Inaugural Congress forCareer Development Practitioners

MEDIA STATEMENT

Career development is ‘the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure, and transitions in order to move toward a personally determined and evolving preferred future’. It is the umbrella term used to include career education, information, advice and guidance. The function of career development is pivotal in ensuring labour market goals are achieved, such as, jobs and productivity, improvement in educational goals and employment equity in terms of skilling previously disadvantaged groups to use their potential.

The need for career development is clearly identified in the National Development Plan (NDP), which aims to put in place the framework whereby we ‘build the capabilities of our citizens to make our future work’. The NDP states that ‘the South African education system needs urgent action. Building national capabilities requires quality early childhood development, basic education, further and higher education’. Such need is also recognised in the National Skills Development Strategy III, where ‘many young people leaving formal secondary and tertiary schooling have inadequate skill levels and poor work readiness to enter the labour market for the first time’.

Similarly, the National Skills Development Plan (NSDP) places clear emphasis on the need for career development in ‘Outcome 8: Support Career Development Services’ where it states that‘for each and every person being able to embrace their full potential, career development is vital. Our entire skills development system mustdedicate the required resources to supportcareer and vocational guidance as this hasproved to be a critical component insuccessful skills development initiativesworld‐wide’.

In response to this need, the South African Career Development Association (SACDA) in collaboration with the Manufacturing, Engineering and Related Services Sector Education and Training Authority(merSETA) and the University of South Africa (Unisa) invite members of the media to attend the upcoming inaugural Congress for Career Development Practitioners and launch of the African Journal of Career Development (AJCD).

The Congress will include the conferring of the first Professional Designation for Career Development Practitioners (CDPs). As per the Organising Framework for Occupations (OFO, 2017), the function of a CDP is to ‘provide information, advice and guidance to individuals and groups with managing their career, making occupational and study decisions and planning career transitions. This includes the use of various career development tools including non-standardised self-directed assessments’. This new occupation will enable effective career development to be provided at community level from Early Childhood Development (ECD) throughout life and into retirement. It will enable the position of a CDP to be created in each community from schools, colleges and universities to community centre’s and orphanages.

Congress keynotes include industry and career specialists such as Ms Ester van der Linde from the merSETA; Dr. Mary McMahon from the University of Queensland in Australia; Ms Jan Ellis from the Career Development Institute in the United Kingdom; Prof. Kobus Maree from the University of Pretoria; Prof. Mark Watson from the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University and Prof. Maximus Sefotho from the University of Johannesburg.

The Congress will also see the launch of the African Journal of Career Development (AJCD), which aims to bring further scientific rigour to career development issues in Africa. The inaugural edition will be a special UNESCO UNITWIN edition on: ‘Career Development in Developing Country Contexts: A Conduit to Facilitate Sustainable Decent Work for All’. The special edition launch will include keynotes such as Prof. Kobus Maree, Editor-in-Chief of the AJCD and Prof. Anthony Pillay, past president of the Psychological Society of South Africa (PsySSA).

RSVP Date: 24 May 2019

Date: 24 June 2019

Place: Emperor’s Palace

Registration: 07:30-09:00

Time: 09:00-16:00

Contact: Thandeka Langa

E: media@sacda.org.za

Tel: 083 671 9058

Website: www.sacda.org.za

Space is limited, so please confirm soonest.

Issued by SACDA, merSETA and Unisa

Date: 8 May 2019