Counselling and Career Development

The Directorate for Counselling and Career Development (DCCD) supports students before, during, and after their Unisa studies. Our work focuses on helping students manage their studies, plan their careers, and cope with personal challenges that may affect their learning and wellbeing. We recognise that academic, career, and personal aspects of students’ lives are closely connected. Our approach is therefore integrated — supporting students as whole people rather than treating these areas separately.

To successfully plan and develop your career, you need to understand what a career is, and the aspects that will shape your career. You must be able to explore career and study options while also preparing for opportunities by finding, creating, and using resources to start thinking and acting like the professional you want to be.

Explore careers

Gathering career information is an important part of making career decisions and choices. The career information research process starts with identifying the information you need, and then using different sources to answer your questions. You may be curious about careers related to your interests and career options related to your qualification.

Prepare for job opportunities

You need to be proactive when preparing for job opportunities. This includes learning more about yourself and what you want, how to identify opportunities in the job market, creating and expanding your professional network, creating a marketing campaign (including your career portfolio, CV, cover letters, online profile), preparing for job interviews, and using LinkedIn as an important part of your career development.

Plan your studies

Planning your studies forms an important part of your career development. The most important task is to choose the qualification that will help you get to where you want to be. You may also be in the position where you need to change your current qualification to a new one due to changing career aspirations.

Manage your studies

A successful study journey depends on how you manage your studies effectively. This includes preparing to study, effective planning and study strategies, time management, managing study-related challenges and the exam preparation process. We help you develop your academic literacies (reading, writing, quantitative skills) to help you have a successful study journey.

Personal development

At some point we may need help and support to manage the challenges we face. Part of managing your studies at Unisa is developing your self-confidence and dealing with challenges like loss, relationship issues and traumatic experiences. We support your personal development so that you can manage your studies and career more effectively.