About Career Education
Education Queensland’s website explains Career Education
in this way:
“P - 12 career education is NOT about expecting students
to make lifelong career decisions at a very young age. It is about
providing them with a context for their school learning and the
skills, knowledge and attitudes to make future career decisions.
Through a P - 12 career education program students acquire the
knowledge, skills and attitudes they will need to make personally
relevant and appropriate career decisions in the future. The knowledge,
skills and attitudes required include:
- knowledge and understanding of self e.g. achievements, strengths,
weaknesses, interests, values, learning styles
- positive attitudes to change and lifelong learning
- skills to access and apply information about occupations and
education/training pathways
- career decision-making, planning and management skills.”
Education
Queensland
There has been a lot of very interesting material written about
Career Education in recent years. These links will take you to the
information and documents that have most influenced our professional
directions in Career Education.
Australian
Blueprint for Career Development - Read the Level 1 and 2 Career
Competencies (pp 33 – 55) and Chapter 8 (pp 86 – 96)
at least.
Managing
Life, Learning and Work in the 21st century
May we also recommend that you register with the Australian Career
Service which not only has very interesting articles about career
and vocational education, but also is the source of the annual ACS
award.
Australian
Career Service
Speaking the same language
If you are new to career education you may find it helpful to read
these definitions, using the Australian
Blueprint for Career Development as our source of definitions:
- Career Education is defined as
- the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes through a
planned program of learning experiences in education and training
settings which will assist students to make informed decisions
about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation
in working life.
Career is explained in this way- The definition of career has changed. Career no longer refers
to particular pathways through work or to an occupational title.
Career is the sequence and variety of work roles (paid and unpaid),
which one undertakes throughout a lifetime. More broadly, ‘career’
includes life roles, leisure activities, learning and work.
Some people have the unfortunate view that ‘career’
refers only to prestigious pathways through work; they do not
see that each of us has a career, that each of us develops, and
that work, learning and life are inextricably intertwined. The
Australian Blueprint for Career Development assumes the following:
- life, learning and work, though sometimes distinct, are
not separate;
- life, learning and work are best designed in harmony; and
- life, learning and work can be designed (recognising that
not all designs come to fruition) and re-designed.
The terms ‘career’ and ‘life, learning and work’
and ‘life and work’ are all used in the Blueprint,
depending on context. While life, learning and work are the elements
that comprise one’s career, like most synonyms, they cannot
always be used interchangeably without losing subtle shades of
meaning.
Career Development is defined as- the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes through a
planned program of learning experiences in education and training
settings which will assist students to make informed decisions
about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation
in working life.”
Career is defined in the same document as the process of managing
life, learning and work over the lifespan. Researchers suggest
that “career development involves one’s whole life,
not just occupation…. It concerns the individual in the
ever-changing contexts of his and her life…self and circumstances
– evolving, changing, unfolding in mutual interaction”
(Wolf & Kolb, cited in McMahon, Patton & Tatham, 2003,
p. 4).
This quotation is from Managing
Life, Learning and Work in the 21st century
which is available to download.
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