QUALIFAX TUTORIAL Using Qualifax to Search for, Find and Store information on Courses & Colleges What is Qualifax? Qualifax is a library of information on courses, colleges and qualifications Every Higher and Further Education course available in Ireland is listed on Qualifax Qualifax is updated continuously so the information on it is the most up to date available Where do I find Qualifax To use qualifax just type www.qualifax.ie into your web browser window (the space at the top of the webpage) and press Return When the Qualifax Home Page comes up you can choose what you want to do by choosing from any of the links on the page What will I learn in this Tutorial. In this tutorial you will learn how to do two things; (a) Set up your own personal profile in Qualifax (b) Use Qualifax to find courses and colleges you might be interested in and store this information for further use Setting up a Profile Click on Create New Profile Type in your chosen Login Name. Use your own name as one word with no capitals or spaces e.g. pauldolan, maryoreilly If the computer tells you that this Login Name is already being used then add in your middle initial e.g. maryboreilly for Mary Brigid O’Reilly. If you don’t have a middle name then just add your year of birth to the end of your name e.g. maryoreilly92 For your Password use your Junior Cert No. plus your initials e.g. for Mary O’Reilly 34125mor or for James McDonald 34234jmcd What do I do now? As soon as you have done this write down your exact Login Name and your Password on the sheet in the space provided Now you can fill in the rest of the details asked for and then click on Create Profile. Now you have created your own personal profile on Qualifax you can store information about courses and colleges etc., on it. How can I make use of this? You can log on to Qualifax from any computer anywhere and get into your Profile by clicking on Open Saved Profile and then typing in your User Name (Login) and Password. Now its time to find out how to search Qualifax for courses and other information to store in your Profile. Making the most of Qualifax Whenever you log on to www.qualifax.ie always click on Open Saved Profile. That ensures that any information you find will be stored in your profile Now you can choose any one of the drop down menus along the top of the page Start with Courses in Ireland Searching for Courses in Ireland Concentrate on Higher Education CAO and Post Leaving Cert Courses Click on Higher Education CAO Type in Keywords or Course Title Keep it general to begin with e.g. Construction, Business etc., Click on Qualification Type and choose Higher Certificate (Level 6 NFQ) to begin with. Click on Search Making a List: Tagging Look through the list of courses and click on Tag if you want to add them to your selection Now click on Refine Search and in Qualification Type select Degree – Ordinary Batchelor (Level 7 NFQ) and repeat the process Repeat the process with Degree – Honours Batchelor (Level 8 NFQ) Making a List: Tagging refinements If the list of courses is too long click on Refine Search and either choose a Province or use a more specific title or Keyword If you want to check for courses in a particular college click on Refine Search and in Course Provider choose the college you are interested in Saving Your List for Future Use Click on Find Tagged Courses. You should now have a complete list of all the courses you are interested in that career area Click on View Personal Profile Click on Edit & Save User Profile Click on Save user Profile to keep your List of Tagged Courses Investigating Courses more fully Click on the name of a course in your list This will give you all the essential information about the course e.g. Entry Requirements, Points History etc., If you want to print this out click on Press to Print To return to your list click on Return to list To compare 3 similar course click in the tick boxes beside them and then click on Compare Courses Other things you can do? Search for Post Leaving Cert courses Calculate points Work out if you would get any Grants to go to college Find out what careers you are interested in by doing an Interest Assessment Check when your chosen colleges are having their open days on Career Events