How To Use Career Comp@nion Online
User guidelines
We hope the following guidelines will help you make good use of Career Comp@nion
Online which offers professional and student reviews on the best careers,
learning and support websites on the Internet.
New PDF: 'A Step by Step Guide to using Career Companion Online' click here (1.06 Mb)
Login options
If you are visiting Career Comp@nion Online for the first time, then you will need to know about login options for our subscribers. Your choice will be one of these:
. Username and Password - a simple procedure, with the option to change your password if you prefer
. IP address for network services, with the advantage of immediate access or through a Registration process. We provide monthly traffic and web destination reports on the most popular web sites visited.
Web browsers
If you would like to change the way the website appears in your browser, follow these instructions (link).
Home Page
The Home Page has three coloured topic routes (tabs).
Careers & Job Hunting, Help & Support, Learning Opportunities
Click on the topic of most interest and then a category. You are now just three clicks away from the site review pages!
Choose a subcategory closest to your interest and then select one of the sites from the list to read the review. If you want to access the site immediately, click on the Website Link address below.
In Careers & Job Hunting you may find a More Info symbol appears. If so, you'll be able to read a detailed research report on the employment trends within the sector.
You can also select the following sections from the Home page:
. Labour Market Information
. Quick links - shortcuts to the most popular categories
. Higher Education - comprehensive information if you are thinking of applying
to
HE
. Top 10 - the most visited sites in each topic area in the last 30 days
. News and Comment - regular updates on the world of careers and learning
. Subscription choices - the different types of licences available
Review Page
The search trail you have just followed appears at the top of the page so you can back track at any point.
The large coloured tabs above the search trail will take you the other two topic routes. You can always tell which topic area you're in by the Red, Blue, or Green symbols and borders.
If you want to collect a selection of website names addresses use Add to Notepad. You can retrieve your list by selecting Go to list and Print a copy of your completed list. Remember to print this page before ending your session.
Website Reviews
Each site has been professionally evaluated for its most helpful features. The review offers you specific recommendations, as well as more general content information to help you decide whether the site is worth a visit. Over 400 sites also include student comments, which will be useful for young people in secondary, further or higher education. A Student Review title and symbol will appear automatically if one is available.
Icons
Next to the Website Link you will find a series of black and white graphic - or Icons - which have been selected by our reviewers. They provide a quick overview of the site's best features. For a detailed explanation of the Icons visit Icon Help. Remember, you can also use the Search facility to explore all the sites displaying the same Icon.
Top Menu
About Us
This describes the origin of Career Comp@nion Online and the team experience behind the venture.
Accessibility
We've tried to build our website to comply with as many accessibility guidelines as possible so that the greatest number of people will be able to view it and use our services. This section explains what accessibility is and why it is so important.
Search options
You can search our database using either Keywords or Icons:
- 1st Letter / Number - perfect for those times you remember only part of the name of an organisation or website. Occasionally this might even be a number.
- Keyword - ideal if the category titles do not reveal what you are looking for or if you want to search for specific keywords across all three topic areas
- Icon - the best way to find sites with specific content, such as Money or 45+.
Submit a site
We are keen to keep improving our service so we welcome any extra sites you think should be added to Career Comp@nion Online. We cannot guarantee your suggestions will appear, but they will be checked against our quality standards and if acceptable assigned to a reviewer for their comments. Please let us know why you think your suggested site should be added.
Posters and desktops
We have also developed a number of highly visual paper based resources to complement this website. Posters and desktops are suitable for libraries, class and lecture rooms and display boards. Further details and ordering information can be found here.
Contact us
We welcome your comments and suggestions and will do our best to reply to your e-mail within 10 days.
