Thursday, 26 March 2009

Bereavement

We have sadly just heard of the untimely death of a careers colleague, Margaret Bradford Banbridge Academy, RIP.

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Tuesday, 10 March 2009

Conference Materials

All materials relating to your Area Learning Community are available on the Virtual Learning Portal. If anything is missing let us know.
www.clounagh.org

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LSDA NI Launches New Careers Education Pack

LSDA NI recently launched a new publication, Careers
Education for Work Based Learning Providers- A Resource
Pack. It has been produced for use with Training for
Success and Apprenticeships-NI learners. Careers
Education has been identified as a critical aspect of
ensuring young people entering Post-16 education and
training provision make informed choices on their future
career pathway.

Copies of the pack and further information can be
obtained by contacting Nicola Reilly at the LSDA NI Office,
telephone 028 9044 7711 or nreilly@lsda.org.uk

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Sector Skills Councils' Careers templates


The Northern Ireland Careers Service web-site provides a
host of information, advice and contacts to help people
of all ages make informed career decisions.

It contains many interactive features and a number of multi-media
resources that enable users to explore fully the range of careers available. It also provides details of all Careers Advisers throughout Northern Ireland. However, one of
the challenges for the Careers Service is to ensure that all careers information is relevant and up-to-date.

Sector Skills Councils, through their extensive research and understanding of employers’ skills requirements, are uniquely placed to provide robust careers information about their sector. In a new project the Department for
Employment and Learning and Sector Skills Councils are developing careers templates for each of the 25 sectors. Each template will contain relevant information about
the sector such as job roles, skills and qualifications for entry to the sector, and job opportunities. This valuable resource will be used by Careers Advisers to promote
each sector as a possible career to their clients. The development of the templates will take place during January to April 2009 and is being co-ordinated through
the Alliance of Sector Skills Councils (ASSC). Further information on
the project is available by contacting Claire Toner at ASSC on
claire.toner@sscalliance.org
or 028 9044 7735
The Alliance
of Sector
Skills
Councils

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DEL Occupational Information Days

DEL are running a series of Occupational Information Days where people involved in the CEIAG field can get the most recent update in particular sector skills councils.


Date 24th March 2009
Balmoral Hotel, Belfast
10.00 – 12.30 Creative and Cultural Sector Skills Council

1.30 – 14.30 Lifelong Learning Uk

14.30 - 16.00 Electrical Training Trust

26th March 2009
Walsh’s Hotel, Maghera
10.00 – 12.30 Creative and Cultural Sector Skills Council

1.30 – 14.30 Lifelong Learning Uk

14.30 - 16.00 Electrical Training Trust



12th May 2009
Balmoral Hotel, Belfast
10.00 – 12.30 Skills for Logistics Sector Skills Council

1.30 – 16.00 Skills for Justice

14th May 2009
Walsh’s Hotel, Maghera
10.00 – 12.30 Skills for Logistics Sector Skills Council

1.30 – 16.00 Skills for Justice



23rd June 2009
Balmoral Hotel, Belfast
10.00 – 12.30 Lantra Sector Skills Council

Afternoon session to be confirmed

25TH June 2009Walsh’s Hotel, Maghera
10.00 – 12.30 Lantra Sector Skills Council

Afternoon session to be confirmed

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UU’s ambitious plans

The University of Ulster has been releasing details of its future strategy over the past two weeks. First up was the announcement of the expansion of its city centre campus in Belfast’s cathedral quarter,

with some provision being moved from the Jordanstown campus on the outskirts of the city.
Next up is raising the profile of the campus in Londonderry. The Magee campus hopes to attract an additional 2000 students to an enhanced range of courses.
Plus Coleraine – location of its other Campus – is to benefit from the construction of a new business park.
With a projected budget of £250m earmarked for the changes, this will be a major boost to the NI economy and the areas targeted.
There are concerns however, from local representatives and onlookers, about the future of the (presently) largest campus at Jordanstown. The university has moved quickly to allay fears by earmarking it as a centre of excellence for sports studies – but this has done nothing to quell the disquiet in the Newtownabbey/Jordanstown area, just five miles from Belfast city centre.
Northern Ireland’s only other university, the Queen’s University of Belfast, obviously also headquarters in the city (as does the physical presence of the OU). This may also be a veiled rationale for the proposals by the UU – to become a ‘city’ university and once and for all shake off its ‘polytechnic’ roots.
Articles here and here

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FSA teaching resource

The Financial Services Authority have developed a free pack for colleges: Money for Life which can be downloaded from here

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Latest labour market figures released

Figures released today showed another marked increase in unemployment benefit claimants over the month and a rise in the Northern Ireland unemployment rate.



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Occupational Studies

The widely-used CCEA Occupational Studies have been subject to review, as announced by CCEA last October. The intention was to have the suite of qualifications, used by

most of the school/college partnerships with the 14-16 cohort as part of the Entitlement Framework, revised and ready for first teaching in September2009.
However, the changes will not now be effected until 2010/11 (probably first teaching in September 2010).
This is to allow further consultation with stakeholders. You can see a press release on the CCEA website by following the links from the homepage - Latest News and then 2009 (the website has no internal hyperlinks).

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