream, state school in Bristol, Cornwall, Devon, Somerset, Bath and North East Somerset, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset, Gloucestershire, Wiltshire, Swindon and Berkshire, or if you are a school that is paying your own subscriptions.

It is a requirement for all schools wishing to have access to the Pathway Planner that they attend the 'How to get started' training session.

The training will take you through six stages that will equip you to manage and make best use of the Careerpilot Pathway Planner:

  1. Overview of Careerpilot and the Pathway Planner;
  2. The one-hour lesson in which the students complete the Pathway Planner;
  3. How to access the Reporting Zone, Pathway Planner reports and how to allocate guidance at three levels;
  4. The career adviser's role, recording progression plans and involving tutors;
  5. Staff and student registration, setting up groups and giving access to staff;
  6. Accessing resources and support.

Following the training session your access to the Pathway Planner will be switched on.

Book your 'How to get started with the Pathway Planner' session here.

The role of a Career Adviser in the Pathway Planner process:

The Pathway Planner is a great tool for integrating the work of the Career Adviser with other school activities.

The Pathway Planner lesson will generate useful information about the individual student's interest, choices and plans.

Before the career adviser meets the student they can access any useful information about the student's interests and plans on Careerpilot e.g the Career Tools report and also the Pathway Planner results and see answers to progression questions so they will know in advance what support the student might need.

During the guidance Careerpilot can be used to support the guidance process e.g skills quiz, what subjects they love, exploring jobs, setting action points, etc.

After the session the career adviser:

Should:

  • Ask the students to login to Careerpilot and edit they Pathway Planner responses (this will show the impact of the the session as they move through the RAG, and any changes will show on their Timeline).
  • Complete the 'progression/follow-up', this is a 'one-liner' record of the pathway choices students are definite or considering 'after' guidance.

Could:

  • Add a report using the 'Career Tools report and comment'. The report will then be visible to the students and any other staff member with access to that students record.

The Careerpilot Team offers a free webinar to support Career Advisers in understanding how to use the Pathway Planner

The role a tutor or similar can have within the Pathway Planner process:

The Pathway Planner system has also built in functionality so that a tutor could follow-up with a tutee 4 weeks after guidance. To support this role we piloted a '5 minute follow-up' that encouraged tutors to ask three questions and re-refer the students for an addition short session, if required. The referral prompt will be visible to the career adviser/career leader and the response to a referral might be through a weekly drop-in during lunchtime, or similar. A video training session  is available in the Pathway Planner resources to use with tutors - which takes 20 mins.