1 - Getting Started ~5 mins
You're applying today. You already have the spine of ALT 2 in your Digital Portfolio: where you are now, where you intend to be in five years, a first long-term SMARTER goal, and the milestones already on the board.
Open your ALT 2 Source Material now. If you do not have it, jot three lines before the planner: where you are, where you want to be in five years, and your long-term SMARTER goal.
This period turns that spine into a full draft. Three SMARTER goals across one, three and five years. Education, workplace and extra-training routes that actually connect them. You leave holding a Career Progression Plan Draft someone else could follow, not only the spine or a dated list of titles.
2 - Key Terms ~5 mins
Three terms carry this draft. Read them once, then use them as you build.
| Term | What it means for you | Real example |
|---|---|---|
| Short-term goal: a SMARTER goal finishing about one year from now. | This is the goal that has to have something you could start this month, or the whole plan stays abstract. | Submit one QQI Level 5 Business PLC or named apprenticeship application and finish one short cert before results day |
| Medium-term goal: a SMARTER goal about three years out. | It sits between school and the five-year picture, so it has to rest on what the one-year goal unlocks. | Complete year two of a Commis Chef or Electrical route listed on apprenticeship.ie with workplace hours already in the same field |
| Pathway connection: what one milestone makes possible that was not possible before it. | Every box on your planner must answer that test, or you have three separate titles, not a plan. | A QQI First Aid Response cert that lets you take a leisure-centre shift, which then gives the referee a hospitality apprenticeship needs |
3 - Draft Your Full Plan ~35 mins
Open the pathway planner. Horizons run across the top (1 year, 3 years, 5 years). Pathways run down the side: education and training, workplace, and extra training.
The Digital Portfolio artefact for ALT 2 is the written document you create in Part 2. The planner is a working tool for this period only; you do not need to export it.
Part 1 (about 12 minutes): place milestones in every square you can fill honestly. Start from your ALT 2 Source Material spine. Your long-term goal anchors the five-year end. Write a short-term SMARTER goal for one year and a medium-term SMARTER goal for three years. On each pathway, name the course, job, placement, cert or licence that belongs in that cell. Gaps are information, not failure: an empty box tells you what you still have to find out.
Before you leave the planner, run two checks (about 3 minutes). Read one row across: does each step make the next one possible, or have you written three separate titles? Read the one-year column down: could you start any of it this month?
SMARTER reminder: Specific, Measurable, Action-oriented, Realistic, Time-bound, Evaluated, Readjusted.
Mini example (short-term): S Submit one QQI Level 5 Healthcare Support PLC application by 1 March. M Form submitted and Patient Moving and Handling short course booked. A Use two lunch periods this week on the form. R Matches my five-year care-work goal. T Before Easter of Sixth Year. E Friday checklist against the application steps. R If the course is full, switch to my backup PLC within one week.
Part 2 (about 20 minutes): open a new document called ALT 2 Career Progression Plan Draft in your Digital Portfolio. Turn the grid into a plan someone else could follow.
Done enough to leave today (minimum viable draft):
- Your starting position and five-year position in two or three sentences each
- Three SMARTER goals (one year, three years, five years), each tagged against the SMARTER letters (bullet form is fine in class)
- At least one fully connected pathway row (education, workplace, or extra training) with a one-line unlock under each milestone on that row: what this step makes possible next
- A short sources list naming which earlier Strand 1 work each major piece rests on (for example your Higher Education (HE) investigation, apprenticeship notes, extra-training shortlist, or personal statement)
Stretch in class, or finish before the next progression lesson: expand to a full one-to-two-page draft with unlock lines on the remaining pathways. This draft is ALT 2 evidence in progress and feeds your Portfolio in Action AAC. It should be fuller, dated, and connected compared with the spine you started from.
Your career progression plan
4 - Think About It ~10 mins
Open your ALT 2 Career Progression Plan Draft. Talk these through with the person beside you, then make the fix in the file before you leave.
Still only three titles? If you deleted every milestone and left only the three goal titles, would someone still know how you get from now to five years? If not, strengthen one weak unlock line in the draft now.
The empty box: Name one cell you could not fill honestly today. Add one sentence in the draft headed Still to find out naming that cell and where you will look before peer review.
5 - What You Covered ~5 mins
Today you applied your Strand 1 work to a full ALT 2 draft for the Portfolio in Action AAC.
- You placed short-, medium- and long-term milestones across education, workplace and extra-training pathways
- You stress-tested each row so every step unlocks the next
- You wrote a minimum viable ALT 2 Career Progression Plan Draft with SMARTER goals, at least one connected pathway row, unlock lines, and the Strand 1 sources each piece rests on
- ALT 2 is now evidence in progress; next you align it to your personal statement and refine it through peer review
If you finish early, or before the next progression lesson: expand remaining pathways and polish to a full one-to-two pages. Pick your weakest pathway connection and rewrite that one line until it names a concrete unlock (a cert, a contact, a placement, an application deadline).
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