This year’s NAEGA conference will be held in Keble College, Oxford between 22nd and 24th September on Advancing Adult Guidance - Personal, Social and Economic Growth. For more information, visit http://www.naega.org.uk/conference/2008/index.php
The ICG conference will be held 13-14 November 2008 at the Holland House Hotel in Cardiff, with John Griffiths, Deputy Minister for Skills with the National Assembly for Wales as the keynote speaker. For further information, see http://www.icg-uk.org/cardiff.html
TRAINING/QUALIFICATIONS FOR GUIDANCE PROFESSIONALS
Quality Standards for Young People’s IAG
New standards have been published to help local authorities to secure high-quality information, advice and guidance (IAG) provision for young people in their area when they take over responsibility, from April 2008, for the quality of IAG for young people. The standards will also help learning providers, external IAG providers and users of services to check that expected standards are being achieved. Click here to go through to our website for further details.
Source: DCSF website, 31st October 2007
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
City & Guilds provides an online careers portfolio to enable 16-18 yr olds to make decisions about their future. Young people can complete 4 online tests on their personality and ambitions before a range of careers are suggested. There is also advice on qualifications. For more information, see http://www.cityandguilds.com/myperfectjob
Advice and Support about Finance for Young People
Citizens Advice and YouthNet are working in partnership to use technology to offer support to young people who may otherwise get into financial difficulties. Advice about money will be available on podcasts, web content and via their mobile phones, targeting people aged 16 to 25. From April or May 2008, Citizens Advice information about money will be added to YouthNet’s website thesite.org, as well as money advice fact sheets for mobile phones.
For impartial information and advice about life issues for young adults in the 16-25 year age range, visit http://www.thesite.org/
Source: BBC Online, 23rd February 2008
For an online information toolkit provided by the National Youth Agency with more than 1000 information topics and over 1200 national organisations listed, see http://www.youthinformation.com/
Training Needs Analysis Tool for Learning Support Staff
Lifelong Learning UK (LLUK) and the Training and Development Agency for Schools (TDA) have developed a Training Needs Analysis tool to support learners taking the new Diplomas from September this year. The TNA tool is designed for learning support staff in colleges, schools and training providers to identify potential development opportunities as they relate to the delivery of Diplomas. The tool is expected to support relevant CPD in the School and FE Systems. It is available on http://www.sstna.org
Source: LLUK website
Languages Work
Languages Work is a website which provides information and advice on languages in the workplace. The website contains information on GCSE or A Level language options and college and university language courses. It also offers information on careers which require language skills. The website can be accessed on http://www.languageswork.org.uk
New Mentoring Website
Horsesmouth is a new website which allows users to receive informal mentoring. The website aims to provide young people with access to good, relevant support, and allows them to find appropriate mentors and role models. Topics up for discussion include careers, learning, student life, where to study, practical courses and business start up. The website can be accessed by visiting http://www.horsesmouth.co.uk
New Job Skills Website for Students A new website, studentgems, lets full-time students post a skills profile for themselves that employers can browse to find the skills they need. Many students are now looking for work alongside their courses to reduce the amount they need in student loans. More than 500 students signed up to the website in the first month.
The website is currently free, as the website will be funded through sponsorship and advertising. To visit the website click here
Source: Education Guardian Online, 19th December 2007
New Work Experience Website Set Up
A new nationwide website named www.myworkexp.com has been set up to help students and businesses negotiate work experience placements. Employers who sign up for the service will be able to build links with local schools so that they can control when they accept students and which students they take on. Students will also be able to register and search online for placements that suit their needs and interests. It is hoped that with the introduction of the site, more businesses will be encouraged to offer placements to students. To find out more, click here.
to visit the service’s website or call 0845 6034410 for more information.
Source: Kent Business, Oct 5th, 2007.
For a web magazine for young people.endorsed by AimHigher and DfES, see http://www.loudmag.co.uk/index.php. The magazine contains articles for students by students, and also has lots of information about courses and vocational training.
Careersbox
Careersbox is a free national web based, careers film library and LMI resource aimed at IAG professionals, parents and students. The website contains over 70 films of people at work and can be accessed by visiting http://www.careersbox.co.uk
For information about full-time, part-time and evening courses throughout the UK, visit http://www.hotcourses.com
For university graduates, http://www.prospects.ac.uk has detailed job descriptions, industry sector information and articles about jobs relating to common degree subjects.
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 information about books, software and websites
to support guidance for adults, see http://www.guidanceforum.net
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.vtlifeskills.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.vtlifeskills.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.vtlifeskills.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 NGRF website has information about equal opportunities, lifelong learning, using research, sector information and international perspectives on careers education and guidance. For further information, visit http://www.guidance-research.org/future-trends
National Library Resource for Guidance (NLRG)
All ICG members can make use of the NLRG at the Centre for Guidance Studies. Since its official launch in 2004, members have been able to request information by phone or email. The Library has over 15,000 electronic and paper documents, many of which can be accessed for free. To make an enquiry, phone 01332 591284 or
email: nlrg@derby.ac.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 for Business Enterprise and Regulatory Reform website gives access to all BERR publications.
For further details, visit http://www.berr.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 byVT Research 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.
