Module 5: ARISE AI-Assisted Tools

2. Building your Career Profile

A successful job search begins with a clear understanding of who you are, what you can offer and the type of work you are seeking. Before searching for vacancies or creating application documents, it is important to build a structured career profile that reflects your skills, experience, interests and career goals.

Within the ARISE Career Guidance Toolkit, learners create their career profile through a guided conversation with the AI chatbot rather than by completing a traditional registration form. During onboarding, the chatbot asks one structured question at a time, gradually gathering information about the learner's education, work experience, skills, interests, career goals and work preferences. Optional questions can be skipped or completed later, allowing learners to progress at their own pace. Throughout the conversation, the chatbot explains the purpose of each question group and whether the information is required or optional. Learners may skip optional questions, return to them later and update their profile at any time. Once onboarding is complete, the information becomes part of the learner's career profile, which can be reviewed, updated or expanded at any time from the user's account. The ARISE Toolkit then uses the completed profile to support job searching, CV and cover letter development, interview preparation and personalised learning recommendations.

The onboarding conversation has been designed in line with accessibility and inclusive design principles. Questions are presented one at a time in clear language, allowing learners to progress at their own pace. Optional questions can be skipped and completed later, and all information remains editable from the learner's account. This approach reduces cognitive load and supports users with different accessibility needs.

A complete profile is also important because AI-assisted career guidance depends on the quality of the information provided. If important skills, experiences or career goals are missing, recommendations may be less relevant or incomplete. For this reason, learners are encouraged to describe their qualifications and experience as accurately and comprehensively as possible.

For many people with disabilities, valuable experience may have been gained through non-traditional pathways such as volunteering, caring responsibilities, community participation, independent learning or personal projects. These experiences often demonstrate important transferable skills that employers value, even if they were not gained through paid employment.

The ARISE Career Guidance Toolkit adopts a skills-first approach. Rather than focusing on disability, diagnosis or limitations, it encourages learners to present their strengths, abilities and aspirations. Learners remain in control of the information they choose to include and decide whether any accessibility preferences or reasonable accommodations during the recruitment process.

Building Your Profile Gradually

Rather than completing all information at once, learners can progressively enrich their career profile as they gain experience, develop new skills, or update their employment preferences. This allows the Toolkit to provide increasingly relevant recommendations over time.

2. a. Information to prepare

Before using the ARISE Career Guidance Toolkit or any AI-assisted career guidance tool, learners should prepare the information that best describes their career profile.

The following information is recommended:

• Target job title or occupational field

• Preferred sectors or organisations

• Preferred location and travel distance

• Preferred working arrangement (remote, hybrid or on-site)

• Preferred working hours (full-time, part-time or flexible)

• Education, vocational training and certifications

• Work experience, volunteering and project experience

• Technical, digital, communication and transferable skills

• Languages

• Accessibility preferences or reasonable accommodations, where the learner chooses to record them

Good Practice

Accessibility preferences belong to the learner. They should be recorded or shared only when relevant to the learner's career planning, or when the learner decides that sharing them may support workplace accessibility or reasonable accommodations.

2. b. Identifying interests, abilities and transferable skills

Building a career profile is more than listing previous jobs or qualifications. It is also about recognising the interests, abilities and transferable skills that can support future employment.

Interests are the activities or subjects that motivate and engage a person. They often provide useful indications about suitable career paths. Examples include working with technology, helping people, creative activities, gardening, science or sports.

Abilities are the natural or developed capacities that make certain tasks easier to perform. These may include solving problems, communicating effectively, organising information, using technology, working with numbers or creating practical solutions. Abilities can continue to develop through education, work experience and everyday life.

Transferable skills are skills that can be applied across different jobs, industries and life situations. They are often developed through education, volunteering, caring responsibilities, hobbies, community participation and managing everyday responsibilities. Recognising these skills helps learners present a more complete picture of their capabilities, particularly when they have limited formal work experience.

The ARISE Career Guidance Toolkit encourages learners to identify these strengths before beginning their job search. A well-developed career profile enables the Toolkit to generate more personalised and relevant guidance throughout the recruitment journey.

Remember

Valuable skills are not developed only through paid employment. Education, volunteering, hobbies, family responsibilities, community participation and everyday experiences can all demonstrate abilities that employers recognise and appreciate.