Now online, expert help with your career choices

Model turned TV Chef Lorraine Pascale and skills minister John Hayes have teamed up for the official launch of a new service which will transform careers advice by combining highly-trained advisers with an interactive website, helping countless people to reach their potential.

Lorraine gave up modelling in search of a career with a more secure long term future. After enrolling on a variety of courses including hypnotherapy and design, she decided to pursue a career in cookery.

Now she is backing The National Careers Service which will offer independent, impartial information and advice on learning and work. It will also give people access to a wide range of information about careers and the job market where they live.

The National Careers Service will:

> Handle up to one million telephone advice sessions and at least 20 million online sessions

> Provide information and advice for approximately 370,000 young people through the use of the helpline and website

> Offer face to face advice to 700,000 adults each year in a range of locations in local communities

> Operate to the recently enhanced matrix Standard, the national quality standard for the delivery of information, advice and guidance

> Provide detailed sector by sector labour market information so people can discover which industries are growing in their area

> Provide tools such as a CV builder and a Skills Health Check on the website to help people identify their skills strengths and gaps

> Allow people to open a Lifelong Learning Account, which gives them clear information and advice on skills, careers and financial support in a single, personalised online space.

Lorraine said: “After modelling, choosing my next career move was a big decision. I knew I wanted to find something that I was really passionate about, but I tried courses in hypnotherapy, auto repair and interior design before I found the thing that really makes me tick: cooking.

“Having independent careers advice can really help you find the thing you want to do. I’d encourage everyone to make the most of the National Careers Service to find out how to take their career forward, and realise their ambitions.”

John Hayes added: “With competition for jobs more fierce than ever, now is the time to introduce a careers service that will deliver on its promise.

“The National Careers Service, universally available to people at all stages of their careers, has the very best interactive tools on its website and the highest-quality advisers, committed to the noble cause of helping others fulfil their aspirations.

“Making available the right advice at the right time and in the right places is to strike a blow for social mobility, social cohesion and social justice - a society that encourages people from wherever they start to journey to the destination of their dreams.”

Find out more at nationalcareersservice.direct.gov.uk

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