Skip to main content

Career Development and Employability MA

2025-26

How to apply Order a prospectusPostgraduate Open Days
{{menu.previous.name}}
{{menu.center.name}}
{{menu.next.name}}
This course is eligible for Master's loan funding. Find out more.

Start date

22 September 2025

Duration

1 year full-time
2 years part-time

Chat with our students  

About the course

Reasons to study

  1. You could gain a professional qualification in Career Guidance, alongside your Master's.
  2. Prepare yourself for a rewarding career in higher education, further education, secondary education or the 3rd sector.
  3. Build your practical skills through a wide range of work placement opportunities.

This practical course will allow you the opportunity to get the Qualification in Career Development (QCD) - the nationally recognised professional qualification awarded by the Career Development Institute (CDI) - alongside your Master's qualification. You'll learn about policy, practice and theories underpinning career guidance, equality and diversity, partnership working and research-based practice.

You will also learn how to employ independent learning strategies that will enable you deepen your knowledge and understanding of educational research while also developing your professional practice.

Why Career Development and Employability?

  • Having taught career guidance courses for over 40 years, we have established a strong national reputation in the sector. You'll have access to our extensive professional and academic network which feeds directly into course design and delivery and to our excellent facilities and specialist equipment.
  • If you’re looking to gain additional knowledge but cannot commit to the full-time one-year MA, you may choose the two years part-time route, or study the Postgraduate Diploma (PG Dip) which also leads to the award of the QCD (the Qualification in Career Development).
  • This course can lead to a wide variety of interesting and rewarding career prospects in the career guidance and development sector including higher and further education careers and employability services, secondary education and third-sector organisations. You can find out more via the CDI.

Course detail

Whether you choose to study full-time or part-time, you will study the following core modules:

Effective Careers Conversations

This module examines the professional role of a career development practitioner in order to enable you to develop as reflective practitioner who draws on developmental supervision. It considers the theory, principles and practice of working with individuals within a Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) setting. The module explores techniques, approaches and a range of models appropriate for use by careers guidance practitioners, and it provides the opportunity for you to critically assess and evaluate your own skills, knowledge and values as a reflective careers guidance practitioner. You will consider ethical practice and professional boundaries and analyse your own professional practice.

Theories of Career Decision Making

This module critically evaluates a range of theories relating to occupational choice and examines the relationship between theory and professional practice. Students are encouraged to understand the value of theory in their own professional practice across a range of settings. Principles of curriculum design and planning in relation to Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance in a variety of settings are also examined. The module promotes critical understanding of models of guidance, planning action and client assessment methods.

Facilitating Careers Work in Groups

This module will support you to develop the knowledge and ability to design and deliver career and employability group work whether that sits within the curriculum or not. The module also considers principles of career development learning and curriculum or programme design. It considers the theory, principles and practice of working with groups within a Careers Education, Information, Advice and Guidance (CEIAG) setting. The module explores techniques, approaches and a range of models appropriate for use by careers guidance practitioners, and it provides the opportunity for you to critically assess and evaluate your own skills, knowledge and values as a reflective career development practitioner. You will consider ethical practice and professional boundaries and analyse your own professional practice.

Organisational Culture

This module examines approaches to professional practice in a range of contexts. It considers the nature of the organisation within which professional practice related to carer development and employability is located. You will develop practical skills and knowledge, using theoretical justification for a range of practices. Subjects such as, safeguarding, equality, government policy and working within formal educational settings will be considered. Learning in the workplace will focus on your own learning contract and your progress against it.

Understanding the Labour Market

This module will critically evaluate the major labour market sources used in careers and employability work across a range of relevant sectors and will explore how guidance professionals use this in their professional practice.

Research Methodology

This module will help you design and develop a piece of individual research or a professional project. You will draw upon a relevant literature review and select and explain an appropriate research design and technique. The module is designed to give you an insight into research methodology, both quantitative and qualitative, and to develop the ability to plan and conduct a research project, involving appropriate study design, data analysis, and interpretation, whilst giving due consideration to issues of ethics, reliability, validity, trustworthiness and transferability. You will have the opportunity to demonstrate your mastery of the module content by designing a research study and writing a research proposal.

Independent Research Project

This module will help you design and develop a piece of individual research or a professional project into a topic of your choice that is related to your course. You will draw upon a relevant literature review and select and explain an appropriate research design and technique. You will interpret and evaluate the findings and report them in such a way as to encourage dissemination.

Entry requirements

Entry requirements for this course are normally:

  • A degree or an equivalent professional qualification. Suitably experienced applicants without a degree will be considered.

In addition you must also have:

  • Relevant experience in a paid or voluntary basis.
  • Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) check and health clearances.
  • Complete a satisfactory interview.
  • International applicants must be available for interview in person or via Skype.

If your first language is not English, you will need to meet the minimum requirements of an English Language qualification. The minimum for IELTS is 6.5 overall with no element lower than 6.0, or equivalent. Read more about the University’s entry requirements for students outside of the UK on our International Entry Requirements page.

On-demand Webinar

Join Jodie Boyd, Course Leader for the MA/PGDip Career Development at the University of Huddersfield to discover more about our postgraduate courses and how you can develop skills for a successful career in Career Guidance.

View webinar

Placements

Our students gain practical skills working with both adults and young people in the wide range of settings where career guidance is practiced, such as workplaces, the voluntary sector, higher and further education careers services, secondary education and the National Careers Service. Typically, our students undertake compulsory work placement consisting of a minimum of 30 days arming themselves with a wide-ranging experience of information, advice and guidance provision.

Staff Profiles

Your career

Guidance skills can be used in a variety of settings and graduates can expect to find employment in dedicated guidance or careers guidance agencies such as the National Careers Service or Higher and Further Education Careers and Employability Services. Graduates in recent years have also found employment in related areas such as voluntary and charitable agencies (e.g. mental health provision), secondary education and training providers.

*98.4% of our postgraduate students go on to work and/or further study within fifteen months of graduating

98.4% Graduates employed*

Student support

​At the University of Huddersfield, you'll find support networks and services to help you get ahead in your studies and social life. Whether you study at undergraduate or postgraduate level, you'll soon discover that you're never far away from our dedicated staff and resources to help you to navigate through your personal student journey. Find out more about all our support services.

Important information

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

When you enrol as a student of the University, your study and time with us will be governed by our terms and conditions, Handbook of Regulations and associated policies. It is important that you familiarise yourself with these as you will be asked to agree to them when you join us as a student. You will find a guide to the key terms here, along with the Student Protection Plan.

Although we always try and ensure we deliver our courses as described, sometimes we may have to make changes for the following reasons

Changes to a course you have applied for but are not yet enrolled on

If we propose to make a major change to a course that you are holding an offer for, then we will tell you as soon as possible so that you can decide whether to withdraw your application prior to enrolment. We may occasionally have to withdraw a course you have applied for or combine your programme with another programme if we consider this reasonably necessary to ensure a good student experience, for example if there are not enough applicants. Where this is the case we will notify you as soon as reasonably possible and we will discuss with you other suitable courses we can transfer your application to. If you do not wish to transfer to another course with us, you may cancel your application and we will refund you any deposits or fees you have paid to us.

Changes to your course after you enrol as a student

Changes to option modules:

Where your course allows you to choose modules from a range of options, we will review these each year and change them to reflect the expertise of our staff, current trends in research and as a result of student feedback or demand for certain modules. We will always ensure that you have an equivalent range of options to that advertised for the course. We will let you know in good time the options available for you to choose for the following year.

Major changes:

We will only make major changes to non-optional modules on a course if it is necessary for us to do so and provided such changes are reasonable. A major change is a change that substantially changes the outcomes, or a significant part of your course, such as the nature of the award or a substantial change to module content, teaching days (part time provision), type of delivery or assessment of the core curriculum. For example, it may be necessary to make a major change to reflect changes in the law or the requirements of the University’s regulators or a commissioning or accrediting body. We may also make changes to improve the course in response to student, examiners’ or other course evaluators’ feedback or to ensure you are being taught current best practice. Major changes may also be necessary because of circumstances outside our reasonable control, such as a key member of staff leaving the University or being unable to teach, where they have a particular specialism that can’t be adequately covered by other members of staff; or due to damage or interruption to buildings, facilities or equipment, or pandemics.

Major changes would usually be made with effect from the next academic year, but may happen sooner in an emergency. We will notify you as soon as possible should we need to make a major change and will carry out suitable consultation. If you reasonably believe that the proposed change will cause you detriment or hardship we will, if appropriate, work with you to try to reduce the adverse effect on you or find an appropriate solution. Where an appropriate solution cannot be found and you contact us in writing before the change takes effect you can cancel your registration and withdraw from the University without liability to the University for future tuition fees. We will provide reasonable support to assist you with transferring to another university if you wish to do so.

In exceptional circumstances, we may, for reasons outside of our control, be forced to discontinue or suspend your course. Where this is the case, a formal exit strategy will be followed in accordance with the student protection plan.

The Office for Students (OfS) is the principal regulator for the University.

You may also be interested in...

Education (Mentoring and Coaching) MA

If you’re interested in using coaching and mentoring techniques to help develop people at all levels in an organisation, then this might be the course for you.

Find out more How to apply

Full-time

Postgraduate

View more courses