Dear Colleagues,

Welcome to our first Europass e-zine, designed to help you and your service users stay informed and connected to the important benefits that Europass brings across many countries.

Europass is an EU wide initiative working to make sure that skills, qualifications and achievements are clearly and easily understood across Europe, using five key documents. It is a free on-line personal career management service. Europass is particularly helpful for guidance counsellors and practitioners, course co-ordinators and information officers within education and training, and for recruitment specialists across all sectors of employment. Prospectus development, web information and graduation celebrations should all include information about Europass.

However, Europass is also relevant for every citizen, whether you are working on your own CV or helping others with theirs, seeking employment, explaining your qualifications at home or abroad, or indeed  clarifying your language or other skills obtained either formally or informally for personal and/ or career opportunities. Europass is a good system to keep all your career records up to date.

This e-zine will issue periodically with brief updates. For comprehensive information, please visit our website Europass Ireland. For day to day information, follow Europass Ireland on Facebook and Twitter

Best wishes for this new academic year,
Andrina Wafer, Siobhan Brennan and Anne Walsh,
Europass Ireland Office

We are proud to launch our Europass CV: Showcase your skills video, developed in collaboration with Euroguidance Ireland and the National Europass and Euroguidance centres in the UK. A copy of the CV Video will issue to the Guidance Counsellor in every school this term. The video aims to help young people confidently identify and articulate their skills and achievements including those outside formal education.

Join our CV Builder Resource Pack working group. A working group is being established with Euroguidance Ireland and our UK colleagues to provide lesson plans, worksheets and lists of other resources, to support individual CV design.

If you would like to work with us, please email Anne Walsh

Check out the Europass CV, Europass Certificate Supplement, revised Diploma Supplement, Language Passport and Mobility Document on www.europass.ie

Certificate Supplements
Certificate Supplements have been made available for all QQI major, special purpose and supplemental awards at levels 5 and 6 that are part of the common awards system. 

Diploma Supplements
Section 8 of the Diploma Supplement relates to the description of the  higher education system in Ireland.  This has been updated reflecting recent changes. Details have been circulated and promoted on the Europass and Qualifications Recognition websites.

Europass, in collaboration with the Irish ENIC-NARIC centre Qualifications Recognition, the European Qualifications Framework National Contact Point (EQFNCP), Léargas, the National Centre for Guidance in Education (NCGE), Euroguidance and the Higher Education Authority (HEA), launched the Irish Reference Group for EU Initiatives in Education and Skills in July 2014. Erasmus+, the Department of Education and Skills, QQI and the European Commission supported the event.

Our aim is to promote efficient connections between initiatives that work across education and training and a wide range of stakeholders.  A second meeting of this one stop shop will take place in November.

For more information, please email Anne Walsh

Europass is also developing and issuing Fact Sheets on the Europass CV, Certificate Supplement and Diploma Supplement to help you promote these important tools with students. These documents are particularly important for graduating students.

Fact Sheets for other elements of the Europass service will follow.

Loreto Secondary School, Bray brought senior cycle student Anna Ryan to the Irish Times Higher Options 2014 fair at the RDS this September. Anna became the lucky winner of the CV Video Launch competition, winning an Apple iPad mini. Her name was drawn from hundreds of entries by Ms. Breda Coyle, a member of the Institute of Guidance Counsellors National Executive Council.

Many of you came to meet the Europass team! 

We enjoyed meeting you and many employers also at this great event. Congratulations also to the Cousins family, Gorey Co Wexford, who were the winners of our competition at the National Ploughing Championships.

'Europass helps showcase your skills at every age and stage,' commented Timothy Hayes, Head of Information and Communications at the European Commission Offices, Dublin, when he drew the winning entry.

Anne Walsh, our National Europass Advisor, is busy representing Europass Ireland at multiple international engagements. Anne has recently participated in a study visit hosted by CEDEFOP in Thessaloniki, considering the further development of the Europass Skills Passport, ePortfolio and Interoperability.

Anne welcomed Europass Estonia to Dublin on Friday 26th September, supporting an exchange of good practice. Anne also participates in Midwestern Cluster Group of National Europass Centres, meeting in The Hague on the 6th and 7th October, exploring connecting with employers and the labour market, Open Badges and Europass, and Europass Mobility.

Finally, Andrina and Anne will participate in the second joint meeting of the Europass/Euroguidance/EQF National Coordination Points on the 17th November.

An updated description of the Irish higher education and training system for the Diploma Supplement has been agreed and launched. This revision, dated May 2014 was prepared by the Irish ENIC-NARIC centre, Qualifications Recognition as part of its work in promoting the recognition of Irish qualifications abroad and is available on the Europass Ireland website, www.europass.ie

Qualifications Recognition has also produced a leaflet titled ‘Travelling with your Irish Qualification?’ which provides advice to individuals on initial steps in getting their Irish qualifications recognised abroad. The leaflet may be accessed on www.QQI.ie

This project has been funded with support from the European Commission. This publication [communication] reflects the views only of the author, and the Commission cannot be held responsible for any use which may be made of the information contained therein. Further information about Europass can be found by visiting the Europass Portal