Job Match

Job Match – Terry McHale

JOB MATCH
Accessed by unemployed learners during our “free” employability course that we run here.  It proved to be a big hit with everyone who utilised the Job Match facility. Learners liked the site, finding easy registration, navigation and job search. Tutors delivering our employability courses indicated that they would “bolt this on” to existing resources, and ensure that all learners attending our centre were enabled to use this resource. Overall we got positive feedback for a “tool” that the centre will use and signpost people to, over and over again. - 27 march 2013

So far , the tutors using the tools have gravitated towards the animation tools, Poll everywhere and Khan Academy. We’re very limited in terms of IT infrastructure  - we don’t have an intranet or VLE just yet, it is being planned so getting a larger number of tutors interested and “ playing “ with the online tools just hasn’t got to any critical mass.

We use Googlemail and Google Docs as an organisation so we’re used to them and to some of the tools like Google Drive – seems that familiarity hasn’t translated into enthusiasm for exploring the full potential of these. The newer “ whizzier “ tools seem more attractive.

Like a previous blogger, some of the tutors were surprised by the number of tools available in the Teaching and Learning box.

Reviews from Humber Learning Consortium: Practical Aptitide Tests

3 aptitude tests, with 15 questions, in 15 minutes:

• Numerical reasoning
• Verbal reasoning
• Diagrammatic reasoning

Negatives

• Far too scary for most of our learners
• Limited relevance (how many progressions / jobs require such tests?)
• Exam feel
• High level language and subject matter e.g. “abstract expressionism”
• Timer in corner adds further pressure
• Strong corporate feel (access to Graduate schemes)
• Emphasis on technique and regular practice

Possible uses

Could be useful for individual practice if someone is looking to improve numeracy / verbal reasoning
at a relatively high level

Could be used in group / informal competition situation if the learners were a well-formed group

Overall

Very limited application, which would require serious consideration before usage

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

GoAnimate

Feedback from our ITQ tutor
"Annoying things I found was that it wasn't really clear how to log in to retrieve saved videos you'd created and that although there were lots of templates on screen for you to use, there would be limited number freely available but lots you could 'upgrade' to. While this is obviously how they will generate their revenue it gets a bit frustrating so ideally would've preferred a simple 'demo' version alongside the subscription site. A lot of the animate characters need 'coins' to change the appearance which is another frustration.

Once on the site, you have you own account where you can store your videos, there are fairly comps where you can earn 'gopoints' or 'gobucks' and coins, forums etc.  You can win 'badges' for animations viewed. After I published my first video I earned my first badge as a 'novice animator'. I can see how this would appeal to young students as a reward system, you have to do certain 'tasks' to gain awards. 

You can make a quick video using templates or start your own full movie maker.

I loved the quick video.  I was able to alter the voices to nationalities and make male or female. 

Only downside was the stilted quality and some concerns about the content of animations available for viewing by students.  Once complete animations can be uploaded to YouTube, Facebook etc.

Certainly one to use along side SCRATCH.