From insight to action: How Universidad El Bosque turned data into academic transformation

Executive summary

In 2024, Universidad El Bosque partnered with 1Mentor to address a critical challenge facing higher education: transforming employability data into actionable insights for academic decision-making. Together, they launched the 1Mentor Kits - a suite of digital communication and analytics tools designed to help deans, faculty leaders, and academic teams better understand student outcomes, respond to labor-market trends, and make evidence-based decisions about program development.

What started as a technology implementation quickly evolved into something much broader. By making data more accessible and meaningful, the initiative fostered greater collaboration across the institution, encouraged new conversations about curriculum relevance, and empowered academic leaders to take a more proactive approach to shaping the university’s educational offer.

The result was more than improved reporting. The partnership helped drive a cultural shift toward data-informed decision-making, positioning Universidad El Bosque as a leading example of how institutions can turn employability insights into tangible academic innovation and long-term student success.

Context and challenge

When Universidad El Bosque first implemented the 1Mentor Platform, the initial goal was clear: give students access to employability insights and tools to support their professional development. However, as the university’s Division for Educational Development (DiDe) began analyzing the platform’s data, a new challenge emerged.

While faculty leaders had access to valuable information about student skills, aspirations, and career interests, many lacked a clear framework for turning those insights into meaningful academic decisions.

‍"Faculty members had access to the platform," recalls Ginna Paola Herrera Calero, Director of DiDe, "but they didn’t always know what to do with the data. We needed to make it useful - to turn information into understanding."

Recognizing this gap, DiDe partnered closely with 1Mentor to develop the 1Mentor Kits: a series of modular, interactive resources designed to help faculties interpret data, uncover opportunities, and connect employability insights directly to their academic reality.

The 1Mentor advantage

At its core, the 1Mentor Platform helps institutions move beyond data collection and gain a deeper understanding of student aspirations, skill development, and workforce readiness.

For Universidad El Bosque, the platform enabled academic leaders to:

• Access faculty-specific dashboards that mapped student skills, interests, and career goals.
• Connect academic programmes more closely to labour market demand and emerging industry trends.
• Use real-time employability data to inform curriculum discussions and strategic planning.
• Empower deans and faculty leaders to champion data-driven innovation within their schools.

Rather than simply providing information, the platform created a foundation for more informed and collaborative decision-making across the institution.

From platform to partnership

The success of the initiative stemmed from a highly collaborative approach between DiDe and 1Mentor, transforming a technology deployment into a university-wide change programme.

1. Co-designing the 1Mentor Kits

Developed in Articulate Rise, each Kit served as a dedicated digital hub tailored to individual faculties. Combining platform guidance, key analytics, and targeted recommendations, the Kits made complex data more accessible and relevant for academic stakeholders.

2. Turning insights into action

The Kits translated employability data into clear visual narratives, highlighting trends such as students' most common skills, career interests, and emerging competency gaps. This made it easier for faculty teams to identify priorities and opportunities for improvement.

3. Driving faculty engagement

DiDe facilitated discussions with deans, programme directors, and faculty leaders to explore what the data revealed about student needs and future workforce expectations. These conversations encouraged stakeholders to view employability not as a standalone initiative, but as a shared institutional responsibility.

4. Converting data into innovation

The insights generated through the Kits directly influenced the creation of five transversal courses focused on high-demand professional skills, including leadership, LinkedIn profile development, time management, presentation skills, and CV design.

Results and impact

Adoption through empowerment

The 1Mentor Kits quickly became more than a communication resource - they became a catalyst for engagement.

By presenting data in a contextualised and accessible way, the Kits helped faculty leaders understand both the value of the platform and their role in acting on its insights.

‍"Usually, when a university adopts a platform, it's just a technical process," says Herrera. "But with 1Mentor, we never felt alone. It was teamwork - constant dialogue, validation, and co-creation."

This collaborative model accelerated adoption and fostered a stronger culture of evidence-based decision-making across the institution.

Reimagining the curriculum

One of the most significant outcomes was the visibility the Kits provided into non-technical and transferable skills that students valued, but which were not always explicitly reflected within existing curricula.

The data prompted important discussions around curriculum relevance and future readiness, helping academic leaders identify opportunities to strengthen employability outcomes and better align programmes with student ambitions.

‍"The greatest value was mapping what students actually aspire to - and comparing that to what the curriculum offers. It showed us what we might be missing."

Scaling impact across the institution

The initiative's success extended beyond academic programmes.

The insights and methodology developed through the 1Mentor Kits inspired new initiatives across Alumni Relations, Human Resources, and institutional innovation projects, including the CONNECTA innovation forum. These developments demonstrated how a data-driven approach could deliver value across multiple areas of the university.

Key takeaways

• Context drives adoption: Faculty engagement increases when data is presented in a relevant and actionable format.
• Insights fuel innovation: Visibility into student aspirations and skill gaps creates opportunities for curriculum enhancement.
• Partnership matters: Sustained collaboration and co-creation deliver stronger outcomes than technology alone.
• Scalability creates long-term value: The model can be expanded to new audiences, refreshed with new data, and replicated across the institution.

Closing thought

At Universidad El Bosque, employability data became more than a source of insight. It became a catalyst for institutional change. Through the 1Mentor Kits, the university transformed information into action, helping academic leaders connect student aspirations with curriculum development and strategic decision-making. The result was not only stronger engagement with data, but a lasting culture of collaboration, innovation, and continuous improvement.