By Sandy Hutchison, Founder & CEO, Career Money Life
The career landscape in Australia has never been more complex or more human. Economic shifts, technological disruption, demographic changes and rising workforce mobility have reshaped how people build meaningful working lives. Against this backdrop, the refreshed Australian Blueprint for Career Development provides a timely, future focused framework that both validates what many of us see every day in career transition, and challenges HR teams to rethink how they support their people across the lifespan.
This second edition of the Blueprint, released by the National Careers Institute in partnership with the Career Industry Council of Australia, offers a nationally consistent guide to the knowledge, skills and attitudes Australians need to navigate their careers in an unpredictable labour market. It has been updated after more than a decade of practice, review and sector evolution, and remains one of the clearest distillations of the realities facing workers and employers today.
For HR leaders preparing for 2026 and job seekers navigating redundancy, the Blueprint is not just a framework. It is a roadmap for resilience, confidence and capability at a time when both organisations and individuals are confronting unprecedented levels of change.
The blueprint of a modern career
One of the strongest statements in the updated Blueprint is the reminder that careers are not jobs. Careers are living systems that evolve across life roles, learning experiences, personal duties, paid and unpaid work, wellbeing, family responsibilities and identity. They are shaped by both internal factors (values, interests, skills, aspirations) and external forces (education access, ageing parents, childcare needs, geographic location, labour market shifts and unpredictable events).
This reframing is essential for 2026 because the world of work is no longer built around long tenure or predictable pathways. Instead, people are navigating:
- Hybrid work patterns
- Casualisation and project based roles
- Increased self employment and gig work
- Rapid reskilling requirements
- Portfolio style careers with multiple income sources
- Increased job mobility across industries
The Blueprint directly acknowledges these realities by positioning career development as lifelong, non linear and impacted by both personal and societal contexts.
The twelve competencies that shape modern careers
The Blueprint rests on twelve core career management competencies, grouped into three learning areas:
Personal management (know yourself)
Includes self concept, interpersonal skills, wellbeing and understanding personal change.
Learning and work exploration (know the world of work)
Includes lifelong learning, labour market understanding, using career information and challenging stereotypes.
Career building (intentionally shape your life, learning and work)
Includes job search skills, decision making, life balance and managing career building processes over time.
Together, these competencies reflect what individuals need not only to secure work, but to thrive through transitions, reinvention and lifelong change.
Each competency becomes highly relevant during redundancy.
What the Blueprint means for people experiencing redundancy
Redundancy is one of the most significant transitions a person can experience. It affects identity, security, family stability, lifestyle and self confidence. The Blueprint provides a structured way to make sense of these feelings and rebuild capability.
- Managing change and growth throughout life
The Blueprint states that change is a normal, expected part of working life. It reinforces that people’s motivations, needs and circumstances evolve, and that adaptability is a skill that can be developed. Redundancy fits squarely into this competency. It’s a reminder that change is not a personal failing. It’s a career moment that can be understood, navigated and acted upon intentionally.
This helps job seekers separate the event of redundancy from their value as a person and a professional. - Building and maintaining a positive self-concept
Losing a job often dents confidence. The Blueprint encourages people to identify their strengths, reflect on their qualities, understand how others see them and build self belief through constructive feedback. This is foundational to preparing for interviews, networking, repositioning your experience and approaching new opportunities with clarity. - Lifelong learning and reskilling
The Blueprint explicitly connects employability with continuous learning. It highlights that individuals may need to upskill and reskill multiple times to remain competitive in a rapidly changing labour market.
For redundant workers, this is both reassuring and empowering. You are not expected to have every skill today. You are expected to keep learning. - Understanding labour market realities
The Blueprint details how economic cycles, demographic trends, industry shifts and global events shape what opportunities are available. Redundant workers often find that the world of work has changed since they last searched for a job. The Blueprint encourages adults to incorporate labour market insights into their decision making so they can make future oriented rather than reactive choices. - Making career enhancing decisions
Decision making is one of the twelve competencies. It includes understanding how decisions are made, considering alternatives, identifying barriers and developing strategies to navigate uncertainty. Redundant workers benefit enormously from structured decision support, scenario planning, and guidance from qualified career practitioners. - Looking after wellbeing
Wellbeing is not a side issue. The Blueprint positions mental and physical health as a career capability.
It acknowledges that change impacts wellbeing and that individuals need strategies for managing stress, asking for help and maintaining routines. At Career Money Life, we see this first hand. Wellbeing determines readiness. Readiness determines outcomes.
What the Blueprint means for HR teams preparing for 2026
For HR leaders, the Blueprint is a powerful tool for designing smarter, more compassionate and more future ready workforce strategies. It pushes organisations to move beyond crisis management and begin treating career development as a long term investment in people.
- Career development must be lifelong and organisationally embedded
The Blueprint insists that career development begins early and continues across the lifespan. Organisations that only introduce career conversations during redundancy miss the opportunity to build resilience and capability earlier. HR must embed career development in performance processes, leadership programs, wellbeing frameworks and internal mobility strategies. - Redundancy support must be personalised
The Blueprint emphasises context. Personal histories, life stages, cultural backgrounds, family responsibilities and individual goals shape every career decision. A one size fits all program diminishes effectiveness. Choice based support models, like CML’s credit system, directly align with this principle and are repeatedly endorsed by candidates as empowering and human. - Skills for 2026 and beyond must be deliberately developed
The Blueprint highlights digital literacy, labour market awareness, adaptive thinking and the ability to question stereotypes as essential for adults. Organisations preparing for the future must invest in reskilling pathways, micro learning, mentoring and trial experiences long before disruption hits. - HR must recognise the new shape of work
The Blueprint acknowledges increases in casual, contract, part time, gig and hybrid work.
This has major implications for workforce planning, redeployment, and transition support. Employees may pursue blended careers with several streams of work, and HR frameworks must accommodate this reality. - Wellbeing is a career competency
Wellbeing is embedded within the competencies, not siloed. This reinforces the need for integrated approaches in organisations. EAP, coaching, critical incident support, leadership development and transition programs should be connected, not separate. - Experiential learning is essential for capability development
The Blueprint highlights experiential learning activities such as reflection, hands on practice, conversation and action planning. These provide the backbone for effective coaching, leadership development and transition support. People learn through doing, reflecting and refining, not through instruction alone.
A strategic lens for HR in 2026
As organisations adapt to rapidly shifting conditions, the Blueprint can help HR teams design workforces that are resilient, capable and future ready. It offers a shared national language across schools, universities, training providers, government programs, and businesses, allowing more consistent and meaningful career conversations.
For HR leaders, the Blueprint reinforces several imperatives for 2026:
- Invest in building career capabilities before they are needed
- Treat career conversations as part of culture, not crisis response
- Ensure support services are holistic, not transactional
- Connect learning programs to future skills, not just immediate roles
- Acknowledge that personal circumstances and identity shape career choices
- Use national frameworks to strengthen consistency and confidence
Why this matters now
The Blueprint provides a credible, evidence based foundation that helps organisations and individuals navigate these shifts with clarity and confidence.
For job seekers facing redundancy, it reveals strengths they already possess and new ones they can build.
For HR teams planning for 2026, it provides a strategic lens for designing modern, compassionate and future ready transition support.
And for anyone committed to improving employee experience, it provides something rare: a nationally endorsed, deeply human blueprint for helping people move forward with dignity and purpose.
Advice from our Experts 