Careers Services -Conceptualise Careers Programme

Introduction

Tailoring career development programmes to a client's specific needs and assisting with career planning is crucial to an effective career development programme. Only through careful career planning and modifying career development programmes to a client's needs can those needs be met and fulfilled. A single career development programme cannot fit every client. For this reason, career development practitioners need to either modify or create new career development programmes for their clients.

What is a career development plan?

Students need to make important decisions early — exploring who they are as individuals, what they hope to achieve, and what they want out of their career. Here, a career action plan can prove useful, as it is a plan that outlines a student's short-term and long-term goals regarding their career. Based on these goals, the action plan can assist students in deciding which courses need to be taken, and which activities will benefit them most in achieving their goals.

Why is it important to have a career development plan?

It is important to have an action plan early in one's academic journey, as it provides a clear sense of direction towards achieving one's goals. Planning for a career is crucial to success, and more emphasis needs to be placed on the benefits of having an action plan. Ultimately, an action plan's main purpose is to help students reach and accomplish their goals. When students become involved in creating action plans, it forces them to develop specific goals and possible paths to achieve those goals. Students can only do this once they identify what is important to them.

A career development practitioner can assist students through comprehensive assessment tools and in-depth questions to determine a learner's strengths and how best to invest those strengths in building a successful career. Once the learner's strengths are identified, the career development practitioner can assist with goal setting.

When setting a goal, you need to ask yourself questions such as: do you have a job or a career? What do you dislike about your job? What do you love? This is just the tip of the iceberg — there are many more questions to ask and decisions to make in order for the student to find balance and purpose, and to continue growing in their career. A career action plan is useful, as it helps students define their purpose. Doing so keeps the student focused on the end goal and prevents them from being led into making the wrong choices. Students often choose the wrong courses, paths or jobs due to a lack of planning.

Planning ensures students do not end up in positions that are a mismatch for their strengths. The importance of a career action plan seems simple enough to understand, yet many students overlook it. Ultimately, a career plan is about the student and what they are capable of. With early career planning, students are less likely to choose incorrect subjects or modules at a tertiary level.

How to create an action plan

Creating an action plan seems easy enough, but there are steps to follow to build a proper action plan. There are five main steps:

Step 1: Define your end goal. It is easy to fall into a failure mindset when plans fall apart. This is why it is important to identify and define your goals and what you are ultimately working towards. You can do this by setting SMART goals. SMART goals are goals that are:

- Specific — clear, concise goals.

- Measurable — how will you track or monitor your progress?

- Attainable — goals should be achievable with the resources you currently have.

- Relevant — your goal must be able to fit or align with your other goals.

- Time-bound — your goal must have a finish date.

Step 2: Create a list of actions. The second step involves creating a list of the steps needed to achieve your goal. In this step, you are required to break down your main goal into smaller, more achievable goals. Doing so will help reduce the feeling of being overwhelmed by a large goal. Ensure that the smaller goals are also achievable and support your progress towards your main goal. Smaller goals can be broken down into even smaller goals.

Step 3: Set a timeline. Setting timelines is important, as it keeps you focused and working towards a goal. Besides setting a time frame for your main goal, you should also set time frames for your smaller goals. Doing so will help you maintain a consistent flow towards your goal. Determine how much time you need per goal and work accordingly.

Step 4: Identify the resources needed. Remember that before you start any project or work towards a goal, you must ensure you have all the resources required to complete your tasks. If you lack the resources to complete or achieve your goal, you need to first make another plan, or find another means of acquiring what you need.

Step 5: Monitor, evaluate and update. Spend some time assessing your progress. Mark off your tasks as they are completed against your final action plan. This will allow you to determine how much progress you have made towards your final goal. Doing this will also highlight tasks or goals that are yet to be completed. If something is not working, you can adjust it. Once this is done, you can update the whole action plan.

Conclusion

As we have seen from the information above, career planning would be highly beneficial to students from an early age. There are many benefits, some of the most important being reducing stress and providing direction and clarity to achieve career success. Planning for one's career early is something that should be encouraged and supported. Students learn to deal with and cope with different stresses, and are able to find alternative routes to achieving their goals. Creating an action plan is beneficial in the long term, and students should be encouraged to develop one early.