“YOONI” offers educational AI platform for free following partnerships with Musgrave and Dornan Engineering Ltd
YOONI, a software platform designed to help leaving cert students pick their ideal course, is now offering the service free of charge for a limited time.
A free online tool to help students pick the right third level course is being made available to help reduce the number of people making the wrong choice and dropping out early. First-year dropouts from university 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.
The decision to offer all students the service was made following support from YOONI’s industry partners, such as Musgrave and Dornan Engineering Ltd. The online assessment involves completing a career interest inventory, a personality test, and inputting their predicted leaving cert grades. The ‘YOONI Fit’ results are then engineered through the bespoke system using artificial intelligence to match students to courses that they are best suited to. Students will be able to log onto the YOONI Career Guidance Platform and complete their ‘YOONI Fit’ assessment that matches third-level courses within the CAO system.
The system uses both Artificial Intelligence and Data Analytics to help students identify the courses they will most likely flourish. The bespoke assessment technology analyses a student’s academics, personality and interests to generate personalised course recommendations and insights. YOONI allows students to research courses, fill out a practice CAO form, and determine if they meet the entry requirements for any searched course. Since launching nationally in September 2020, YOONI has helped students from over 400 schools choose their appropriate college course.
The typical cost of using the system is €49.99, but it is being offered to all leaving cert students in the class of 2021 for free.
Supported by the IGNITE program in UCC and Enterprise Ireland’s New Frontiers, co-founders Nathan Mayes and Darragh Lucey have just announced significant partnerships with UCC (Cork), LYIT (Letterkenny) and City Education Group, Dublin.
Philip Smith, the Group Director of Marketing & Sales at City Education Group, had this to say “I am very excited about our partnership with YOONI. They have an excellent platform which, in my opinion, is badly needed. After speaking with the Co-Founder, Darragh Lucey, I knew I wanted the City Education Group on this platform. This opportunity came for the group at a great time as we have seen a huge growth in demand for our courses and launch our degree programmes for September 2021.”
Co-Founder of YOONI Nathan Mayes says, “We are particularly grateful to our industry partners, Musgrave and Dornan Engineering Ltd, who share with us a desire to ease the burden of stress on the class of 2021. Our aim at YOONI is to get the right student into the right course and make the best career guidance services easily accessible to all, regardless of their personal, social or educational background. In Irish Colleges, the first year’s dropout rate is 14%, while 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 co-founder Darragh Lucey says, “It’s a particularly challenging time for leaving cert students. The decisions made now can impact our professional futures. We hope that offering YOONI free of charge will enable students to focus on their studies and not worry about career choice. We differ because 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
If your company wants to work with YOONI to help second-level students from across the country, please get in touch at hello@yooni.ie
Free offer applies Sunday the 21st of February until the 1st of July 2021
