EUN670 Leading Career Development

Unit Outline: Semester 1 2026, Online

Overview

This unit will explore the critical role of career education and development programs in schools for fostering lifelong career management skills. As future career practitioners, you will gain the knowledge and skills necessary to design, implement, and evaluate innovative career programs that cater to diverse school populations and respond to the evolving needs of the modern workforce. This unit is fundamental to your career counselling studies as it bridges theory and practice, preparing you to create impactful career interventions. By mastering these skills, you'll be equipped to guide individuals through their career journeys in an increasingly complex and dynamic world of work. The knowledge gained here will form the cornerstone of your professional practice, enabling you to make a significant difference in people's lives through effective career education and development programs.

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit you will be able to:

1. Analyse education contexts, including cohort learning needs, to inform the design of innovative career education and development programs.
2. Create and present proposals advocating for the establishment and implementation of career education and development programs.
3. Design and justify career education and development programs for education contexts.
4. Integrate theory, curriclum frameworks and teaching and assessment approaches related to career education and development programs.

Content

Learning Approaches

In this unit you will learn through engaging in the following:

• lectures (live and recorded)
• tutorials (online)
• online learning materials
• peer and group discussions

This unit employs interactive and discussion-based learning, project-based learning and critical reflection on the intersection of theory and experience.

Feedback on Learning and Assessment

Assessment

Overview

There are two assessments in this unit:

1. Program proposal – this task draws on the professional standards, theories, curriculum frameworks, diversity, needs analysis, ROI and program planning learnings in this unit to plan a CED program for a chosen cohort.
2. CED program and discussion paper - this task draws on and synthesises core learnings in this unit, emphasising the practical application of CED principles and methodologies to develop a CED program for a chosen cohort.

Unit Grading Scheme

7- point scale

Assessment Tasks

Assessment: Program Proposal

You will develop a proposal which advocates for the establishment and implementation of a Career Education & Development (CED) Program which is specific to a cohort within your work context. Justify the need for and value of a dedicated CED program for your specific client group and demonstrate this program's alignment with your organisation's goals. You will present your proposal as a recorded presentation, followed by a viva voce (oral examination) where you will respond to questions about your proposal.

The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Assessment: Career Development Program and Discussion Paper

You will write a discussion paper that outlines the CED program you have designed for a specific cohort. You will develop a 10-week (or equivalent) CED program based on your Assignment 1 proposal. You will use Gen AI to support the development of your program. Submit an overview of this program and one sample lesson/session plan from this program. Discuss key elements of this program, including theory, curriculum frameworks and learning and assessment approaches. 

The ethical and responsible use of generative artificial intelligence (GenAI) tools is authorised in this assessment. See the relevant assessment details in Canvas for specific guidelines.

This assignment is eligible for the 48-hour late submission period and assignment extensions.

Academic Integrity

Academic integrity is a commitment to undertaking academic work and assessment in a manner that is ethical, fair, honest, respectful and accountable.

The Academic Integrity Policy sets out the range of conduct that can be a failure to maintain the standards of academic integrity. This includes, cheating in exams, plagiarism, self-plagiarism, collusion and contract cheating. It also includes providing fraudulent or altered documentation in support of an academic concession application, for example an assignment extension or a deferred exam.

You are encouraged to make use of QUT’s learning support services, resources and tools to assure the academic integrity of your assessment. This includes the use of text matching software that may be available to assist with self-assessing your academic integrity as part of the assessment submission process.

Breaching QUT’s Academic Integrity Policy or engaging in conduct that may defeat or compromise the purpose of assessment can lead to a finding of student misconduct (Code of Conduct – Student) and result in the imposition of penalties under the Management of Student Misconduct Policy, ranging from a grade reduction to exclusion from QUT.

Resources

Resource Materials

Prescribed text(s)

McCowan, C., McKenzie, M., & Shah. (2022). Introducing career education and development: A guide for personnel in educational institutions in both developed and developing countries. Rotterdam: Sense Publishers

Recommended text(s)

Arthur, N., Neault, R., McMahan, M. (Eds) (2019) Career Theories and Models at Work: Ideas for Practice. Toronto: CERIC.

McMahon. (2015). Ideas for career practitioners : celebrating excellence in career practice (New edition.). Australian Academic Press.

Patton, W., & McMahon, M. (2021). Career development and systems theory: Connecting theory and practice. (4th ed.). Brill

Risk Assessment Statement

There are no out-of-the-ordinary risks associated with general participation in this unit.

Course Learning Outcomes

EU75 Master of Education (School Guidance and Counselling)

1. Discuss, evaluate, and integrate advanced discipline-specific knowledge related to professional educational practice and research.
   Relates to: ULO4, Career Development Program and Discussion Paper
2. Critically analyse and evaluate complex activities, contexts and phenomena related to professional practice and scholarship in the discipline of education.
   Relates to: ULO1, Program Proposal, Career Development Program and Discussion Paper
3. Design and justify innovative solutions to authentic problems of educational practice, drawing on discipline-specific knowledge and skills to lead and influence positive change.
   Relates to: ULO3, Program Proposal, Career Development Program and Discussion Paper
4. Employ a range of communication modes to transmit knowledge, skills and ideas to specialist and non-specialist audiences in professional and scholarly contexts.
   Relates to: ULO2, Program Proposal