Reviews from Humber Learning Consortium - Job Match

Description

The UK government’s on-line search engine for job vacancies

The website advertises all job vacancies (UK-wide) on the Job Centre Plus database

Users can register their profile on the website – this requires a valid email address and takes around
5 minutes to complete. Registering for the website gives access to a number of additional services,
such as:

• Creating a CV
• Application history
• Job search activity history
• Facility for employers to send messages to the user if they are interested in their profile
• Job alerts (based on chosen profile)

Positives

Our learners found the basic Job Match website relatively easy to use. Even without registering, it
enabled them to narrow down their job search by:

1. Job Title
2. Postcode / town / place
3. Skills

Requires fairly basic IT skills

Search results can produce a lot of results, which can send a positive message about the number of
job opportunities that are actually out there.

Users can refine the searches more locally by clicking on the number of miles they are prepared to
travel. However, this of course reduces the number of search results.

Registering on the website is fairly easy to do in a class situation, as long as the user has a valid
email address. This means the user can then access a number of other features (see above). The
application and search history also means that a user can go back to their profile on a regular basis
and update records etc. This is a valuable feature as it allows for a number of sessions to be linked
together, for example, as part of an employability skills programme.

Negatives

Requires some IT skills

Requires ready access to IT and a personal email address (if using registration website)

Can produce a large list of results if not properly filtered

Overall

A good (free) resource either for progressions and job search, or as part of a programme that
encourages students to improve their research skills and gain a better understanding of local labour
market conditions.

We would definitely use Job Match as part of our learning programmes