23 July 2021
- What is Career Access St Helena?
- Meet the Team
- What services can I expect from Career Access St Helena?
- What has happened so far?
- What happens next?
What is Career Access St Helena?
Career Access St Helena – a one-stop shop for career services on the Island – will centralise all employment-related resources on St Helena and serve not only those who are unemployed, but residents at every stage of their career and every level of ability.
A new service that sits under the employment component of the Education, Skills and Employment Portfolio, Career Access St Helena’s vision is to enable individuals to achieve their purpose through personal empowerment via education and development, and connect that purpose with employment opportunities in alignment with stakeholder needs.
Career Access services will be available to anyone aged 11+ years. This includes all organisations and employers on the Island as well as parents, teachers, coaches, advisers or anyone looking to support others in their career journey.
Meet the Team
The Career Access St Helena team comprises Manager, Nicola Essex, Workforce Development Officer, Cynthia Bennett, and Career Access and Economic Policy Assistant, Marcella Mittens.
Team members will provide free and impartial careers advice, information and guidance. They also aim to provide confidence and certainty around employment opportunities by working more closely with employers on their future needs which will in turn inform academic or work-based training and development programmes for St Helena.
Nicola said:
“Career Access St Helena aims to enable individuals to discover their purpose through personal empowerment via education and development, and to help individuals connect that purpose with meaningful employment opportunities in order to make St Helena a great place to live, learn, and work.
“Our services are not ‘live’ yet but once up and running, we will continue to grow our services in order to become the centre for all employment-related resources on St Helena.
“Having already met with some departments and other external agencies that will contribute to the success of Career Access St Helena, I am grateful for the strong support already given and look forward to developing equally strong links with other organisations in the private and for-purpose sector who all have a part to play in enabling St Helenians to thrive on St Helena.”
What services can I expect from Career Access St Helena?
Career Access St Helena is currently in the preparation stage. Once officially launched, individuals will be able to use the service to:
- Explore careers via job profiles and postings
- Access career advice articles
- Undertake skills assessments
- Access available courses
- Undertake training to update their skills
- Receive personalised career guidance through:
- Participation in training seminars or group sessions
- Signposting to specialist resources and support
- Individual appointments.
What has happened so far?
Before the service is officially launched, a lot of work is going on in the background leading up to the service becoming available.
A Career Access St Helena page is live on the St Helena Government (SHG) website here: https://www.sainthelena.gov.sh/cash/. Posted on the page have been recruitment campaigns, voluntary opportunities available and current job vacancies on-Island.
The team has also provided support to the recent SHG Care Campaign and are gathering feedback on the current work experience and apprenticeship scheme, packaging unemployment services and revamping marketing materials. A location for the new service is also being identified.
Work has also begun on using the updated Shortage Occupation list to identify where skills gaps exist in our current workforce and work towards counteracting this shortage in the medium term. This will enable availability of a stable and qualified local workforce with increased employment opportunities from which employers will find it easier to recruit to these positions in the future. This will become an iterative process following new data obtained through future Shortage Occupation surveys and strengthening links with employers.
What happens next?
Career Access St Helena will be implemented over four stages:
- Preparation – Getting Career Access St Helena ready – building on what is already provided as well as setting up new services and products that will align with the needs of St Helena
- Soft launch (Sep) – Services go ‘live’ but allows testing of offering and processes
- Official launch (Oct) – Services are established and fully open to the public including an out of hours service
- Development – Continuous development of the service working with key stakeholders, business and organisations on the Island.
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SHG
23 July 2021