The Career Centre at Les Roches Global Hospitality Education's main campus in Switzerland had an entirely manual career services process that was not institution-wide. The system was hard to use for both students and staff, who had to manually enter employer information and postings into its database. Furthermore, the office was using a separate process to manage employer registration for on-campus recruiting events. The list would be integrated into an Excel file and distributed to students. The whole process was confusing for students, who had to navigate through different systems to get a comprehensive view of the school’s career services offerings.
“With Symplicity, it is much easier to bridge some of the processes that we were not able to do before."
James Yeung/Matthieu Mioche,
Senior Career & Placement Counsellor/Global Career Services & Industry Placements Manager
Situation
The career services process at Les Roches Global Hospitality Education main campus in Switzerland was entirely manual, time-consuming, and did not align with its employability goals. The system was difficult to customise and did little to integrate employer information into the site. If an employer wanted to advertise a job posting to Les Roches students, they had to contact the Career Centre and staff would manually enter it into the site.
The Career Centre was also using a separate system to manage career fair registration for employers, which the staff had to consolidate in an Excel file and distribute to students. Both processes were very manual and time-consuming for the staff and created confusion among the students regarding where and how to access information on career services.
Solution
Les Roches Switzerland launched Symplicity in 2013 to provide students with a one-stop destination for all career services resources. Students were introduced to the site at the beginning of the school year, and staff leveraged the school’s social media platforms to promote the new career services platform. Employers were also trained on posting jobs through the system and would receive automatic reminders to post jobs for Les Roches students.
The Career Centre also used the Experiential Learning module to streamline its internship application process. Students would submit their applications online, as opposed to on paper, and apply to opportunities through Symplicity. Once accepted into the program, students could log into their profile to view the status of their internship completion and how they were being evaluated. The staff also used the On-Campus Recruiting module to facilitate employer registration for career events, and students would receive access to the list of employers through the site.
Success
Since launching Symplicity, the Career Centre at Les Roches has been able to save time on menial tasks and allocate more resources towards helping students in career development. The Experiential Learning module automated many of the processes involved with the internship program. Students have more visibility into new opportunities and the status of their internship completion, and employers can screen candidates more effectively and evaluate students through the system.
The platform has also helped improve employment outcomes after graduation, as it gives more exposure to the students’ profiles, which they can easily use to apply to jobs. Employers can also engage better with students and are able to posts jobs directly within Symplicity. The Career Centre staff is also using Symplicity to track and report post-graduation outcomes. Since Symplicity has been implemented with such success at the Switzerland campus, Les Roches expanded the system to its campus in Marbella, Spain, and is hoping to soon roll it out across its global campuses in China and the U.S.
“Symplicity helped put more exposure on our students, and employers can now reach students directly through the platform."
