Training Student Employees on your uConnect platform
Student employees are one of the most underused resources on a uConnect platform, and one of the easiest to set up for success once you know exactly what they can (and can’t) do. This article highlights the essentials: roles and permissions, recommended training, project ideas, and a content calendar that scales with your student’s weekly hours. It also includes our Student Employee User guide.
Student Employee User Guide
Use our Guide: Check out our Student Employee User Guide for the complete playbook. It includes a full permissions matrix, a detailed project menu with how-to resources for every project, real-world staffing patterns from other career centers, and a quick-reference onboarding checklist.
Student Staff vs. Admin: What's the Difference?
uConnect has four dashboard access levels: Admin (highest), Staff, Student Staff, and Community Expert (no dashboard access). Most career centers set student employees up as Student Staff. This role gives them everything they need to publish and maintain content without access to site-wide settings, users, or design elements. Some centers promote a trusted, longer-term student, such as a graduate assistant or multi-year work-study student, to Admin.
| Task | Student Staff | Admin (if promoted) |
|---|---|---|
| Publish and tag all content types | Yes | Yes |
| Use external content libraries (blogs, videos, classes, Forage) | Yes | Yes |
| Create forms | Yes | Yes |
| Edit the front page banner | Yes | Yes |
| Approve pending content from Community Experts | Yes | Yes |
| Import/export form entries | No | Yes |
| Add or edit Communities and Content Categories | No | Yes |
| Add, edit, or delete platform users | No | Yes |
| Send custom or automated email campaigns | No | Yes |
| Edit menus | No | Yes |
Still off-limits to everyone: Regardless of role, even Admin, changes to widgets, platform branding (logos, fonts, colors), your platform URL, email branding, and integrations require a support ticket. Let your student know this is a "flag it, don't fight it" situation.
See the full permissions matrix in the guide, or review What permissions do different users have?
Recommended uConnect Academy Training
Before diving into projects, have student employees complete these self-paced uConnect Academy courses (about 2 hours, 35 minutes total):
- B. Full Platform Training (30 min)
- C. Block Editor Training Academy: Beginner Basics (30 min)
- D2. Admin Training Academy Achievement 1: Manage (30 min)
- D5. Admin Training Academy Achievement 2: Customize (25 min)
- D4. Admin Training Academy Achievement 3: Tagging (10 min)
- D3. Admin Training Academy Achievement 4: Publish (30 min)
Optional, based on their projects: D6. Engage (forms and emails), D7. Analyze (platform analytics), and D8. AI Search (AI Search testing and content auditing).
Project Ideas for Student Staff
Student Staff can take on all of these projects today, with no promotion required:
- Content publishing and tagging: Publish content tagged by Audience, Content Category, and Community. Pull from uConnect's external libraries of 3,000+ blogs, 1,900+ videos, ~600 classes, and 300+ Forage experiences.
- Approving pending content: Review blogs, events, and jobs submitted by Community Experts.
- Canva design: Create front page banners (1600x460 px), community page banners, and branded feature images.
- Forms: Build spotlight, intake, and RSVP forms, then turn strong entries into content.
- Platform marketing: Create social media campaigns, short videos, and student/alumni spotlights.
- Engagement and email analytics: Build semester recaps of top pages, subscriber trends, and email performance.
- Content audits: Flag duplicate or outdated content, and add titles, descriptions, and summaries to PDFs so AI Search can find them.
- Block Editor and accessibility research: Evaluate pages for contrast, alt text, heading structure, and mobile-friendliness, then implement improvements.
The guide includes tagging cadences by platform size, time estimates, and a curated list of how-to articles for every project.
Additional Projects at the Admin Level
If you've promoted a student to Admin, they can also:
- audit users and permissions
- restructure Communities and Content Categories (with your sign-off)
- create and send custom emails and newsletters
- tailor automated emails
- compile platform data reports
- support outcomes data uploads
Content Calendar by Weekly Hours
Scale responsibilities to your student's schedule. Each level builds on the one before it.
| Level | Sample Tasks |
|---|---|
| Level I (5 hours or less/week) | Publish and tag homepage content weekly or biweekly; publish in communities monthly; source library content (~2 hrs/month); convert PDFs and update descriptions for AI Search (~5 hrs/month) |
| Level II (6–15 hours/week) | Approve pending content weekly; update the homepage banner; create forms and marketing materials as needed |
| Level III (15+ hours/week) | Send custom emails; tailor automated emails; compile platform and form data reports |
The guide breaks down recommended frequencies for every task and shares two real-world staffing patterns from small and mid-to-large career centers.
Setting Your Student Employees Up for Success
- Build a tagging glossary so every student tags content the same way.
- Assign ownership of specific communities or pages tied to each student's strengths.
- Name a project manager to oversee the content calendar and approve new tags.
- Use a shared tracker such as Asana, Airtable, or Google Sheets as one source of truth.
- Build their foundation first with uConnect Academy courses and Career Everywhere Community training recordings.
Pro Tip: Start with 2–3 starter projects based on your student's interests and your platform's biggest gaps, then schedule a recurring check-in to review progress and reassign as needed. The guide's Quick Reference Checklist makes onboarding a breeze!