Career Switch Programme: It’s Never Too Late to Change

The Career Switch Programme is a self-awareness focused programme for career changers, which helps participants to plan and get started in their new careers through group meetings and individual consultations. The programme believes that it is never too late to change careers and that by assessing skills and needs, learning about the psychology of change, sharing stories of some successful career changers, and providing practical knowledge, participants can be prepared for the process of a career change, resulting in a more fulfilling life overall.

The program of the Konnekt Associationconsists of 3 elements. The first element is self-knowledge, which is intensively dealt with for three weeks on 3-hour group sessions, individual conversations, and individual tasks. Group sessions are led by three trainers and start with a maximum of 12 participants to ensure individual attention. The self-awareness process helps the participants to better understand their strengths, skills and values, as well as how they can transform these characteristics and utilize them in new jobs. This element is complemented by the fact that the participants can meet successful career changers, whom they can ask during a panel discussion, so they can expand their career knowledge through real stories, get to know new professions, and delve deeper into the career change process.

In the second half of the program, the focus is on change management and preparation for change. Career changers participate in an interview with a professional representing their chosen field(s). To ensure the success of the program element, the participants receive special preparation for the interview. As a result of the conversation, they can learn about the possibilities, difficulties and the labour market situation of one or more professions of their choice.

The program's block focusing on self-awareness and then change management is followed by the planning phase, during which the participants can learn about the goal setting process and the SMART goals in the framework of two group sessions. In addition, they prepare a practical action plan for the period following the program and participate in individual counselling.

In the year following the programme, follow-up group meetings take place every three months to monitor the career change process and to build a supportive community.

This practice was awarded the Hungarian Euroguidance Career Guidance Award for Adults 2022