SelfSmart online diagnostic tool helps identify barriers to employment
Pearson has teamed up with ClearAims to offer you SelfSmart – an online behavioural diagnostic tool that helps identify issues that may be barriers to employment, and meets new Ofsted requirements.
What is SelfSmart?
SelfSmart is aimed at all learners aged 14 and above who are preparing to work towards or gain sustainable employment, as well as for learners participating in study programmes and Traineeships. It helps you to work closely with your learners to identify and address issues around their attitude and behaviour that may be holding them back.
To meet the new Ofsted requirements for Personal and Social Development (PSD), SelfSmart provides online diagnostics, profiling and self-development tools that identify and may help to address barriers to progress for learners. It also provides a facility to map the progress of all learners and groups of learners throughout their journey into or through education, employment or training.
SelfSmart provides an easy-to-view profile dashboard designed to help learners recognise their strengths and highlight areas where they can improve. A suite of development plans and personal improvement strategies designed to prepare Learners for employment - changing attitudes and behaviours and building self-confidence and self-management are also available.
SelfSmart is divided into four profiles as below. Each profile allows learners to select an appropriate response to a series of statements about their lives, feelings, behaviours and attitudes:
- How do you feel? - Mental health and wellbeing
- Know yourself - Emotional intelligence (barriers to effective communication, self-control and motivation)
- What do you like to do? - Multiple intelligence (preferred learning and employment styles)
- Resilience - the ability to bounce back from adversity and to plan a way forward in life.
Personal Development Plans
Profile subject screens contain links to Personal Development Plans. Each plan has been designed and tested by ClearAims to show the learner how they can improve in the profile subject area. Plans enable learners to take responsibility and self-manage their own improvement to the extent to which learners take pride in their work, become self-confident and self-assured, and know that they have the potential to be a successful Learner on their current and future learning programmes, including at work.
Each plan includes information on:
- what to do
- what help is required
- what resources are required
- how long it will take to complete
- what to expect when finished
- guide / tutor notes.
SelfSmart is designed to be repeated many times over. This will enable each learner to self-manage their behaviours, attitudes and strategies for coping in life. There are no strict guidelines for how often SelfSmart should be repeated, or for how long the gap should be between sessions. It is beneficial to repeat SelfSmart following any support, counselling, advice, workshop, course or intervention.
SelfSmart is touchscreen-enabled, so you can use it on:
- tablets
- smartphones
- laptops
- standard PCs.
Personal and Social Development
The CIF (Common Inspection Framework) sets out overarching criteria for judging personal development, behaviour and welfare. In making this judgement, inspectors consider, where relevant and appropriate, how well learners develop their personal, social and employability skills, including English, Mathematics and ICT Skills.
Based on Ofsted's 'Better inspection for all' consultation, inspectors will now make overall judgements in a number of areas:
- Effectiveness of leadership and management
- Quality of teaching, learning and assessment
- Personal development, behaviour and welfare
- Outcomes for learners.
Read the report on responses to the 'Better inspection for all' consultation
Changes to how Ofsted will inspect early years provision, schools and further education and skills came into effect from September 2015.
Download the further education and skills inspection handbook
