Local TikTok star supports College Awareness Week

Clara's TikTok Star and podcaster Podge Henry has teamed up with career guidance YOONI to raise awareness about the importance of choosing the right college course during College Awareness Week.

YOONI, a software platform designed to help Leaving cert students to pick their ideal course looks to life beyond the Leaving cert. YOONI has developed bespoke assessment technology that analyses a student’s academics, personality, and interests to generate personalised course recommendations and insights.

First-year dropouts alone result in losses of €17.2 million to Irish parents each year. On an individual level, the 3rd level student lifecycle will cost parents a minimum of €18,444 with a child living at home for college. Every Irish parent has a 25% chance of losing some, if not all of that €18,444 due to their child dropping out.

Co-Founder of YOONI Nathan Mayes says, “In Irish colleges, the dropout rate in the first year is 14% while a total of 25% of students drop out before graduation. Studies show that 60% of these dropouts are due to students choosing the wrong course. We developed YOONI from the ground up, in collaboration with guidance counsellors and other experts in both education and technology fields, to bridge the void between the traditional guidance system and modern career guidance technology. YOONI.ie uses smart technology to help alleviate the stress students face navigating the path of course selection.”

With over 1.5 million likes, Podge Henry, a former student of Moate Community School, now spends a large portion of his time entertaining his forty nine thousand TikTok followers with funny sketches but says that choosing the right college course is no laughing matter.

“Making the correct college course choice for me was vital because I really wanted to pick a degree that I knew I would see a future career in while also giving me options in case I wanted to go into something else after college. Communications was perfect for that. It allowed me to showcase my interest in content and TV but was broad enough that there were plenty of options in Marketing, PR, and broadcasting too if I wanted to explore them. It’s just about being happy with what you are studying, once you have that everything else comes naturally”.

Supported by the IGNITE program in UCC and Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers, co-founders Nathan Mayes and Darragh Lucey have already successfully helped thousands of Leaving Cert Students from nationwide schools choose their appropriate college courses. All third level (Level 8) courses are now searchable using the software.

Co-founder Darragh Lucey says, “Where we differ is that we use anonymised past graduate data to match current leaving cert students with the best courses for them, based on their Leaving Cert subjects and their predicted results in those subjects. Using Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics, we can accurately return a list of suitable courses and also serve to solidify confidence in their current choices with ongoing access to adequate guidance regardless of the school situation.”

To sign up for free, and to view other supports available to students, visit www.YOONI.ie