The portal aims to help students make connections between what they learn in school with their own career aspirations and development.

All Primary 5 and 6 students will soon be able to explore the various career possibilities and educational pathways available to them with the click of a mouse. This is being made possible through the interactive web-based Education and Career Guidance portal ( ecareers.sg ) for Primary Schools, which was officially launched by Mr Masagos Zulkifli, Senior Parliamentary Secretary for Education and Home Affairs, at St Andrew’s Junior School on 24 February 2010.

The portal also aims to help students make connections between what they learn in school with their own career aspirations and development. Students will be able to explore the various industries in the portal through colourful illustrations and personalised “Avatars”. They can also embark on a series of fun and interactive games that will help them discover more about their strengths, interests and values in the process of learning more about the industries.

The Occupation Game, for example, allows students to explore the different types of jobs available in different industries and the key skill sets and attributes associated with the different types of jobs. The portal also includes an ePortfolio module which serves as a repository for the students to archive and review their portal explorations as they proceed through the different levels in school.

For students considering admission to secondary schools, the portal includes a “Find your favourite school” search function to provide guidance by offering a set of criteria to consider when doing their search. The interactive education landscape feature also helps to create awareness of the diverse educational pathways in the Singapore education system and students can also use it to plan how to further their educational aspirations.

The ecareers.sg portal is comprehensive and developmental in nature. lt serves students from primary to Junior College/Centralised Institute (JC/CI) levels. Jointly developed by the Ministry of Education and the Centre of Education and Work, University of Wisconsin-Madison, the secondary and JC/CI module within the portal was launched last year and has been used extensively as a rich resource for students, parents, teachers and school counsellors. Emphasis is placed on career exploration and planning and career profiling tools are also available to help students gauge their interests and aptitudes. The purpose is to provide a systematic way for these students to make an informed choice of relevant courses to realise their dreams.

At the primary school level, the main focus is on raising students’ awareness of educational pathways and careers available in the various sectors. The primary portal is currently being pilot tested in 23 primary schools and is scheduled to be rolled out to all primary schools in June 2010.