The Career Development and Education Network (CDEN) provides support to school leaders and teachers to build a strategic approach to Career Development and Education across middle and senior schooling. Current theories and frameworks in Career Development and Education are studied in line with the school’s self-assessment and school priorities. A focus will also be on the General Capabilities and the CESA Living, Learning, Leading Framework as a means for ensuring students have a range of skills and dispositions to be active citizens in future learning, work, community and personal life.

Danielle Cavanagh, ACARA, presented the National Career Education Strategy, and the project target to raise awareness among teachers and school leaders of the importance of high-quality career education. A target is also to develop resources that support both school leaders and teachers to use the Australian Curriculum: General Capabilities to provide quality career education and build the employment readiness of their students.

Louise Johnson, SACE Board, provided a background to the Capabilities, their transferability to Employability skills and how they can be used to drive the learning; mapping, recording and assessing the capabilities; innovation & enterprise and link to 21st Century Skills. Schools were encouraged to see where the Capabilities could become more visible in the curriculum and what the assessment could look like.

The schools in the CDEN Network will continue their research and framework projects for the remainder of the school year.