Online Platform for Schools/students to prepare for and compare Higher Education and Apprenticeship

Tender description

The Council is seeking expressions of interest from suitable providers that are able to offer an online system that will be available to all students and staff within Bridgend County Borough Council's secondary schools. The system shall need to be procured within the academic year (2020 – 2021) to provide the following services: • A system that allows students to explore a range of career pathways in depth based on their expressed interests; these pathways to include details of all university subject areas and apprenticeship sectors • The system shall have up to date expert impartial advice and guidance built into it • The system shall be able to demonstrate to learners the necessary steps that need to be undertaken to access any given pathway • The system needs to provide a fully searchable directory of all UK university degree courses, EU university courses delivered through English, a wide range of US, Australasian and Asian university courses, Apprenticeships, Degree Apprenticeships and Oxbridge colleges • The system needs to be able to apply a wide range of filters to the data to allow students to quickly create short lists of potential options that they can then consider in more detail • The Council is looking for a system that will support learners in their preparation of applications for future education/careers; it shall: • Enable students to create a bank of activities they have undertaken or record achievements and from these identify the skills and qualities they have developed and demonstrated; the intended use of this material is to support the production of high quality personal statements and CVs. 2.2 • The Council wish to see included a systematic approach to the writing of personal statements and CVs that may be used for a range of careers pathways be it HE via UCAS or overseas or Apprenticeship routes • The system shall also support the efficient production of references that would accompany the student applications • The system shall also provide support and planning functions to staff that have to work with students in helping them to reach high quality decisions on progression routes; these shall include: • Planning functions related to the delivery of careers and guidance programmes • A wide range of supporting resources • The ability to monitor student activity in real time through the applications process and provide feedback • The ability to monitor staff who are contributing to the process eg writing of references • The ability to monitor, track and report on the destinations achieved by students • The system must have the capability to update its data on a frequent basis so that it remains live and relevant; this is particularly the case for data on apprenticeships where we anticipate live opportunities across the UK will be posted on a regular basis e.g. weekly/monthly • The system must meet the requirements of General Data Protection Regulation (2018) with robust back up features. It shall be a condition of the contract that the successful provider must sign and agree to the Councils Data Processing Agreement • The system must have a sustainable future and be capable of further evolution in response to client feedback and internal QA