About the Project
PrepPath is a career aptitude assessment for high school students in Laos who often face uncertainty when choosing academic tracks or future careers. Many students make decisions without access to structured guidance, which creates long-term planning gaps.
Our project responds to this need by introducing a short, science-based test that helps students identify their strengths and interests. By offering a simple, online tool, we support students in making clearer decisions while giving schools an affordable system that strengthens career guidance without adding extra workload.
Why do you care about this specific topic/issue?
Students have limited exposure to structured career information, and career counseling tools in Laos remain scarce. This gap affects how young people make long-term decisions that shape their studies, finances, and future opportunities.
PrepPath built a practical solution that responds to these early decision points using a data-driven approach.
Why did you decide to start this project?
The idea formed after our team delivered a one-time career workshop and realized that such activities reached only a small group of students. A workshop alone was not a scalable or lasting solution.
We saw a need for a tool students could access anytime, enabling career exploration to become a continuous process rather than a single event.
What are your goals for this project?
We offer a simple, reliable system that helps students identify suitable academic choices and career pathways. Our goals include supporting teachers in structuring guidance sessions and laying the groundwork for a consistent approach to career readiness in Laos.
How will YSEALI Seeds help you achieve your goals?
The YSEALI Seeds for the Future program supports us in both platform development and engagement outreach. Platform development includes information gathering, translation, UX/UI design, and software development, while engagement outreach covers social media advertising and public events that help us reach more students and schools.
We also benefit from mentorship arranged through the program. Guidance from mentors helps us refine our direction, and monthly calls with the YSEALI Seeds for the Future team give us space to review progress, adjust strategies, and ensure that our work is effective at the regional level.
What have you accomplished and implemented so far?
Our team introduced a localized Holland Code assessment across several schools, giving students a simple tool to understand their strengths while helping teachers structure effective guidance sessions.
We completed the collection and translation of career information for the Lao and Southeast Asian context and launched the updated PrepPath website as part of our platform development. The site integrates the new content and UX/UI improvements. We also designed a social media strategy using the 3H framework, which organizes content into Hero posts for major announcements, Hub posts for ongoing engagement, and Hygiene posts for essential information and FAQs. We ran campaigns using this structure in September 2025.
On the outreach side, we showcased PrepPath at an entrepreneurship forum in Vientiane and engaged with more than 200 attendees. Our user base grew by more than 200 students, our Facebook community expanded to over 1,900 members, and we secured a collaboration agreement with a study-abroad agency for future activities.
What are the most significant lessons learned you’ve experienced so far?
Building and validating a prototype early on provided clearer insights than planning in theory alone. The prototype showed which parts needed simplification and how students interact with digital tools. We also learned that assumptions made before testing often differ from actual behavior.
What are the success stories you can share with others?
Students who used the assessment reported that it helped them identify strengths they had not considered before, making their subject selection process more transparent. Teachers from our partner schools also noted that guidance sessions became more structured, as assessment results provided a practical reference point.
Interest has also come from institutions outside the high school level. A university in Vientiane and a study-abroad agency contacted us to explore possible collaboration after learning about PrepPath’s approach.
During our booth session at the entrepreneurship forum in Vientiane, a long-time user approached us and asked how she could contribute to the next development phase. Her request reinforced the importance of directly involving students in refining PrepPath and confirmed the value of building features based on honest user feedback rather than assumptions.