A career action plan is a dynamic planning document, owned and managed by a student.
Creating a plan is a process of self-reflection and goal-setting. The plan helps students:
- consider their motivations and strengths
- choose their goals
- clarify the actions needed to achieve these goals
- commit to participating in the planned activities.
Annual planning creates continuity through students career development in secondary school. This helps them develop the knowledge, skills, attitudes and confidence they need to make informed decisions and effectively manage their career throughout life.
Career action planning is required for all students from Years 9 to 12, but can be part of your school’s planned program of career education from Year 7 onward.
Creating and managing plans
Any teacher can facilitate career action planning, with guidance from the school’s career practitioner.
You can choose from 2 ways to deliver career action planning activities:
- My Career Portfolio – a digital tool from the department that guides students through the planning process, with other useful features for students’ career exploration and development.
- Career action plan templates – documents you can customise to meet the needs of your students.
When students create or update their plan at least annually, their secondary schooling is punctuated with important opportunities to:
- discover their strengths and talents
- explore the world of work and their place in it
- identify their values and interests
- decide on their career and learning goals and pathway
- take steps toward their goals.
Sharing and linking plans
Career action plans must be shared with the students’ parents or carers with their school report. This supports their engagement in their young person’s career development, which is a key success factor for many students’ effective decision-making.
The career action plan should complement the students’ other planning documents – in particular, if the student has an Individual Education Plan.
If the student has a Student Support Group, educators should share the student’s career action plan with members of the group.
Connecting with other key activities
After participating in My Career Insights, students can use their Morrisby results to create or update their career action plan and make informed decisions about their goals.
Annual planning helps prepare students to identify work-based learning opportunities of interest. It also provides an opportunity to reflect on those experiences. For example, students’ goals for work experience or a school-based apprenticeship or traineeship should be recorded.
Subject and course counselling can be documented in the student’s career action plan, giving students a record of the guidance they received, and reason for their choices.
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