Psychology @ Unisa Part V: Your career development at Unisa
You might be surprised (or perhaps overwhelmed) to learn that in addition to your academic work, you need to pay attention to your career development while studying through Unisa. There are a number of activities that you could complete to ensure that you complete your qualification and be a good prospective employee. Read more about the various activities you could participate in here.
Next section: Fields in psychology
Psychology @ Unisa Part IV: Managing your career in psychology
There is a distinction between the academic and the practitioner route in Psychology, Industrial and Organisational Psychology and Educational Psychology. The academic route allows one to pursue a professional career in research, teaching and some fields of psychological practice, excluding psychological testing, psychotherapy and counselling. The practitioner route means training as a registered counsellor, psychometrist or psychologist in order to register in one of the registration categories offered by the Professional Board for Psychology. Currently, the following categories are available: register counsellors (in various practice areas) or a registered psychologist (clinical, counselling, research, educational or industrial psychology). Provision is also made for registration as a psychometrist (independent practice).
It is important to do career research about the various options available. Poor research could lead to your having unrealistic expectations of what a career in psychology entails. Thorough research in terms of career options would enable you to broaden your knowledge about alternative careers should you not be selected for, or not wish to continue with postgraduate studies in psychology.
Many people believe that a degree will lead directly to a career specifically related to the major(s)/ specialisations for that degree. The fact is that degrees do lead to careers, but that the relationship between the major(s)/ specialisation you choose and the career you build for yourself is complex. Many graduates follow careers that are seemingly not related to their chosen major(s)/ specialisations. There are various career management techniques that will assist you with managing your career in psychology.
Start with a career management portfolio
Your career management portfolio could help you keep track of the information that you need to gather in order to manage your career. It could include information about yourself, about job opportunities, occupational information and about the different fields in psychology.
Volunteer work
As a volunteer, your studies in Psychology will come alive and you will be enriched and in a position to build up an important network of people who could comment on your professional abilities. Volunteers normally work under the supervision of psychologists and social workers. Organisations making use of volunteer counsellors include Lifeline (counselling); Nicro, Childline and Rape Crisis (abused women and children); Alcoholics Anonymous (addictions); Hospice Association of SA and St Luke’s Hospice (death and dying); FAMSA and ACVV (relationships/family counselling); ATICC and AIDS Helpline (HIV/AIDS) and Triangle Health Care Project (sexuality).
If you are interested in applying for a professional Master’s degree (or for an Honours degree at another university), you will need to provide referee reports. Unisa students who volunteer have opportunities to network with professionals in the field of psychology who would be able to comment on their suitability to be selected for training.
Choose your volunteering opportunities to suit your interests and the skills you still want to develop. Treat your volunteering as any other job experience and ensure that you act professionally all the time – you are building your professional image and how you act will influence how other people perceive you and your skills and the type of recommendations they would be willing to give you.
Note that being trained as a volunteer counsellor, without professional psychological qualifications, does not qualify you to be a professional counsellor or psychologist or to practise independently. Check which volunteer organisations are active in the area where you live. The Department of Social Development has a complete list of non-profit organisations in each province available on their website at http://www.dsd.gov.za/npo/.
Unisa’s Directorate for Counselling, Career and Academic Development runs a peer help programme that trains students to help other students think through and reflect on problems that they might be experiencing. Each regional campus of Unisa trains approximately 8-16 peer helpers annually. Once trained, peer helpers volunteer their services at the counselling office, complete a career portfolio and participate in outreach programmes to different communities.
Investigate volunteer opportunities in your area and field of interest on the GreaterGoodSA website at http://www.myggsa.co.za/.
Research opportunities in Psychology
Investigate the likely possibilities related to your chosen degree by making use of Career Resource Centres, the Internet and informational interviewing. Include your reflections on the information that you find in your career management portfolio.
Develop your transferable skills
Your degree will equip you with subject-specific knowledge and a number of work-related skills (transferable skills), for example the ability to learn fast in new situations, to work independently, and to analyse, evaluate and interpret data. You should be able to identify and articulate the skills that you feel you are gaining through your studies.
Read more about the skills developed by psychology graduates here and reflect on what you still need to pay attention to.
Develop your employability skills
Your employability refers to your ability to gain initial employment, maintain employment, and obtain new
employment if required. In simple terms, employability is about being capable of getting and keeping fulfilling work. There are many aspects with maximising your employability, including: managing your personal brand, job-searching skills, networking, writing a CV, writing a cover letter, include networking, CV-writing, cover letter writing and how to
manage job interviews.
Why is your employability important?
Today’s careers are not what they used to be:
- Lifetime employment is a thing of the past: It is not unusual for an individual to hold about six different occupations during their careers, each with several jobs. The reasons for this are technological advances, economic shifts and changing social norms.
- Careers are boundaryless: your career can cut across different industries and companies. Instead of seeing your career as a ladder, you can view it as a web.
- Career success is defined in many different ways: The big house and fancy car are not the only measures of success. Some people choose to follow a more balanced lifestyle with more time to spend with their family.
- Where, when and for whom you work are not necessarily fixed: Flexible work hours, working from home, part-time, temporary and contract work are all part of today’s world of work.
Source: Greenberg, J. & Baron, A. Behaviour in Organisations. 8th edition. Pearson Education Inc: New
Jersey.
How can you develop your employability skills?
There are a vast number of resources available for you to develop your employability skills. There are employability self-help materials available on the Unisa website to help you get started. You can also e-mail counselling@unisa.ac.za for us to send them to you.
Further on-line resources to explore include:
- Quintessential careers (www.quintcareers.com)
- Monster.com (career-advice.monster.co.uk)
Do your own employability check now to see where you still need to spend some time to be more employable.
Next part: Your career development at Unisa
Psychology @ Unisa Part III: Your career choice
There are a number of aspects that you will need to explore and pay attention to so that you could make an effective career choice. Complete the activities on the next two pages and use this information to guide you when you ask questions about your career in psychology. This information will also help you to connect all the information that you will gather about a career in psychology with who you are as a person.
Making a career choice involves reflecting on your career vision and the actions you will take to realise this vision (your career goals). It also involves learning more about your values, skills and interests and how they impact on your choice, as well as what shaped your career ideas.
Next in series: Managing your career in psychology
You can access activities to help you reflect on the mentioned aspects here.
Once you have completed these activities, think about the following:
- How do you feel about completing the career map?
- Write down at least two aspects that stood out for you
- What are you still curious about? How will you find out about this and when?
Some further career choice resources
- The Unisa Directorate for Counselling & Career Development offers a career counselling service. You can either contact us electronically, or if you prefer, speak to a counsellor in person.
- Pace Careers Centre (http://www.pacecareers.com/careercentre). Complete the interest questionnaire by clicking on the “Questionnaire” button on the left side of the screen. Register to access the questionnaire. Once you have completed the questionnaire, you could read more about specific job titles on the site.
- Windmills (http://www.windmillsonline.co.uk/interactive/). Work through all the activities in this programme to help you think about your skills, interest and motivations and to clarify your career vision and the practical steps you will take to make your vision a reality.
- Umsobomvu Youth Fund (http://www.youthportal.org.za). Scroll over “I want to” and then click on “get information”. Click on “Read more: Career Guidance and Information” to access information about making a career choice. There is also a very comprehensive Careers and Occupations Reference Directory available for download.
Next in series: Managing your career in psychology
Psychology @ Unisa Part II: Where are you now with your career planning?
Before you can get started with planning your career in psychology, you could take stock of where you are now. Complete this questionnaire to determine where you are now with your psychology career planning.
Next post: Making a career choice
Psychology @ Unisa (part I): Introduction
There is great diversity in the field of psychology. On the continent of Africa, psychology still has much to explore and to research. Unisa is in a unique position to facilitate such exploration as its teaching extends beyond South Africa’s borders. The prospect of contributing to psychological knowledge from an African perspective in all its diverse forms remains an inspiring challenge.
Most psychology students are aware of the therapeutic side of psychology as a prospective career direction. You may feel anxious at the start of your studies when a guarantee that you will be accepted into a professional training programme (at Master’s level) cannot be provided. Fixated on the idea that only professional psychologists are employed meaningfully, you might limit your career investigations as well as your creative abilities to turn a psychology background into a career.
According to the American Psychological Association (2003), the study of psychology is a good preparation for a variety of professions. A number of employers are interested in the skills that Psychology majors can bring to collecting, analysing and interpreting data. All Unisa’s Psychology and Industrial and Organisational Psychology undergraduate modules as well as postgraduate papers could be listed to demonstrate their usefulness in developing skills in the work place. Postgraduate courses in Educational Psychology lead to various job possibilities in the fields of guidance and training.
The question to a Unisa student of psychology at undergraduate and postgraduate level is: how innovative can you be at turning your academic studies into a satisfying career while meeting the needs of the South African community and the Pan-African community in general?
The Professional Board for Psychology of the Health Professions Council of South Africa (HPCSA) can revise the requirements for psychological training and registration in the various categories of becoming a professional counsellor or psychologist. Currently, training for all categories must have certain generic psychological content, but aspects of the training content, as well as professional registration is still practice specific, for example, as a clinical, educational, research or industrial psychologist.
To become a registered counsellor, selected students must have completed the BPsych or BPsych equivalence programme. To register as a psychologist in one of the practice fields, selected students must complete a course-work Master’s programme that will provide exposure to specified content and practice areas. In both cases, an examination administered by the Board for Psychology must be passed. Doctoral degrees can be completed as advanced academic qualifications or to specialise, for example example, the doctoral degree in Consulting Psychology.
Why Psychology?
It is helpful to reflect on where your interest in psychology comes from and where you hope to be in the future. This activity will be useful for you to complete whether you are a current or prospective psychology student.
- Why are you interested in studying psychology?
- Where does your interest come from?
- Where are you hoping to be in five years’ time? In ten years’ time?
- Is psychology the only option in terms of realising your career vision and goals?
Career counselling internships
The advertisement for the career counselling internships for the Sunnyside campus is available on the Unisa website at http://www2.unisa.ac.za/vacancies/html/3549.htm.
Qualities to demonstrate at your next job interview
It is hard to know what interviewers look for when they interview candidates for a position. This post from the Monster Blog contains information about qualities that are important to demonstrate to interviewers: http://monster.typepad.com/monsterblog/2010/12/4-qualities-thatll-get-you-hired-interview-with-garrett-miller.html.
Study skills workshops
Time management workshop Sunnyside August 2010
The Unisa Directorate for Counselling, Career and Academic Development (DCCAD) on the Sunnyside campus facilitated time-management workshops on 11 and 18 August 2010 that were positively received by students. During the workshops, it was discovered that students often find themselves overwhelmed with juggling work, family and their studies and this causes a lot of anxiety and stress that impacts on their studies.
The workshop helped students to identify practical ways of managing their time, taking into consideration their responsibilities and the context of studying through an ODL institution. Many of them expressed their frustrations and concerns in terms of the challenges with managing their time. Their feelings were contained and reflected on and the open workshop facilitated a discussion on what can be done and where to get support.
After the workshop, students commented that they managed to learn effective ways on how they can manage their time, how to stop procrastination, how to use a year planner effectively and how to prioritise and set goals.
Students suggested that the DCCAD consider offering the workshops after hours or on weekends because they are working and sometimes it is hard to ask for the leave from their employers. They also mentioned that they think attending the study skills workshops could benefit a lot of students, especially those studying part-time.
If you want to find out more about managing your study time more effectively, start with the time management and notemaking self-help materials available on our website at http://www.unisa.ac.za/default.asp?Cmd=ViewContent&ContentID=15137.
Career counselling internships
The Sunnyside, Pretoria office is currently advertising its positions for career counselling internships for the second half of this year. You can read the advertisement here: http://www2.unisa.ac.za/vacancies/html/2890.htm. The internship is one of the requirements for individuals to register with the Health Professions Council of South Africa. The other requirements are an approved Honours degree or BPsych degree in Psychology and passing the Professional Board of Psychology examination before registering as a career counsellor.
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