The BEYOND digital Careers Platform is a free digital tool created for secondary school students, schools & parents across Australia. Designed by educators and career specialists, the digital ecosystem, facilitates discovery, exploration, planning, and action in career and educational pathways. The main objective is to empower students in their career development journey, providing guidance and resources tailored to their individual aspirations and needs.
BEYOND – Online Careers Guidance Platform
Abstract
Resource overview
Website: BEYOND
The BEYOND digital Careers Platform is a free digital tool designed for secondary education students, educational institutions, and parents in Australia. The platform, conceptualised by educational professionals and career development specialists, serves as an interactive ecosystem to assist in career guidance and educational planning. It facilitates stages of self-discovery, informed exploration, strategic planning, and proactive action in navigating career and educational pathways.
BEYOND's mission is to empower young individuals in their formative career development journey, offering personalised support and resources to align with their unique ambitions, skills, and needs.
The platform is rooted in vocational education, career counselling, student engagement, academic advising, workforce readiness, and lifelong learning, ensuring alignment with national educational standards and global competencies.
Features for students include:
Career & Personality Quizzes: Interactive assessments to help students identify their strengths, interests, and potential career paths.
Industry & Occupation Recommendations: Tailored suggestions based on quiz results to explore various career fields and job roles.
Comprehensive Profile: A personalised space for students to add their career-specific data, achievements, and goals.
Education & Pathway Exploration: Tools to search for tertiary and VET courses, apprenticeships, scholarships, compare subjects and other opportunities.
Skills Portfolio: A feature to document and manage experiences, qualifications, and competencies for future educational or employment applications.
Admissions & Application Portal: Direct access to apply for various education and pathway programmes, with guidance for application completion.
Resume & Cover Letter Builder: Assistance in creating professional resumes and cover letters to prepare for the job market.
The platform includes a communication system designed for teachers and career advisers. This system facilitates interaction, resource sharing, and the documentation of all interactions, in order to enhance consistency and clarity in career guidance delivered to students. Additionally, the platform incorporates video streaming capabilities. This feature allows students to engage with live or on-demand webinars offered by a variety of educational and career pathway providers, catering to those interested in exploring different career options through multimedia content.
The platform includes a dedicated section for parents. It is designed to help them to help their children to explore career and educational pathways, guide decision-making, monitor progress, encourage actionable steps towards career development, support wellbeing, utilise resources for informed decisions, and collaborate with educators to support their child's career journey.
Description of technology
The BEYOND digital Careers Platform uses machine learning to analyse a user's interactions and preferences to deliver highly personalised content. This means that students are presented with opportunities and information most relevant to their interests and aspirations. Additionally, users can bookmark content, adding it to their favourites, and save searches for easy revisits in order to make the student’s career exploration more efficient. The platform also uses a responsive design, which makes the resource easily accessible across various devices, including smartphones, tablets, or desktops. Secure data encryption and privacy tools are used to safeguard student information and interactions. Potential updates to the site will include real-time notifications to keep users informed and engaged.
How the resource makes career guidance more effective, efficient and/or equitable for students
The BEYOND digital Careers Platform aims to make career guidance more effective, efficient, and equitable for students. Firstly, by harnessing machine learning for personalised content, it personalises advice to individual students, aiming to make guidance directly applicable and impactful. Secondly, the platform’s intuitive features, such as the ability to save searches and favourites and streamline the exploration process, allow students to navigate their career pathways more efficiently. Lastly, the platform democratises access to quality career advice. Regardless of socio-economic background, location, or personal circumstances, every student has an equal opportunity to benefit from guidance, reducing the risk that career prospects are limited by external factors.
Challenges or potential barriers to use
Potential barriers to using the BEYOND digital Careers Platform include digital literacy, as not all users may be adept at navigating online platforms. System requirements could exclude those with older or incompatible devices, while international availability might limit access for students outside Australia. Additionally, potential language barriers can hinder comprehension for non-native English speakers, and internet connectivity issues might disrupt smooth platform usage.
The resource is free of cost.
Additional details
This resource has been endorsed by Our Lady of Mercy College Burraneer, in Burraneer, in Australia.
Disclaimer: This content is provided by the submitting organisation.
