Managing Work Placements on Navigate (Training Session)

This recorded training session covers the full work experience placement process on Navigate, from creating and approving a placement through to tracking live placements and how it all looks from the student's perspective..

What this session covers

• The end-to-end placement process and the statuses a placement moves through from start to finish.
• Creating a work experience placement for a student in the Placements module.
• Approving a placement (internal, employer and parent approvals) and what the employer agreement email looks like.
• Tracking and managing live placements, including attendance confirmation and non-compliant employers.
• Requesting that students find their own placement, individually or in bulk.
• The student's view: pre-placement checklist, confirming attendance, evidence and the feedback form.

Create a placement (staff site)

1. On the staff site, open the Placements module (the briefcase icon) on the left.
2. At the top, choose Add a placement, then select Work Experience Placement.
3. On the Learner Details tab, search for the learner by name or number so their tutor, department and any existing health, safety or medical notes pull through; add or remove details as needed and set whether Parent Approval is required.
4. On Employer Details, search for the employer and manager (or add a new one), and use the tick boxes to decide who receives the automated emails (you can default them to yourself).
5. On Placement Details, add the placement coordinator, planned hours, placement type, location type, daily break and travel times, and the free-text description, objectives, frequency of communication and dress code.
6. At the bottom, schedule the days (for example tick Friday to select all Fridays), then go to the top and Save the page.
7. After saving, use Duplicate to copy the placement for other learners on the same placement, and add notes, interactions or documents which sit in the audit trail.

Approve a placement (staff site)

1. Find the placement again via the Placements to Manage section on the home page, or search for it under Search for a Placement at the top.
2. Open the Approvals tab and carry out your background and employer compliance checks.
3. Click Internal Approval, then add your name, the approval date and the method of approval; this records it in the audit trail and triggers the placement agreement email to the employer.
4. For Parent Approval, change it to Yes, add the parent's details, then send the approval email (or override it by filling in the details and saving if approval was given another way).
5. From the employer agreement email, the employer follows the link to review the details and ticks the box to approve the placement.
6. When internal, employer and parent approvals are all green, the placement status becomes active.

Track and manage live placements (staff site)

1. In the Placements module, use the top-left panel to see items awaiting your approval, awaiting employer approval, or completed work to sign off.
2. Use the panel on the right to spot placements going live against non-compliant employers and follow up with compliance checks.
3. In the placement records data, click a status such as Placement Live to see all live placements in one view.
4. Compare the student-confirmed hours and employer-confirmed hours columns to spot gaps, and chase up whichever party is behind.

Request a placement and the student's view

1. To request individually, go to Quick Links, search for a student, open their record, choose Request a Placement and set a target date; this generates a blank form on the student's site.
2. To request in bulk, open Number of Students on the home page, filter to your students, tick them, then use Actions > Request Placement and set a target date.
3. In the student's My Placements module, the student opens a placement to see Placement Details, the pre-placement checklist, attendance confirmation and the feedback form.
4. To confirm attendance, the student selects a day, chooses I Attended, describes what they did, records skills developed and attaches any evidence, then saves (or selects I Did Not Attend and explains why).
5. Once everything is finished, the student clicks Submit Placement is Complete; this is only available when the checklist and all sections are done.
6. When the student submits a requested placement, it returns to the staff member under items requiring approval to check over and approve as usual.