University College Jersey student Cindy Marques has sparked conversation on career opportunities for young people on Jersey.
Cindy has partnered with ASL Recruitment as part of her work placement for her degree in BSc (Hons) Social Science and is now seeking to encourage the Education Minister to explore how to keep young people on the Island after education.
Tina Palmer, Director of ASL who is heavily involved in Executive, Permanent and Temporary recruitment as well as Business Development has said: “Cindy started working with us on changing perceptions of what the reality of working in Jersey after education is. She has highlighted the concern of young people in regard to knowing ‘what to do’ once they leave school. We want to encourage young people to see us as a second career advice service; after all we offer free consultations and advice in the market. Students are always more than welcome to come to see us and understand what kind of jobs are in the market, what kind of salaries they can expect and how to begin a career that fulfills them.”
Cindy has worked with ASL to create a survey aimed towards students post-GCSE (BTEC’s, A-levels and Degree level), which focuses on what they believe their career options to be, how they feel about getting that first job and what support they currently have in order to get it.
Cindy explained: “I am very passionate about this subject as I feel a lot of pressure to know what I want to do once I complete my degree, which I am still unsure of. I am acutely aware that Jersey is predominantly business and finance based and I personally do not see myself fitting into these roles.
“I feel that it is incredibly important for young people to feel supported, to be reassured that they do not need to know what they want to do straight away, to know that it is ok to try out different jobs until they find what best suits them, but most importantly to know the tools they have at their disposal.
“I would like to share my findings with the Education Minister to highlight the areas that we could do better in for our young people and to keep them in Jersey, rather than encouraging them to leave.”
Students are currently being asked to complete this survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/KH7NN2D created by Cindy and the ASL Team which seeks to find out the opinions of students on careers and recruitment agencies.
This will enable them to have a better understanding of what people currently in education understand about their career options and how a recruitment agency works.
Once collated the results will be shared with the Education Minister Senator Vallois and Deputy Maçon who has said: “It’s great to see a local employer ASL supporting a local student in developing their research skills and showing off the variety of job opportunities on Jersey. The data collected in this is survey will be of great help to inform careers guidance in both public and private sectors.”
For more information or for interviews, please contact Cindy Marques on 07797775273 or email: [email protected] contact Tina Palmer on 500000 or email: [email protected].
