2017 Excellence in Career Development Practice (Organisation) Winner - USQ

The University of Southern Queensland’s (USQ) Career Development team has been announced the winner of CDAA’s 2017 Excellence in Career Development Practice (Organisation) Award.

The university’s career team was recognised for the delivery of its Making Career Choices Project (MCC) with judges naming it “innovative” and “genuine big-picture thinking”.

USQ’s Manager of Career Development Tessa McCredie accepted the award on behalf of the university at the 2017 CDAA Excellence Awards Dinner at the Pullman in Brisbane.

Tessa said she was “proud of the commitment USQ has to career development, particularly in working with individuals from Aboriginal or Torres Straight Island Communities, non-English speaking backgrounds and from low socio-economic backgrounds”.

“This is a real testament to the social justice agenda of USQ and to the investment in career development at the university.”

As part of the project, the team has developed strong partnerships with their local communities to provide a career outreach service.

The practitioners then assist individuals to develop career decision making skills in order to make informed study and work decisions.

Tessa said her team could not have been successful without the support of their industry colleagues.

“The collegial nature of our profession is outstanding – be they university career staff or other practitioners in the industry,” she said.

“There are many other universities operating within the widening participation space and without the sharing of evidence and best practice, USQ could not have achieved this award for excellence.”

Despite the success of the project, the team continues to be challenged by the insecurity of their funding.

“The biggest challenge remains the soft funding of this program, which results in uncertainty at the end of the 12-month funding cycle,” Ms McCredie said.

“Working in communities requires the building of long term relationship, which can be damaged if projects move in and out of community spaces.”

However, they continue to strive for excellence to ensure the project has “outstanding features and qualities”.

“I think the fusing of career development, community development and the geographic reach of the project is outstanding,” Ms McCredie said.

“Participation in the project reaches from Ipswich, Springfield to Toowoomba, the Southern and Western Downs and all the way to Cunnamulla”.

To achieve excellence, Tessa said they also regularly collect data, complete analysis and have discussions about the data to inform future practice.

“These conversations are regularly occurring in the project team to ensure we are not only measuring and reporting the impact, but delivering the needs of the communities.”