Accredited online and on-campus courses from leading Australian universities, TAFEs and colleges
About Personal Development
You'll become
- Family and Marriage Counsellor
- Student Counsellor
- Human Resources Manager
- Training Manager
- Life Coach
- Lifestyle Advisor
Average Salaries
Personal Development workers may earn between $43,000 and $89,000 per year
Coach others to success and build an exciting new career. It starts by studying a personal development course.
Help people achieve their potential and be who they’ve always wanted to be by studying a personal development course.
If you’re passionate about seeing people succeed and want to use your career to help others, working in personal development will help you build professional skills while supporting others.
An emerging and dynamic new industry, the personal development and coaching sector in Australia has been growing in size for the past decade, and will require up to 5,000 new professionals to join their ranks by the end of 2020, according to the Department of Employment. With a personal development qualification, you’ll stand out in a crowded job market and demonstrate your unique ability to really help people.
In an increasingly volatile, stressful and competitive world, people are seeking more than ever the skilled guidance and support of people who coach and support them to success. By studying a personal development course, you’ll build the unique personal abilities and practical skills required to build a career helping people achieve their dreams and overcome obstacles, and you’ll join an exciting industry that makes best use of your talents.
Working in similar ways to psychologists or counsellors, personal development professionals work closely with individuals, groups and teams of people to identify goals, barriers and opportunities, and to develop plans for achieving those goals, grounded in the holistic context of the person’s life.
You may study a personal development course as a certificate or diploma course, or as part of a bachelor’s or master’s degree in human resources, counselling, psychology or people management.
After completing a personal development, you may choose to work as a life coach, counsellor, personal development consultant, sports coach, business coach, relationship counsellor or careers advisor.
If you love working with people and want a rewarding professional career seeing people succeed, take your first step with a personal development qualification.
What do personal development graduates do?
Personal development professionals work like counsellors or coaches, working closely with people to identify and address barriers to success, and making plans to work through issues and meet goals.
As a personal development professional, you can generally expect to perform tasks like:
- Meeting with people and asking questions to determine their background, environment and emotional and social issues;
- Examining and recording information and assessing a person’s needs and goals;
- Providing information and resources, including career advice, study and employment options, skills training, resources for drug and alcohol abuse, and information about other services;
- Assisting people in understanding and adjusting attitudes, expectations, perspectives and behaviours to develop more effective interpersonal relationships and tools for success;
- Providing, planning and demonstrating activities, exercises and tools;
- Discussing avenues for behaviour change and goal-setting;
- Referring people to workshops, resources and other services;
- Facilitating or administering training for people in order to help them achieve goals;
- Consulting with people to develop rehabilitation plans, taking into account the broader societal context of the person’s environment, and their specific emotional and social needs;
- Providing general information, understanding and advice to people;
- Celebrating and acknowledging success with people; and
- Providing support, advice and counselling when needed.
Career Outcomes
Career Outcomes
After completing a personal development course, you’ll be qualified to seek employment in a range of roles that involve advising, counselling and coaching people, in career, relationship and lifestyle consulting roles.
With a personal development qualification, you’ll be qualified to seek employment as a:
- Family and Marriage Counsellor
- Student Counsellor
- Human Resources Manager
- Training Manager
Is personal development right for you?
You’ll enjoy working in personal development if you:
- Are empathetic
- Have excellent communication and interpersonal skills
- Are a good listener
- Are highly organised
- Are committed to seeing people succeed
- Believe in people’s potential
- Have excellent administrative skills
- Can manage multiple pieces of information at once
- Like solving problems
- Have strong time management skills
- Are patient
- Are disciplined
- Are a creative thinker
- Enjoy detailed work
- Want to make a difference
Job opportunities
The Australian Government’s Job Outlook describes the counselling and coaching industry in Australia as a medium-sized and rapidly growing sector. Currently employing approximately 20,700 people in counselling and coaching roles, the sector has been growing steadily for the past decade, and is expected to grow faster until 2020. Job Outlook predicts approximately 25,500 people will be employed in the counselling industry by the end of the decade.
Average Salaries
A job coach can expect to earn an annual salary between $43,000 and $89,000, with an average annual salary of approximately $56,000, according to PayScale. PayScale notes that a positive relationship exists between earning capacity and experience, with more experiences coaches commanding higher salaries; however, entry-level coaches can still expect to earn on average approximately $58,000 per year.
A counsellor can expect to earn between $43,000 and $75,000 per year, with an average annual salary of approximately $66,000, according to PayScale. PayScale notes a moderate positive relationship between experience and earning capacity for the first 10 years of a counsellor’s career, but observes that additional earning capacity flattens out after counsellors have been working for 10 years.