Career options
A career is the total of paid or unpaid work, learning and life roles you do throughout your life. There are many pathways you can take and choices you can make.
These could include:
If you are not thinking about a career, or are looking for something to balance your work life there are also other options such as cultural activities, community involvement, sports and personal interests. Clubs, charities and religious organisations may help you to access these options.
There are some organisations and programs that specifically help people with disabilities to find jobs. The Australian Department of Families and Community Services offers some employment services for people with disabilities.
Find out more about the Department of Families and Community Services disability employment services.
Commonwealth Carelink Centres also provide some useful employment services.
To view a list of employment services choose:
- 'Services for you or someone you know', then
- 'quick find'.
- Do a search for - Service Type: Disability Services, Service Sub-type: Disability - Employment Support.
Training
If you need certain skills to go into a job, or want to find out if you will like a particular job, you can develop your skills though training.
There are a range of options including prevocational training, apprenticeships or traineeships, further study at TAFE or training and education through a private training provider. Training may be:
- on-the-job: this is planned training at work, when you have specific things to learn for you to do your job and your skills and level of ability are tested while you are at work
- off-the job: this training happens outside work and sometimes outside work hours with testing done using activities, research and set projects
- informal: someone shows you what to do with no formal testing of what you have learned.
Education
Education is a life-long learning process that may happen formally at pre-schools, primary and secondary schools, TAFE institutes, private training providers or community organisations, or accredited higher education institutions like universities.
Education may also be informal, through attending workshops and seminars, leisure courses or conferences, or it may be self-directed, or through a government program. These may not provide formal testing or recognised qualifications.
Learning does not stop once you finish training in a particular area, or after you leave a planned education system like school. You continue to learn all your life, through work, and community involvement and general life experience.
Employment
Employment is more than a nine to five job. It could be full-time, but there are also part-time or casual options. There are many different ways to work from short-term contracts to shift work.
The next step is to find the job. You need to know where to look, how to apply for a job and how to go for an interview. While at school or after school you can get an apprenticeship or traineeship, do come volunteer work, get some unpaid work experience or look for paid work. There are many Government programs to help you to find a job and get financial help.
Volunteer work
Volunteers choose to work without being paid for the good of their community. People volunteer for many reasons, for example to share skills and interests, learn new skills, look for a challenge, make new friends or just to have fun. Contact your local volunteer organisation to find out about becoming a volunteer. Find out more about becoming a volunteer in Queensland.
Work experience
Work experience is unpaid work for a short time. You might do work experience to find out about a job, or get experience to help you get a job. It provides good information about the world of work in a planned, supervised, hands-on way. You gain confidence and show an employer your skills and abilities, who may then be able to provide a reference. You will need to organize work experience through your school, or training provider or family.
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