This study was conducted based on the premise that developing self-directed career competency is a critical task for adult learners in their 40s and 50s navigating an era of uncertainty, and that Life Career Designing (LCD) serves as an effective lear...
This study was conducted based on the premise that developing self-directed career competency is a critical task for adult learners in their 40s and 50s navigating an era of uncertainty, and that Life Career Designing (LCD) serves as an effective learning model to support this development. The purpose of this study is to examine the theoretical and practical effects of the LCD model on the development of self-directed career competency among adult learners in their 40s and 50s. Specifically, this study analyzes the core elements of the LCD learning process and explores how these elements, when organized into practical learning activities, facilitate competency development through a communicative research methodology.
In contrast to conventional adult career education, which has largely been structured around goal-oriented approaches shaped by institutional frameworks, this study conceptualizes career development as an integrated process of designing and continuously adjusting life direction across multiple domains, reflecting the life contexts of adults in their 40s and 50s.
To achieve this purpose, the study addressed two research questions: first, what are the core elements of the LCD learning process effective for developing self-directed career competency; and second, under what conditions and through what organizational approaches LCD activities should be implemented to connect these elements to competency development in practice.
Using the Communicative Methodology, core elements were derived through a communicative exploration of facilitating and hindering factors, based on literature reviews and pre-interviews. Subsequently, LCD learning activities were designed and implemented, and changes in learners’ perceptions and actions were analyzed through communicative observations and post-interviews.
The findings indicate that the LCD process functions as a mechanism for integrated reflection, allowing learners to reconstruct career perceptions and gradually adjust and expand their self-directed career competency through repeated cycles of action and reflection. The connection between LCD learning activities and competency development was more evident when activities followed a cyclical structure of exploration, design, action, reflection, and readjustment, rather than being implemented as isolated tasks. Notably, community-based interactions and feedback functioned as essential conditions for sustaining action continuity.
While the LCD model supports integrated life-career design, limitations were identified in achieving deep narrative reconstruction within constrained timeframes. Furthermore, differences in digital competency and career status influenced learners’ responses to the same learning activities. In conclusion, the significance of the LCD model lies not in immediate career placement or rapid competency gains, but in supporting learners’ formation of perceptions and attitudes that enable them to enact, reflect on, and readjust their careers amid real-world conditions where facilitating and hindering factors coexist. This suggests that LCD constitutes a process-centered, action-based adult career education model that emphasizes ongoing cycles of action and reflection rather than fixed goal-setting.