Rajaleidja Information System Dedicated to the Field of Career Planning - Estonia

Source: Rajaleidja

The Estonian language Rajaleidja is an information system dedicated to the field of career planning. Its objective is to introduce organised data about professions, studying and employment possibilities in order to reveal the wealth and diversity of career opportunities, and to support people of different ages and backgrounds in finding and consciously constructing their own paths in life.

Formerly largely vocational education-centred database is currently under-going a major reconstruction in both content as well as in layout design. The new version is planned to become available in November 2001 with the main emphasis being concentrated on different stages of the career counselling process. The current Rajaleidja focuses through its eight catalogues on the:

• descriptions of professions (Ametikirjeldused)

• studying opportunities in Estonia and abroad (Kool)

• labour market issues (Töö)

• further training courses (Täiendkoolitus)

• further reading materials (Lisamaterjalid)

• information for youth (Noorsoo Infopank)

• data administration (Lisa infot)

• terminology explication (Mis on mis)

The target group of Rajaleidja comprises both end users as well as career guidance and counselling specialists. Among the former, the following sub-groups can be discerned:

• pupils in basic schools and at the last stage of compulsory education

• pupils in upper secondary educational institutions

• students in vocational and higher education establishments

• adults interested in further training or career change

• jobseekers and unemployed

• people working in education and in the related fields

• companies looking for trainees

The system of initial data collection in Rajaleidja is based on the principle of disseminated administration. This means that the acquisition of respective user rights enables the co-operation partners to insert and up-date information in the database from all across the Internet, independent of their geographical location. So far, the representatives of Estonian vocational schools have formed the largest group of partners by taking care of the details presenting general information about each institution, the curricula descriptions and their contents. In the future, the scope of the database should encompass all levels of education.

The first electronic databases in the field of education in Estonia started to emerge at the beginning of 1990s. Due to the lack of unified standards, their structures varied a lot and were often so complicated that only specialists very well acquainted with the field were able to find any necessary data. For all other interested end-users, information was practically inaccessible.

A major step forward was the creation of the graphical information system KETE (Estonian acronym of vocational education, entrepreneurship and employment in Estonia) by the National Observatory in 1997. A year later, it came to be developed further by the National Resource Centre for Vocational Guidance (NRCVG Estonia). The new version made use of a bigger number of search engines and was equipped with the possibility to delegate data insertion to a range of partners across Estonia. In February 2000, the name Rajaleidja (Pathfinder in English) became officially assigned to the database.

Funded from the budget of NRCVG Estonia, Rajaleidja serves as one of the means to fulfill its objectives both nationally and transnationally. Rajaleidja has likewise become one of the main electronic tools supporting the work of the Estonian career guidance practitioners.

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