Helping young people get connected to the right career

Suzanne Carroll is a Careers Adviser with the Careers Service Northern Ireland (NI), part of the Department for Employment and Learning (DEL). She talks to Fiona McIlwaine Biggins about her work in assisting people to improve the effectiveness of their career planning and decision making skills

Suzanne Carroll says her role as a Career Adviser is varied and challenging

Daily schedule

Careers Advisers are independent and impartial guidance practitioners who work with a wide range of clients. Careers Service NI employs more than 90 professionally qualified advisers who work in a variety of settings and with a wide range of clients throughout Northern Ireland. The location of offices and staff can be accessed on the Careers Service website at www.careersserviceni.com

My role as a Careers Adviser is varied and challenging and like each adviser I have an allocated caseload bringing me into contact with clients of all ages and backgrounds.

Although the work is generally 9am-5pm, Monday to Friday, occasionally the job demand dictates evening and weekend attendance at career events.

Monday

This morning I am visiting one of my allocated schools to talk to the Year 12 students about the year ahead. I outline the main assessment tool that we use, 'Getting Connected', to identify where each individual is in their career thinking. This is followed by a one hour session when the young people complete the Getting Connected questionnaire.

When I return to the office in the afternoon I assess the batch of questionnaires to see how many of the young people will require a follow-up career guidance interview. I collate this information and arrange to meet with the careers teacher in the school.

Tuesday

This morning I am in the office for a team meeting with my manager and other Careers Advisers. On the agenda this morning is the new training programme for school leavers, 'Training for Success', which has replaced the Jobskills vocational training programme.

Careers Advisers will discuss the implications of the new programme for the current school leavers and how guidance practitioners can best support these young people and their parents.

In the afternoon it is my turn to cover the office rota.

This involves meeting with young people and adults who drop in to the Careers Office seeking information, advice or guidance.

I also carry out pre-booked guidance interviews.

Wednesday

The morning starts with the ringing of the bell at one of my allocated schools. My first port of call is the office of the careers teacher to confirm the names of those Year 12 students I have planned to interview over the course of the day.

Students in this year are at a pivotal stage in their career planning process and I will be discussing with them the options open to them; taking into account their academic ability, career preferences, skills and interests and the ever-changing global labour market.

This process helps the individual to make an informed decision about their future career.

Towards the end of the afternoon I will meet with the Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator (SENCO) in the school to discuss the additional requirements of those pupils with a physical, mental or learning disability.

Thursday

Today I am meeting the manager of a training organisation to discuss my input to their programmes. I will be looking at the individual training plans for the young people in training to ensure that their training needs are being met. As Training for Success is the new government training provision for school leavers, this area of my work will bring many challenges, as my colleagues and I help to ensure the smooth running of the scheme.

This afternoon I am back in the office dealing with numerous emails from colleagues and keeping abreast of the wealth of information relating to education and careers.

As a lot of my work is school based, it is important that I am informed about changes in the curriculum and the implications for delivery of careers guidance in the changing environment of careers education. Having up-to-date information about the Northern Ireland and global labour markets is essential in the delivery of a professional service. Keeping myself well informed in these areas is a continuous challenge.

Professional literature and websites help with this as indeed do the many in-house training days.

Friday

I'm back in school this morning giving a talk to Year 13 on the University, Colleges Admissions Service (UCAS) process and how they make applications for courses in Higher Education. Afterwards I have scheduled one-to-one interviews with some of the Year 12 students. On returning to the office I write up my notes on the interviews and update our database. I spend the rest of the day putting together a presentation on vocational training which will be delivered to a group of Year 12 students next week.