Naomi Oldenburg
Senior Manager, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)
Alice Long
Senior Executive Officer, Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI)
If you want to work or study in Europe, it can be a challenge to find roles or courses in unfamiliar countries. However, an online platform is available to make the process easier.
The freedom to work or study in different countries in Europe can broaden your mind, hone your skills and help you grow both professionally and personally.
Access and adaptability across borders
“I’ve lived in a few different countries,” says Naomi Oldenburg, Senior Manager at Quality and Qualifications Ireland (QQI), the state agency which hosts the Irish National Europass Centre. “I’ve always found it exciting to learn about other cultures and experience something different. Apart from hard skills, living abroad also teaches adaptability, flexibility, resilience and independence — important soft skills which are useful throughout your career.”
Of course, before you can work or study in Europe, there’s a big hurdle to overcome. Namely, how do you start to find the jobs or learning opportunities it offers, especially if you’re not familiar with a particular country, its customs or its language?
Say you’re an administrator from Galway who wants to look for work in Greece, or you’re a graduate from Mayo who wants to study a Master’s degree in Malta. Where do you begin? You could trawl through a range of different job or education websites in those countries, but that would be time-consuming and confusing. There are other challenges, too. How can you properly showcase your skills and qualifications to potential employers abroad? How do you know if your Irish qualifications will measure up to, say, German qualification standards?
By centralising the search process,
the site makes it easier to find
roles in all kinds of occupations.
Making it easier to find roles and learning opportunities
Understanding this challenge is why the EU launched Europass 20 years ago. This is a free, multilingual and secure online platform which offers tools, resources and information to support anyone interested in working and learning across Europe (the National Europass Centre coordinates its activities in Ireland). By centralising the search process, the site makes it easier to find roles in all kinds of occupations and also features learning opportunities in 14 countries. It now has more than 8 million registered users and, in 2024, recorded 16.4 million unique visitors.
After users have created their free account, they build a profile of their career experiences, qualifications, languages, skills and hobbies. They can then make use of a standardised CV — in a format widely recognised across Europe — and cover letter. Plus, they can compare their own qualification levels with qualifications from other European nations.
Tools to empower people in career development
“We’ve also introduced a new interview preparation tool,” explains Alice Long, Senior Executive Officer, QQI. “This provides candidates with a preparation checklist in advance of their interview and gives suggestions on what to do on the day of the interview. It helps them prepare answers to common interview questions and build up their own bank of questions.”
Users can also organise their personal information by securely storing digital credentials and certificates in their own unique libraries, as well as track and organise job applications. “Having all your credentials in order — and in one place — makes it easy to apply when you find the job you want,” says Oldenburg. “It’s all about enhancing mobility and empowering people to develop their careers.”
