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 (pdf) for more information.

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 Services' regional meetings
  • Contact our Careers Centre for personalised advice

Related links

  • Community Services & Health Industry Skills Council

    Community Services and Health Industry Skills Council (ISC) is central to workforce reform and innovation in the community services and health industries.

  • National Career Development Week

    National Career Development Week (NCDW) encourages Australians to take active ownership of their careers and get the life they love.

  • NSW Community Service & Health ITAB

    NSW CSH ITAB is the training and assessment information resource hub for the community services and health sectors, providing advocacy, advice, support and leadership. It's a not-for-profit association consisting of people and organisations associated with the industry.

  • NSW Department of Education and Communities

    Delivers high quality, internationally competitive public education and training from early childhood through to the compulsory years of schooling and senior secondary education.

  • State Training Services

    State Training Services manages activities and programs which address the NSW Government's policies on the state's future skills needs.

Glossary - Career development

  • Career development

    Involves the person's creation of a career pattern, decision-making style, integration of life roles, values expression, and life-role self concepts.…

  • Units of Competency

    These are the building blocks of a Training Package. Each unit covers some of the knowledge and skills that you would require to do a particular job. You can study a set of units designed to lead to a National Qualification or you can study a single relevant unit to receive a Statement of Attainment.…