How the Careers Service can help you
The Careers Service provides an impartial, all-age careers information, advice and guidance service throughout Northern Ireland. Professionally qualified careers advisers can help young people and adults make informed choices about their future career paths. Careers advisers can also help parents/guardians with their child's future career plans.
What the Careers Service can do for you
Careers guidance can help you become more aware of:
- your career options
- the skills you need for the jobs/ careers you're interested in
- the importance of looking at current and future job trends when planning your career
It can also help you feel more prepared and more confident when making decisions about your career options and your career.
Services for young people
Whether you are at school, college, in training or looking for work, experts are on hand to help with your plans for the future.
Careers advisers can provide information, advice and guidance on:
- choosing subjects for study at school, college or university
- current and future job trends and opportunities
- career planning and career options
- further and higher education
- apprenticeships and training
- entry routes and the skills and qualifications required for particular jobs
If you are still at school you will be offered at least one face-to-face careers guidance interview. This interview usually takes place in Year 12 and will be held in your own school. The purpose of the careers guidance interview is to help you to consider your career options and to make informed, suitable and achievable career decisions.
Services for adults
The Careers Service provides information, advice and guidance to people who are:
- looking for education, training or employment opportunities
- thinking of changing job or career direction
- considering returning to learning to either re-skill or up-skill
- facing redundancy
- ready for a new challenge
- thinking of starting their own business
- looking for information on a particular career
- unsure what career might suit them
- unsure of how to plan their next step
Careers advisers can provide adults with information and advice on:
- current employment trends, future job opportunities and job search techniques
- further and higher education, training and post graduate opportunities
- working overseas / gap years
- vacation / voluntary work
- career options and career planning
- learning opportunities
- transferable skills
- applying for jobs, including CV preparation, interview techniques and completing application forms
They also offer individually tailored guidance to help you analyse your personal preferences, strengths, skills, abilities and personality to realise your full potential .
Help for parents
As a parent or carer, you are likely to be the single biggest influence on your child’s thoughts and feelings about their future careers.
In an ever changing economy, young people today face a number of challenges and decisions about their futures and it is more important than ever that they make their career choices wisely.
As a parent or carer there is plenty that you can do to support your child and help them make successful career choices. Providing support and encouragement is immensely important, and the more you know about what careers information, advice and guidance is available and where it can be accessed the better.
Guides to help with career planning
To help you or your child make informed career decisions, the guides on the following page offer advice and guidance, as well as worksheets and checklists to fill in.
Contact a careers adviser
There are many ways to contact a careers adviser, including online web chat, telephone, email, online form or in person.
Contact details can be found at:
Privacy notice
To find out how the Careers Service gathers and safeguards your personal information, see the Careers Service’s privacy notice.