Weaving the web: Online career planning for tertiary students

This poster presentation outlines the framework of a career planning and generic skills online tool designed to engage Public Health students in planning their university studies to enhance graduate employment prospects. Currently, this online tool has been designed to cater for Health Promotion and Environmental Health students, but it provides a framework for expansion into other Public Health employment opportunities, such as Addiction Studies or Occupational Health and Safety. The model can easily be expanded to faculty or university-wide applications.

This online study and career planning tool will enable students to consider:

• the range of occupational groupings that employ public health graduates;
• employers who recruit public health graduates;
• actual job descriptions and selection criteria they will need to address to be competitive graduates; and
• a range of recruitment and employment patterns including contract positions, tendering options, and non-government or private practice positions along with traditional forms of employment.

The online tool encourages students to view their employment search as part of a lifelong learning process. It will enable students to manage their employment direction depending on their area of interest. They can choose to be flexible, aiming at a wide range of employment clusters, or target a specific field of employment and they can prepare themselves for a range of employment patterns and opportunities. Please come to see this poster and lift the lid (you'll see what we mean) on online career education. Keywords: