DISCOVERY COLLEGE
CAREER-RELATED
PROGRAMME.

What is the CP?

Discovery College offers a programme called the ‘IB Career-related Programme’ (CP), alongside the IB Diploma Programme (DP), as an option for students in Years 12-13. This programme provides a pathway in which students in these year groups can learn and progress to Higher Education. Students in the current Year 11 will be able to choose between studying the DP and studying the CP.

The CP is the fourth International Baccalaureate programme (along with the PYP, MYP and DP) and it is aimed at students entering the last two years of Secondary School who have a particular career path in mind. The CP allows students to specialise and dedicate themselves to an area of learning they know they want to pursue. CP students undertake a minimum of two IB Diploma Programme (DP) courses, a core consisting of four components and a career-related study.

For CP students, DP courses provide the theoretical underpinning and academic rigour of the programme; the career-related study further supports the programme’s academic strength and provides practical, real-world approaches to learning; and the CP core helps them to develop skills and competencies required for lifelong learning. (IBO, 2020)

How is the CP structured?

The CP encompasses some elements of the IB Diploma Programme (DP) within its structure. It also encompasses the IB’s educational philosophy and mission.

IBCP Model

CP students take four core elements consisting of:

Personal and Professional Skills (PPS)
Language and Cultural Studies(LCS)
Community Engagement (CE)
Reflective Project (RP)

https://www.ibo.org/globalassets/new-structure/digital-toolkit/images/cp-model_en.png

Personal and Professional Skills (PPS)

“Throughout the Personal and professional skills (PPS) course, students develop a range of intrapersonal and interpersonal skills, critical and ethical thinking and intercultural understanding. These skills are transversal, meaning they can be applied in a variety of contexts appropriate to both their personal and professional growth. The course also connects and deepens the learning and skills developed in the other CP core components and programme elements.” (IBO, 2025a)

PPS is timetabled into two blocks and one Discovery time per fortnight and its curriculum consists of learning such skills and topics as Ethics; Intercultural understanding; CV and cover letter; Job interviews; Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion at workplace. Students are required to record their work in their PPS portfolio and complete relevant tasks and assessments.

Language and Cultural Studies (LCS)

“Language and cultural studies (LCS) invites students to better understand and expand their linguistic and cultural repertoires, and imagine how they could further engage with a range of linguistic and cultural groups. As partners in inquiry, students and teachers explore their linguistic and cultural repertoires and reflect on them in the context of local and global communities.” (IBO, 2025b)

LCS is timetabled into one teacher-guided block and two independent learning blocks per fortnight. Students choose one of three areas of exploration (career, community, or personal) as the focus of their journey, depending on their interests, passions and goals. Students are required to record their work in their LCS learning journal and complete relevant tasks and assessments.

Community Engagement (CE)

“Community engagement (CE) offers opportunities for students to learn in, from and with communities as well as to apply knowledge and skills acquired in other areas of learning.CE invites students to engage with communities in dialogic, reciprocal reflective and reflexive ways, and to expand their understanding from a personal to a relational to a systems dimension. Students engage in an inquiry-based process of exploring and preparing, relating and acting, evaluating and sharing that is aimed at responding to relevant opportunities and challenges identified both by and with communities.” (IBO, 2025c)

The students are expected to work on CE through 18 months of the course over Y12-13 and complete a minimum of three CE experiences (at least one of them being linked to their career pathway) and one CE team project. The CE Coordinator will be advising students throughout the process, and students are required to maintain notes of their planning and participation in their CE learning journal.

Reflective Project(RP)

“The reflective project (RP) is an in-depth body of work focused on an ethical dilemma in a career-related area. It is developed and reflected upon over an extended period of time; as a product of the students’ own initiative. The RP promotes in-depth and critical research, reflection and reflexivity, professional communication skills, intellectual discovery and creativity through the exploration of a career-related dilemma while considering the impact on, and perspectives of, others through current, historical, local and global contexts. Students practise self- and critical-reflexivity to arrive at a personal position on the dilemma.” (IBO, 2025d)

Students are required to identify, analyse, discuss and evaluate an ethical dilemma associated with an issue from their career-related studies and produce a 3000-word written essay or a combination of written work with audio/video material in addition to a 1000-word reflection piece. Students will be provided an introduction session in the second semester of Year 12 and the supervisor will be allocated to support students during this process till its completion in the first semester of Year 13.

DP Subjects

Students also take two to four DP subjects (see Diploma Programme page for details of subjects available) at Standard or Higher level and one Career-related study (CRS) course.

Comparison of CP and DP Course elements

What does the CP offer in comparison to the DP

What career-related study courses are available to Discovery College students from August 2026?

Career-related study courses are offered through partner-providers. Partnerships with the following institutions have been/are being established for August 2026.

What qualifications do students receive at the end and how does this relate to university admissions?

An important feature of the CP is that it is a framework of different learning experiences.

Firstly, the CP is a qualification in its own right, similar to the DP. Students satisfying the passing conditions will emerge with the CP certificate.

Secondly, completion of the CP will facilitate graduation from Discovery College. Universities, particularly in the USA, look for High School graduation as an indicator as part of their admissions process.

Thirdly, the career-related study aspect of the CP will offer a qualification that they can use as part of university admissions. For instance, students taking their career-related study via HKAPA will complete a BTEC qualification. Students studying with SCAD and BSD will complete a series of foundation degree modules, which in some circumstances can be transferred as university credit to offset against future university studies.

Fourthly, students will usually complete between two and four DP subjects but can select up to six DP subjects. These subjects can be the basis for admission to a university.

So the CP provides a number of ways in which students can gain access to a broad range of university courses in different countries around the world.

Assessments

Students are assessed using a variety of methods, including essays, case studies, oral presentations, fieldwork, investigations and artistic performances. Some assessment tasks are marked internally by teachers and some are assessed internally but externally moderated by the IB. Some assessments are conducted by the career-related provider.

Further Information

For general information on the CP, see the IBO website.

More information on the IB Diploma at Discovery College, see our Senior School Prospectus.

DISCOVERY COLLEGE CAREER-RELATED PROGRAMME.