Shortlist.Me’s highlights from 2020

It’s December, which means we’re on the cusp of entering a new year and leaving 2020 behind – and what a year it’s been!

We think that, while it’s important to look forward and plan ahead, it’s equally beneficial to reflect on past progress and celebrate your achievements. So, we’re taking our own advice and collating a list of some of our most memorable moments from the last 12 months and sharing them with our readers.

So, without further ado, here’s a look back at 2020 and some of our favourite bits…

– Onboarding 37 new schools, colleges, and universities in 2020 alone
While it’s been an undoubtedly challenging year for businesses across the country and beyond, we’re incredibly happy to have recorded our highest growth year to date – welcoming almost 40 more of the UK’s education establishments to our client roster. A 286% YOY increase!

While most companies want to ‘win’ new clients, for us it’s always been more than just a number. We’re driven by helping to bridge the disconnect between the careers service and employers, and also by helping the UK’s current economic dip to recover.

It’s no secret that we’re incredibly passionate about the worlds of education and employment – and bridging the two together. So, we’re very proud to have our employability-readiness platform in operation at 29 institutions named on The Times and Guardian’s ‘best UK universities’ list.

– Partnering with the Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Service (AGCAS)
Once of our biggest – and proudest – moments of the year was teaming up with AGCAS and Group GTI to become a platinum sponsor. This collaboration will see us complete a series of research projects, industry roundtables, and webinars, in a bid to aid the digitalisation of the careers service and enhance the UK students’ employability skills.

– Adding a trio of industry heavyweights to our platform
One of the main USPs of our employability-readiness platform is that we partner with global brands to create online assessments which not only simulate the true pressures of a real-life interview, but which accurately reflect what the country’s employers are looking for in their hires.This year, we integrated more accredited interview practices from Roche, Bird & Bird, and FDM Group, and we have a selection of key industry players in the pipeline for 2021, but that’s all we can say for now…

– Welcoming five new recruits to the team
2020 has been a great year for company expansion, as we welcomed five new faces to the Shortlist.Me workforce. This equates to a 62% uplift on last year, and we’re looking to boost this by a further 30% in 2021 – watch this space…

– Increased platform utilisation throughout Covid-19
One of the starkest realities this year was that the demand for careers advice and assistance is greater than ever. With the UK job market having been decimated due to the pandemic – and youth unemployment at a record rate – we’ve noticed an upward trend in our platform usage.A whopping 1600% YOY increase to be precise, which perfectly illustrates the demand for technology that can augment the support careers professionals currently provide for their students, and create an efficiency of scale.

– Adding two crucial new features to the Shortlist.Me platform
Never ones to stand still, we’re always looking for new and innovative ways to elevate our current platform offering, and this has seen us introduce ‘Peer Review’ and ‘Request Review’ features.We’re big believers that for students to be able to advance – and enhance – their interview, interpersonal, and self-presentation skills, the more feedback they can receive, the better. And that was the motivation behind the ‘Peer Review’ functionality. Account holders, such as careers advisers and academics, can select students to review another student’s interview and provide feedback on it – boosting collaboration and engagement among interviewees, as well as promoting self-evaluative learning.

Similarly, the ‘Request Review’ area allows users to select whether they want to receive feedback from their careers service – alongside the intelligent Shortlist.Me platform – giving students an increased pool of feedback options.

– Reaching over half-a-million students in 2020 alone
We’re not ones to blow our own trumpet but given it’s the end of the year – and the festive spirit is in full flow – we wanted to say a huge thank you to the team for our highest performing year to date. We now have 54 customers who have invested in Shortlist.Me’s experiential-learning technology – which FE News recently reported on too!

– Overcoming the challenges of 2020
What a year it’s been, and we couldn’t draft this end-of-year piece without referencing the obstacles we, as a business and a team, have come overcome together. Now, let’s look ahead to 2021 and make it the best year yet.

We’d like to say a massive thank you to our staff, customers, and friends of the business for a great year, and we wish you all a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Please note that the Shortlist.Me office will be closed over the Christmas period – from Thursday 24 December to Monday 4 January.