Category: Career Professionals

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How I do career counselling – using the Double Diamond Strategy

How I do career counselling

I use a double-diamond strategy when I do career counselling.

Define the Problem

The “problem” can be a general one, like “what to do next”.

 

Part 1 Research

The research part is information gathering. 

  • I ask about their favourite subjects and results. I write it down on paper. I don’t use a computer during the session.

  • The student identifies a few significant people in their network, parents, aunts and uncles, family friends, and what they do.  Students are likely to choose a career that they know something about. 

  • We then get down to identifying values. Use your favourite tools. You must unearth what is important to the students. I use coloured pens and fluro coloured paper and do the activities that I outline in the In Focus Careers Year 10 Magic Happens Handbook. There are lots of tools around. Find what works for you

Problem Definition

Based on all the information we have talked about, we then narrow it down so that we can define the problem more specifically.

For example:

I want a job where I can do sport and help people and use the skills I learned in my media class.

 Break

We go for a walk. We will be tired after that concentrated talk. 

There is no contrived agenda during the walk. We just relax, but often the student will reveal information that helps me to identify solutions. 

Part 2 Solution Design

This part is easier. I bring up the Careers Bullseyes or Career Ladders on my computer.

Careers Bullseyes from My Future
Careers Bullseyes from My Future
Career Ladders from The Good Careers Guide

The student identifies careers that match the priorities we identified during the research.

I have recently discovered the A-Z Guide of Apprenticeships and Traineeships. I will also use that in future to broaden the options that we explore.  

A-Z of Apprenticeships and Traineeships

The discussion that follows is about opportunities generated from my knowledge of courses, employment and networks that could support the student’s goal.

We then narrow down the opportunities to a specific goal: 

To find a media course that would help me work in the disabled sport industry. 

At the end of the session, I undertake to get their personal career plan to them that day. They commit to doing at least two of the actions within a few days. 

Follow-up Plan

  • As soon as the student leaves, I write up a project plan with 3 separate goals and 3 or 4 associated actions that work towards each goal.  The plan is about 4  pages long. 

  • I send that to the student. They can contact me any time. Many do as they are motivated and happy to be getting somewhere.

  • I continue to encourage and support and nag and deliver suggestions until the student achieves a direction that they are happy with. 

Hope that helps.

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Bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au

M:0434056412

Bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au
Bev.J@infocus-careers.com.au 
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Sneek Preview to New City ECU Campus from a non ECU visitor

I was one of a small group of visitors invited to an early inspection of the new ECU City Campus.

It was a tour of a building site. We had to wear PPE. There is plastic protecting the carpet and cardboard taped up to protect some of the walls in high traffic areas. Workers were everywhere and tradies’ boomboxes blared from each floor.

Overall impression

So much thought has gone into this building. It is actually two buildings, joined by gangways in middle floors and the two buildings become one at the top. It reminded me of Boola Bardip. Lots of open space and connectivity. It seems to soar up and it feels spacious.

What’s missing:

  • Coffee Shops: It may seem trivial, but there are no coffee shops in the building. Students wanting coffee will be forced to go out of the building to interact with people in the city.

  • No big theatre: There is no big theatre. The Heath Ledge Theatre is only a few hundred metres away and it is envisaged that students will graduate from the smaller ECU studios into the big public theatres.

  • No Parking: There is no parking at the campus. Public transport is the obvious way to get there. You come out of the Perth City Bus Port just metres from the front door. The Perth train station is across Yagan Square, a couple of hundred metres away.

What’s there:

  • Bespoke Design The building has been designed for teaching. The theatres are designed so that lighting students or sound students or creative students are the clients, rather than an audience. Expert lecturers and students from ECU and Boorloo custodians were involved throughout the design process.  The final colours inside are going to reflect the colours of West Australian wildflowers.

  • Dance Studio Floor The floors in the four dance studios are the best they could find from anywhere in the world. They were designed in England as were the sound panels on the ceiling of the double height rooms.

  • Sound. Light. Action The best architects have consulted with the best creative practitioners to ensure the sound, lighting, theatrical teaching opportunities are the best in the world.

  • Built on springs The building is vulnerable to vibration because it is built over the train line and bus station. It has been engineered to sit on a spring foundation like that used in earthquake zones. This will be a particular advantage for the high tech equipment in the building.

  • Top floor services There is no room under the building for services, so they have been located in the top floors. This seems weird, but if they had been located on lower floors they would have disrupted the flow from one section to the next, which is a feature of the building.

Design

It feels like Boola Bardip. There are lots of open spaces and many hubs where you can sit and study. There are two main buildings connected with walkways on the lower floors and joined together at the top.

  • Orientation: The creatives face Northbridge. Business, law and cyber security are on the city side.

  • The entrance: The foyer off Yagan Square welcomes you with beautiful wooden bleacher like seating for public and students. An escalator to rival that in Boola Bardip draws you up into the building. The entrance ceiling is 40 metres high (don’t hold me to that) and to your left is an LED wall where students’ work will be showcased.

  • Ground floor gallery. There is an art gallery on the ground floor where student art will be displayed. This is a proper gallery, open to the public. You can see into it from Yagan Square.

  • Piano Museum In homage to the role pianos have played in early white settlement of Western Australia, there will be a museum of old pianos on the ground floor.

  • Theatres: There are three theatres, all with outstanding sound proofing. The recital hall impressed me most with its beautiful wooden sound proofed and acoustically perfect walls and crafted wooden ceiling. The theatres are small with the layout focusing on teaching. The playhouse theatre has tiered seating, which will be perfect for productions for a small audience.

Learning Spaces

The library area is still a work in progress, so it was difficult to understand what it will look like. There are many open study zones throughout the building. The traditional lecture rooms are high tech, as would be expected in a future looking learning space.

Logistics

  • The building is handed over to ECU on 19 December and staff will move in over the Christmas break.

  • WAAPA courses, Business and Law, Science including some IT, and Arts and Humanities will be based at the City Campus.

  • Education will move from Mt Lawley to the Joondalup campus.

  • There will be 1000 staff working from there and the building has the capacity to support 9000 students.

  • The campus will commence operations at the start of the 2026 academic year.

There are no WAAPA Summer School classes. 

Thanks to those who invited me. It is going to be amazing!!

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Career Decision Making Flowchart

Ty Jones from Mid West Jobs and Skills Centre created this Career Decision Making Flowchart.

He created it after an online Career Development Association of Australia conversation in which WA President, Rebecca Herbertson, asked if anyone had such a model.

Ty went ahead and created this one. Thanks for sharing Ty. 

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