Frequently asked questions
Find answers about Work Sync, individual access, and using the platform as an educator or advisor.
For parents and Individuals
Is Work Sync a good fit for you
Work Sync is designed for young people who are exploring their future but may not know where to begin.
You might be supporting a young person who has no idea what they want to do, feels overwhelmed by the options in front of them, has had limited exposure to different kinds of work, or is approaching decisions about subjects, work experience, VET, further study or life after school.
Whether a young person is learning in a mainstream school, through home education, online or in an alternative setting, Work Sync can provide a structured way to explore interests and the world of work — particularly where access to traditional career education or individual career guidance may be limited.
Parents, carers, mentors and other trusted adults can purchase Work Sync for a young person and explore it with them. Young people can also purchase individual access for their own use.
Rather than asking someone to choose an occupation, Work Sync provides a structured place to start. It helps young people explore the activities, environments and ways of working that naturally interest and motivate them, building self-understanding before moving into occupations and pathways.
Work Sync is particularly relevant during the senior years of school — Years 10, 11 and 12 — when young people are making subject, pathway and post-school decisions.
But self-understanding doesn’t need to start then. From around Years 5 and 6, Work Sync can be used with a parent, carer, teacher or mentor to give young people a head start in recognising what naturally interests them.
Starting earlier gives young people more time to build self-awareness before higher-stakes pathway decisions arise.
Yes. Work Sync uses an accessible, visual and video-based approach designed to make career exploration simple and intuitive for a diverse range of learners.
Young people explore work through short, narrated and captioned videos showing different work activities in context. They respond using simple tap-or-click choices — yes, no or ? if they are unsure — with no lengthy reading, written responses, complex career terminology or abstract self-reflection required.
Rather than asking young people to explain what interests or motivates them before they have the language or experience to do so, Work Sync gives them something concrete to respond to.
This can support young people across different literacy levels, learning preferences, educational experiences and levels of familiarity with the world of work.
Why work interests matter
Many young people are asked what they want to do before they have enough exposure to the world of work to know what their options are.
Work Sync starts with the kinds of work activities that genuinely interest and motivate them. Interest matters because it can influence the time, energy, effort and persistence a person is willing to invest.
Understanding these patterns first gives young people a stronger foundation for exploring occupations, industries and pathways that may be worth investigating.
Career exploration is more important than ever.
AI, emerging technologies and changing industries are reshaping the world of work, and young people are likely to move through multiple roles, industries and career directions over their working lives.
In that context, understanding the deeper patterns that drive their interests and motivation becomes more valuable than simply identifying occupations that exist today.
Work Sync helps young people develop a language for understanding what engages them and the kinds of work they are drawn to. That self-understanding provides a more enduring foundation for exploring new opportunities, making informed decisions and pivoting as the world of work changes.
No. Work Sync is designed for exploration, not to give a young person one career answer.
It helps them understand patterns in what interests them and then connects those interests with a broader range of occupations and industries to investigate.
It provides a meaningful starting point for exploration rather than prescribing what a young person should become.
Understanding what doesn’t interest a young person can be just as useful as understanding what does.
Mapping both interest and non-interest helps narrow the field, identify activities that may be less likely to sustain motivation, and focus further exploration on areas that appear to be a stronger fit.
What to expect when using Work Sync
That’s useful information too.
Alongside yes and no, Work Sync includes a ? option so young people can identify activities they are unsure about without being forced to make a decision.
Once their Work Interest Summary is generated, those areas can be revisited and explored further. Uncertainty can reveal limited exposure, mixed feelings or simply something the young person needs to know more about — making it a useful starting point for conversation and investigation.
Work Sync is young person-led and self-paced. Interest Discovery typically takes around 10–15 minutes when completed independently.
When used with a parent, mentor, educator or career advisor, a session may take around 30 minutes as the videos and responses naturally prompt discussion and reflection.
Career exploration doesn’t end with the initial results.
Young people can return to Work Sync, revisit activities, reflect on their responses and refine their thinking as they gain new experiences. Their Work Interest Summary and Wayfinder exploration can then provide an ongoing reference point for career conversations and pathway decisions.
Career exploration becomes an ongoing process rather than a one-off result.
Using Work Sync to explore next steps
Work Sync gives young people and the adults supporting them something concrete to explore together.
Their responses can prompt conversations about why particular activities appeal, what they are unsure about and what might be worth investigating further.
It can also broaden the frame of reference for everyone involved, moving the conversation beyond the occupations already familiar to the young person or their family.
A young person’s work interests can give them a clearer basis for comparing the choices in front of them.
While they are at school, those insights can support conversations about subject selection and work experience. As they prepare to leave school, they can help the young person investigate further study, training, apprenticeships and other pathways connected with the kinds of work they find interesting.
Work Sync does not make those decisions for them. It helps identify possibilities worth exploring and gives the young person and the people supporting them a more informed starting point.
Yes. Career exploration isn’t only about choosing a long-term occupation.
A young person’s work interests can help identify industries, environments and types of work worth experiencing through work experience, part-time work or other early employment.
This shifts the question from simply “What job can they get?” towards “What experience could help them learn, build confidence and move in a useful direction?”
Pricing, access and what’s included
Individual access costs $99 including GST. It is a one-time payment with lifetime access and no subscription.
You can purchase Work Sync for a young person or purchase individual access for your own use.
Individual access includes Interest Discovery, a personalised Work Interest Summary and Wayfinder for occupation exploration.
The Work Interest Summary can also be downloaded, giving the young person something tangible to revisit or discuss with the people supporting them.
Work Sync can be used on phones, tablets and computers.
For Educators & Advisors
How Work Sync helps you support young people
Work Sync supports professionals and organisations helping young people understand themselves in relation to the world of work and make more informed pathway decisions.
This can include schools, career advisors, pathway planners, guidance officers and counsellors, teachers, youth workers, flexible learning providers, independent career practitioners, employment and transition services, and other organisations working directly with young people.
For many young people, “What do you want to do after school?” is difficult to answer. They may not yet have enough exposure or self-understanding to know where to begin.
Work Sync gives them something meaningful to respond to first. Their responses reveal patterns in what interests them, shifting the conversation from “I don’t know” towards areas worth exploring.
This gives educators and advisors a clearer starting point for more targeted career and pathway conversations.
A common challenge at the beginning of career exploration is that many tools assume a young person already has some understanding of themselves, the world of work, or the language to describe what interests them.
Work Sync starts earlier. Young people respond to short videos showing work activities in context, without needing to know job titles, understand career terminology or explain their interests in abstract terms.
This helps practitioners get to meaningful information much sooner. Instead of spending valuable time trying to establish where to begin, they have clear patterns, areas of uncertainty and interests to explore with the young person from the outset.
For career advisors and counsellors managing many students, this can significantly reduce the time needed to reach the point where meaningful career exploration can begin — allowing more of their time to be spent on the deeper questioning, guidance and pathway planning where their expertise adds the greatest value.
No. Work Sync is designed to strengthen the work of career advisors, educators and mentors.
It helps establish a clearer picture of a young person’s interests and gives the person supporting them meaningful information to unpack, question and explore.
The professional brings the context, interpretation and guidance; Work Sync provides a structured framework and starting point.
Work Sync is evidence-informed and draws on established research in vocational psychology.
Its work-interest structure is informed by the SETPOINT vocational interest framework described by Su et al. (2019), which examines patterns in the kinds of work activities and environments people are drawn to.
This research provides the underlying structure for Work Sync, helping young people identify meaningful patterns in their work interests and connect those insights to relevant areas of work, occupations and future pathways.
How Work Sync works in practice
Work Sync moves through three stages: Discover, Align and Navigate.
In Discover, the young person responds to 24 short videos showing different work activities. Align brings those responses together in their Work Interest Summary, making patterns across their interests easier to see.
Once the summary is generated, Watch Again allows the young person to revisit particular activities, reflect on their initial responses and refine their thinking. Navigate then uses Wayfinder to connect those interests with occupations they can investigate and save.
Educators and advisors can use each stage to prompt discussion, explore areas of uncertainty and help the young person turn those insights into meaningful next steps. A Facilitator Guide is also provided to support these conversations.
A Facilitator Guide is provided to help educators, career advisors and mentors use Work Sync with young people.
It provides guidance for using the experience and results as starting points for discussion and further exploration.
Work Sync provides the structure and information; the educator or mentor brings their knowledge of the young person, professional judgement and understanding of the surrounding pathway context.
Interest Discovery typically takes around 10–12 minutes independently. When facilitated by an educator, mentor or career advisor, a session may take around 30 minutes as the videos and responses generate discussion and reflection.
Using Work Sync across a school or cohort
Yes. Schools and organisations can purchase access for groups or cohorts, and students can complete Work Sync independently or as part of a facilitated session with an educator, career advisor or mentor.
This gives schools flexibility to use Work Sync in a way that suits their career education program, staffing and student needs.
Work Sync maps directly onto the key stages of career and pathway planning: understanding yourself, exploring possibilities, making decisions and reviewing those decisions as experience grows.
Interest Discovery supports self-awareness by helping students identify patterns in the activities, environments and ways of working that genuinely interest them before they are asked to choose subjects, courses or occupations.
The Work Interest Summary gives those interests structure and language, creating something concrete for students and the adults supporting them to discuss. Wayfinder then supports career exploration by connecting those interests with occupations and industries.
Those insights can inform subject selection, senior pathway planning, work experience, VET and apprenticeship options, university and further study choices, and post-school pathways.
At a cohort level, patterns in student interests can also provide schools with meaningful data to inform career learning, work experience opportunities, employer engagement and the industry partnerships most relevant to their students.
Yes. Work Sync provides a common framework and shared language for understanding and talking about a young person’s work interests.
This can support greater consistency across career, pathway, wellbeing, teaching and mentoring teams, helping the adults around a young person work from a clearer understanding of what engages and motivates them.
Getting started and managing access
Schools and organisations can purchase participant access in batches to suit the size of a cohort or program. There is no need to commit to an enterprise subscription.
Once you let us know how many participant invitations you need, access can be arranged for your cohort, program or organisation.
Participant access is managed through the Work Sync dashboard. Once participants are added, they receive an invitation link to begin.
Yes. Through the Work Sync dashboard, educators and advisors can view participants’ Work Interest Summaries and Wayfinder Saved Lists.
This gives them access to the information needed for individual follow-up conversations and continued pathway exploration.
Participants can save a return link by email, copy it into their browser or use a QR code to access Work Sync from a mobile device.
Their return link can be accessed through the Work Sync dashboard and resent to them.
Privacy, security and consent
Work Sync uses access controls, secure browser sessions, restricted support procedures, and encryption or secure hashing for certain identifiers.
Schools and organisations access participant information through authorised dashboard permissions. Card details are handled by Stripe and are not stored in the Work Sync database, and Work Sync does not sell personal information.
For participants using Work Sync through a school or organisation, we may collect a student identifier, authorised email address, organisation association and access details.
We also save discovery responses, the completed Work Interest Summary, changes made after rewatching videos, saved Wayfinder choices, and limited session, security and support records.
Work Sync stores participant and service data using MongoDB Atlas in the production cluster region selected by Work Sync. The website and application are hosted on Netlify.
Some providers process or support information outside Australia. This includes Postmark in the United States, while Stripe may process payment information in Australia, Ireland, the United States and other countries used by payment networks. Our Privacy Policy explains the current provider arrangements in more detail.
Work Sync does not currently require a parent or guardian consent check and does not ask participants to prove their age. If a participant is under 18, we encourage them to involve a parent or guardian.
Schools and organisations may have their own privacy, consent and approval requirements. They should follow their own policies and provide any notices or obtain any permissions they require when arranging access for students.
Each school or organisation needs to assess Work Sync against its own privacy, procurement and third-party platform requirements. The final approval sits with the school or organisation.
Our Privacy Policy explains what information Work Sync collects, how it is used and protected, which service providers are involved, where overseas processing may occur, and what authorised staff can access. Schools can contact hello@worksync.com.au if they need more information for their review.