App puts the finger on career choices

To find out more about the app on career choices after school, go to getblueprint.co.nz.

A new app aims to make choosing a career as easy as a push of a button or swipe of a finger.

Blueprint has collated information on 2000 courses from more than 50 tertiary institutions around New Zealand to make the process of deciding what to do easier for teenagers.

"That question of what do you want to do when you've finished school - a lot of kids, they're just like rabbits in the headlights when you ask that question," said co-designer Jeff King, deputy principal of Rangitikei College in Marton.

It builds on an NCEA app co-designed by Mr King and his former pupil Wasim Talim, which pipped official NCEA apps launched by the Government and the New Zealand Qualifications Authority.

NCEA Pal has been expanded and rebranded to become Blueprint and is installed in more than 55,000 phones in New Zealand.

"We saw kids were getting credits and excellences, and they were getting lots of them. But then the whole focus was on the actual gaining of the credits as being the end point, when really that's the starting point," Mr King said.

The app allows students to browse through different universities and their courses, with the option to save courses they're interested in to compare against other universities, to come back to later, or to show parents, teachers or friends. Universities can send the students videos of campus life, as well as important notifications like open days, or deadlines for filing applications.

"It's giving some guidance without having to trawl your way through how many multiple websites to get the same information," Mr King said.

Blueprint launched on May 5 and by Friday, more than 4000 courses had been saved by users.