QualifaX: Ireland's National Learners' Database

IGC and Careersportal Partner to Remotely Support Guidance Counsellors and their 6th Year Students

In light of the current situation where many students and Guidance Counsellors have no access to a managed career guidance resource, CareersPortal are offering full access for all 6th years students and their Guidance Counsellors to the REACH+ Career and College Preparation Programme, Free of Charge until such time as they have transitioned from 2nd level education. This service will be made available to them directly through their Guidance Counsellor.

CareersPortal are delighted to partner with the IGC in rolling out this initiative to current 6th Year students and their Guidance Counsellors and in providing initial and ongoing training and support.

For more information on this initiative go to  CareersPortal.ie

Information on the Coronavirus / COVID-19

1. The HSE is the authoritative source of information and advice on the situation regarding the virus in Ireland. The latest updates can behere.
2. Department of Education and Skills website provides regular upates specifically aimed at the education and training sector.

Gov.ie provides the latest updates, health advice, travel advice, Ireland's response to Covid-19 (Coronavirus), welfare advice for employers, employees and the self-employed and information from across government.

Important Resources for Training and Education Providers

COVID-19 - Updates from QQI  https://www.qqi.ie/Articles/Pages/COVID-19---Updates-from-QQI.aspx

Important Changes to User Accounts on Qualifax - Protecting Your Data

As you will know, Qualifax, Ireland's National Learners Database offers comprehensive information on further and higher education and training options in Ireland and further afield. This is widely recognised as a valuable resource for students, learners, parents and guidance counsellors throughout the country.

While Qualifax will continue to provide its full range of services to approximately half a million users throughout the country, in order to enhance security measures around data retention and protection, we are obliged to make the following changes to the user accounts facility on Qualifax.

Until now, visitors to the Qualifax website had the option to create user accounts in order to save course searches, interest assessment results and points information to their account. The platform provides an alternative option to save searches without creating a user account which requires the user to share personal data.

We are, therefore, making the following changes to the site to protect your security online:

• From Monday 10th February 2020, the facility to create new accounts will no longer be available.
• From Friday 13th March 2020, users will no longer be able to access existing accounts.

For Existing Account-holders

All accounts will be deactivated, and the associated personal data will be deleted from our systems on Friday 13th March 2020. We recommend you print or download your saved information before then by following the steps in the attached pdf (Qualifax Accounts – Saving Your Information).

All other features of the Qualifax service will continue to be available as usual, including Course Search, Tagging Courses, Events Calendar, Points Calculator and Interest Assessment. These services all operate independently of the accounts facility.

We apologise for any inconvenience caused by these changes, however, our priority is to provide greater online security for the users of our service and to ensure Qualifax continues to meet its obligations in handling personal data.

Should you have any queries in relation to the changes, feel free to contact us at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it .

We would also invite you to share your experience of the functionality of user accounts by completing this short questionnaire.

Angela Lambkin
Head of Information Services, Quality and Qualifications Ireland

Education: Getting Ireland Brexit Ready

The withdrawal from the EU of the UK will bring change to many aspects of Irish life.

Many of the arrangements in place regarding education relate to the Common Travel Area with the UK. Where this is the case, no changes to these arrangements are expected.

Further information on what is expected to change and what is expected to remain the same after Brexit is below. For more information on Brexit please see Gov.ie/brexit

Students in both the UK and Ireland regularly receive some or all of their education in either country. This is one of the features of the Common Travel Area that the UK and Ireland enjoy. You can read more about the Common Travel Area here.

Go to  https://www.education.ie/en/The-Department/Brexit/education-getting-ireland-brexit-ready.html