Kate Robertson Careers and Employability Adviser, University of Aberdeen

1. Streamlining the application and matching process by incorporating eLearning to our Career Mentoring Programme • Kate Robertson • Careers and Employability Adviser, • University of Aberdeen

2. Background • 6-month one-to-one partnership • Programme has been running for around 10 years with ~300 students being matched each year. • 5 different streams - Medicine, Law, Engineering, Biosciences and General • Programme runs for UG students in the first semester and for PG students in the second semester.

3. The Challenges • Manual matching process – timely and ineffective. • High drop-out from students during the programme - partly due to a lack of understanding about the programme but also because the application stage was not robust enough to ensure only the committed students were matched.

4. Actions taken • Streamlining the matching process: asking students to pre-select up to five mentor choices from an anonymized list of available mentors. • Introducing eLearning: enhancing the application process by adding in a mandatory eLearning module so that students fully understand the programme and its requirements before being matched. The module outlines how to answer the application questions effectively and how to choose an appropriate mentor, as well as the expectations and commitment required for the programme. • We have also replaced the traditional face-to-face introductory workshop with a second eLearning module for matched students

5. Application module: • https://360.articulate.com/review/content/e3304789-21f4-4f0b-90ee-7e66ee6a2267/review • Post-matching module: • https://360.articulate.com/review/content/30558051-db14-4dce-85fa-ed42c2888e29/review

6. Results • Early indications show that students were happier with their matched mentor and there was less student drop out. • We learned that even though students have pre-selected their mentor choices, we still needed to sense check the matches made as sometimes the student hasn’t read the mentor profiles properly. • Feedback from mentors has been positive with a higher number reporting they felt their match was ‘very good’ or ‘good’. They liked the fact that the student had selected them to be their mentor. • The eLearning module worked well – a handful of students chose not to complete their application for the Programme after looking at the module as they realised it wasn’t for them. A few other students did not complete this part of the application, showing their commitment for the programme was lacking from the start.

7. krobertson@abdn.ac.uk