Hoozyu: Help Your Kid Make Smarter Choices About Courses And Careers

Aug. 4, 2009 - PRLog -- It's hard to make good choices about where you are going when you aren't sure who you are. Too often, all that teenagers and young adults have in the way of objective data about themselves is what they scored in their school, college or university exams. That is pretty thin evidence upon which to base the most formative period of your working and family life. (If it doesn't seem like that big a problem to you, just consider for a moment whether you would like to have your life for the next ten years determined by your old GCSE marks in Geography or Maths.)

Hoozyu aims to change all that, but it hasn't been easy. Jon and Sarah Mason, of [Organisational and Professional Development specialists] Elaura, have met and worked with thousands of professionals and business people in mid-career. "Some of them couldn't be happier," says Jon. "But there is a significant number who are still wondering how they ended up doing something they don't really enjoy as a daily routine."

Using what many believe to be the most insightful personal profiling tool in the corporate world, Jon and Sarah are no strangers to helping these kind of people to understand themselves better and re-energise their careers. "Sometimes it is a small step sideways, other times the role is fine, it is the culture they are in that is - for them - the problem. And once in a while you simply have to say 'how on earth did you ever get here?' Almost every time, the answer to that question involves an exam grade they got at school."

It didn't take the Masons long to work out that it would be far better if young people making choices about courses and careers were getting the same quality of data about themselves that was proving so helpful to their older counterparts. But there was a snag. "Enterprise-class tools come with enterprise-class price tags." And while a significant number of parents had availed themselves of this service to help their teenagers - with excellent results - the Masons weren't happy with an option that was likely to exclude so many families simply over price.

"Neither did we see any point in adopting a 'dumbed-down-for-the-kids' tool - there are far too many of them about already, doing, in our opinion, far more harm than good. Our clients (currently including Microsoft Japan as well as a number of significant UK businesses) use us because they know the value we can deliver using the Birkman Method - the same reason people like Boeing and Wal*Mart use it. That's what we wanted to be able to make available to kids in this country and beyond."

The turning point came when they were able to negotiate with Birkman International for a version of the tool which used exactly the same questionnaire and analysis, but which only included that subset of output reports most directly relevant to teenagers and young adults in this situation - and which could be deployed to the end user for less than 5% of the average cost of deployment of the "full" version. "Our colleagues at Birkman have been incredibly supportive over this; they too want to see better course and careers advice get to where it will make the most difference."

As the name suggests, hoozyu is about helping young people understand who they are. "We aren't trying to come up with mono-dimensional answers - 'be a steamroller driver' or "be a chef". Instead we are supplying information on what motivates a person, how they will prefer to operate, what they need from others and from their working environment, how they will behave under stress (and how to manage that), what kind of contribution they bring to the table and so on. This kind of information allows people to come up with a whole range of options for themselves."

There are two main modes of delivery. One is that individuals (or their parents) can buy hoozyu direct from the website. "The subject completes a Birkman Questionnaire, after which we send them their report and a couple of downloadable documents that will help them to work through the implications for them. We will have this material available in online video format shortly as well."

The second option is where schools, colleges, universities and other organisations working with young people actually deliver this to an entire cohort. "Why this option is even more powerful is that we can train facilitators so that group workshops and one-on-one mentoring sessions can be part of the mix. These workshops are based directly on the work we do for our large corporate clients, and have been enthusiastically received by everyone from senior executives to 'young people not in employment, education or training'." We are just starting to talk to people in government in England and Wales about this; given some of the negative public comment on Careers Services lately, there is an obvious opportunity for change and improvement here.

For more information, go to http://www.hoozyu.com

# # #

Elaura works with organisations in all three sectors to transform the effectiveness of their recruitment, retention, professional development and organisational change programmes.