Online career counselling platform as reflective practice for competence development – a design-based research study

Higher education institutions have invested in career counselling services to facilitate students’ transition from university to the workforce by developing employability skills. Career services increasingly offer technology-driven services that support specific competencies but face challenges in helping students reflect on their goals and create comprehensive plans that foster overall employability. This design-based mixed-method study focused on designing, implementing, and evaluating features of an online career services platform that supports stages of reflective practice for competence development: awareness, analysis, goal setting, action, and reflection. Participants in the design phase were 7 students and 4 career counsellors, whereas 9 students participated in a formative evaluation. This paper presents the results of the first cycle of this design-based research. This study supports the pedagogical value of organising online career services platforms as reflective practices that foster competence development. The iterative design-based research process enabled a structured integration of pedagogical principles with educational technology. The findings show that students perceive the online platform as effective and usable. In addition, the study also underscores the importance of usability, institutional integration, and ongoing guidance, such as prompts, feedback mechanisms, and collaborative features, to further enhance the platform’s potential in fostering employability competences in higher education.