Level 6 Career Development Professional

 Career Development Professionals are typically found in educational settings, training organisations, careers and employment services and human resource/learning and development departments in both the public and the private sector.

The broad purpose of the occupation is to assist individuals and/or organisations before or during career transitions to develop long and short term career strategies. Transitions could include from learning to work, returning to the labour market, returning to learning, sector/organisation/management change, redundancy and pre-retirement choices. 

As part of the apprenticeship, learners will complete the Level 6 OCR Diploma in Career Guidance and Development, a nationally recognised qualification that develops the knowledge and practical skills required to deliver impartial careers information, advice and guidance. The diploma covers areas such as career development theory, guidance practice, equality and diversity, working with individuals and groups, labour market information and professional practice.

Duty 1 Reflect critically on their career development practice and service delivery, evaluating it against relevant theories, models, research and appropriate professional ethical standards in order to facilitate continuing professional development and ongoing service improvement

Duty 2 Collaborate with colleagues, internal and external stakeholders, employers and other service providers to negotiate, design, develop, organise and evaluate programmes of activities that equip clients with the career management skills, knowledge and resources they need for their career development 

Duty 3 Prioritise and manage workloads, making effective use of management information systems and wider technology 

Duty 4 Motivate and equip clients to identify their short-term and long-term career development objectives and to develop plans to make progress in those objectives 

Duty 5 Enable clients to assess their strengths, values, beliefs, situation and preferences, and to connect them to the requirements and rewards of opportunities within the education system and the labour market, inclusive of training, voluntary work and self-employment. 

Duty 6 Design, plan, deliver and evaluate career-related learning activities using pedagogical approaches appropriate to the clients’ educational level and the organisational context 

Duty 7 Prepare, conduct and evaluate structured career development interactions with clients using career counselling, guidance, coaching and advice work approaches appropriate to the clients’ needs and the organisational context 

Duty 8 Research, assess, organise, interpret and disseminate careers-related and service delivery information, including labour market information (LMI) to meet the needs of clients, colleagues and other stakeholders 

Duty 9 Promote informed engagement with the career development service offer and enable clients to access wider career development and other support services 

Level 6 Career Development Professional Standard

Level 6 OCR Diploma in Career Guidance and Development

• Professional Discussion:  This assessment will take the form of a professional discussion, which must be appropriately structured to draw out the best of the apprentice’s competence and excellence and cover the KSBs assigned to this assessment method. It will involve questions that will focus on coverage of prior learning activities and problem solving. 

• Written Assignment - Career Learning:  The work-based career-related learning project is compiled after the apprentice has gone through the  EPA Gateway and a project report will be produced that constitutes the written assignment.   

Typically 24 months