GCCA | Graduate Careers Council of Australia

Graduate Careers Australia

Graduate Grapevine - Number 10, Autumn 2008

National Career Development Week, Back for 2008!

National Career Development Week (NCDW), now in its second year, is connecting more people to the skills they need to manage their career and life. 2008 will see events taking place right across Australia, leading up to a week of national celebrations from 2-8 June.

Funded by the Federal Government Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations (DEEWR), NCDW is an initiative of the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA).

NCDW aims to promote awareness of career development and to encourage all Australians to develop the skills to manage their careers, learning, work and lives in order to get the life they love.

“Life is not a dress rehearsal”, says Jim Bright, Professor of Career Education and Development at ACU National, a Partner at Bright and Associates and a NCDW Champion.

“Maybe NCDW can be the time to get the life you love, and where you start actively engaging in getting a career before a career gets you.”

Following on from the highly successful inaugural NCDW in 2007 with over 300 registered events, Channel 7 Sunrise appearances and broad media coverage in newspapers, radio and on the web, NCDW is back bigger and better in 2008.

What Does Anthony Field (‘Blue Wiggle’), Benji Marshall (Wests Tigers Five-Eighth) and the Big Red Car Have to Do With NCDW?

That was the lead story on the Channel 10 evening news on Wednesday, 20 February 2008.

To celebrate the launch of the 2008 NCDW campaign, Anthony Field swapped his trademark blue skivvy for a Wests Tigers jersey, to pursue his lifelong dream to learn rugby league skills from his idol, famous five-eighth Benji Marshall.

NCDW Campaign Champion Anthony had a huge grin on his face while saying that, as The Wiggles’ story proves, career development never really ends, even if you love what you do.

“If you’ve got an idea just go for it and, today, I’m following another dream to become a West Tiger.”

Anthony’s career has certainly taken some surprising twists – his current role with The Wiggles grew out of a university assignment while studying early childhood education.

His previous careers as a pop star with 80’s band The Cockroaches, and in the Australian army, are not the most obvious career path to Wiggles fame. Yet Anthony says he learnt some important skills in the army, playing the bagpipes and getting up early both of which serve him well while on tour with The Wiggles.

When asked at the NCDW skills event what he hoped to learn from Benji, Anthony said, “everything, I’m going to study every move,” and added that it would be “fantastic” to incorporate Benji’s famous side-step into his Wiggles dancing. Anthony said he’d also give Benji a lesson in Wiggle fingers in return, which he said would work well in a game – while waiting for the ball!

CICA President, Mike Geeves, said “career development is all about assisting Australians to take responsibility for their own career, and – as both Anthony and Benji demonstrate – to recognise that just about everything we do, planned and unplanned, can contribute to our goals and aspirations.” He added, “it’s not just about careers it’s about getting the life that you love!”

This event received national coverage with stories in both the Channel 9 and Channel 10 evening news (20 February), on Fox Sports (20 February) and stories in The Sydney Morning Herald and the Daily Telegraph (21 February). There was also an item on the Wests Tigers website and other national radio and press media picked up the story.

And this is just the start. Further activities with Anthony as well as the Campaign’s other two Celebrity Champions, Chris Bath (Channel 7 News and Dancing with the Stars) and Mark Furze (Home and Away actor) will continue in the next few months. These Celebrity Champions were selected to promote the NCDW message to different target audience groups.

NCDW Isn’t Just for Students

The messages of NCDW are for all groups in the community, including individuals, education and training providers, employers, industry associations and other relevant bodies. NCDW provides an opportunity for all careers events held throughout Australia during the year (not just during the week) to be linked to a national campaign.

There is substantial anecdotal evidence to support the benefits of career development programs to organisations and individuals. Recent research shows that an effective career development strategy is no longer a ‘nice-to-have’ initiative for employers. It has become essential to attract future employees and retain existing staff.

Career development programs have a positive correlation to the quality of working life, job satisfaction, professional development and productivity. The higher the level of satisfaction that employees have in their jobs, the higher their professional development and productivity. Management need to be committed to policies aimed to encourage employees to engage in professional development in order to enhance their productivity and staff retention.

Event Organisers

All event organisers who register their event on the NCDW website (www.ncdw.com.au ) will receive the ‘Official NCDW Event’ logo and the free Event Kit Disc which contains video hints and tips, event ideas, fact sheets and templates, designed to assist event organisers plan their events.

The NCDW website will also be of great assistance. It has an Event Search function, contains information on career development and links to career development resources in Australia, a Media Room and downloadable Free Stuff. Organisations and individuals intending to participate in NCDW will be able to share their plans with the rest of Australia by lodging details of their events on the NCDW online calendar. There may be organisations or individuals interested in joining forces with your community’s event, so make sure to check the website for other registered activities in your area.

If you’re an educator, an educational institution, a provider of career services, an employer or a voluntary or community service you are invited to get excited, get involved, organise and register your event.

More Information

Need more information? Go to www.ncdw.com.au . If you wish you can also receive regular updates about NCDW by subscribing to the e-newsletters by logging on to the website. If you have any questions send an email to Karen Penrose at [email protected] .