Best Practices for Handling Career-based Learning Experience Requests 

One of the great things about having a single system where students and educators can find experiential learning activities (CBLEs) is the efficiency with which connections can be made with employers. Currently, nearly 600 businesses and organizations are offering a combined 3,000+ CBLEs to the students and educators across our region through Inspire. 

We hope that educators will take full advantage of these offerings and continue to empower their students to do so as well. Information on how to best use the system is key. So we’ve put together a brief tutorial on how to find CBLEs, make requests, follow up on requests made by students and record requests. First, let’s look at how to find and make requests as an educator. 

First, log in to your Xello CAMS account and click on “Inspire Madison Region” then click on “Search for CBLE” (see Figure A). Next, decide whether you want to search by industry or by CBLE type and then choose which industry or CBLE type you are looking for. Once you are on the results page for your selection you can filter the results by city (see Figure B).

Figure A

Figure B
After you find an CBLE that interests you, submit a request by clicking on the name of the request listed (left column in Figure B: job shadow, internship etc.) and filling out the details, or you can click on the name of the company listed to get their contact information (3rd column from left in Figure B). It is up to you if you make a request directly through Xello, use the contact information provided to call or email the provider, or use a combination of both. 

But if you choose to only call or email a provider to request an CBLE that you found in Xello, it’s important to record that CBLE by clicking on “Manage CBLE Requests” then “Record a Request”. That way, the “who, what, when, where and why” of the CBLE will be recorded in the system. The screenshot below (Figure C) shows where to click to record a request that was set up outside of Xello.

Figure C

Next, we’ll look at how our suggested process for managing CBLE requests generated by students. 
When a student makes the request:

There are three ways to contact the employer after a student has made an CBLE request: Using the Xello system, by emailing or calling the CBLE provider yourself or by having the student contact the provider. When a student makes a request, you will get a notification email but the request will not proceed until you act on it. You can also see new requests listed on your main CAMS dashboard until you’ve taken action on them. Click on “Manage CBLE Requests” under “Inspire Madison Region” to see all CBLE requests.  Here are some suggested steps to take with a student-generated CBLE request (See Figure D for a visual):


Figure D
  1. Review the request from the student and make sure he or she is prepared for the activity. At this point, the provider has not received the request. You are in the role of gatekeeper and the request will only proceed to the provider if you approve it. Decide if you or the student will make the initial contact with the CBLE provider. 
     
  2. If the student will make the contact, give the student the provider’s contact information (See #1 on Figure D).

    Once the student and the provider have agreed on a date and time, navigate to the request in Xello, enter the date, time and any details under “Selection Options” and click “Confirm and Finalize” (See #2 on Figure D). Once you’ve done that, the activity has been finalized and recorded in the student’s portfolio.
     

  3. To use the Xello system to send a student’s request to the provider, enter the suggested date, time and details into the fields under “Selection Options” in the request and then click “Check with Volunteer” (See #2 on Figure D)

    This sends the request to the provider and means you approve the student to participate. The provider can then accept the reqeust, suggest another date and time or decline the request. We recommend contacting the CBLE provider directly if they haven’t responded within a week. Note: unlike when a student initiates a request through Xello, it is up to the provider to click on “Confirm and Finalize” in their employer account when an educator initiates a request through Xello.
     

  4. Sometimes you may wish to contact a provider yourself instead of having the student do it but would like to use email or phone rather than Xello. If that’s the case, once you and the CBLE provider have agreed on date and time, enter that information under “Selection Options” in the request and click “Confirm and Finalize” (See #2 on Figure D). That will record the CBLE in the system.
We hope that these suggestions will make it easier for you to connect with employers and to learn about the careers available in our region. Here are some other tutorials that may help with the CBLE process:

Best Practices for Handling CBLE Requests

by | Apr 27, 2018 | education updates, Highlights, Inspire Experience