The Career and Enterprise General course engages students in learning about developing their career in a constantly changing digital and globalised world. Careers are now considered to be about work, learning and life. Individuals need to be proactive, enterprising career managers who engage in lifelong learning. The Career and Enterprise General course aims to provide students with the knowledge, skills and understanding to enable them to be enterprising and to proactively manage their own careers.

View Syllabus on School Curriculum and Standards Authority Website

Year 11

Unit 1 – Exploring work and networks

The focus of this unit is exploring work and networks. Students develop an understanding of aspects of work, such as part‐time, full‐time, flexi hours, volunteer work and unemployment. They learn that positive self-esteem and self‐management are required to access work opportunities and acquire skills to build careers. Students learn the basic organisation and roles associated with different workplace structures, and develop awareness that employment is connected with responsibility for themself and others.

Unit 2 – Attributes and skills for employment

The focus of this unit is entry‐level work readiness. Students explore the attributes and skills necessary for employment, and identify their personal strengths and interests, and the impact these have on career development opportunities and decisions. The unit investigates how influences and trends impact on personal career development opportunities.

Year 12

Unit 3 – Security and maintaining work

This unit focuses on adopting a proactive approach to securing and maintaining work. It involves self‐management, using work search tools and techniques, developing career competencies, and accessing learning opportunities which are essential for career building. An assessment is made of the multidimensional operation and organisation of workplaces. The legal, ethical and financial considerations underpinning corporate and individual rights and responsibilities and the resolution of conflict are examined. An exploration is made of the implications of organisational reviews due to influences and trends, and how they impact on individual opportunities to secure and maintain work.

Unit 4 – Issues associated with career management, workplaces and influences and trends

This unit explores issues associated with career management, workplaces and influences and trends in times of change. Change can be analysed and the information used to inform strategies associated with self‐management, career building and personal and professional learning experiences. This unit investigates the dynamic nature of the interrelationships between these strategies. An examination of the complexity of workplace operations and management of resources is used to understand productivity, achievement of industry standards and compliance with legal, ethical and financial considerations.