Conceptual Framework for Career Development Practice

Abstract

This report presents the conceptual framework that grounds Career Development and Experiential Learning's (CDEL) professional practice and its initiative to establish a university-wide career development ecosystem, known at uOttawa as Build Your Future (BYF). Drawing on vocational psychology, counselling theory, and the science of human development, it synthesizes nine frameworks across three groupings: core career development theories (SCCT, Holland, Super, Savickas, Krumboltz), complementary psychological foundations (positive psychology, growth mindset), and learning and applied approaches (Kolb, Burnett & Evans). These traditions converge on five Career Development Outcomes that build toward a single program-level objective, Career Agency. The framework provides the shared theoretical language through which CDEL designs programming, advises students, develops assessments, and evaluates outcomes, and it makes explicit the equity commitments embedded in that practice.