AUSTRALIA: A STUDENT FOCUSED NATIONAL CAREER EDUCATION STRATEGY
Future Ready: A student focused National Career Education Strategy was developed in collaboration with a national group that brought together the voices of education, business and industry, parents and carers, career practitioners and youth. The strategy was endorsed by the COAGEducation Council in February 2019.
Future Ready: A student focused National Career Education Strategy
The overall aim is to increase awareness and improve national consistency of career education. The strategy reflects nationally agreed objectives for governments, schools and employers to support provision of high quality career education for all school students. This emphasises the importance of building the skills and general capabilities they will need in the workplace; strengthening school and employer collaboration; and developing students’ career management and navigation skills.
The Government highlights: “Career education is the development of knowledge, skills and attitudes through a planned program of learning experiences in education and training settings to assist students to make informed decisions about their study and/or work options and enable effective participation in working life.”
Every school student will have access to high quality career education.
The strategy focuses on improving career education in schools by:
- building teacher and school leader capability
- supporting parents and carers in their important role in these conversations
- encouraging collaboration between industry and schools.
High quality career education builds resilient individuals who can adapt to the evolving nature of work and manage multiple careers in their lifetime, according to their circumstances and needs. This strategy highlights existing good practice by sharing, expanding and encouraging the career education initiatives that are already working. At the same time, there is a need for greater consistency, enhanced awareness and improved engagement.
The strategy complements the Australian Curriculum; the eight learning areas, general capabilities and cross-curriculum priorities. It builds on previous frameworks and the National Career Development Strategy, which provides a guide for those involved in career development across a broad range of settings and focuses on lifelong career development for all Australians. A national group, with the voices of education, business and industry, parents and carers, career practitioners and youth, supported the creation of this strategy.
The national group identified three areas where leadership could support students to make informed study choices and navigate their future careers:
• Building students’ skills and capabilities for the future, through a planned program of learning, to prepare them for life beyond school.
• Strengthening collaboration between schools, employers and local communities to improve student engagement with work environments, and support successful transition to further education, training and work.
• Students having the career management and navigation skills needed to make informed career decisions throughout their working lives.
To bring the strategy to life, a number of projects supported by the Australian Government have commenced in partnership with state and territory education departments, business and industry and career education groups. Projects include:
- resources including good practice case studies that show innovative career education in practice and toolkits to support development of school and industry partnerships.
Further information about these projects and resources will be available on the schooltowork.education.gov.au website over the coming months.
Download the strategy:
Future Ready: A student focused National Career Education Strategy