National Occupational Standards Case Study: Career Development

Lisa has been working as a support worker for a domiciliary service provider for the past 4 years. During this time Lisas knowledge, skills and confidence have developed considerably. Lisa has expressed an interest in taking on more responsibility in order to further develop her knowledge and skills, as she is interested in working towards a management position in the future. Through the organizations supervision and appraisal processes, Lisa has discussed this with her line manager, who has assessed that Lisa is ready to take on some additional responsibilities. They have agreed to identify specific areas of work for Lisa to focus on. Whilst Lisa can take on additional areas of responsibility, her work role will remain the same at present and so she will not be taking full responsibility for management functions of the service. There are several potential areas within the organization where Lisa could develop her experience, ranging from small tasks to additional responsibilities. To focus the discussion and Lisas development plan, they have consulted the National Occupational Standards (NOS) for Health and Social Care. They feel that this will help Lisa to progress her career by ensuring that: learning is focused on specific areas learning is sufficiently in depth to meet national standards the organization can plan how to meet the identified learning using a range of methods the organization can plan how best to utilize Lisas developing knowledge and skills, which may include planning for a future management role Lisa and her line manager have discussed areas for development and have decided to begin with a focus on working with individuals around assessment of needs. One of the NOS for assessment within the health and social care suite would be assess individual preferences and needs. Lisa and her manager agree a development plan, using the Continuous Professional Development (CPD) toolkit recording template to record the knowledge and skills that Lisa would need to develop to meet the identified standards. They also look at what she hopes to achieve and the methods and support that she will need to do so. Lisas manager will monitor her progress through supervision and appraisal to see how she has progressed against the NOS and what her future learning needs may be.

- Based on the above case study

1. Explain how Lisa can use the definition of career development (according to the National Career Development Association) to describe her situation?

2. In addition to what was mentioned in the case study above, describe how the organization in which Lisa works can help her in terms of career development?

3. Based on the Levinson Model, explain Lisas possible progress through a series of developmental stages in her career path.