Employment, education, and overall career decision making support in rural and regional Australia is crucial to the building of strong and sustainable local communities, economies, and wellbeing. Career development enables people to understand and develop their skills and experience, strengthen their adaptability in planning career goals and manage challenges, identify opportunities, and make informed career decisions.

Job seeking, career transitions, business development, volunteering, education, and personal commitments are all unique considerations for a person. Socio-economic, cultural, environmental, and geographic factors of an individual town or community must also be considered.

Contextualised and holistic career development support that considers, understands, and provides for the needs of an individual community and its members is essential in the development and delivery to rural and regional Australia. Via case studies, this presentation will discuss narrative and demographic techniques in the development of evidence-based career support services for various regional and rural cohorts.

Presenter

Dr Jennifer Luke - Research Fellow (Wellbeing & Employability), Southern Queensland & Northern New South Wales (SQNNSW) Innovation Hub, University of Southern Queensland