Education planning focuses on identifying the education and skills needed to move in your initially chosen direction. It involves considering how to obtain the education and experience needed to enter and thrive in your chosen career — including both formal and informal learning opportunities. Ideally this process will enable you to specify what kind of experiences you need and how you will acquire them. For resources related to education planning, see the Further Education section. Also note that Further Education appointments and workshops are also available.

The purpose here is to consider how to identify and secure a co-op, part-time, or summer job relevant to your career. The process will involve learning: how to identify employers able to offer career relevant experiences, and the strategies and tactics that will help secure employment with one of these employers. CareerHub content on how to find work (inside Canada or outside Canada) addresses these matters. Work search appointments and workshops are also available through the Centre for Career Action for applying such methods to your own situation. (Visit the “Appointments/Workshops” link in the main course navigation bar for more information.)

This planning stage delves into how you will apply what you’ve just learned about effective work search strategies and tactics to your own situation. It will involve mapping out how and when you will identify employers who are able to offer you the best career opportunities, plus a strategy to secure employment with one of those employers. See the find work (inside Canada or outside Canada) pages and Self-marketing section, or make use of Work search appointments to investigate this further.

It is important to identify at least one alternate position for employment. Planning this out means identifying alternate employers who would offer equivalent career and learning opportunities, as well as preliminary strategies to secure employment with one of these employers. This type of planning is recommended if job security is valuable to you. The Decision-making section, plus Career Development appointments and workshops, are resources available to engage in this process.

This last planning process can prepare you for securing your first, or next, promotion. It involves identifying the requirements necessary for your promotion and describing: how you will meet those requirements, how you will build your personal brand, and how you will make sure that your accomplishments are appreciated by those you report to. Your planning will be deficient if all it generates is a plan to “work hard” and “gain experience”. Consult the “Success at work” section for further discussion on this topic.