The ICG’s annual conference, exhibition and
AGM entitled Information, Advice and Guidance for
World Class Skills will be held on 8 – 9 November
2007 in Solihull, Birmingham, for further information,
visit http://www.icg-uk.org/solihull.html
An ICG South East Regional Event for will be held
on 18 October at Canterbury Christchurch University,
near Tunbridge Wells. For more details, visit http://www.icg-uk.org/regionaleventsdiary.html
For more information about a one day conference
in London on 27 September 2007 for Connexions and
careers advisers about advising clients about HE,
see http://www.icg-uk.org/he-admissions.html
NAEGA is the major UK association for adult guidance
practitioners. For information about events arranged
for guidance professionals, visit http://www.naega.org.uk/
NIACE (The National Institute of Adult Continuing
Education - England and Wales) is a non-governmental
organisation working for more and different adult
learners. For details about conferences and courses,
and research supporting adult learning, visit http://www.niace.org.uk/Default.htm
The
Euroguidance network helps guidance professionals
and others to understand opportunities for learning
and careers in Europe. For more information,
visit http://www.euroguidance.net/En/Welcome.htm
The PLOTEUS portal provides information about
life-long learning in Europe, supplying information
about studying in Europe to students, job seekers
and guidance professionals http://europa.eu.int/ploteus/portal/home.jsp
The Careers A-Z gateway website gives access to
a variety of information about and links to jobs,
vacancies and professional bodies for adult guidance
professionals. For more information, visit http://www.careersa-z.co.uk.
For a website aiming to be the main source of
information and advice on implementing the Skills
for Life strategy, see http://www.dfes.gov.uk/readwriteplus/
For information for teachers and advisers of adult
literacy, numeracy and ESOL, see http://www.talent.ac.uk/
For background information
about the work of the Apex Trust’s work
supporting ex-offenders to enter employment,
see http://www.apextrust.com
For resources and information for guidance professionals,
students and those in education and training, see
http://www.support4learning.org.uk
For information about books, software and websites
to support guidance for adults, see http://www.guidanceforum.net
Course Discover gives information about UK-wide
further and higher education courses, and is available
on CD-ROM or via the internet. For more information,
visit http://www.trotman.co.uk
Adult Directions is a career-matching programme
and occupational database for adults. For further
information, visit http://www.cascaid.co.uk
Careerscape has information about more than 800
careers, for both adults and young people. For
further details, visit http://www.cascaid.co.uk
Odyssey is a database with information about jobs
supplied by the DfES. Over 800 jobs are included,
with a variety of searches. For more information,
visit http://www.progressions.co.uk
Pathfinder asks the user questions to analyse
occupational interest and generate job suggestions.
Users are given the pros and cons of each job,
as well as more detailed information. For further
details, visit http://www.progressions.co.uk
SkillCheck helps users identify key skills and
work-related skills. The user is given a profile
assessing the strength of their skills. The tool
is of special use for users with low self-esteem,
or who lack confidence. For further information,
visit http://www.progressions.co.uk
ProMICAD is a self-assessment
programme that produces a computer profile of
a user’s personality
and strengths, of especial use for users
with low self-esteem. For further information,
visit http://www.lifetime-publishing.co.uk
The Association of Graduate Recruiters produces
reports, surveys and bulletins about graduate LMI.
For further information, visit http://www.agr.org.uk
Confederation of British Industry offers information
about employment and business news. For further
information, visit http://www.cbi.org.uk
The Department of Trade and Industry website gives
access to all DTI publications. For further details,
visit http://www.dti.gov.uk
For information about Higher Education institutions,
visit the Higher Education Statistics Agency website:
http://www.hesa.ac.uk
The LSC Skills and Education
Network provides news and reviews of key LMI publications
on: http://research.lsc.gov.uk/
The Sector Skills Development
Agency compiles LMI relating to skills in different
industrial
sectors. For further information, visit http://www.ssda.org.uk
SkillCheck takes a skills-based approach to job
finding. Users complete two simple questionnaires,
which help them to identify their work-related
and key skills (core skills). When these profiles
are combined with their level of ability/qualifications,
the result is a list of 20 job matches. The following
review is based on extracts from an evaluation
undertaken by geresearch including feedback by
Skills Coaches about SkillCheck, published with
permission of VT Lifeskills.
The SkillCheck
programme was generally well-perceived by the
Skills Coaches. It was seen as good for engaging
with clients and confidence-building for clients
who did not recognise that they have a number
of transferable skills.
The
skills diagnostic feature of the programme
was found to be very
effective at breaking down barriers when first
interacting with clients.
The
audio function supplied with SkillCheck is
useful for clients
with limited reading/writing skills.
By
observing the way clients progress with the
questions and
functions of SkillCheck, Skills Coaches are
able to assess clients’ basic skills
needs in a non-threatening way.
The
job suggestions listed were sometimes seen
as not directly
relevant to clients. However, examples were
cited of people who had picked out jobs from
the list that they might otherwise have not
followed up.
Coaches
valued the simple navigation of the programme,
and
found it bright and easy to use.
The
advanced facilities of SkillCheck include the
Skills Passport,
and Personal Development Plan functions. The
Personal Development plan was seen as useful
as a discussion guide with clients for looking
to the future. The strengths of the Passport
were a clear structure and clear headings,
such as what you want to achieve, how you will
achieve it and the outcome.
Overall,
SkillCheck is a valuable tool for building
the confidence
of people who find it difficult to express
their skills, perhaps because they feel they
lack work experience, do not have traditional
qualifications or because they feel excluded
from the labour market. Coaches reported finding
the programme enjoyable to use, and this was
also true for many of their clients. Young
people were excited by using the computer programme
and found it enjoyable and interesting.
The above evaluation has contributed
to a new VT Lifeskills’ internet-based product
called Pathfinder Live. The updated software has
data based on a wide range of longitudinal research
with a psychometric assessment of interest and
facility to match interests to jobs and degree
courses at UK universities. In addition to the
standard features of the CD version, Pathfinder
Live includes a messaging facility, over 80 fact
sheets on useful subjects such as work, training,
finance, health, applying to further and higher
education which can be downloaded as PDFs or podcasts.
Users can now explore over 1400 job titles and
815 detailed job descriptions. The HE database
includes over 700 courses with links to UCAS and
email links to universities and colleges.
