Wallonia's Carrefours et Cités des Métiers, a network managed by the regional employment service, Forem, on Friday unveiled a new digital tool designed to help young people in the region to make career choices.
The Orientascan platform was presented at the Cité des Métiers in Liège during a demonstration attended by Walloon Employment and Training Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet.
Described as a digital entry point, Orientascan is intended as a first-line decision-making tool that allows users to begin the career guidance process remotely, Forem chief executive Raymonde Yerna said.
It is aimed particularly at people registering with Forem for the first time each year, most of them young school leavers, and is designed to help them better understand their professional prospects.
According to Yerna, nearly 55,000 people register with Forem for the first time every year, almost half of them aged under 30. She said providing them with the right guidance was essential to help them enter the labour market and move into sectors with vacancies.
Orientascan asks users a series of questions about their background and profile before generating recommendations, reliable resources, practical tools and links to the support services best suited to their needs.
Yerna said the tool was not intended to replace advisers, but to support reflection, prepare discussions and guide users towards personalised assistance through the Carrefours et Cités des Métiers network.
Jeholet said career guidance was a decisive factor in gaining access to employment. The sooner people receive clear information about jobs, training and recruiting sectors, he said, the better placed they are to make informed choices about their future.
He added that raising Wallonia’s employment rate remained a priority for the current legislative term.
Orientascan has already recorded more than 4,500 visits since its launch.
It is available free of charge on the Carrefours et Cités des Métiers website, www.cdmetiers.be.
