Career Development Professional

Career Development Professional

On a career development professional apprenticeship course, you’ll help assist individuals and organisations with career strategies.

A career development specialist assists individuals and organisations in building long- and short-term career strategies during times of significant transition, such as redundancy and pre-retirement.

You’ll help people examine their strengths, values, beliefs, and situations and relate them to the labour market and educational system.

You’ll collaborate with clients with various needs and stages of career awareness, as well as training providers, schools, colleges, and universities to support choice, entry, and progression; employers to broker employment opportunities, including work experience and internships; and other support organisations, such as housing.

You’ll draw on various skills, ideas, strategies, and resources to accomplish your task.

What you’ll learn

On a career development professional apprenticeship course, you’ll learn to:

  • Set professional development targets and objectives based on self-assessment and feedback from line management, peers, and clients. Identify strategies to manage the effects of change on self and develop a positive mental attitude based on self-assessment and feedback from line management, peers, and clients.
  • Organise and implement activities with clearly defined and measurable learning outcomes, combining suitable resources, client-focused methodologies, and approaches to best meet the needs of individuals and enable them to participate in their professional development fully.
  • Analyse and compare the organisation’s key career-related educational models, evaluate activities connected to predetermined objectives, and make plans to improve them and their performance.
  • Choose theory, concepts, and effective practice relevant to the function and client base, adapt them, and employ them.
  • Provide critical insight into the modern workplace and educational environment, as well as an analysis of the consequences for customers.
  • Discuss and describe the client’s expectations and the aim, objective, and scope of the career development activities with the client.
  • Develop and maintain strong and effective workplace relationships, and resolve conflicts constructively that do not jeopardise trust.
  • Engage and maintain relationships with employers and opportunity providers, either individually or as part of organisational networks.
  • Adapt activities and collaborate with other experts to ensure they assist and do not discriminate against clients with special needs or those in vulnerable situations.
  • Provide a fair and balanced service while keeping personal well-being, and prioritise all clients’ and workloads’ demands.
  • Results should be documented and analysed so that success and failure may be tracked and shared.
  • Maintain accurate client interaction records so you can explain how they can be utilised to help clients make adjustments and meet organisational monitoring requirements.
  • Use information technology and web-based technologies to promote career development activities with confidence (digital literacy)
  • Prioritise clients’ needs and provide ongoing support through various interventions and media.
  • Raise client awareness of options and broaden their horizons by introducing them to new ideas and information sources they are unfamiliar with, challenge and assist them in reframing their thinking and promote career adaptability.
  • Apply knowledge and understanding of theories, models, frameworks, and pedagogic approaches to encourage the development of an individual’s career management abilities.
  • Understand and effectively use occupational data and labour market statistics at the local, regional, national, and global levels and their relationship to societal changes such as technology advancements, policymaking, and potential bias or partiality.
  • Give people the tools they need to effectively use technology in their career management (digital literacy)
  • Understand and use suitable research strategies for gathering, interpreting, and customising information to meet the needs of clients and others, including the use of primary and secondary sources, as well as information technologies like social media and web-based information sources.

Entry requirements

There are no set entry requirements, but it may help if you have:

  • Two or more GCSEs at grades 9 to 4 (A* to C), or equivalent, including English and maths, for a degree apprenticeship 
  • Apprentices without level 2 English and maths will need to achieve this before taking the end-point assessment.

Assessment methods

The End Point Assessment comprises two distinct assessment methods: 

  • Professional discussion underpinned by a portfolio 
  • Project – written assignment

Restrictions and requirements

You’ll need to:

Duration, level, subjects and potential salary upon completion

  • Duration: 24 months
  • Level: 6 – Degree Apprenticeship
  • Relevant school subjects: Business studies
  • Potential salary upon completion: £22,000 per annum

Apprenticeship standard

More information about the Level 6 Career Development Professional Apprenticeship standard can be found here.

Apprenticeship end point assessment

For more information about the End Point Assessment Process, please read the Institute of Apprenticeships’ information page.

Updated on January 17, 2024

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