Getting started

Learn what's on the platform and how students, teachers, and careers leads can use it.

Contents

What's on Coffee With

Content for students

  • Videos – Interviews with real people talking about their work: what they do, how they got there, what they love, and more.

  • Careers – Profiles covering what different jobs actually involve: the skills they need, the subjects behind them, and more.

  • Subjects – Guides explaining where each curriculum subject leads: the skills it builds, the jobs it opens up, and more.

  • Suggestions – A fun quiz to get started with suggested videos and careers.

  • Favourites – A personal list of favourite videos, careers, and guides.

  • Reflections – A personal list of reflections about videos, careers, and guides.

Students must sign in to their account if you want their activity to be recorded for engagement metrics.

Features for teachers

  • Resources – Lesson plans for every teacher, mapped to subjects and year groups.

  • Activities – Group activities for multiple students, like a careers fair or employer visit.

  • Engagement – Engagement metrics by student, year, registration, house, and more.

Introducing Coffee With to students

Students get more from Coffee With when a teacher introduces it to them and tells them how to get started.

You can adapt this wording for an assembly slide or a form tutor script:

Discover what you could be

Coffee With helps you explore the world of work through real stories and career guidance.

It's a library of video conversations with people from all kinds of jobs – architects, nurses, software engineers, chefs, lawyers – talking honestly about what they do, how they got there, and what they wish they'd known earlier.

You might discover a career you've never heard of. That's kind of the point.

Getting started at www.coffeewith.xyz

  1. Sign in – Use your school email address
  2. Suggestions – Take a fun quiz to get started
  3. Explore – Browse videos and career profiles
  4. Favourites – Build a list of what interests you
  5. Reflections – Add your own thoughts as you go

Using Coffee With across year groups

Students get more from Coffee With when it's built into school life rather than left as something to explore in their own time.

It's also never too early to start talking with students about how what they learn in the classroom is connected directly to the world of work and their future opportunities.

Years 7–8

These students aren't making decisions yet. The goal is curiosity and range – showing them that work exists they've never heard of. A student who has never met an architect or a marine biologist can suddenly picture themselves in that world.

  • Form time. A career of the week video followed by a few discussion questions. It takes ten minutes and needs no preparation.
  • PSHE lessons. Exploring job families – what do people in healthcare, the creative industries, or technology actually do day to day?
  • Subject lessons. A video as a lesson hook. "Before we start today, here's someone who uses maths in their job."
  • Homework. Watch an interview and write down three things that surprised you.

Years 9–11

These years are full of decisions: GCSE options, work experience placements, post-16 choices. Students are often asked to make them without much real insight into where each path leads.

  • Options prep. Subject guides and videos before options evening, so students can see the connection between choosing geography or drama and where it might lead in ten years.
  • Work experience prep. Research an industry before the placement, so students ask for something they'll find useful and arrive with questions worth asking.
  • PSHE and careers lessons. Structured exploration of sectors, pathways, and qualifications. What's the difference between a career in law and a career in finance?
  • Post-16 planning. Compare routes through the people who took them. University isn't the only path, and students benefit from hearing from someone who chose an apprenticeship.

Years 12–13

Older students are more self-directed, but they're also under real pressure – personal statements, course choices, applications that feel enormous.

  • Personal statements. A student claiming an interest in medicine or engineering needs to show they understand what the job involves. Admissions tutors spot vague enthusiasm immediately.
  • UCAS and apprenticeship prep. Three years studying law feels different once you've heard what junior lawyers actually do all day.
  • EPQ and coursework. Background research on an industry, from someone working in it.
  • Independent study. Sixth formers have free periods, and this is a useful way to spend one.

Visit the Resources section to get started with over 200 lesson plans and student activities for every year group and subject.