Free college places on offer in drive to help out jobless

THE newly unemployed are struggling to sell themselves in today's cut-throat jobs market and have to change tack to land one of those elusive jobs, experts have warned.

A week-long Career Boot Camp kicked off at the National College of Ireland (NCI), which is offering 400 free college places to the those who cannot get work.

Hundreds of jobseekers flooded through the campus doors in Dublin's IFSC yesterday (16th August). Most of those attending were new third-level graduates and workers who were made redundant over the past year. Many are highly skilled, holding degrees and masters qualifications, yet they have been unable to secure a job in the midst of the unemployment crisis.

Robert Ward, marketing director with the NCI, said they will have to change their mindset if they are to be successful. 'A lot of them don't really know how to sell themselves as they might in the current jobs market. They are more used to how the market was, three, four or five years ago when it was a more passive process.

'Jobs were advertised in the newspapers, you sent in your CV and went to an interview. What we're saying now is that the majority of jobs aren't advertised.' He said jobseekers will have to create their own employment opportunities and online networking is a useful tool in achieving this. 'The type of people we're seeing are a wide mixture -- new graduates who are just coming into the marketplace, people who have a work history but who have been made unemployed in the last year,' he added.

A lot of visitors to the boot camp were professionals. More information is available by calling (1850) 221 721.

- Breda Heffernan

Irish Independent