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Register now for CDAA’s 2010 national conference
Please join us at Australia’s premier career development conference, to be held from April 7-9 at the Hilton Adelaide.
Under the banner of “Greening Career Development”, the conference will focus on the critical issues of green jobs, skills shortages and career mobility. It will showcase the latest developments in careers practice, research and policy. Leading Australian and International practitioners will lead discussions and challenge participants to consider the new demands and opportunities for students, career changers and organisations looking to develop their workforce capacity in the context of major environmental and economic change.
The CDAA conference is the pre-eminent event for career and workforce development in Australia, and attracts 500-600 delegates annually from within Australia and internationally.
The conference will feature:
- 5 outstanding keynote sessions
- 5 internationally renowned featured speakers
- 30 workshop sessions
- Pre-conference professional development day
- Large conference exhibit
- Social program including Civic Reception, Welcome Function and Conference Dinner
- Free massages, yoga classes, guided morning walks
Early bird registration closes: February 28
Further information for sponsors and delegates can be found at: www.onqconferences.com.au/pages/CDAA2010.php
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Comment from CDAA’s national president
 Finding the right job – a key to Australia’s future productivity
The Australian economy will be better placed to face the productivity challenges associated with an expanding and ageing workforce by equipping people with the information and skills necessary to make correct career and job choices.
Governments and industry need to more directly acknowledge the benefits to the economy of having engaged workers. The positive links between worker satisfaction and their productivity is well established. A large factor in finding a satisfying job lies in the ability of people to make informed career and job choices.
One of the keys to achieving a skilled and flexible workforce is to empower individuals with the skills and attitudes needed to manage their careers. More information and commitment is needed to ensuring that all Australians have access to expert and quality career and job services. While many organisations understand the necessity and value of investing in training and development of their workforces to remain competitive and productive, others are failing to recognise the high value placed by employees and job seekers on career development. With some industries facing chronic skills shortages, the ability to attract and retain quality workers will be assisted through employer-sponsored career development. Likewise, Government-funded training and education will have more productive results if people learn how to make informed choices about the training that they undertake.
Australia faces challenges on many fronts including the retirement of baby boomers, the projected increase in taxes, greater reliance on skilled migration and the ageing population. The skills and talents of older workers need not be lost to the economy by encouraging these people to undertake positive lifestyle and career planning that will satisfy latter-life aspirations while at the same time allow for an ongoing contribution to the workforce.
At the other end of the spectrum, school students considering their first career choices need to understand better the nature of the rapidly-changing workforce and how to best equip themselves for multiple career changes throughout their lives.
The ability of individuals to make informed career choices, throughout their lifespan, is a skill more and more Australians must develop – the productivity benefits of having the right people in the right jobs (and the right training) at the right time are palpable.
Carole Brown, FCDAA
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CDAA’s Employer of the Year Award – Nominations Now Open
The CDAA Employer of the Year Awards are in recognition of the commitment employers demonstrate in implementing career development initiatives in the workplace.
There are three award categories:
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Category A:
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National industry bodies, larger corporate organisations or Government Departments
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Category B:
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Small Business – less than 100 employees
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Category C:
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Education/Training Organisations, Schools and Voluntary/ not-for-profit organisations.
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Finalists and winners in each category will be recognised by:
- A certificate of recognition and access to a uniquely numbered and endorsed logo for use for a two-year period.
- Media coverage in the Australian Career Practitioner (national magazine of CDAA), and CDAA annual conference media releases
- Prominence on the CDAA website for 12 months
- Coverage in the Australian Career Practitioner (ACP) magazine and fortnightly CDAA National Ezine
- Acknowledgement at the CDAA National Career Conference
Applications close February 26 2010
Find out more at: www.cdaa.org.au/content/employer-year-award
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Tips from our members to assist your career management programs
Julie Farthing, Principal, Career Dimensions, Melbourne, FCDAA, MCareerDev, Accred. MBTI, SII, DiSC . www.careerdimensions.com.au, 03 9696 9604
Large and small organisations are looking at new and innovative ways to be sustainable, and a significant part of this sustainability relates to effective people management. Much has been spoken and written about making the most of human resources: how to recruit the right people, how to keep them, how to create meaningful succession plans, and how to implement exit strategies when necessary.
All of the HR management methods and tools currently available are effective – to an extent - but some miss the point. Active engagement in positive, appreciative management practices is essential. This requires giving individualised attention to the people in your organisation.
Consider this case scenario: In order to decide which staff to send on the specialised training, executives at Red Company knew they needed specialised people to assist them to become innovative and a worthy competitor in their field (mobile messaging). They made a decision to identify the ‘clever kids’ who were showing promise – it was argued they would learn more quickly, which would have less impact on the training budget; it was also felt they’d be grateful for the learning opportunity and thus remain with the company for several years to come. Each line manager was asked to identify their stars, these were then rounded up and sent to an external training provider.
There are several reasons why this strategy may be ineffective, but it comes down to the fact that Red Company made a mistake in assuming that the ‘clever kids’ would be happy to remain in a technical role for ten years. It also made the mistake of expecting them to be overjoyed at the thought of more training on top of their three or four years at uni. Some were completely uninterested in further study, only wanting to experiment on real equipment and get their hands dirty. Others wanted to move into other areas, some wanted to develop fairly quickly towards supervisory roles.
Proper career development activities focused on each individual would have uncovered all of this data and prevented a lot of lost time and expense. So what did happen? By the end of the training, some had left the company, some had failed to do as well as expected and were actually beginning to perform poorly on the job, and one had asked for a sideways transfer into sales. Had they probed further before making this expensive decision, the company would have found that the clever kids had some interesting solutions to the problem that the managers in their late thirties would never have come up with.
In order to create a sustainable future for your business, department, or organisation, you MUST provide individualised career development for your staff. This does not happen via completion of a proforma, or as an outcome of a performance review interview. It requires a career conversation with a skilled professional - CDAA and its professional members can help with this in a number of ways: consulting with your leadership group, training line managers in how to conduct effective career conversations, and providing coaching and mentoring programs to individuals. Ultimately, we are here to help you provide the right kind of career development that your staff need and deserve, while also helping your organisation to achieve its goals.
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Career Development Association of Australia
CDAA is Australia’s largest association of career development professionals. Our members work in small business and private practice, education, research, employment services, human resources, rehabilitation, government and community organisations. The work of CDAA members ensures that people can build the skills they need to manage learning, work and life. We assist people across the lifespan in their career development, from early career decision-making to career transitions in adult life and later-in-life work and lifestyle choices.
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