# Why we did this work
We wanted to support our in-cycle conversion work by improving our guidance around applications to help candidates improve their chances of submitting a successful one.
We know that some candidates create accounts in Apply for teacher training (Apply) just to look at the application form. We wanted to show users in our guidance exactly what is included in the application form to remove the need for this.
# SEO benefit
There are key search terms around personal statements that we were not ranking well for. We wanted to be able to target these search terms better and provide more in-depth guidance for candidates around personal statements, so we created a new page for this.
# Provider pain points
Speaking with the Apply team, we also learnt that references were a big pain points for applications.
Teacher training providers were often chasing up references because they were not long enough, were the wrong type of reference, or a candidate had provided a personal email address instead of a professional one.
Because of this, we decided to create a new page with better guidance on references.
# How we worked
We:
- improved our applications page
- created a new page on personal statements
- created a new page on references
We spoke with teacher training advisers to get their feedback on this new content.
We also spoke with UCET and NASBTT (the representative bodies for teacher training providers) and iterated the content based on their feedback.
We worked with the Apply team to make sure our content was consistent across the user journey.
# Future considerations
We want to create a new module that will take users to Apply that we can add to these pages.
In future, we also want to relook at our navigation and information architecture. These pages currently live under our /train-to-be-a-teacher section, but we’ll look at if this is the best place for this content, and if we should be surfacing our content around applications differently.