Do you want to find groups and support in the community that might help you improve your health and wellbeing? You can find lots of local support from charities to social groups in the Knox Learning Alliance Directory.
Know Yourself
- Understand your own abilities
- Choose a job that suits you
- Choose a course that suits you
- Avoid costly mistakes
The most important piece of advice I can offer today’s job seeker or those wishing to begin their career development is to first figure out, as best you can, exactly what is going to be the most appropriate path for you personally.
The first and possibly the most important step is to really know and understand your own abilities, strengths and needs so that you can begin to plan a course that takes you to the right place.
This first step activity or activities may seem to take time, but the fact is that spending the time now is a valuable investment for many, many reasons including:
- Exploring and choosing the right job or career to suit your personal circumstances and interests
- Choosing the correct learning courses to suit your time, ability and budget
- Writing and resume and building your portfolio will much quicker and easier
- Interview questions will be easier to answer when you good your own strengths and value to the employer
With all of the specific information you build in this process, you will be more likely to avoid costly mistakes in choosing expensive courses and will be more likely to end up working where you can achieve job satisfaction.
Go ahead and work through the following sections taking your time to carefully consider the truth about yourself, who you really are, and what will really give you personal satisfaction. You may also like to ask your family or friends what they think your talents and positive traits are, as if can be very difficult to really identify them all for yourself.
Once your exploration is complete, write a summary of what you have found out about yourself. This personal profile of yourself that you can refer to through all of the other steps of this program to remind you of what you want and what you need.
Activity One
Activity Two
Activity Three
It is obvious that when you apply for any job, the employer will be looking for skills, knowledge and attitudes that are needed to the relevant work. These are called ‘industry skills’ and they may be gained through doing a course of even through past experience. Australian employers in all industry areas expect that their workers also have what are called ‘employability skills’. These are more general and transferable skills and abilities that help workers in any work in the Australian workforce. These 8 skills are important and should be included when making your career plans, and you learning pathway plans. Use the following worksheets to find a range of examples to help you to identify your own employability skills. Add the skills that you think you already have to your skills like in activity one. Make a new list of ‘skills I have to develop’ with the ones you think you need to work on a bit more.
Now that your exploration is complete, write a summary of what you have found out about yourself. This personal profile will form the basis for the next steps in your career and learning plans.