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Welcome to Coombe Careers Week

(10-14th Oct)

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What are skills?

Coombe Careers Week

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Teacher’s slide

Location	Classroom without student access to internet
Recommended time	15 minutes
Objectives	By the end of the lesson, students should be able to: Identify what skills and competencies are. Compare examples of how to write about competencies Use the Unifrog Competencies tool to add an example of a competency
Main student tasks	Students match skills and definitions. Students read three examples of how to write about your competencies and explain which one is best. Students learn how to use the Unifrog Competencies tool.
Success criteria	Students can write about skills effectively following the CAR method.
Keywords	Competency, skill.
Competencies	Listening Reading Writing
Know-how library	e.g. Student side>Know-how library>Search ‘Competencies: what are they and why do they matter?’’ and click this link.

Familiarise yourself	Familiarise yourself with the Unifrog competencies and the way students can record these on the platform (Student side>Competencies>Add example).
Provide	Devices or paper as required.
Add as an Interaction	Click Advanced view>Sort by school leaving year>[filter for specific students]>+interaction.
Track on Charts	Click Usage charts>Customise and filter> Competencies logged.
Tracking individual students	Advanced view>Sort by>Competencies
Gatsby Benchmarks	3. Addressing needs of each pupil 4. Linking curriculum + careers
CDI Framework	Growth throughout life Manage career Create opportunities
Career Education Standards	Developing work skills Finding careers information
PSHE Association	Work and career Learning skills Self-concept
CASEL 5	Self awareness
ISCA	CA1.3

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What are skills? (5 mins)

Skills are things you learn that enable you to perform certain tasks.

They can be categorised into hard skills, and soft skills. Hard skills are things you can be taught, and can be improved on with practice.

Playing football

Speaking a second language

First Aid certificate

Computer skills and coding

Cooking technique

An academic qualification

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What are skills?

Soft skills are harder to teach, and often come more naturally to some people than others.

These are sometimes called transferable skills, employability skills or competencies. They can often be a bit harder to quantify.

Being a good listener

Problem solving

Being reliable

Being a good leader

Ability to learn and adapt quickly

Teamwork

Teacher’s notes: Before you reveal the examples at the bottom of the slide, ask students if they can give examples of soft skills.

Quick task: Can students think of three soft skills they can demonstrate already? These could be something similar to the examples given, or something else. More examples of soft skills could be being punctual, being organised, or being a good friend.

Stretching exercise: If students have understood the concepts of hard and soft skills quickly, ask them to think of three different instances or pieces of work where they have demonstrated the same soft skill. The purpose of this exercise to is show students that soft skills can be developed and applied in many different areas of life.

An example of this might be the soft skill ‘negotiation’. At school, this is helpful when completing a group project. A student might also use this skill when they are presenting an argument in a school debate or essay. And at home, they might use this skill negotiating when to do chores!

Keyword: Soft skills are non-technical and inter-personal skills. They complement your hard skills and allow you to interact well with others. These skills come naturally to some and are often more difficult to quantify than hard skills. ‘Transferable skills’ and ‘employability skills’ are both ways to describe soft skills that are relevant and helpful across a wide range of jobs and areas of life, such as school. Competency is the word Unifrog uses for ‘soft skill’.

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From bad to brilliant! (5 mins)

Look at the competency descriptions below. Which do you think is the best one? Why do you think this is?

1. I’m really good at working in a team. I play in a cricket team and we work well together when we play other teams.

2. I began working at San Lorenzo restaurant as a washer-upper. I’ve now progressed to serving customers. I help take their orders, taking tickets to the bar or kitchen. Teamwork is important because we get very busy, and if we weren’t able to communicate well, customers’ orders could be missed. I’m passionate about customer service so creating a good experience is important to me. Our restaurant was awarded ‘Local Restaurant of the Year 2021’!

Teacher’s notes:

The purpose of the exercise is for students to think about how competencies can be recorded.

Group activity: In pairs or groups, students should look at the competency descriptions, decide which they think is best, and give their reasons why.

Class discussion: Ask students for feedback on which is the best description and why.

1. Bad: This description doesn’t include very much detail and wouldn’t help the students remember a specific time they demonstrated a skill. It could be improved by including more specific detail around the team’s goals, the way they demonstrated teamwork, and what this teamwork allowed them to achieve.

2. Brilliant: This description is brilliant because it contains lots of detail and talks about specific parts of the job that demonstrated the skill.

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Do you need to record the skills you can demonstrate? Why or why not?

How might you use your recorded competencies in the future?

From bad to brilliant!

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Introduction to Unifrog

The universal destinations platform.

We help students compare every university course, every apprenticeship, every Further Education course - and then apply successfully.

We also empower teachers and counselors to manage the progression process effectively.

Student Uniforg Login Instructions

1 - Type in ‘Unifrog login’ into google search bar

Students can visit www.unifrog.org/sign-in and enter their email address

Temporary Password is Coombeboys

You will then be prompted to create a new memorable password which they will use to log in moving forward.

Or

2, Type in your Coombe email. If you have forgotten your password, click on ‘Reset Password’ and then go to your emails and follow the instructions.

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Recording your skills on Unifrog (5 mins)

Now watch this video to learn how to record your competencies on Unifrog!

Teacher’s notes: Now that students have reflected on competencies, they will learn how to record them on their Unifrog profile.

Use the video to show students how to use the Competencies tool in preparation for the Distance learning worksheet. If you have already used this tool with the class and feel confident then skip ahead to the homework slide.

If you have technical issues, don’t worry - the same information is given on the next four slides.

If you would prefer to open up the tool and demo it to the students on a smart board, log on to the platform and click on Student side> Competencies>Add example.

You can check students’ progress by going Advanced view>Sort by>Competencies. This can show you which students have started and finished their competencies recording.

Competency tool Loom video link: https://www.loom.com/share/68f5f17778404d8b93f6e252e312d7ab

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Recording skills on Unifrog

Under Recording what you’ve done, find the Competencies tool on the Unifrog homepage.

You can add examples and track your progress against the 12 star competencies, or add your own!

Teacher’s notes: The purpose of the next four slides is to show students how to use the Competencies tool in preparation for the Distance learning worksheet. If you have already used this tool with the class and feel confident then skip ahead to the homework slide.

The Competencies tool is built for students to add and track their progress of the 12 star Competencies. The 12 star Competencies are: Aiming High, Creativity, Leadership, Listening, Speaking, Problem solving, Staying positive, Teamwork, Reading, Numeracy, Independence and Writing. Students can also add Competencies not on this list by selecting Other.

The 12 competencies that underpin success at every stage of life: while at school they unlock your ability to learn, they ensure you are fully prepared for university, college, or an apprenticeship, and they empower you to land your dream job.

Check progress:

You can check students’ progress by going Advanced view>Sort by>Competencies. This can show you which students have started and finished their competencies recording.

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Recording skills on Unifrog

Your homepage will show an interactive Competencies ladder, charting your progress.

You can add examples and track your progress against the 12 star competencies, or add your own!

Teacher’s notes: Some Unifrog accounts do not use competency levels. Please skip this slide if this is the case for your school. If you do not have competency levels displayed in your tool and think it would be helpful for students, speak to your school's Unifrog lead.

Competency levels:

If you have competency levels turned on in your Unifrog account, then you will see that each of the 12 competencies is divided into 16 levels to clarify what success looks like in each competency, and to map out how you can improve. Levels 7 to 15 are the levels most relevant for students aged 11 and up, which is why here we only show these levels.
If you have this feature turned on, when students open the Competencies tool they will see any Competencies they’ve added presented in a ladder. It charts their progress and allows students to see any areas of weakness and where you need to focus their attention.
You can use the left and right arrows to click through to view all the competencies.
You can add an example by clicking directly within this chart at a particular level. A grey box will appear when you hover within a Competency column on a particular level and give an example of what students need to do at this level.
A horizontal bar will show what level students should aim to work at based on their age. This function may not appear if it is turned off for your school.
Alternatively, you can scroll down and click +Add an example, or click on the specific Competency.

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Recording skills on Unifrog

Select the Competency and level. If you need help with working out what level you are working at, press the green Level guide button.

Select a situation and date from the drop down menus.

Use the prompts, bullet points and example to help write your description.

Teacher’s notes: This slide shows students how to add new competencies.

Once they have selected their Competency, they will be brought to the 'Add an example of a competency’ page.
Select the Competency type and level (if you have levels turned on). If students are unsure of the level, they can click on the green ‘Level guide’ drop-down button to pull up a list of all the levels for this competency and an example.
Select a situation from the dropdown menu and a date started.
Students can use the prompts, bullet points and examples (viewed by pressing the ‘show example description’ button).
Once they have finished, they should press ‘Add example.’ They will then be taken back to the Competency tool homepage and can view their new example.

Add an example of a competency using ‘Other’

If you are adding a competency outside of the 12 star competencies, press Other on the Competency type drop down list.
You won’t get a competency example, but you can use the CAR or STAR method to help write your description.

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Recording skills on Unifrog

You can see your written Competencies in a list form and edit these at anytime.

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