Introduction to the Career Pathways Toolkit
Welcome to the Career Pathways Toolkit, designed to support vocational education trainers in integrating labour market information into their practice. This toolkit is part of the Erasmus+ KA2 Career Pathways project, launched in November 2021. The project’s primary objective is to enhance vocational education and training (VET) institutions by addressing emerging skill needs and developing innovative tools that provide valuable labour market intelligence.
The Career Pathways project is a collaborative effort involving six partners from Portugal, Greece, and Spain: TecMinho, FORAVE, IDEC, ACP, UPV/EHU, and Pontydysgu SL. Together, we aim to equip VET institutions and trainers with the resources necessary to navigate the rapid changes driven by digital technologies and the shift towards greener economies. These changes are significantly altering labour market demands and skill requirements, making it crucial for VET trainers to stay informed and adapt their training programs accordingly.
A cornerstone of the Career Pathways project is the “My Career Pathways Web Portal.” This portal offers comprehensive data on job and skill requirements across various sectors and regions, enabling trainers to provide targeted career guidance and help individuals effectively plan their training and career development paths. By leveraging this tool, trainers can support learners in identifying and acquiring the competencies needed to enhance their employability in today’s dynamic job market.
This toolkit aims to empower you, as vocational educators, with the knowledge and tools to utilise labour market information effectively, ensuring that your trainees are well-prepared for the changing future of work.
Navigating the My Career Pathways Web Portal
Welcome to the My Career Pathways Web Portal from the Career Pathways project. On the portal, you will find three main areas:
For Individuals
In the area for individuals and job seekers, you will find a comprehensive skills profile tool. Once logged in, you can search for an occupation by name, and the portal will present all related jobs and occupations. Selecting one will prompt the system to give you a quiz to self-assess your skill levels in various areas, including essential and optional skills and knowledge. After completing the self-assessment, you can save your information and access the “My Skills” tab to review your recorded skills.
Click on the Career Pathways option to explore resources about different career pathways and available occupations, with a particular focus on green jobs. For instance, in the textile industry, you can find information on various job levels—from entry to high-level positions—and infographics explaining roles such as sustainable textile designer, environmental compliance manager, supply chain sustainability coordinator, and recycling and up-cycling specialist. Additionally, you can find links to green skills courses searchable by EQF level, location, and duration.
For Professionals
If you are a professional, you can access labour market data and information on green economy occupations. The portal offers interactive visualisations of labour market data, allowing you to click on datapoints for detailed information. The Green Economy and Occupations tab provides insights into green demand, green skills, and emerging jobs, segmented by sector.
Professional Development
The Professional Development section includes Open Education Resources (OER), webinars, presentations, and social media links. The OER courses feature learning objectives, activities, information, further reading, reflection questions, and quizzes to check your understanding. You can also find links to past webinars, which cover topics such as green skills, green practices, and the role of Sustainable Development Goals in education. Finally, you can stay connected through our social media channels for the latest updates and resources.
Interpreting the data
From the page https://portal.career-pathways.eu/labour-market-data/ you can access up to date labour market information from across 28 European countries.
Navigating the Demand for Occupations Dashboard
Let’s explore the labour market data available through the My Career Pathways Web Portal. The dashboard provides comprehensive information based on online job advertisements, categorised by ISO codes at both 2-digit and 3-digit levels. This interactive feature allows users to explore various occupational demands in detail.
For example, if you are interested in researchers and engineers, you can click on the relevant category. This action reveals more specific 3-digit codes, such as those for professionals in architecture, electrical technology, life sciences, physical and earth sciences, and mathematics. The accompanying graph displays the corresponding data for each country, with darker blue shades indicating a higher percentage of job advertisements in that occupation and lighter blues representing a lower percentage.
Next, consider office associate professionals. This category includes roles such as administrative and specialised secretaries, sales and purchasing agents, financial and mathematical associates, business services regulators, and government associate professionals. By selecting this category, you can observe how the graph updates to show the distribution of job advertisements. Higher percentages are evident in certain regions, while very pale blue areas indicate zero percentage of online job adverts in that field.
Vocational educators can use this data to inform career counselling, stay updated on the current demand for specific occupations across European countries, and provide tailored advice to students and job seekers. Emphasising fields with high demand and job growth helps guide career choices effectively. Additionally, the dashboard’s geographic insights reveal which areas in Europe have a particular demand for certain jobs, enabling targeted job placements and helping job seekers identify immediate opportunities.
By aligning your curriculum with market needs, you can ensure that your training programs are relevant and responsive to the evolving labour market, preparing your students for the occupations that are most in demand. This data-driven approach enhances the effectiveness of vocational education and supports successful career outcomes for learners.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
- Inform career counselling with current demand for specific occupations.
- Stay updated on the occupational demands in different European countries.
- Align curriculum with the latest market needs to enhance student preparedness.
Navigating Sectors and Occupations Data
In addition to the labour market data, the My Career Pathways Web Portal provides detailed information on sectors and occupations across Europe. This feature allows users to explore open job adverts, segmented by specific sectors and occupations, offering valuable insights into the current job market.
Using the portal, you can access a map that displays the share of job adverts for selected sectors or occupations. For example, if you drill down into the “Admin and Support Service Activities” sector by clicking on it, you can see the related occupations. Selecting “Office Associate Professionals” within this sector reveals that admin and support service activities account for 24.4% of all online job adverts, with 13.7% of these being office associate professionals.
The map provides a visual representation of the sector’s share across different countries. For instance, it shows a 3.5% share in one area, 2.7% in another, 1.3% in Spain, and 2.5% in Portugal. This geographical distribution helps in understanding the demand for specific occupations within various regions.
You can also use the drop-down menus to filter the data by country. If you select Spain, for example, the portal displays the online job adverts by sector, highlighting that the highest share is in “Wholesale and Retail Trade; Repair of Motor Vehicles and Motorcycles.” Further drilling down into this sector shows the current live job adverts associated with it.
This functionality allows vocational educators to gain precise insights into the job market, helping to tailor their training programs to meet the demands of specific sectors and occupations. By understanding which sectors are currently hiring and where the demand is highest, educators can better prepare their students for the workforce, aligning their curriculum with real-world needs. This approach ensures that training is relevant and targeted, enhancing the employability of students and meeting the needs of employers.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
• Gain precise insights into the job market for specific sectors.
• Tailor training programs to meet regional sector demands.
• Provide students with data-driven career guidance based on sector needs.
Exploring Sectors and Skills Data
Let’s look at the sectors and skills data available on the My Career Pathways Web Portal. This section provides insights into online job adverts categorised by sector and highlights the most requested skills for each sector.
For example, if you explore the “Administrative and Support Service Activities” sector, you will find that 89.4% of online job adverts in this sector require at least one skill related to transversal skills and competencies. Transversal skills, such as self-management, are highly sought after, with 85.2% of job adverts requesting these skills. In contrast, only 8.2% of job adverts in this sector ask for skills related to natural sciences. Additionally, 20% of adverts seek work skills, while 23% require computer use skills.
The portal allows you to see how the required skills vary across different sectors. For instance, the skills profile for the wholesale sector differs significantly from that of real estate. This detailed breakdown helps educators understand the specific skills in demand for each sector, enabling them to tailor their training programs accordingly.
You can further refine your search by country. For example, focusing on Spain, the data shows that wholesale and retail trading is the sector with the highest number of job adverts. The most requested skills in this sector include knowledge, transversal skills, language skills, social communication, business administration, and the ability to advise others in sales, marketing, and advertising roles.
By utilising this data, vocational educators can align their curriculum with the skills most in demand in various sectors and regions. This ensures that students are equipped with the competencies that employers are actively seeking, enhancing their employability and career prospects. This targeted approach to skills training is essential for meeting the evolving needs of the job market and supporting successful career outcomes for learners.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
- Develop curricula that focus on the most in-demand skills for each sector.
- Provide targeted career advice based on the skills employers are seeking.
- Prepare students with the competencies needed to excel in their chosen fields.
Analysing Regions and Occupations Data
In the “Regions and Occupations” section of the My Career Pathways Web Portal, you can access detailed data from CEDEFOP on online job adverts. This feature allows you to explore how various occupations are distributed across different regions.
For instance, if we look at business managers, they make up 5% of the total online job adverts. In Iceland, 11.1% of job adverts are for business managers. This kind of regional data provides valuable insights into specific job markets.
When we focus on a specific country, such as Spain, the data becomes even more granular, breaking down job adverts by region. Initially, all occupations are shown, reflecting 100% coverage. However, by drilling down into a specific occupation, such as ICT technicians, you can see the distribution of job adverts across different regions. For example, in Andalusia, 14.1% of online job adverts are for office associate professionals.
This regional and occupational data is crucial for vocational educators. It helps you understand where specific jobs are in demand within different regions, enabling you to provide more precise career guidance and training. By aligning your educational programs with the regional needs, you ensure that your students are better prepared for the job market, improving their chances of securing employment in their desired fields.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
- Understand the regional demand for specific occupations.
- Provide precise career guidance based on regional job market data.
- Align training programs with regional employment needs to improve job placement rates.
Exploring Skills and Countries Data
The “Skills and Countries” dashboard on the My Career Pathways Web Portal allows you to explore the relevance of various skills across different European countries. This tool helps identify where specific skills are most in demand, offering valuable insights into the global job market.
For instance, if you drill down into the category of “knowledge” and select “information and communication,” you can further narrow down to “computer use.” This skill is particularly relevant in Ireland, with 38.9% of online job adverts requiring it.
Similarly, if you examine the medicine category, you will find that 10.5% of online job adverts in the UK require at least one skill related to medicine. Changing the focus to nursing and midwifery reveals different countries where these skills are in demand. For example, 2.8% of online job adverts in Ireland ask for skills in pharmacy.
This dashboard provides a nuanced view of the job market, allowing you to see which skills are sought after in various countries and how the demand for these skills varies globally.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
- Tailor curricula to focus on the skills most in demand in specific countries.
- Offer students insights into which countries have higher demand for certain skills, enhancing their international employability.
- Ensure that training programs are aligned with the skills required by employers in different regions, increasing job placement success for students.
Exploring Regions and Skills Data
In the “Regions and Skills” section of the My Career Pathways Web Portal, you can explore which skills are in the highest demand across different regions. This dashboard allows you to start by selecting a specific area and then drilling down into the skills that are most requested in job adverts for that region.
For instance, let’s look at West Wales and the Valleys. This area accounts for 0.6% of all online job adverts in Europe. Within these job adverts, the skills in demand include transversal skills, with a particular emphasis on self-management skills and working efficiently. Additionally, only 14% of these adverts mention the need for language skills. Highly requested skills in this area include demonstrating a willingness to learn and taking a proactive approach.
Next, consider Valencia, which accounts for 0.1% of the total European online job adverts. In this region, some of the most sought-after skills include good communication, collaboration, and developing solutions, which are mentioned in 12.3% of the job adverts.
Key Points for Vocational Educators:
- Customise training programs to focus on region-specific skills demands.
- Provide tailored career guidance based on regional skills requirements.
- Align educational programs with the most requested skills to enhance employability
