City & Guilds sponsors Virtual College's new Career VOOC® to transform careers guidance

City & Guilds is sponsoring 'Working in the Health and Social Care sector', one of a suite of ten Career VOOC®s (Vocational Open Online Courses) being developed by Virtual College "to help bring careers guidance into the 21st century".

Each Career VOOC® is designed to provide career seekers with a "warts and all" insight into working in that particular sector.

Using a range of multimedia tools, it will provide users with an introduction to key job roles, skills requirements and progress routes.

On registration, users are allocated the suite of ten Career VOOC®s. They can then explore an imaginary town which has a range of employers to visit (retailers, care homes, doctors, nursery, hospital, manufacturers, councils, banks, builders, hotel, bus/rail station, etc.) to see what the various job roles entail.

As the user completes each Career VOOC®, they can indicate their level of interest and access enhanced guidance – virtual careers advisor, work experience and volunteering ideas.

Work is underway to link this guidance to job vacancies and employers, both on a local and national basis, providing a complete career journey.

In addition to introducing the users to the skills development routes (such as short courses, traineeships, apprenticeships and degrees), they will be signposted to local and national training providers. They will also be given access to discounted further development opportunities including CV bolstering e-modules, employability and technical certificate e-learning resources.

Chris Kirk, City & Guilds' Head of UK Customer Strategy & Marketing, commented: "As the first sponsor of the Career VOOC®, we are excited about how we can help young people make truly informed choices - something that is very difficult with traditional careers guidance.

"We look forward to working with Virtual College to make the Health & Social Care VOOC® a huge success".

The Health & Social Care VOOC® will be promoted by and be available from Virtual College and City & Guilds from July.