Career Guidance Cork Independent CAO course-matching
Career Guidance Cork
The Apprenticeship Match Test

Cork's apprenticeship options go well beyond the building site.

A psychometric assessment matching your working style and strengths against every SOLAS-registered apprenticeship in Ireland — relevant well beyond Cork's traditional trades, given how much of the county's economy now runs on biopharma and medtech manufacturing.

Students walking together on campus
Tests are Powered by CourseCompass · an Irish company working directly with schools · used by students and parents across Cork and nationwide
Why this, and not just a list of trades

Most students can only name three or four apprenticeships

Cork Harbour has one of the highest concentrations of biopharma and medtech manufacturing in the country, and manufacturing and process apprenticeships are a direct, debt-free route into it — alongside the traditional construction, motor and electrical trades most people already know about.

The Apprenticeship Match Test does that work properly: a structured trait profile, scored against the full national register, so the shortlist you get back is based on genuine fit rather than which trade happened to come up in conversation.

How it works

Three steps to your apprenticeship shortlist

1

Build your trait profile

A structured assessment across 12 traits — how you work, solve problems and prefer to learn — building a radar-chart profile rather than a simple yes/no quiz.

2

Get matched nationwide

Your profile is scored against every SOLAS-registered apprenticeship in the country, not just the handful most students have heard of.

3

Receive your top 20

A ranked shortlist of your top 20 apprenticeship matches, with AI-generated explanations for your top 5 and direct links to the official SOLAS programme pages.

Who's behind this

A real Irish company, not an anonymous website

Career Guidance Cork is powered by CourseCompass, an Irish company that works directly with schools and students on CAO decision-making — not a faceless test generator.

The CourseCompass team visiting the Kemmy Business School at the University of Limerick
Meeting with UL's Kemmy Business School to talk through how course-matching supports CAO decisions.
A CourseCompass team member at Live 95 radio studios in Limerick
On air with Live 95, Limerick's local radio station, talking through the CAO Course Match Test.
A real printed CourseCompass Career Assessment Report and course recommendations
A real printed Career Assessment Report and course recommendations, the same structure shown in the sample on this site.
What students and parents say

Real reviews, published with permission

These are genuine testimonials from CourseCompass users — see the full reviews page for more.

“As a parent, it can be difficult to know how much to get involved when your child is choosing their CAO courses. CourseCompass gave us something useful to discuss together and helped explain why certain courses might suit them. It was a good starting point for having that conversation.”

K
Ken
Parent

“I went into the test without really knowing what I wanted to do. The results gave me a few different options and, more importantly, made me think about what I actually enjoy and what I could see myself doing. It definitely made researching my CAO choices easier.”

L
Luke
Student

“I found the test really easy to get through and it didn't feel like I was just answering the same question over and over. What I liked most was seeing why certain courses were recommended for me. It gave me a much better starting point for researching my CAO choices.”

M
Mark
Student
Apprenticeship Match Test

Get a shortlist built from your working style, not a guess based on the trade you've heard most about.

A psychometric assessment covering a 12-dimension trait profile, matched against every SOLAS-registered apprenticeship nationwide.

€14.99 one-time, no subscription
  • Your top 20 apprenticeship matches from SOLAS's full national register
  • A 12-dimension trait profile with a radar chart
  • AI-generated match explanations for your top 5
  • Direct links to the official programme page for each match
Secure checkout. You'll be redirected to complete payment, then get instant access.
Questions people actually ask

Before you take it

What exactly do I get for €14.99?
Your top 20 apprenticeship matches from SOLAS's full national register, a 12-dimension trait profile with a radar chart, AI-generated explanations for your top 5 matches, and direct links to the official programme page for each one.
Is this instead of the CAO Course Match Test, or as well as?
As well as, if you want it — an apprenticeship is one route among several, and plenty of students run both to compare a CAO shortlist against an apprenticeship shortlist before deciding.
I only know about the well-known trades — is that really all there is?
That's exactly the gap this exists to close. SOLAS's apprenticeship register now covers far more than the handful of trades most people can name, and this test is built to surface the ones that actually fit your profile rather than the ones you've simply heard of.
Is my data kept private?
Your report is generated for the email address you provide and is not shared with third parties or used for anything beyond delivering your results and, where relevant, basic service communication.