I recently blogged about a “teachmeet’ event that I attended in Manchester and one of the things I was introduced to here was Kloodle; I felt that this needed a blog of its own.
One of the biggest challenges for today’s graduates is making themselves stand out when applying for jobs. Many people now have an undergraduate degree, but do students actually have the skills that employers are looking for? I have interviewed many students as part of my teaching career and my time as a retail manager, so I like to think I have some idea of what is wanted.
Kloodle is a Manchester based company, started in Bury, by Philip Hayes and Andrew Donnelly. Their plan was to inspire students to ensure that they advertise themselves to employers in the best possible way.
The aim of this is to engage students in an educational-style social network that will enable students to blog about everything they do to. This offers students a chance to say more in an interview than simply ‘I play sport’, ‘I hang out with friends’ or ‘I go to the cinema’.
They can blog or critique a film, write about any part time jobs they may have, and comment on the skills that they are developing. Kloodle is a caring company and their aim is to ‘care passionately about young peoples’ careers’ and ’embed a culture of employability throughout education’. They were set up to help students step into the world from university or college and be able to show employers that they already have the skills they are looking for.
So what are employers looking for? Yes, initially they are looking for qualifications, a well written application form and a good statement, but they also want soft skills – this is where Kloodle can help! ‘Employers place importance on soft skills, yet place minimal importance on these during the early stages of the application process’. Kloodle helps students to develop communication skills, critical observation, teamwork, problem solving and collaboration, etc! Kloodle allows students to track, monitor and blog about these skills to demonstrate their development.
Why not take a look and see for yourself whether you think that this would be something that is useful to have in your school or college?
