Course Decisions Activities (docx 68KB)
Whether you're transitioning from school or TAFE, upskilling, returning to study or re-thinking your course selection as a current university student, choosing the right course for you can seem like an impossible task.
This unit is designed to build on your findings from the Self Understanding module by further exploring, step by step, the course and career ideas that were generated, to help you make an informed choice about which course to choose.
This unit has been designed to help you explore the options that are available to you now based upon the knowledge, skills and interests that you currently have. The choice you make as a result of this process does not lock you in for life, contrary to what you may have been told by parents, teachers or significant others. You are allowed to change your mind if you realise that you have made the wrong decision, many people do!
Did you know that more than 30% of students change their course because they weren't clear about what they really wanted to study! We want any decision that you make to be an informed one.
Don't worry, you don't need to do all of this on your own. Your course is designed to equip you with some of these skills and there are many support structures available through the Career Development and Employment service to help you develop a good package in addition to the skills and opportunities you create for yourself.
In order to explore our course and career interests we need to reflect on who we are and where our interests lie. From here we can explore these interest ideas further, whilst being mindful of who we are - our skills, temperament, personal style, influences and goals.
When it comes to making career and course choices there are no golden rules. As we learnt in the Self Understanding module there are many influences in our lives that shape our interests. For this reason our individual course choice journey may start from a number of points, everyone is different and there is no right or wrong way to start your research process. For example:
It is important to capture these interests and then explore how they may translate into a career plan. If you are interested in Science, for example, and find a course that is of interest to you it is also important to understand what the potential career outcomes may be on graduation. Questions to ask yourself could be:
By reflecting on what you have learnt about yourself in the self awareness phase you can assess how well these options match your interests, values and personality.
Before you start the activity below, you may want to complete one of the following self assessment activities. These build on your findings from the Self Understanding module.
Remember, exploring more than one research option can give you an even deeper understanding into a particular course if you need it.
At this stage of the module you should have a few ideas regarding some of the occupations that are of interest to you. If you are still struggling to generate ideas, the following websites are designed to help you make connections between your subject interests and career outcomes:
You don't need to decide on a specific occupation, rather, you should have an idea of the breadth of opportunities that relate to the course you would like to do. If you start a degree, you'll be looking at a minimum of 3 years before you graduate. In that time there will be jobs created that don't currently exist, so it is good to think about the big picture, be open minded and think of the technical (job specific e.g. IT programming) and personal (e.g. communication or analytical) skills that you may like to develop and use in your career.
You may already have ideas about the kind of industry that you want to work in. If this is linked to a particular occupation, the Further Information section of Myfuture - The Facts will supply you with a list of professional associations, advisory bodies and relevant government departments (you will need to search for a specific occupation to get to this). Industry lists are also available from: Myfuture - Occupations by Industry and Graduate Opportunities - Industries.
You can also go directly to the website of employers that you know of in that industry, or use LinkedIn to search by occupation title for relevant professional associations, employers, and career paths.
1. Think of the variety of employment opportunities!
The Department of Health and Human Services website provides a list of careers, from Medical Engineers to Human Resources staff.
2. Compare and contrast
Look at a range of health service providers such as public and private hospitals, allied health providers, the defence force etc.
3. Consider other Industries
Where do people need health care? This may link back to your interests - sport, aid agencies or even Everest base camp!
Don't underestimate the power of Google in this exercise!
If you have a specific interest in a particular employer, have a look at their website, their LinkedIn page, or Google them and see what you discover. If you are unsure of which employers are in the field of interest to you, the following websites list those employers who pro-actively recruit university graduates:
There are numerous recruitment sites available online. Have a look at sites such as:
Other sources of vacancies include newspapers, employer and recruitment agency websites, LinkedIn, and some professional/industry journals. By looking at 10-15 current job advertisements for the occupations that are of interest to you, you will soon gain insight into what skills and qualifications employers are looking for. For example, if you find that ANZ, Caltex and Woolworths employ HR professionals then their competitors most likely will too.
You may want to locate an employer with specific morals and goals, for example, one that is environmentally sustainable or has diversity values and policies. Such information can also be accessed through the web. The following sites are examples of this:
Australian Jobs is an annual government publication that provides national and state level information on labour market trends, detailing such things as Skills Shortage professions, industry profiles, along with a job prospects matrix.
Throughout the year there are a number of Advisory and Open Days that are useful to attend to help with your research. These include, but are not limited to:
Once you've done your research, it's good to test that information with real people in the job. Why not compile a list of questions based on your research and find someone who may be able to answer these questions. How do you do that I hear you ask? Think about:
Most employers are keen to see relevant real world experience on a resume. Through the extensive research that you have just completed, you may have a few ideas about where you'd like to gain a few days experience. If not, ask friends and family for help locating someone who works in the industry you want to try, or see your education provider to see if they can help. If you're currently in education, ask your provider about insurance cover to do this.
OK, so you've worked through all of the activities. There's probably a few things that you now need to do before you complete your UTAS admissions application and make a successful transition into University. It is a good idea to write these down.
So, what do you now need to do to achieve your goal?
| Plan A: | Your first choice of degree and career path |
|---|---|
| Plan B: | An alternative pathway to achieve ultimate career goals |
| Action required: | What you need to do / the additional information you need to find / people you need to talk to. |
| Short term goal: | What you need to accomplish your UTAS application |
| Medium term goal: | What you need to accomplish by the end of week 3 at uni |
| Long term goal: | What you need to accomplish before graduation |
Now that you've worked through this module and have completed your action plan activities, it's time to make a decision. Review the decision making checklist below:
Yes! For guidelines on completing your UTAS application visit UTAS Admissions guide.
Have you thoroughly researched your options and completed all sections of this module? If not then you are going to find making a decision difficult, you need to make an INFORMED choice and this will take time - there are no short cuts!
If you've done all your research and are still struggling then you probably need to make a call, remember its not a decision for life, you can change your mind so why not choose the course that suits your self assessment profile the best and give it a go?
If you really can't decide then make an appointment with a career counsellor to discuss your options.
Building Your Future is adapted from the Career Development Program of the Queensland University of Technology. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 Australia License.