At Alice Smith School, our Higher Education provision utilizes an external platform called Cialfo. Cialfo is an online college and career planning platform that students and parents can use to help in planning their Future Pathways.
Students are introduced to Cialfo in Year 10, during which they complete career and personality assessments and explore different career pathways. They can also enter their extracurricular activities in their Cialfo to start building up their skills profile.
Cialfo is an extensive platform for our Future Pathways and Higher Education provision and hosts plenty of resources for the school, students, and parents.
As students move up to Year 11, they create their CVs using Cialfo. Preparing a CV gives students a chance to reflect on their passions, interests, and skills, which is a key element of promoting self-awareness and self-reflection, key skills needed for university applications. Cialfo also helps to broaden students’ horizons of potential careers and explore the future world of work in light of COVID-19 and the 4th Industrial Revolution.
During their time in the Sixth Form, students use Cialfo more extensively, especially in researching and applying to universities, as well as keeping a record of their own reflection on country choice, scholarships, careers, and more. Cialfo hosts various university fairs and information sessions online, where students and parents can register and connect with various universities around the world.
As students start thinking about which universities they want to apply for, they can create their long list on Cialfo, which includes target, reach, and safety schools, and can be schools from across the globe. It is common for students to apply to at least two or more country destinations. Each student will have the opportunity to discuss their long list with the Higher Education team, and we will help them to identify the schools that are the right fit for them.
In Year 13, students use Cialfo to track their application statuses and utilise the CDocs section to request any documents needed for international applications (such as to The Netherlands or Canada). For students applying to the United States through the CommonApp, they will be able to link their CommonApp to Cialfo, which allows the Higher Education team to send their documents, references, and transcripts electronically to their chosen universities or colleges.
Parents can also benefit from the extensive features on Cialfo, as students can create and enable guardian accounts for each parent. This will allow parents to see the notes on their children, keep track of tasks assigned to them, view their university shortlist and long list, and use the University Search function to research different universities worldwide. Parents can also sign up and attend any of the university fair sessions on Cialfo with their students.
All in all, Cialfo is an extensive platform for our Future Pathways and Higher Education provision and hosts plenty of resources for the school, students, and parents. We highly encourage all parents and students to take advantage of the massive benefits of the platform, and for any questions or concerns about Cialfo, please contact the Higher Education team at hodhighereducation.ep@alice-smith.edu.my.