You will be able to learn the stages of career development in this article. It’s becoming extremely important for more contents on career development to be published for the public to learn the process. This article will try to begin the process of educating the public on this topic.
As a professional, you will need to understand the path you have to take to accomplish your personal and career development goals. Learning this path will go a long way to fast-track your growth and development. In this article, you will learn all that can help your career development and planning.
What is career development?
Career development is the lifetime process of organizing learning, career changes, work, promotions and leisure in order to advance steadily towards a determined and ever-changing future.
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Sections of career development
There are three basic sections for career development and they are as follows:
- Educational development: This is the process of selecting a career subject that you will undertake, usually, in an educational institution. There are career counselors in these educational institutions to help students with the process of their educational development.
- Organizational development: This is the process where individuals manage and organize their careers within an organization or from one organization to another. It also involves how organizations put structures in place for the progress of the careers of their members of staff.
- Personal development: This is the whole process that shapes the lifetime psychological, physical, educational and behavioral patterns of individuals around their career development. It shows the individual’s patterns creation strategies, methods of taking career decisions and expression of values.
Why is career development important?
Career development is a very important aspect of an individual’s life because it takes place throughout the entire life of the individual. There are many reasons why career development is important and they are as follows:
- It helps an individual to find a steady path that can be followed to achieve a future educational or professional goal
- It helps employees to have a good assessment of how they work and find ways to improve their capabilities or professional skills
- It helps organizations who have a career development program in place for their employees to keep their best staff
- It helps organizations to satisfy both the professional and educational goals of their employees
- It helps employees to figure out the types of companies and organizations they can apply to for employment
- It helps employees to understand the time to seek employment in another organization
- It helps employees to determine the necessity to advance their educational qualifications
- It helps employees to determine the types of professional certification they must acquire to advance their careers
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What is the process of career development?
Career development has a process of achieving it throughout a person’s lifetime. The following are the process of career development:
- The natural beginning of career development
- Get the required educational training
- Get involved in career advancement
- Career change
- Get advice from career counselors
- The natural beginning of career development
Career development usually has a natural beginning for most people especially at the early stage when a child begins to observe one professional or the other making a living. The child may also decide to choose a career path at this early stage.
- Get the required educational training
Getting the required education and training is usually the next step in this process. For most professions, there are educational requirements that must be accomplished to work in that field. You should be able to find out if you are ready to commit to the duration and rigors of the educational requirements.
Usually, the educational requirements would show the following requirements to work in the field:
- Entry-level requirements
- Post-secondary certificate requirements
- The required certification
- Professional license requirements
- Other formal or informal training needed
- Get involved in career advancement
Career development also involves the career advancement process individuals undertake usually through their work lives. Usually, this involves moving from an entry-level position within a profession (or different professions) to management level.
Advancing your career will always require additional training, acquiring a higher degree or getting certified or obtaining a professional license. It also involves having a good number of years of experience working in that field.
- Career change
The career development process also includes careers or jobs change at one point or the other in a work-life. You need to be adequately informed before you make a decision to change career. The following are some of the things to consider before making a career change:
- You need to understand the reasons for the change. You need to take a firm decision whether you actually need the change
- You need to carry out a self-assessment of yourself to determine your skills, interests, values and personality to understand the career that suits you
- Choose the most appropriate and the most appealing occupations among the ones you discovered after carrying out a self-assessment on yourself
- Check out the educational and training requirements for the occupation
- Get trained for the new career you have chosen. You should also check if you have some transferable skills or qualifications you can take into the new career
- Set goals and put in the actions and efforts to make the change in career
- Get advice from career counselors
Most individuals go through the process of career development without receiving any help from an expert. However, it is always important to seek the professional assistance of career counselors or other trained professionals of their likes. Sometimes, the need to get professional advice may be necessary right from the days in high school and all through the period of adulthood.
The following are some of the professional help that career counselors can offer you:
- They can help you to choose a career
- They help you to make an informed decision when changing a career
- They help you to understand how to re-enter the workforce
- They assist you in the process of searching for jobs
- They can also be of assistance when you are trying to recover from a job loss
- They get you informed of trends in the labor market
- They can help you do a thorough assessment of your values, skills and interests
- They can also help you to sharpen your skills
- They can assist you to understand how to rise through the corporate world
