College drop-out rates in Ireland have reached a critical level, leaving families and schools searching for solutions. Limerick entrepreneur Stephen McKeon noticed this disconnect while still at school. Students were leaving university without understanding what they wanted from their careers, and guidance counsellors lacked the tools to manage the growing volume of CAO applications. McKeon built CourseCompass to address this gap, combining psychometric testing with resources for students and counsellors.
Tools for every stage of education
The platform offers a suite of psychometric tests tailored to different educational stages. CourseCompass provides college course recommendations, Apprenticeship Compass for vocational options, and PLC Compass for post-Leaving Certificate courses. For younger students, the Subject Interest Test helps with Leaving Certificate subject selection. Beyond testing, the suite includes accommodation guides for universities, a Career Investigations series covering over 60 professions with salary data, and eligibility guides for SUSI, HEAR, and DARE schemes. An AI-powered CV builder and a mock CAO tool round out the resources.
Guidance counsellors can allocate tests and track progress in real time. If a student flags difficulty or expresses dissatisfaction with results, the counsellor can schedule a follow-up meeting. The business model separates individual users from institutions. Resources and eligibility guides are free for students, who pay only for psychometric testing or premium features. Schools access the full suite through a package covered by the book grant scheme, meaning tests and guides are included once a school signs up.
This practical approach to education technology reflects McKeon’s own background. He began his entrepreneurial journey at McDonald’s, where he created training videos after finding the corporate training program inadequate. At 15, he took his first job at the fast-food chain, and a year later, frustrated by what he saw as a poor training programme at his store, he created his own training videos.
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Corporate head office was impressed enough to commission more, and those videos have since been watched by around 190,000 employees across the UK and Ireland since January 2023. At 17, he won the Digital Guru Employee of the Year award, and by 18, he delivered a keynote speech at the company’s 50th anniversary conference in Glasgow. McKeon says working inside a large structure taught him the value of solving problems directly rather than waiting for change to come from above.
Building a public presence
CourseCompass has not yet raised outside investment. McKeon relies on grant funding, including a €5,000 award from winning the University of Limerick Student Entrepreneur of the Year title in 2026. He admits early resistance from schools and students who were used to established practices, regardless of the statistics supporting the need for change. “If I want something, I have to work hard to get it,” McKeon says. He advises other founders to start immediately and build a public presence. “Just get in front of the camera and talk about what you are doing or are solving,” he adds. The company adapts by listening to feedback, adding solutions for emerging issues like accommodation challenges on college campuses.
Advice for early-stage founders
McKeon is candid about the assumptions he had to unlearn early on. He believed that building something addressing a problem as significant as college drop-out rates would be enough on its own to bring people on board. Instead, he found resistance rooted in years of established practice, even where the statistics supporting the need for change were clear.
