Career + career choices

CAREER & CAREER CHOICES

INTRODUCTION

Skilled

Great deal of knowledge and skills. Specific training, formal qualification, registered as a professional. E.g. Dentist, teacher, engineer.

Unskilled

Work experience but no formal training or qualifications. Short on-the-job training. E.g. Waiter, housekeeping, domestic work.

Semi-skilled

Some training and one or more courses. Busy with or completed training. E.g. Nurse’s aid, teacher’s assistant, security guard.

Physical Labour

No formal qualifications. May have skills from experience or short job training. E.g. Gardener, Fruit harvester. 01

Socio-Economic Conditions

“Socioeconomic status is the social standing or class of an individual or group. It is often measured as a combination of education, income and occupation.”

The conditions you grow up in may influence your personality, attitudes, values, and type of career you choose.

This includes your education, community, culture and religion. What possible influences might affect one’s career journey and chances of success - positive AND negative? What you can do

We have looked at the influences on your career journey. Now we look at what you need to be doing about your own journey…

02 Competencies

You will be required to develop both emotional and professional competencies throughout your career journeys, developing skills and qualities that will aid in your career development.

Definition:

● skills or strengths and their ability to apply them.

● that which an individual does well.

● assets and resources that an individual use in his or her daily life to address challenges QUALITIES vs SKILLS

Qualities

“A distinctive attribute or characteristic possessed by someone or something”

Something in your character…

Skills

“A learned power of doing something competently : a developed aptitude or ability”

Something you are able to do…

Qualities may seem inherent and inborn and not something you can learn to do, but you are DEFINITELY able to work towards developing them. Identify Important Skills

Identify qualities and skills that are important in career development. The top 10 qualities and skills that need to be developed to thrive in the workplace are… ? What about YOU?

Take some time to think about your own skills and qualities. What are you needing to work on to become a valuable employee? What can you do to work on that now already? Suitability Audit

Your textbook has a suitability audit on page 232 that can help you to assess how suitable you are to a certain career or career field. This can be used alongside other online questionnaires such as the PACE one in your projects to ensure that you follow a career path that actually suits your interests. 03

Be Prepared

Reflect on how our expectations of our career may not be what we experience in real life… SUCCESS vs SATISFACTION

Success means different things to different people. Satisfaction = being pleased with what you have achieved.

Happiness in your career depends on: how realistic your expectations are; whether you have the right skills and qualifications; if you are interested in the job; if you have the right personality.

Make sure you research the career you are interested in properly, and how you might meet all the above needs.