Community help

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 17

Community help

Once you’ve left school, other areas of the community can help you with job seeking back-up and advice.

The employment and vocational guidance service offered by the Department of Labour is wide-ranging and caters for the individual.

On your first visit a vocational counsellor will talk to you about what you want, supply you with information on jobs and training, help you with job-seeking skills and contacts. As a counsellor, Margaret Griffin says, for most people there is not one right job, but a range of jobs they could do and enjoy.

“So we try to help open up this range, and make people aware of other areas of work.”

The department offers a large variety of pamphlets on jobs — what they entail and how to get into them — and on general job-seeking advice. Margaret stresses there are three basic steps to choosing a career: knowing yourself; finding out about the world around you; relating yourself to a number of jobs. In the first step you need to examine your aptitudes, skills, personality, sense of responsibility, interests and needs.

“You have to ask yourself what are the things you find easy to learn, what are your talents. Then look at your skills — what you can or cannot do, the type of personality you have, and what are your main interests.” The next stage is to find out about the work around you. Arrange jobs into categories such as medical or community service — then read about them,

talk with people in the areas, try them out parttime or for work experience, and watch people around you at their own work.

The last step calls for honesty on your part. You have to ask yourself if you can really see yourself doing the job, being happy in it, using your capabilities and satisfying your needs. “Everyone changes jobs and careers at some time in their life. Keep options open, and be adaptable to a certain extent,” advises Margaret. And a word to parents

While young people themselves must take the most active role in making career or job decisions, Margaret points out that parents can provide guidance in several ways. “Talk about jobs, what you read in the paper about a new field of work, the advantages of different jobs. Discuss your own work.” Parents should be sensitive to the individual needs of their children, which may well be different from their own, she adds.

They can help by becoming familiar with the areas of work their children are considering.