Career development
What is career development?
Career development is gaining skills, experience and qualifications to enhance your career. The more you develop your skills, the more easily you can meet the constantly changing needs of the labour market, and achieve your aspirations.
The sector is always changing in response to current social, political and economic conditions. This creates the ongoing need for employees to keep their knowledge, skills and approach up to date. With opportunities to learn and develop, come opportunities for advancement and progression.
What career development does the sector offer?
The community care and disability sector is fairly unique in the sense that as well as being able to climb up the ladder and achieve more qualifications, you can also move across the sector to diversify your knowledge and skill sets. View our Employment and career options guide for more information. (pdf)
As well as training and qualifications, carecareers encourages shadowing others or adopting a mentor to aid your personal career development.
Both methods are likely to be official development paths within your organisation, but whatever your starting point, there are a number of options available to you. Visit our training and qualifications page to review these opportunities.
How can I support my own career development?
- Approach your employer – ask them about mentoring possibilities or opportunities to advance your career.
- Move on to your next challenge – sometimes you have to move organisations to develop your career further.
- Identify a mentor - who started where you are and is now where you'd like to be.
- Research our employer directory - to identify organisations that offer relevant opportunities to develop your career.
- Create your own peer mentoring network with like-minded colleagues.
- Attend sector networking meetings - such as National Disability Servcies' regional meetings.
- Contact our Careers Centre for personalised advice.