BEFORE - One Step Ahead

Project BEFORE is a career guidance project for students in their final year at upper secondary schools in Apulia run entirely online. The project arose from the need to provide career guidance programmes during the school closures and distance learning period in which schools were unable to offer career guidance teaching or suggest hands-on activities in the world of work (e.g. PCTOs or work experience activities).

Project Before is divided into 3 modules:

1. Being Proactive: the web app where students fill in a questionnaire which is used to generate a sheet with their own personal profile (aptitudes, skills, areas of interest).
2. Davide and Francesca's stories: a series of 5 informative videos aimed at assisting post-diploma choices;
3. My life project: individual online interviews with expert counsellors in skills evaluation.

The entire service guarantees anonymity and privacy protection in accordance with current legislation. After being collected, carefully analysed and processed, the aggregated results of the questionnaires and interviews are made available to the schools participating in the project as well as organisations as an indication to evaluate the improvement in career guidance services (read the report with the results). At the core of the Before project is the idea of being proactive, both as the foundation for practising active citizenship as well as being one of the key skills in a career guidance programme that develops awareness of both oneself and one’s potential.

WATCH THE VIDEOS

Launched in July 2020, the project has so far involved 31 schools in Apulia. Participation in filling in the questionnaire was very high: with more than 2,800 students responding and 122 students followi up with individual interviews. The videos will be available from March 2021 on the StartNet Youtube channel.

The project is funded and promoted by the Agenzia Regionale per la Tecnologia e l'Innovazione ARTI and the Goethe-Institut Italien.