What Features Are New With Work-Based Learning (formerly Connect)

July 20, 2024

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Now more than ever, students are expected to have work-based experiences in high school, and even in middle school. Work-based learning is now recognized as a crucial component of a student’s educational journey. However, scaling WBL brings its own unique challenges, such as identifying and vetting suitable mentors, finding time in the day, and managing transportation for students.

To support this, the Pathful team has been diligently working on significant updates to our platform this year. These enhancements will improve the connectivity, usability, and accessibility of the features you and your students love, while also introducing new tools designed to help students discover the best path for their future.

The first thing you’ll notice when you log in to Pathful to start the new school year is a new look.  We’ve focused on making the platform more student friendly and navigable, while also making the features you know and love easier to find. All of your favorite parts of Pathful Connect are still available in the new Pathful platform, but some of them have moved to new places within the platform. To help you find everything you need quickly while you get used to this transition, we put together this guide.

However, we did more than just change the interface. As more states and districts recognize the importance of Work-based learning, Pathful continues to expand its live session calendar, as well as its ever-growing pool of industry professionals. Here are just some of the new feature available in the work-based learning section of the platform:

• New WBL Schedule and Sessions: Each month Pathful will be presenting employability workshops, career conversations targeting different grades (K-12), a live work-place tour, and a weekly session (based on a different theme each month).
• Industry-Led Projects: Pathful industry-led projects are problem-based learning experiences that give students an opportunity to really experience the world of work. Everything from the problem itself to the way students are assessed is created in partnership with industry experts. This includes the option for live industry mentorship and feedback. See an example here.
• Updated Session Request Form: We have streamlined and simplified the session request form to make requesting your own session even easier!
• Reporting updates: We have increased the ease of accessing and reading user reports, while also adding new reports to our repertoire.

While we continue to recognize the importance of work-based learning, we also want to offer you and your students more tools to help them prepare for their future path. To do this, we have added new assessments, lessons, exclusive job-shadowing videos, and employability content to help them find and prepare for the future they want.

1. Virtual Job Shadows Videos: Access to an ever-growing library of over 500 exclusive, and professionally produced virtual job shadow videos to get an inside view into a “day in the life” of different careers
2. Employability Content: Access to a library of almost 500 employability skills videos covering topics such as financial literacy, job preparation and social-emotional skills.
3. UserWay: UserWay offers students an enhanced digital experience by ensuring web accessibility and usability. Their tools help make Pathful more inclusive for all students, including those with disabilities, by providing features like text-to-speech, customizable display settings, language translation, and keyboard navigation. See more about Pathful Accessibility features here.
4. Assessments: We have revamped the Personality Assessment you know and love while adding the following new assessments:

• Interest: This assessment uses student likes and dislikes to provide students with a ranking of which Career Clusters are most likely to be of interest to them.
• Work Values: This assessment allows students to uncover what work values are most important to them in a work environment.
• Skills: Unlike the other assessments on this list, this assessment tests student abilities to determine what careers suit their unique skill set.

By actively listening to feedback from educators and students, Pathful strives to meet the ever-changing needs of modern learners. Our commitment to excellence is evident in our regular updates to the platform that integrate cutting-edge technology, personalized learning paths, collaborative tools, and robust analytics, all designed to make career education more engaging, accessible, and effective.

In that spirit, we would like to share some upcoming features you can expect in the near future:

1. Lifestyle Calculator: An all-new way for students to approach the decision of what they want to do beyond school. Students answer a suite of questions on topics from from spending habits to work-life balanced, and receive a target salary range and job recommendations based on county-level data
2. AI LinkedIn Profile Builder and Resume and Cover Letter Builders: We’re working on a whole new way for students to create documentation of their professional experiences. Stay tuned for more updates.
3. Work-based learning and community service experience tracker: Students will now be able to track in-person WBL and community service experiences in Pathful, and teachers, students, and admin can report on and monitor progress towards hour requirements

Log in today to check out these amazing new features.