The new multimedia careers resource - Careers World - will form an essential part of the overall Schools IT2000 programme, according to the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin.
"Careers World is the fruit of a very successful partnership between the private sector, the firms who sponsored the preparation of the material, co-ordinated by Woodgrange Consultants, and my Department, which will ensure that guidance counsellors have the support necessary to them to use the programme in the schools," he said, at the launch of the venture. The Irish Times and RTE are media partners in the project.
"Careers World represents a new and exciting way of presenting information about careers to young people in a way that is both relevant and meaningful to them, using the very latest of the new information and communication technologies," the Minister said. Some 150 jobs are detailed in the associated multimedia pack, which comprises a full colour ringbinder and a set of four interactive CD-Roms. The job profiles are augmented by live interviews with 70 job holders.
Mr Martin said he was "particularly pleased by the proposal that RTE would provide a series of programmes for parents and others interested around the themes of Careers World". The Department of Education and Science will contribute financially to supporting this work. It will also fund computers for guidance counsellors in schools to enable them to use Careers World and other IT-based products as well as providing in-service training.
The Irish Times will support Careers World by running a series of articles in the business pages. They will be aimed at third-level students and graduates and will explore career paths in a number of major employment areas.
Mr Sean Gannon, director of the careers advisory service in Trinity College Dublin, said the video interviews on careers would probably represent the first time graduates and school-leavers would see people describing the work they did and the tasks they performed. "It has real live people describing real live jobs, the up side and the down side. It's a very potent way of learning about different types of jobs," said Mr Gannon, who was an adviser to the project.
For the most part, graduates are bombarded, during the autumn, with information from British companies which visit Ireland, he noted. Careers World is predominantly concerned with Irish companies and provides an opportunity to redress the balance. It details the training programmes people follow as well as the jobs.
Careers World also describes new jobs which have only arisen in the past five years, for instance customer service agent, logistics and purchasing. "It's a real benefit for people at third level but also for people at second level who are making decision as to the courses they will do and how those will link in with employment at a later stage," said Mr Gannon.
UCD's careers and appointments officer, Mr Colm Tobin, said the buoyancy in the jobs market meant that many graduates were tempted to put career planning on the long finger. "Careers World seems to be a very useful stimulus that is well tuned to the modern student. . . some students lose the sense of urgency and there is a need for interaction of a stimulating kind." Mr Diarmuid McCarthy, chairman of the Dublin branch of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, noted the dearth of careers material available in Ireland compared to Britain and said Careers World was a step in the right direction. He was glad to see that private companies which reaped the benefits of the education system were contributing. It was time they put something back.
Mr Vivian Cassells of the National Centre for Guidance in Education said guidance counsellors were concerned that the effectiveness of this "excellent resource" would be limited as schools were only receiving one copy each. He called on the Department of Education and Science to make funding available to ensure that sufficient copies were sent to each school.
