GOTAFE Careers and Pathways

GOTAFE’s research showed that there are two distinct segments within the prospective student audience: those that come to TAFE with a clear career path in mind, and those who are looking for a career that matches their broader life goals.

GOTAFE wanted to create a tool that would help this second group of prospective students find the career they’re best suited to, based on their interests and broader life plans, and give them the information they need to get started.

We first investigated the types of attributes featured in a users’ life goals. This included things like salary, flexibility of work location, hours they wanted to work, hobbies, interests, etc.

We then completed logic mapping and ideation activities to design a career quiz that worked through multiple decision trees and allowed prospective students the ability to arrive at their own recommended career option. Here they could find more information on career pathways, course options and next steps.

Designing a quiz that helps students self select

We created a list of common career paths their graduates follow and identified the core traits and aptitudes associated with each of these careers. This included motivating factors such as altruism, preferences for indoor versus outdoor work, and flexibility around working hours. The time commitment required to qualify for each career was also considered.

We gave each career a score of high, medium, or low against these factors, and used these scores to create a unique profile of attributes for each career title. From here, we designed a quiz that would measure the student’s preferences and aptitudes, and match them to the career profile that most closely resembled their responses.

Empowering users to research faster

Prospective students are often time-poor, and are frequently researching a number of education institutions simultaneously. We needed to keep the quiz as short and user-friendly as possible, to make it easy for users to get their results and progress with their research.

By posing each question as a statement written in the first person, the quiz prompts the user to think about which response they most identify with. The responses to each question were deliberately broad and neutral, so as not to introduce bias or unintentionally guide the user towards a certain response.

The interaction design of the quiz itself was a seamless, single-page experience to minimise the number of pages a user has to interact with to arrive at their final destination. The quiz unfolds dynamically as the user answers each question, while the use of greyed out tones for previous and upcoming questions provides a contrast with the active state of the current question and keeps the user’s focus on the task at hand. Copy was also used to provide progress indicators throughout the experience, and a scrolling animation provides a sense of momentum as the user moves from one question to another.

Comprehensive career guides

To make the career profile pages truly valuable to prospective students, we focused on creating day-in-the-life content that helps users visualise their future in the industry. Content on these pages combines information about core skills and responsibilities with government-sourced statistics identifying industry growth, employment rates, salary, and working hours to provide users with greater transparency and insight into the realities of each career.

Short video testimonials from GOTAFE students and graduates adds authenticity to the written content, while flow diagrams show the education pathways students can take to reach their career goals, providing a key link back to GOTAFE’s core product offering.

While primarily designed for students who are unsure of the career path they wish to follow, the careers quiz also provides value to prospective or current students who have already chosen a career to pursue. In creating such detailed career profiles, we were able to serve the needs of multiple audiences, simultaneously informing new students and reassuring existing students about the merits of a particular career.

Career planning conversations typically form part of the pre-enrolment process for prospective students at GOTAFE. By providing these users with a way of researching and identifying potential career paths, and understanding the education pathway required to get them there, GOTAFE can effectively begin these conversations earlier. Not only does this allow users a greater degree of autonomy through online self-service features, but it also allows them to come to their pre-enrolment meetings more informed and prepared.

While other TAFE institutes provide insights into what students can expect from certain career paths and industries, GOTAFE is the only provider offering a tool to help students identify the career path that best matches their personality and unique life goals.

The careers hub also streamlines processes internally for GOTAFE’s support teams, providing them with a single source of truth for how they map their course offerings to career outcomes. It also enables prospective students to enquire with a more qualified view of where they are heading with their education, and what they want from GOTAFE.