Career Development Learning: linking graduate attributes, WiL and lifelong learning

Martin SmithHead, Careers Central

University of Wollongong

Who said that?

Session Overview

• My premise• What is Career Development• Why is CDL relevant to successful transitions and

employability strategies: the literature• Linkages to WiL, GA’s and Lifelong Learning• Emerging andragogy/pedagogy underpinnng CDL• International and national practices• UOW initiatives – linking GA’s to WIL to

employability to CDL

What is Career Development?

Career development is the lifelong process of managing learning, work, leisure and transitions in order to move towards a personally determined and evolving future for both private and public good. (Career Industry Council of Australia 2006; OECD, 2004)).

“Career development learning puts students at the heart of the learning process”(Prof Tony Watts, NAGCAS ALTC Symposium, June 2008)

What is Career Development Learning?

Career Development Learning …. learning about the content and process of career development or life/career management.

• Content – learning about self and learning about the world of work

• Process – the development of the skills necessary to navigate a successful and satisfying life/career.

(McMahon, Patton &Tatham 2003)

Systems Theory Framework (Patton & McMahon 2006)

The DOTS model (Prof Tony Watts)

Learning about Self

Learning about Opportunities

Learning about Decisions

Learning about Transitions

Learning about self?• Abilities, skills, aptitudes,

competencies• Interests• Personality• Rewards - extrinsic &

intrinsic• Values, ethics, moral

compass• Passion & purpose

• Self identity

“we’re like onions”

The literature: CD & Social Inclusion

• awareness, aspiration, educational attainment (Bradley, 2008)

• relationship between career development and social justice is explicit within the career development literature internationally (e.g., S. S. Hansen, 2003; Hartung & Blustein, 2002; Irving, 2005; K. M. O'Brien, 2001)

• pivotal in the work of access, equity and social justice (McIlveen, Everton, & Clarke, 2005)

• benefits with respect to social equity and human capital (Access Economics, 2006; Council of the European Union, 2009; Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, 2004a; Watts, nd)

The literature: FYE

• sense of vocational purpose, (Wilson & Lizzio, 2006)

• identify and monitor student purpose and reasons for attending university due to the connections to retention, satisfaction, academic performance and engagement amongst non traditional cohorts (James, Krause and Jennings, 2010)

• placing students at the heart of the learning process (Watts, 2008)

Learning about opportunities

• gaining information about opportunities from print, online material and individuals (via networking and informational interviewing)

• Immersion in work related experiences

• Learning is continually modified by experience (Kolb, 1984)

• CDL aligns with Kolb’s experiential learning (Patton & McMahon, 2001)

WiL and CDL: WiL as an enabling strategy of CDL

• “Work-related learning involves: learning about oneself; learning and practising skills and personal attributes of value in the world-of-work; experiencing the world-of-work in order to provide insights and learning into the world-of-work associated with one's university studies; and experiencing and learning how to learn and manage oneself in a range of situations, including those found at work”. (Moreland, 2005, p. 4)

WiL v Work Related Learning

• WRL can occur inside and outside the curriculum, and outside of the university itself in paid and paid work, in mentoring , in group projects, business simulations. Students learn wherever the experience occurs (Moreland, 2005)

2 way mirror

QUESTIONS?