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Career Forge | Check-in & Badge Printing

Fast, reliable check-in and badge printing

An iPad kiosk app and a label printer that check students and recruiters in at events and print their badges, even on poor Wi-Fi.

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Staff portal: the check-in summary for the fair, with checked-in students and recruiters
On the iPad

Three ways in, and it works without Wi-Fi

The Career Forge Kiosk app runs on an iPad with a Brother label printer. Set-up takes seconds, and check-ins keep going when the venue's network does not.

  • Scan the student ID, search a name, or tap an NFC card
  • Default, Speed and Tap-and-Go modes, or check-in without printing
  • Recruiters check in and get badges too, with on-the-day employer additions
  • Check-ins are stored on the iPad and synced when it is back online
Checked-in recruiters for the fair, by employer, with check-in times
Afterwards

Every check-in on a web dashboard

Counts by students, recruiters and employers, the full list of who came, and an export.

  • A registered student's check-in marks them as attended
  • Students do not have to be registered to check in
  • Export from the dashboard
What you can configure

Set once, at the level it belongs to

Each career center on a campus runs its own check-in & badge printing; what the institution shares is set once for all of them.

SettingSet where
Kiosk mode: Default, Speed, Tap-and-Go or manual search only; Speed and Tap-and-Go can run togetherPer iPad, in the kiosk settings
What the student side collects, such as position types sought, and whether it is requiredPer event, on the kiosk
What the recruiter side collects: email, alumni status, shipping needs, each optional or requiredPer event, on the kiosk
Check-in only, without printing a badgePer iPad
Several sessions on one event, each with its own check-inPer event
Who can log in to the kiosks and who watches the dashboardPer career center, by user permission
The student ID card layout the camera readsPer institution, once for every career center
Compared with Handshake

Check-in & Badge Printing next to Handshake’s

Most career centers that ask about the kiosk are comparing it with Handshake's. The difference is the hardware model, in each vendor's own words.

Career ForgeHandshake
The deviceAn iPad running the Career Forge Kiosk app, on a stand.A browser kiosk on a desktop or laptop. The kiosk runs on an iPad, but name tags cannot print from one. Source
The printerA Brother QL-820NWBC label printer, paired over Bluetooth.A Dymo 450, 550 or LabelWriter Wireless, connected by USB to the computer the software was installed on. Source
What gets installedThe app, from the App Store.Dymo software on a Windows or macOS computer (Chromebooks and Linux are not supported), and an XML label template pasted into each event. Source
IT involvementNone. No drivers, no print services, nothing on a campus computer.For the wireless printer, Handshake recommends having your IT team help set it up. Source
When the Wi-Fi dropsCheck-ins and badges continue; the iPad stores them and syncs when it is back online.The kiosk switches to offline mode and uploads check-ins when the connection returns; internet is needed to set up and launch it. Source
Recruiter badgesRecruiters check in and get badges too, with on-the-day employer additions.Name tags are described for student attendees; recruiter badges are not described on its site. Source

Statements about Handshake come from its own help center, linked in each row. The full comparison

Used byCareer centers from a single college to a whole universitySee who, and what they say
University of MichiganMontana Technological UniversityBowling Green State UniversityFlorida Institute of TechnologyHampton UniversityRowan College at Burlington CountyUniversity of FloridaKing University
In their words

Check-in & Badge Printing, in a career center's words

“One of the big wins from the beginning has been the badging system. It works really well, it impresses students and the rest of the university, and we've been able to use it for other events.”
Dona GaynorDirector of Career Services, Florida Institute of Technology
“We had 1,720 students check in through Career Forge at our two-day fall fair. That was awesome.”
Apryl MullinsDirector, Corporate Relations, Samuel Ginn College of Engineering, Auburn University
“We promoted early check-in, which we called Skip the Line, and had the kiosk in our office for about a week beforehand. The line was much more manageable than last year's fall fair, and we got good feedback from employers.”

A fall fair of a little over 1,100 students, with the kiosk set up in the office the week before so students could print their badges early.

Dona GaynorDirector of Career Services, Florida Institute of Technology
Built this way on purpose

What Check-in & Badge Printing does not make you do

Nothing to install

The Career Forge Kiosk app from the App Store on an iPad, and a Brother label printer paired over Bluetooth. No drivers, no print server, nothing on a campus computer, no ticket to IT.

Built for bad Wi-Fi

Once the event's data is loaded onto the iPads, check-in needs no internet at all; the printer is on Bluetooth. Check-ins are saved on the iPad and synced back to Career Forge when there is a connection again.

Nobody is turned away

A student who is not on the list adds themselves. A recruiter who is not on the list adds themselves as long as their employer is. A new employer is added from the web, on the day, by whoever is watching the dashboard.

Questions people ask about Check-in & Badge Printing

An iPad (10th generation or newer, or an iPad mini) on iOS 18.1 or later, a Brother QL-820NWBC label printer with DK-2205 labels, and a stand. Badge holders and lanyards are optional. A calculator in the help centre suggests how many iPad and printer pairs an event needs.

No. Every student in your data appears on the kiosk for every event. If the student has a registration, the check-in marks it attended; if not, the check-in still shows on the event's check-in tab.

They type their student ID number, or search by name, or add themselves. In Speed mode the kiosk stays on the scanning screen, so a staff member helps them.

The system was designed for that. Load the event onto the iPads beforehand and nothing else needs the internet; the printer connects over Bluetooth. Check-ins are stored on each iPad and synced back when you reconnect, a step you run yourself from the app.

Yes. Tap-and-Go mode works with any NFC reader that plugs in and acts like a keyboard. Because the reader takes the keyboard, manual search and the review-and-edit screen are off in that mode.

Yes. Check-ins export from the web dashboard as a spreadsheet, for your records or any other system.

The fields are mapped to the badge template: name, majors (both majors for a double major, comma separated and auto-sized) and degree level, for example. A different layout is a request to the team.

Yes. Recruiters check in on the same kiosk, under their employer, and get a badge; the dashboard counts students, recruiters and employers separately.

Works with

Career Forge |Event ManagementCreate career fairs and other events, take employer and student registrations, approve them and invoice employers, all in one place.See how it worksCareer Forge |ReportingBuild, filter, save and email reports on live data across candidates, coaching, experiences and jobs.See how it works

See Check-in & Badge Printing on your career center

A 30-minute walkthrough with the team that builds it.

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