OK, time for an update here, I think.
As a member of the CHA Advisory Board, one of my allotted tasks is to look at the whole issue of the careers network, and how it can be made to work more efficiently to everyone's benefit.
As things stand at the moment, there exists a network of potental 'advisors' who have declared themselves willing to offer help and advice over a very broad range of potental careers. This was put together with the help of the meticulous work of Neville Osmond and the CHA office.
However, despite various 'peaks' from time to time, the usage statistics have been disappointingly low, and the whole thing needs to be updated and reinvigorated.
Several issues need to be addressed before this can happen.
Firstly, and most importantly, the database itself. There are various elements of this which currently seem to exist separately, and these need to be brought together and made readily available to those people (i.e. the CHA office) who need access to them on a day-to-day basis. This is part of ongoing work at C.H., and is subject to the usual constraints of time and money. I'm hoping that this will happen sooner rather than later, though.
Secondly, it will be necessary to contact ALL potential advisors to ensure that they are still able and willing to assist.
We will then need to look at those areas where there are no advisors, and, with the help of the office, approach individual Old Blues in the various sectors to see if they would be willing to help.
I would envisage expanding this to include Old Blues living overseas, who may be offer help to those thinking of travelling to and / or working in a particular country, offering essential advice on laws / customs / local business practice etc.
The final piece of the jigsaw will be to try to link all this to the school's own careers advice service, which I would imagine will require a fair amount of discussion in itself, as the CHA office will need to operate as the link between the CH and Old Blue communities.
So, this will all take a while to put in place, but the aim is to establish a service which is permanent, wide-ranging and efficient in its operation.
In the meantime, if anyone can offer (or indeed is looking for) any help or advice please use the contact forms which can be found on the CHA site :
http://www.chassociation.org/contacts/index.php
This information won't go into limbo, and the office will endeavour to put people in touch with each other where appropriate.