1. Exploring skills and goals
What skills do I have?
What type of work would I enjoy?
What are my interests and hobbies?
What qualifications or licence do I have?
What skills do I have?
When you consider your skills, consider your previous job, what did you do? Example: If you worked as a teacher, your skills will be teaching, communication skills as you communicate to students, staff and parents.
If you do home duties, your skills could be cleaning skills, organisational skills in tidying things around the house, managing household affairs and cooking.
What type of work would I enjoy?
Think about what interest you in a job, do you like to work with others and socialise, do you like to solve problems, do you like to work mostly by yourself and independently, do you prefer to work outdoor, or would you enjoy working with your hands creating things. You will need to consider what is really you enjoy, what type of personality to do you have?
What are my interests and hobbies?
What would you like to do in free time, do you like watching movies, socialising with others, playing sport? Which sport? Do you like working in the garden? Or making things like knitting etc.
What qualifications or licences do I have?
Think about your previous work/study, what was your previous qualifications and what did you learn from the course you completed.
Example: if you have completed an accounting degree; you maybe good at mathematics, have good attention to details, enjoy problem solving, analytical tasks, have high level of accuracy.

2. Career Development Planning for a new start Exploring skills and goals
Setting goals and planning a pathway
Theme 2 Planning for a new start
Related activities: Facilitator to determine how many of these activities to complete with students.
Work Types & interests
Describing personal qualities (pre intermediate level) or Personal qualities (post beginner level)
Find someone who…
Create your own booklet
Reality testing and decision making
Work opportunities in the labour market

3. Planning for a new start
Identify types of work
What tasks or duties will I perform in the job?
What are the personal requirements for the job?
What qualification do I need for the job?
How do I find a job in Australia?
How will I get work experience?
Facilitator: Prior to delivering this presentation, ensure class understands the vocabulary: tasks/ duties. Qualifications/ training, personal requirements.
Discuss each question one by one
In a job, tasks and duties are the things you do daily and get paid for. They are the responsibilities you have in your position. A teacher gets paid to teach in classroom, prepare materials for students, correct student’s work, meet with other staff to plan programs, update client reports etc.
Personal requirements: your physical, mental and emotional strengths which can help to fulfil a job requirements. For example: hairdressers require standing for long time and using hands all day, if a person has physical problem with knees, back or hands this could limit you in doing your daily tasks comfortably or consistently.
Nurse job: require a person to be strong physically and emotionally, as nurses need to provide care and support to patients and maybe faced with very traumatic medical situations this impact on a person. This job requires a person to lift patients, stand on feet and walk within hospital for majority of the day.
Finding a job in Australia, ask students to show hands of who worked in their country, then ask those students to share how they got the job.
In Australia to find a job you need to : have a resume, know where to look and how, practice job interviews.
Building work experience can be by participating in Voluntary work, ask students who has volunteered and what was their role.
Doing courses which provide work experience component. Children services courses allow students to have practical work experience for about 6 weeks. This means you will be undertraining, supervised while you learn how to work with children in a centre. This is usually unpaid.
Obtaining a low entry paid job, can help you build work experience. Starting out as a cleaner, retail job, factory hand, will help you gain experience in working in a team, have experience perform a job daily, coming to work on time, being reliable. Which are all important in any job in Australia.
Worksheets in this theme will help students identify personal qualities and skills; and look at specific jobs that people do and their attitude towards these jobs.

4. What tasks will I do in the job?
Every job has tasks (duties) that you need to do in order to get paid.
For example, hairdressers
talk to clients about what they need
cut hair using clippers, scissors or razors
shampoo, condition and rinse hair
colour, bleach, apply treatment, straighten and tint hair
dry and style hair using brushes, combs, straightening irons
shave and trim beards and moustaches
advise on hair care and sell hair products
operate a cash register and computer
answer telephone calls and make appointments
***Slide appears gradually****
- Before showing the list, elicit thoughts from the class, elaborate on skills required for the duties: example, sales skills, communication skills, negotiation skills etc.
- Simplify descriptions of tasks as needed (this have been slightly simplified)
Every job there are tasks that need to be completed in order for worker to be paid. It is important that you investigate the job you like to do, and get an idea about the tasks and duties before applying for the job.
You can investigate a job by:
- reading job advertisements
- watching people do the job eg. Nurse, retail etc.
- Talk with people who do the job and ask them about their challenges
Watch videos online about the job.
Volunteer in a company where you can see others do the job, eg. volunteering in aged care facility will allow you observe and talk to aged care workers and nurses.

5. What are the personal requirements?
Think about what interests you, how you like to work, your personality type, your physical ability
For example, hairdressers should have
no allergies to hair products
a pleasant personality
good communication skills
good hand-eye coordination
attention to detail
And they should be
patient
creative
able to work under pressure
able and willing to follow instructions
*As per slide, facilitator can comment on the relevance of the skill, personality type, interests and how they link to the job.
Example: not having allergies is essential to do hairdressing job, good communication skills is essential to be able to understand the customer and clarify the design and colour to be done. Patience is critical, as the job you can’t be rushing and you maybe faced with difficult customers.
Some jobs require more physical movements than others which you need to consider. Some jobs require more emotional involvement than others.
However, as humans we grow in our thinking, resilience and personality so these are not always set for us. Through time and experiences we may start liking some new things, and enjoy new hobbies etc.
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