Career Development for women

Research Project

This final research project is a chance for you to investigate information relating to the last two units of the course, based on your interest. For this project you’ll choose a client population (e.g., women, men, a particular cultural group, people with disabilities, people with a particular sexual orientation, people from a particular religious or spiritual group, etc.) and research the following:

Unique career considerations of that group (i.e., career needs, challenges, etc.).
Examples of three career counselling services that would meet the needs of your target group. At least one service should be a career counselling setting in or close to your community and one should be an online service (the third example is your choice).
Your assessment of the three services you have chosen.

The results of your research should be written as an academic paper (i.e., introduction and conclusion, paragraphs with topic sentences, full sentences, proper APA in-text citations and reference page, etc.). Your paper will be 5-7 pages, written in 12-point font, double-spaced with one-inch margins. It should be written in an academic style, including a brief introductory paragraph (with a thesis/purpose statement) and a brief concluding paragraph. The body of your paper should be organized into paragraphs. Feel free to use subheadings if this helps you to organize your writing. Cite your sources using APA style (6th ed.) and include a reference page formatted according to APA specifications. You are welcome to use other APA guidelines to format your paper if you wish (e.g., title page specification and running head on every page) but this is not required. For this introductory course, focus your attention on content, writing style, and correct citations.

Please review the information on Academic Integrity in the Student Manual and the AU Calendar. As discussed in this document, it is very important to cite all of your sources (including course materials, texts, and videos). Failure to do so may constitute plagiarism, which can have significant academic consequences. If you need help citing sources properly, or are confused about which sources to cite, please see the APA tutorial at your course site and/or contact your tutor for help.

Submit your assignment to the dropbox
Evaluation

This paper is worth 20% of your final mark. Please see the mark breakdown in the grid that follows.

Area of Assessment Marks
Population characteristics and career considerations of your chosen group. Topics of discussion may include career needs, challenges, strength areas, employment/unemployment, earnings statistics, representation in occupational clusters, evidence of discrimination or oppression, career stereotypes, etc. /30
Examples of three career counselling services that would meet the needs of your target group. At least one service should be a career counselling setting in or close to your community and one should be an online career service (the third example can be your choice). For each service, summarize the approach taken and explain how this relates to the career needs of your target population. /30
Assess the three services named above. In this section you should assess the suitability and effectiveness of each service in meeting the needs of the chosen population. Make sure you explain the reason for your assessment and/or provide research or theory to support your opinion. /25
Style, mechanics, APA:
Writing Style: mechanics, spelling, grammar, flow, appropriate use of language, academic tone, etc. (5 marks)
Writing Structure: organization of ideas, cohesion, paragraph structure, introduction with thesis statement, conclusion/summary (5 marks)
In-text citations and reference page using APA style (6th ed.) (5 marks)
/15
TOTAL /100