Closing date: 31 th March 2023
Have you got the skills?
Are you a TY or Leaving Certificate Student?
Have you done a Work Experience placement?
Tell us about the career skills you discovered during your Work Experience and you can win fabulous prizes and €1,000 for your school!
About the competition
This exciting competition promotes the importance of Career Skills and encourages the value of career research. It gives students the chance to reflect on the skills they developed during their work experience and explain how those skills can help them in their future career.
The competition is developed by CareersPortal and sponsored by AIB. It is supported by the Department of Education and Skills, An Chomhairle um Oideachas Gaeltachta & Gaelscolaíochta (COGG) and the TY, LCVP and LCA Programmes.
Why Enter?
- Links directly to your Work Experience Programme in Transition Year
- Links directly to the Preparation for the World of Work Module in LCVP and in particular the Career Investigation
- Links to the Vocational Preparation and Guidance Module in LCA
- Encourages Independent Career and Educational Research in Senior Cycle
- Supports an Awareness and Development of Career Skills
- Promotes Self-Reflection
- Promotes Literacy - Written Entries
- Promotes Creativity and Digital Literacy - Vlog Entries
- Can be undertaken in English or in Irish
- Fantastic Prizes for Winning Students in each Category
- Cash Prizes for Winning Schools in each Category
Prizes
There are great prizes and trophies to be won for each of the 3 categories, both for individuals and their winning school.
The Award Ceremony takes place in early May in the Clock Tower in the Department of Education and Skills. The winning students and their teachers and principals will be invited to attend.
First prize in each of the 3 categories is a MacBook Air Laptop!
The winning schools will each receive €1000 for their school programme (Guidance / TY / Leaving Cert)
There are also great prizes for 2 nd and 3 rd place winners in each category including GoPro Cameras, Bluetooth Speakers and Tablets.
How to Enter
Complete a Work Experience placement!
Choose a career to investigate
For many people, this will be related to the work experience they did, but it doesn't have to be! We understand that not everyone can find work experience in their dream career (Astronauts, Surgeons, Time-Travellers...)
Special Prizes
Is your Work Experience placement or Career Investigation based on the Tourism & Hospitality sector? If so your entry will be included in this new category and is eligible for a special prize!
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Download the entry guide for your category
Get familiar with the different types of Career Skills and Knowledge Requirements
Enter your submission (Written or Vlog)
Written submissions can be:
- Emailed - e.g. a word or pdf document to: [email protected]
- Posted - print your document and post it to us at the address below
- Entered Online - you need a CareersPortal account (free), Join here (or Login if you already have an account)
Vlog submissions must be submitted online:
- Enter Online - you need a CareersPortal account (free), Join here (or Login if you already have an account)
71-73 College House
Rock Road,
Blackrock,
Co. Dublin
A94 F9X9
PS - Make sure your Guidance Programme coordinator signs off on your entry before you submit!
FAQ
The Closing Date for the National Career Skills Competition is Friday March 31 th 2023
Unfortunately, we can't accept any entries after the closing date.
There is a max word limit of 650 for each section of the written entries.
The shortlist will be announced online by mid April. The winning students will be announced at the end of April and their teachers/tutors will be contacted directly.
Simply Upload the video to YouTube and send us on the link! You also have the option of using Google Drive or WeTransfer.com.
The video should be no longer than 4 minutes. Videos longer than 4 minutes will not be considered.
The competition is based on your Work Experience placement and the skills that you have observed and developed there. You have to have done a Work Experience to enter this competition.
Yes, you can still do a Career Investigation on your dream job as part of your competition entry. However, when it comes to doing your diary entry (TY) and talking about the career skills you observed you must use the experience you got during your work placement.
Yes, you can enter in either language. It would be a shame however, just to enter in English, if you have the ability to enter in Irish and remember there will never be as much competition in this category!
No, we can only judge the experience from one work placement for each competition participant.
No, you don't need a CareersPortal account to enter. You can email or post your competition entry directly to us. If you are going to submit your application through the online entry form, then you do need to register with CareersPortal. It only takes a few minutes and it is completely free. It will also be very useful for you going forward as you will be able to take a number of on line assessments, print a career report and save your favourite courses, occupations and sectors to the file.
The name and contact email of your Teacher or Guidance Counsellor must be on your competition entry.
Your Programme coordinator will be dependent on what competition you enter.
For a lot of students, it is their Guidance Counsellor, but it might also be your TY, LCVP or LCA coordinator. These are the teachers that head up these programmes in your school. You will need to put the name and contact details of this teacher on your application as most of the correspondence will be through them.
Email entries can be sent to [email protected].
Postal entries can be sent to:CareersPortal
College House
71-73 Rock Road
Blackrock
Co. Dublin
We accept .doc .docx .odt .pdf
No. We do not publish the winning script. We do publish your name and your school. Pictures are also taken at the award ceremony and these are both published in the media and online.
The Award Ceremony will take place in early May in the Clock Tower at the Department of Education and Skills on Marlborough Street, Dublin 2. The winning students and their teachers and principals will be invited to attend.
Why not explore our Self Assessment area. From here you can learn about career interests and take our free interest profiler.
Yes. We have a Career Skills self-assessment worksheet and a Work Placement Skills evaluation form which you may find useful.
Yes, feel free to email us at [email protected] or call us on 01-440 2314
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