We are always working to make Compass more functional and easier to use for all of our audiences, so we want to share some of the highlights of what we’ve released since the beginning of the year.
Some of our major feature work has been on things like the work-based learning flow, student consent process, and how to manage the 4-year rolling plan. However, we’re also interested in finding ways of making Compass easier to use by getting feedback from our users (including a student user group in Northern Cass and constant visits with school professionals), which also influences our roadmap.
Check out our highlights below!
Employers:
- When employers purchase a Career Profile to do on their own, the confirmation email now includes a link to a sample DIY Career Profile that can be used as an example. We share best practices on writing career profiles for students, things to highlight, etc.
- Employers can now print out their Career Profile(s) when previewing and see how it will look for students.
- Employers can now select Job Shadow as a work-based learning type, which could be a lower commitment option to start exploring Work-based Learning for employers that haven’t done WBL before. Our vision is for some employers to start with a job shadow experience (4-6 hours) that could then then lead to a longer experience or even a longer-term sponsorship.
School Professionals:
- For non-North Dakota school professionals, the Resources section has been updated (now called “School Resources,”) and additional tools and communications have been added to the folder. This includes information that can be shared with local employers, an activity map of one career activity that can be done each month throughout a student’s high school career, and presentations school professionals can use when rolling out Compass.
- The ability for teachers and parents to see a student’s Compass profile, helping drive better conversations about future plans and facilitating the 4-year plan process with teachers.
- The ability for middle school students to have access to Compass, allowing for earlier career exploration and also updating of the Compass profile for their 4-year rolling plan.
Students/Parents:
- Work-based Learning and Career Profiles can now be filtered by Primary Career Cluster in addition to industry. While industry might be more of how a company defines themselves, primary career cluster is often how students think about career exploration.
- To accommodate various levels of student activity, the thresholds have changed for how much of a student’s profile needs to be filled out to show Holland Codes, putting most of the emphasis on classes vs. activities and hobbies. Some students have the ability to participate in many activities and hobbies, but others maybe don’t have that ability, and we want to accommodate both.
- The consent process has been updated. Students can opt-in to having us proactively match them to opportunities through an email consent process through a toggle in Compass where we look to get parental/guardian consent.
- The percent complete number from the progress bars on the Classes, Activities, and Hobbies screen has been removed. Some students were fixated on getting to 100% and didn’t want that to be a stressor!
- Work-based Learning and Career Profiles can now be filtered by Primary Career Cluster in addition to industry.
- The way documents associated with WBL applications from students has been improved, allowing for more types of documents to be shared by a student when applying for a work-based learning opportunity.
- Students can print Career Profiles.