MyDirections - One year on

For more information on services to employers and businesses, contact Joel Robinson, Business Development Manager, on 01484 242000 or email enquiries@ckcareers.co.uk.

Over 21,000 young people are now logged in to MyDirections

In the past year, we have created logins for over 21,000 young people at 30 schools across Calderdale and Kirklees. Young people who are home-educated or involved in targeted projects, such as Nexus In-School, have also been accessing the site for support with their career planning.

MyDirections works by providing careers information tailored to a young person’s preferences. When first logging into the site, young people are prompted to answer carefully selected questions about their interests and career ideas. MyDirections then generates articles based on their responses. Containing over 250 articles, the platform provides young people with a wealth of high quality careers information to help them make informed decisions. They can also find out about local careers events and post 16 open days, to explore their options further.

Young people can also access other useful content on MyDirections. The site’s CV Builder guides them through the process of creating a CV. The World of Work (WOW) section contains a series of accessible employability-related lessons, activities, employer videos and information provided by a wide range of local and national employers. Young people can complete the programme to find out more about working for a specific company and the career opportunities available. 

Live local training, job and apprenticeship vacancies are advertised on MyDirections and can be viewed without the need to log in to the site. Over 180+ opportunities were listed on the site in the last academic year and viewed over 28,000 times, supporting young people and adults to secure employment and training. 

MyDirections also provides some useful tools for schools and colleges including access to preset and bespoke reports to help identify the career interests and needs of their students. This intelligence can help to inform career activities in their institutions and support with evidence towards meeting the Gatsby Benchmarks. 

Data about MyDirections usage in the last academic year, shows that Year 10s seem to have been the year group that have used MyDirections the most, followed by Year 9s and Year 8s. The ‘route’ that was ‘preferred’ by the most young people was apprenticeships. This interest in apprenticeships is also confirmed by the fact that the most popular event article was the Calderdale apprenticeship event, which was viewed 5,361 times. The most popular general article was ‘Skills employers look for’, with 766 views and lessons 1 and 2 of the World of Work were each viewed over 1,500 times. 

'A useful resource that has been rolled out with all year groups’ 
Careers Leader

As well as looking at the usage of MyDirections, we sought some qualitative feedback from schools and colleges. The comments we received said that MyDirections is ‘clear and informative’, ‘a great website with useful resources’, ‘a good website that is accessible for all students’ and ‘very simple and easy to follow’. One school said their students had enjoyed doing the World of Work section in particular.  

We are constantly adding articles to MyDirections and reviewing and updating existing content. If you have feedback about any of the content, or any other comments about MyDirections, we’d really like to hear from you. Please contact joel.robinson@ckcareers.org.uk with your feedback or if you are interested in finding out more about MyDirections.