To ask the Minister for the Economy for an update on the work of the Careers Portal project.

The development of a new Careers Portal is an ambitious and complex IT enabled system transformation project. Successful delivery will help every part of the careers system to work together and improve access to high quality careers information and services.

A small project team was established in December 2023 with an initial focus on research and engagement to identify priority needs of the wide range of end users.

The engagement work to date has included:

Establishing a network with colleagues in the English, Irish, Scottish and Welsh governments who have worked on similar projects.

Focus groups with careers advisers, careers educators and young people in the 14-19 age bracket from a range of educational backgrounds and geographical locations.

11 interactive workshops in nine different locations with the Careers Service including careers advisers, operations managers, support staff and policy staff.

In-depth interviews with a range of adults at different stages of their career journeys as well as parents/carers, including special educational needs representation.

A cross-cutting in-person stakeholder event, facilitated by Dr Deirdre Hughes, which was attended by 31 key stakeholders representing education, government, business and the voluntary and community sector.

An online Citizen Space survey which received 1,229 responses from a diverse range of users and stakeholders.

The project has now moved into a Discovery phase, bringing the more empathetic user-focused engagement and research together with IT specialists to identify the best technical solutions.

In conjunction with developers, 16 workshops are scheduled to take place over the next six weeks. These sessions will be attended by representatives of multiple groups including young people, teachers, careers professionals, parents and the voluntary and community sector, each representing a different user persona on a career journey.

This co-design approach will be key to ensuring that the product taken through to development after the Discovery phase best meets the needs of users and stakeholders. Once the product is fully defined, it is anticipated that it will take between 18 and 24 months to deliver the project, subject to the availability of resources. This is in line with other capital projects of this scale and complexity.