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Steps+ career guidance

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Many of Oberstown’s young people have experienced disadvantage across their lifespan including the area of education. Helping young people to understand their career options and choices is a key aspect of the Education and Preparation for Leaving elements of Oberstown’s CEHOP® model of care.

The Steps+ (Skills, Training, Education, Person-Centred Support) project is a career guidance platform that helps young people in Oberstown to explore their skills, interests and strengths and link these to education, training, and employment opportunities. It is a joint project between Oberstown and Careersportal.ie, funded by the Dormant Accounts Fund.

Designed by career professionals from CareersPortal.ie – through in-depth consultation in Oberstown with young people, teachers, staff and parents – Steps+ comprises interactive tools to help young people to learn about themselves and their training, education and employment opportunities. The platform has four core apps – My Strengths, My Skills, My Interests and My Work Areas – which facilitate the self-assessments that help key workers and young people to explore their options in education, training and work, including apprenticeships.

The platform provides access to a Steps+ Career File for each young person and an Administration area where assigned staff can track assessment results, progress and development of the young person during their time on campus. Meeting notes are integrated into the platform and an individual dashboard tracks engagement by each young person. Through the Administration function, staff can consider young people’s careers reports/portfolios in placement planning meetings (PPMs).

Collaboration and consultation are key to the STEPS+ process, with feedback from young people’s focus groups informing revisions to the apps and additions to the platform. Resulting improvements have included the addition of accessibility tools, in line with the UDL (Universal Design for Learning) framework to support learners and staff with issues arising from challenges including autism, dyslexia, language and visual impairment. New accessibility enhancements include a user-friendly voice feature and a colour vision indicator app to help young people prepare for apprenticeship. The project has also been adapted to suit specific individual needs, such as the introduction of a bespoke CAO app developed for an academically-motivated young person.

Meetings with parents and guardians have helped move the STEPS+ project forward, and their continuing involvement is seen as a significant factor in each young person’s positive change.

Young people’s engagement with Steps+ is encouraged through a support structure that includes a CareersPortal Guidance Team, whose flexible approach to working with young people on weekends, during school mid-term and summer holidays has been a major factor in the project’s success to date. In November 2022, a qualified Career Guidance Counsellor joined the Oberstown Activities Team who uses Steps+ in one-to-one guidance sessions with young people, supported by CareersPortal professionals and “STEPS+ Champions” from each residential unit.

The STEPS+ approach is informing the provision of on-campus practical skills training, including catering skills experience and SafePass certification. The STEPS+ team has engaged with external agencies including Solas Project, Pathways and the Cherry Orchard Equine Centre to explore options for expanding the programme of training activities offered on campus. Steps+ is also a focus for building dialogue with stakeholders within the education, training, employment and social justice sectors to develop the links between Oberstown and further education, training and employment opportunities.

In 2023, over 180 recorded meetings with 53 young people took place to help them recognise their potential and explore career paths that align with their abilities and passions. Key milestones achieved in 2023 include:

  • Continued consultation and engagement with young people by staff, including the Advocacy Officer, Children’s Rights Policy Framework Project Lead, Education and Employment Support Worker, unit staff, unit managers and senior management.
  • On-campus Steps+ awareness campaign.
  • Improvements to existing Steps+ apps based on consultation and pilot with young people.
  • Four additional new Steps+ apps based on emerging needs of the young people.
  • Newly designed Steps+ occupational database (1,000+ jobs/apprenticeships).
  • New interactive Placement Planning Meeting Report.
  • Appointment of a new Education and Employment Support Worker.
  • Education Matters Yearbook 2023 Research Article.
  • Networking with key stakeholders to support young people’s education and career development on and off campus.

Steps+ has surpassed initial expectations and moved from a “pilot project” to becoming embedded within the CEHOP® care practice model on campus. The success of the integration of the Steps+ project to date is testament to its potential and the next phase will focus on the importance of supporting the young people as they move on from Oberstown.

Further information at www.careersportal.ie