STARS is an interactive personal development tool for students in higher education and recent graduates.
STARS is an interactive personal development tool for students in higher education and recent graduates. It was developed by Ellen Cocking of the Open University PILS CETL, working in conjunction with Arti Kumar MBE of the Building Bridges CETL at the University of Bedfordshire, and Damien Fitzgerald and Nick Nunnington of the Embedding, Enhancing and Integrating Employability CETL (E3i) at Sheffield Hallam University.
STARS is designed to help users link their personal experiences to relevant skills and to articulate skills effectively. It can be navigated into two ways. Firstly, it allows users to consider situations they have experienced; identify tasks and actions they have carried out in those situations; and articulate the results they achieved. Secondly, it allows users to start with skills they wish to develop, and provides examples of situations where they would be likely to develop that skill.
Users are able to save the work they have completed in the ‘My Area’ page, where they can view and edit their work and download it into text format. The information can then be inserted into curriculum vitaes, and application forms, or used for interview preparation. Once users have completed the STARS process, they can also access to video presentations given by top graduate recruiters, including KPMG, Enterprise and Logica CMG, on topics such as curriculum vitaes and covering letters, interviews, and assessment centres.
If you would like to know more about the STARS project, please refer to:
http://www.starsprocess.ac.uk/page/index.php
Alternatively, please contact Ellen Cocking (e.cocking@open.ac.uk)