Supporting FET Students through the Student Hub
Our Further Education and Training (FET) Service supports thousands of students each year on their learning journey (almost 14,500 in 2022). In order to improve this support, the Quality Assurance team developed an online Student Hub which was launched last year. How does this support students? In this blog, Quality Assurance (QA) Administrator Lily Renfro tells us about it.
The Further Education and Training (FET) Student Hub was launched in 2022 as a one-stop shop for prospective and current FET students, providing all the information they would be likely to need in a convenient and easy-to-read format.
Throughout its development, the design of the Hub has been guided by the needs of Donegal ETB FET students. At the first Student Voice Forum in 2020, the QA team solicited student input on what they would like to see and would find most useful to be included in the Hub. Using these suggestions as a structure, the first iteration of the Hub completed development in the summer of 2022. After extensive consultation with students and staff in all relevant areas, the Hub officially went live in September of 2022.
The Hub is structured into five main sections:
Each section contains several pages clearly presenting the relevant information, so it is easy for students to navigate the website and find what they are looking for. Some examples of individual pages include:
- Study Skills (under “Student Resources and Information”)
- Counselling and Support (under “Guidance”)
- Student Testimonials (under “Student Voice”)
- Financial Support (under “Student Support”)
The Hub is regularly expanded and amended at the request of students or staff. As one example, students at the November 2022 Governance and Management Forum requested a jobs board be added to the Hub to facilitate students in finding work. In response, a “Job Listings” page was added with direct links to several sites of particular relevance to prospective or current Donegal ETB FET students, including the official DSP website for job listings and the Generation Apprenticeship vacancies page.
A further example is the addition to the Hub of video tutorials on using text-to-speech and speech-to-text features built into Microsoft Word and Google Docs. These were requested by a staff member on behalf of her students to assist them in completing their coursework and are particularly useful for those with difficulties reading or writing.
Some feedback students have shared with us about the Hub include:
- It is easy to navigate and well laid out.
- It contains lots of useful information.
- It’s easy to read and access information.
The Hub is also updated dynamically in response to current Donegal ETB developments and initiatives. For example, when the #MyETB FET Photo Showcase was launched by Donegal ETB in celebration of national ETB Week, a new temporary page for the event was added to the Hub to help publicise the event and increase student participation. After the closing submission date, this page was updated to display a slideshow of the photos received.
In keeping with the spirit of the FET Student Hub as a dynamically evolving resource, we welcome any feedback or suggestions relating to ways it can be expanded or improved. You can contact the manager of the Student Hub by email at fet.student.hub@donegaletb.ie.