Our team was tasked with redesigning the website dedicated to apprenticeships, with the goal of connecting candidates and companies by matching apprenticeship/internship offers with applications.
Project Objectives
The CCI Grand Est operates the site apprentissage-grandest.fr, a platform that shares apprenticeship and internship postings, allows employers to post offers, and gives candidates access to them.
The CCI entrusted our team with the task of a complete redesign of this platform to meet the following main objectives:
- Improve the site’s features;
- Redesign the technical foundation to enhance security and bring the site into compliance with GDPR;
- Refresh the graphics and optimize the user experience;
- Offer a site accessible on all devices.
To meet these needs, we handled the overall UX and graphic redesign, developed the platform with Drupal 8, managed front-end integration, content migration, and skills transfer… We are now in charge of preventive, corrective, and ongoing maintenance of the site.
Main Features
The apprentissage-grandest.fr portal offers the following main features:
- A registration form to create a personal account – the platform provides two distinct forms for account creation depending on the goal (Searching for an internship/apprenticeship, searching for candidates).
- A candidate area – allows candidates to manage their profile, view and apply to offers.
- A recruiter area – allows employers to create and publish apprenticeship/internship offers.
- A mandataire area – allows third-party organizations collaborating with companies to create and publish offers and manage company profiles.
- A job posting search system – the homepage features a search system composed of a search engine and faceted search filters to filter announcements.
- An Offer > Demand matching system – candidates are alerted by email when offers are posted that match their profiles. The matching system is also available for recruiters, who are notified by email when candidates match their needs.
- A CV database with restricted access – the site offers a CV database that is only accessible to site administrators and recruiters. Candidates or anonymous visitors do not have access to CVs.
UX/UI Effort
A primary goal of the project, the user experience was optimized on several levels:
- Simplifying the job search – we set up an advanced search system at the center of the homepage. It provides a free-text field and filters to refine results. From the homepage, users can search for postings.
- Encouraging registration – we recommended a multi-step form with progress indicators to inform users of their progress and remaining steps.
- Managing multiple account types (recruiters, candidates, and mandataries) – the goal here was to precisely define the needs of each user type to offer the most suitable features.
- Interface personalization – users can personalize their interface by adding favorites (CVs or offers) and find them again in their personal space.
For the interface design, we used a monochromatic (pink) color scheme and prioritized white space – the goal being to create a clear, readable, and uncluttered interface to focus user attention on the content.
We also added a few illustrations to bring movement and a modern feel, in line with the site's target audience.
Main Drupal 8 Modules Used
Among others, we used the following modules:
- Multiple Registration – This module is very useful if you want to create a registration form for each role and configure specific fields for those roles. We used it to create two account registration form pages – one for the recruiter profile and one for the candidate profile.
- Profile – This module allows for the creation of several profile types, which can be assigned to roles via specific permissions. We used this module to register CVs and company profiles when a candidate or recruiter account is created.
- Conditional Fields – This module manages dependencies between fields. These are dynamically changed if they meet the configured conditions.
- Geolocation and Address – These two modules allowed us to set up offer geolocation for administrators responsible for validating them.
- Flag – This module was used to manage favorites, particularly CVs.
- Entity Print, Printable, and Printable PDF – These modules allow users to download Drupal entities and/or views as PDFs.
Project Challenges
Associating a profile during form creation, according to role, posed some challenges. In fact, the Multiple Registration and Profile modules are not compatible. We added an option to associate a specific profile with the correct account creation form (for example: linking the "Recruiter" profile to the dedicated recruiter profile creation form).
Moreover, we were responsible for importing the database from the old site using a custom import module, in order to retrieve old data (offers, user accounts, etc.) and migrate them into the new database. The challenge was that the new database required a new entity structure.
Finally, regarding the matching of offers and candidates, this feature was a real challenge due to the large volume of the database. It required the implementation of a robust and high-performance email system, capable of handling a large number of email notifications.
The site: https://www.apprentissage-grandest.fr/
