A new easy-to-use, interactive and fun career guidance and recruitment service should take some of the pain out of finding the right course or career.
From actor, anaesthetist and auctioneer through baker, barrister and beauty therapist to woodworker, writer and waiter, the Careers World pack spans further and higher education to the world of work. It is aimed at second and third-level students as well as adult learners.
Some 150 jobs are detailed in the multimedia pack, which comprises a full colour ring binder and a set of three interactive CD-ROMs. The job profiles are augmented by live interviews that may be viewed on CD. About 300 other job types are outlined.
As an aid to matching people's skills and abilities to the correct course or career, a skills/preference classification system has been devised. This identifies nine areas and jobs are coded accordingly.
Students fill out a newly developed questionnaire which enables them to locate their preferred areas and the program automatically generates a list of job profiles that match the results of the test. A list of suggested third-level study areas may also be generated and the student profile can be printed out for use by guidance counsellors and parents.
The Irish Times and RTE are media partners in the project which has been designed by Woodgrange Consultants in consultation with the Department of Education and Science, the National Centre for Guidance in Education, the Institute of Guidance Counsellors, the Association of Graduate Careers Services in Ireland, the National Parents Council Post-Primary and 23 Irish and international organisations. Woodgrange Consultants is a specialist in business strategy, project management, information technology and business development. It developed and introduced the successful The Irish Times Business 2000 into Irish schools in 1997.
Careers World is sponsored by the participating companies and will be distributed free of charge to more than 800 guidance counsellors in second-level schools and advisers in third-level institutions in the State as well as adult learning institutions. A large proportion of the population, of all ages, are engaged in learning and career choice. There are 200,000 second-level students, 110,000 third-level students and 120,000 adult learners.
The National Centre for Guidance in Education, in consultation with the Department of Education and Science and the National Centre for Technology in Education, is currently formulating a support package. It will include in-service training for guidance counsellors specifically linked to the Careers World CD-Rom. It is also envisaged that the product will have its own website.
The Irish Times will support Careers World by running a series of articles in the business pages. Aimed at third-level students and graduates, these articles will explore career paths in seven major employment areas. As a joint media partner, RTE will carry a range of programming initiatives on both radio and television.
Careers World will be launched by al Martin, the Minister for Education and Science, Mr Martin, at the RHA Gallagher Gallery, Ely Place, Dublin, next Tuesday.
The following companies are sponsoring Careers World: AIB, Amway, An Bord Altranais, Bank of Ireland, CERT, the Civil Service Commission, Collins McNicholas, Compaq, the Construction Industry Federation, Dell, Hibernian, Iarnrod Eireann, Irish Permanent, Jurys Hotel Group, Luas, the Local Government Management Services Board, the Licensed Vintners' Association, Microsoft, Musgrave, Superquinn, Telecom Eireann, Windmill Lane Pictures, Xerox.
