A Quarterly Publication from ContactPoint Vol. 16, No. 3 Summer 2012

TheBulletinIn this issue

CERIC’s 2011 Survey of Career Service Professionals revealed that a majority of career practitioners identified labour market information (LMI) as an area in which they needed professional development. The creation of our new Reports & Trends section on the ContactPoint website answers the need, while this issue of The Bulletin seeks to advance the conversation.

Rick Miner, with his Jobs of the Future report, discusses the effects an aging population and an emerging knowledge economy will have on the labour market, and how we should adapt.

The result of a partnership between CERIC and the Green Skills Network, the Emerging Green Jobs in Canada labour market report examines the possibilities of entry-level em-ployment in the green economy in Canada.

From careers in agriculture to the arts, this issue of The Bulletin explores the country’s labour markets. As well, a contribution from the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada highlights opportunities in the booming Canadian oil sands sector.

Check The Bulletin online for exclusive web-only content, including the full-length version of First Do No Harm by Valerie G. Ward and Dorothy I. Riddle, about the limiting beliefs of career practitioners.

Enjoy the issue, then share your ideas, experiences and best LMI resources through our social media.

Jobs of the Future 1

The Future of the Oil Sands Workforce 4

Emerging Green Jobs in Canada 5

Network Your Jobs 6

Career Development in Plant Agriculture 7

Help Build a Career as an Artist at Canadianartschool.ca 8

Hot Links 8

A Three-Pronged Partnership for Change 9

First Do No Harm 10

Special Report: Assessment Tools Continue to Top PD Wish List 12

Conference Sketch 14

The Get the Life You Love Campaign 15

Contactpoint: Reports & Trends 16

Upcoming Events 18

What’s New 20

Jobs of THE FUTURE— by Rick Miner

We are about to encounter a crisis that will challenge our economic well-being and shake the foundations of our institutions and social structures. We cannot escape the changes that lie just in front of us, but we can prepare. The effectiveness of our response or plan depends upon the creativity and determination we are prepared to apply to meeting this challenge.

Two years ago our People without Jobs, Jobs without People report drew attention to the crisis arising from the intersection of two transformational changes: an aging population and an emerging knowledge economy. Our new report, Jobs of the Future, updates those findings and then

suggests ways that we can better prepare for these jobs.

Let’s first look at the issues surrounding our aging population. As the baby boomer generation advances into the age of normal retirement, there will be a significant decline in the proportion of our population in the prime working years of 15 to 64.

Using Government of Canada data, the projected shortfall in the availability of workers is expected to rise to at least 1.4 million and possibly to as high as 3.9 million by 2031, depending on the assumptions of population growth used.

continued >>

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

THIS ISSUE

2 The Bulletin

ConferenCe rates

Register early for best savings! Super Saver(by AuguSt 31, 2012)

Early bird(by OCtObER 31, 2012)

Regular(AFtER OCtObER 31, 2012)

Regular $395 $450 $500

Member of Supporting Organization $355 $405 $475

Student $250 $250 $250

NatioNal Career DevelopmeNt CoNfereNCe

CERIC, the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling, presents Cannexus — Canada’s largest bilingual National Career Development Conference promoting the exchange of ground-breaking ideas, innovative approaches and strategies in career development, education, research and counselling. Cannexus13 is expected to bring together 750+ career professionals from all sectors.

January 28-30, 2013The Westin Ottawa

Mark tewksburyMark Tewksbury is the star athlete who burst out of the water at the Barcelona Olympics, an Olympic Champion with

gold, silver and bronze medals and a cover appearance on Time magazine. Mark is the chef de mission for the 2012 Canadian Olympic team competing in London.

Cindy blaCkstoCkDr. Cindy Blackstock is the Executive Director of the First Nations Child and Family Caring Society of Canada,

and Associate Professor at the University of Alberta. Her key interests include exploring and addressing the causes of disadvantage for Aboriginal children.

roxanne sawatzkyRoxanne Sawatzky is the President and Founder of Empowering Change, a leading organization empowering innovative service

providers to enhance interactions with multi-barriered individuals.

• EffectiveCounselling&FacilitationTechniques

• LabourMarketInformation

• CareerAssessmentTools

• Post-Secondary&GraduateEmployment

• SocialMediainJobSearch

• TalentManagement&LeadershipDevelopment

• CareerCentreManagement

• WorkingwithDiversePopulations(e.g.Newcomers,Youth-at-Risk,Aboriginals)

More than 100 education sessions will cover:

Register today at Cannexus.ca!Cannexus is presented by CeriC and supported by the Counselling foundation of Canada with a broad network of supporting organizations.

presented by:

keynote sPeakers

Go in-dePth at these Pre-ConferenCe workshoPs:

» Roxanne Sawatzky, Case Management 101 » Jordan LeBel & Harold Simpkins, “Marketing Yourself”

as an Essential Career-Building Skill Today » Joanne Stuart, Supercharge Your Presentation Skills » Gray Poehnell, Hope-Filled Engagement through Mattering

† Check Cannexus.ca for a list of supporting organizations†† Group rates are also available

PRICESDoNoTINCLuDEHST

Excellent opportunities for Sponsors, Exhibitors and Advertisers.

debbie Muir Debbie Muir is one of Canada’s greatest coaches, is an internationally recognized leader, and continues to be a person of influence

within the Canadian sport system. Debbie supports coaches and leaders in creating the best possible environment for world-class results to happen.

contactpoint.ca 3

So, even in the midst of an economic slowdown or recession, we clearly need to understand the serious nature of the looming labour shortage. But that is only half the story that propels this situation into a crisis.

Second, the emergence of the knowledge economy demands that the proportion of the labour force with education or training beyond high school must increase, and increase dramatically. Using a variety of Canadian and U.S. estimates and projections, the evidence indicates that by 2031, 77% of our workforce will need to have post-secondary credentials, whether apprenticeship, university, college, polytechnic, professional or industry sponsored. Canada currently has slightly above 60%, although those in the 25 to 34 age group are higher at just over 66%.

So where do we turn for solutions? Increasing the size of our total population through immigration would help, but it will not solve the problem. Increasing the participation rates of those currently under-represented in the labour force definitely needs to be a priority. As well, we need to explore ways of accelerating the graduation rates of our post-secondary students, increasing employer-provided training, improving literacy rates and creating a more integrated educational system. But what is perhaps the greatest need is a change in attitudes towards post-secondary education. We simply have to accept that the vast majority of our young people must aspire to and achieve post-secondary education or training.

How we can achieve this, and create a more competitive economic environment occupies a major part of our Jobs of the Future report. In this regard, it is important that we realize that we are not alone in confronting this challenge. Most

of the developed world is in the same predicament and, as a consequence, we will face stiff competition. The jurisdiction, whether province, region, state or country, that successfully and proactively figures out how to meet these challenges will capture a significant strategic advantage. We need to find ways to create more jobs, and more of these will need to be new jobs. We will have to prepare more students to be ready to fill these new jobs. This will require major changes to our post-secondary systems and creating new partnerships among parties that have hitherto not worked together. These new jobs will come about in a variety of ways, some more predictable than others.

Finally, and to illustrate the approach being proposed, the Jobs of the Future report takes one major trend, aging, and examines it

more closely in terms of its impact on the labour force and the types of new jobs that may emerge. Many of the trends discussed will have impacts that are more local than many people appear to realize. As a consequence, each community (at whatever level it is appropriate to locate that concept) must make its own decisions about what will have the greatest impact on them and what strategic response they will adopt.

Dr. Rick Miner is President of Miner and Miner Ltd., a management consulting firm that specializes in labour force demand, jobs of the future, human resource management and post-secondary education. He served as Seneca College’s President from August 2001 to July 2009 and previously held positions at the University of New Brunswick and Saint Mary’s University.

Jobs of THE FUTURE<< continued from cover

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

The evidence indicates that by 2031, 77% of our workforce will need to have post-secondary credentials.

Canada currently has slightly above 60%.

To read the Jobs of the Future report, visit minerandminer.ca.

4 The Bulletin

The Future of theOIL SANDS WORkFORCEWhat a Difference a Decade Makes

— by Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada

Alberta’s oil sands operations sector employed just over 20,000 workers in 2011 and is projected to grow to 35,000 by 2021 (an increase of over 73%), according to a recent report by the Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada. Increased production, combined with age-related attrition and competition from other industries, means the oil sands will need to fill over 23,000 vacancies over the next decade.

“Demand for more workers is being driven primarily by production growth in the sector,” explained Cheryl Knight, Executive Director and CEO of the Council. “The supply of skilled workers remains very tight. Going forward, two major labour market risks will be age-related attrition and competition from other industries.”

Moreover, demographic shifts are creating significant skill shortages where younger workers cannot effectively replace experienced retiring workers, and there are shifts happening within the industry changing the types of workers required.

The following is a list of the top 10 occupations that will experience the greatest hiring requirements over the next decade:

1. Steam-ticketed operators 2. Heavy equipment operators 3. Petroleum engineers4. Engineering managers 5. Facility operations and

maintenance managers 6. Heavy-duty mechanics 7. Primary production managers 8. Instrumentation technicians 9. Mechanical engineers 10. Industrial electricians

Action Needed

Ensuring access to an innovative, productive and stable workforce is a key factor in the sustainability and cost management equation.

“The boom years of 2006 and 2007 showed the negative impact labour and skill shortages can have on the sector’s ability to do business,” said Knight. “Since then, companies have devoted time and resources to minimizing the impacts of labour shortages on their corporate sustainability and growth.”

A variety of strategies can be employed to address these issues:

> Companies can draw talent from diverse labour supply pools, build internal capacity with workforce development, retain the baby boom population longer, enhance worker mobility, and recruit workers from outside the industry.

> Governments can communicate with industry to understand labour and skill requirements, enhance programs to grow the number of qualified workers in Canada, improve interprovincial recognition of credentials, and streamline access to international talent.

> Labour supply organizations can communicate the industry’s workforce requirements to labour supply pools; plan education and training programs to support labour and skill needs; promote training programs to diverse audiences of potential students; strengthen partnerships among industry, governments, community organizations and educational institutions; and offer online and on-site training programs.

> Career counsellors can play an important role by recommending to their clients training, education and occupational choices that fill the gaps in the oil sands’ workforce requirements.

The Petroleum Human Resources Council of Canada develops innovative and strategic human resources solutions to prepare the oil and gas industry to address its current and future labour challenges.

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

For a snapshot of Labour Market Conditions in B.C. and a report on Apprenticeship Trades in Saskatchewan, see our web-only articles in the Summer 2012 Bulletin at contactpoint.ca.

For more information on the council’s LMI products, visit petrohrsc.ca.

contactpoint.ca 5

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

Emerging Green JobsIN CANADA— by Green Skills Network

With the support of the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC), the Green Skills Network has published Emerging Green Jobs in Canada, a labour market research report that provides insight for employment counsellors into the changing labour market and its potential for entry-level employment.

The report includes a two-part literature review on the green economy and specifically on the renewable energy and energy conservation sectors, addressing questions such as what the green economy is and how the transition to such an economy is affecting the labour market. It also addresses where the employment opportunities lie within the green economy and what occupations are found in the generation of renewable energy and energy conservation.

Additionally, the report includes a number of tools for employment counsellors and job developers to use to connect their clients to employment and training opportunities in the green economy. These tools are as follows:

> Job task analyses for six common green jobs that outline the job description, responsibilities, essential skills and experience, and qualifications for each of the occupations.

> An inventory of training programs, provided by private trainers, and public and private colleges, for jobs related to renewable energy and energy conservation. The inventory provides details on the courses available in each institution, such as duration, cost, course requirements and contact details.

> An inventory of employers that provide services in renewable energy and energy conservation. Contact details for each employer are included.

> An online and interactive map of renewable energy and energy conservation projects across the country. These projects serve as additional leads to connect clients to employers and projects.

> Case studies on five successful green jobs training programs, each with a different training and business model that fits the needs of the organizations and partners involved. These case studies demonstrate the variety of models that can be developed and implemented in different communities.

The Green Skills Network (greenskillsnetwork.ca) is a department of First Work and serves to close labour market gaps by connecting entry-level workers to emerging green employment opportunities. For more information, contact Justine Katz at jkatz@firstwork.org.

print and online packages available

ADVERTISE WITH US!

416.929.2510 x127marketing@ceric.ca

» ContactPoint is a multi-sector online community for professionals in the career development field

» The site (contactpoint.ca) has more than 100,000 unique visitors annually

» ContactPoint’s The Bulletin is our quarterly publication of career development resources and reflections

To read the full Green Jobs report, visit ceric.ca and click on “Projects.”

6 The Bulletin

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

As career practitioners, it is a reality that, at various points in our lives, we will have to use for ourselves the advice that we give to our clients. In this personal account of her own job hunting, Laura Henshaw, who graduated in 2010 from the Career and Work Counsellor (CWC) program at George Brown College, tells us of her experience finding work as a career practitioner, still at the beginning of her career, in a difficult labour market. Lessons learned? Do not look down on volunteering and temporary work as a way to get experience and create ties! And also, network, network, network!

I had already decided that after years of school it was time for a much needed break. I spent most of 2011 in Australia travelling, as well as working in various administrative positions. I came back to Canada just in time for Christmas/seasonal jobs— or so I thought. I had hoped that it would be easy for me to find a temporary job, so that I could focus on finding work in my field after Christmas; however, it appeared that these industries started hiring for seasonal positions much earlier than I had remembered.

As it turned out, the work I really needed came not from answering ads or sending resumes, but from my network. I had updated my Facebook status a couple times before I moved back home to Canada asking my friends if they knew of any places that were hiring seasonally or more long-term. After only three days of being home, I received a message from my former supervisor at York University’s Career Centre regarding a three-month opportunity there. I had completed a practicum placement there during my studies in the CWC program, working as a Job Search Advisor. The Career Centre was a place that I really enjoyed working at—during my practicum, my colleagues were so friendly, willing to help and very welcoming, but I did not expect that my practicum could turn into a work contract with them, especially a year and a half later! Needless to say, I was glad I had kept in contact with them after my practicum had ended.

After a couple of days of correspondence, I was told I had a job as a Co-op & Internship Assistant starting the following week—just in time for Christmas, and before the rush of the 2011 graduates from the CWC program started their own job searches. My role was mostly research-based—looking up resources on co-op and

internship programs at other colleges and universities, seeing what resources these programs had to assist students and looking for new employers to reach out to about the newly expanded internship program.

During this time, I started my dreaded job search for other options once the contract would be over, but I found that while I was applying to many different opportunities, there was a lot of competition for these jobs.

However, as the end of my contract was approaching, it was extended for a few more weeks; and again, when it came to a definite end, the Career Centre offered me another temporary position, filling in temporarily for the Career Centre’s Events Co-ordinator, as my colleague in the role had taken up another job opportunity for the next few months. I happily accepted and am currently still filling in for the position almost two months later.

Over the past few months I have experienced for myself one of the biggest lessons that the CWC program taught me—don’t forget about your networks! Networking has proved to be extremely helpful to me, and I am so thankful that I stayed in contact during my year abroad. I now have three different experiences under my belt from York, all of which have taught me so much. I have also learned to keep in mind the different opportunities and benefits that may come from volunteering, placements and contract work—although it may not be ideal at first, the experience I gained through volunteering and practicum placements really ended up being invaluable.

Laura Henshaw has over three years’ experience working at career centres in post-secondary settings. She is currently at York University’s Career Centre.

NETWORk YOuR JOBS— by Laura Henshaw

For more advice for recent career development grads, read Jen Davies’ Improving Your Employability in Tough Economic Times in the Summer Bulletin online at contactpoint.ca.

contactpoint.ca 7

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

Career Development inPLANT AGRICULTURE— by Vijay kumar Bhosekar

Due to the continued growth of the global population and the consequent expanding need for study of food crops and agriculture in general, the outlook for plant agriculture and agriculture experts is excellent. Past agricultural research has created higher yielding crops, crops with better resistance to pests and plant pathogens, and more effective fertilizers and pesticides. Research is still necessary, however, particularly as insects and diseases continue to adapt to pesticides and as soil fertility and water quality continue to need improvement. This article will discuss career opportunities and the labour market in the field of agriculture.

Career Outlook

Emerging biotechnologies will play a large role in agricultural research. Scientists will be needed to apply these technologies to the creation of new food products and other advances. Moreover, increasing demand is expected for biofuels and other agricultural products used in industrial processes. Agricultural scientists will be needed to find ways to increase the output of crops used in these products.

Crop production specialists will also be needed to balance increased agricultural output with protection and preservation of soil, water and ecosystems. They increasingly encourage the practice of sustainable agriculture by developing and implementing plans to manage pests, crops, soil fertility and erosion, and animal waste in ways that reduce the use of harmful chemicals and do little damage to farms and the natural environment. Most plant scientists are consultants, researchers or teachers. Many work for agricultural experiment stations, federal or state/provincial government agencies, industrial firms or universities, as well as in such

international organizations as the Agency for International Development, the United States Department of Agriculture, and the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations.

The agricultural industry has evolved over recent decades with a growing concentration of large firms accounting for an ever-increasing proportion of output. In fact, self-employment has been declining in recent decades, making up less than four in 10 occupations, while industrial farms supply over 75% of output. The gains from technology have made a degree in agriculture increasingly important for those seeking to enter the industry, as large firms draw upon technical advances to improve efficiency. Agriculture sciences allow students who graduate opportunities in farm management, production agriculture, or research and development. The courses focus on Life and Physical Sciences, Animal Science and Plant Science.

Labour Market Outlook

Graduates have the opportunity to work in education, business, government or the non-profit sector. Approximately 14% of graduates take positions in one of the

three levels of government. As the quality and quantity of our food continues to be a hot issue, our economy will continue to focus on the products being generated by agricultural sciences graduates, and job opportunities under this focus will continue to be between good and excellent, especially for those willing to gain their master’s or PhD. Workers within the field can expect to earn roughly $25,000 to $50,000 with a degree, depending on the particular skill set they bring to the market. Those seeking improved job prospects should focus on developing technical skills that will allow them to remain valuable to employers.

Vijay kumar Bhosekar, P.Ag, EPt, came to Canada in 2005 with a Doctorate in Crop Production and more than 20 years of teaching and research experience as an Associate Professor in ANGR Agricultural University, India. He has published more than 75 peer-reviewed scientific publications and has presented at seminars, symposia and conferences.

As the quality and quantity of our food continues to be a hot issue, job opportunities for agricultural sciences graduates will continue to be

between good and excellent.

8 The Bulletin

The Counselling Foundation of Canada provided a two-year grant in 2010 to the Canadian Art Foundation (CAF) to support the development of a new career-related website, canadianartschool.ca. The Canadian Art Foundation is a charitable organization that supports the visual arts in Canada with a mission to promote the understanding and appreciation of the field by providing an informative, provocative and lively forum for audiences to engage with artists and their works. Canadian Art magazine and canadianartschool.ca are two of CAF’s cornerstone initiatives. Canadianartschool.ca was launched in January 2011 as a means of supporting those who are interested in pursuing a career in visual arts or those currently in the art and design field seeking to enhance their career training and professional development.

Canadianartschool.ca features content targeted to teachers, students and parents that would certainly also be of help to career service professionals. This comprehensive site includes career profiles and guidance on art education and cultural careers with much of this material focusing on practical, “how-to” topics relating to art school and building a successful career. Users can also get advice from experts in the field on making the most of their art-school experience. For instance, tips and tricks are offered on get-ting a start in the art world, from internships to portfolios to networking. The website likewise has teacher resources including four curriculum guides and videos about various art and design topics (from graphic design to painting to photography and new media), and short videos featuring artists, curators, writers and other Canadians who are leaders in the cultural field. The site also includes a comprehensive directory of art schools across Canada from universities with art programs to dedicated post-secondary art colleges to continuing education institutions.

The Canadian Art Foundation is very pleased to offer this new website that will provide much-needed guidance about art and design career-related matters. This website will prove to be an invaluable resource for those who are interested in a career in art and design, those involved in the field seeking to enhance their careers, and career practitioners who have clients looking for a way to find their place in the exciting world of visual arts.

Ann Webb is the Executive Director of the Canadian Art Foundation.

Help Build a Career as an ArtistAT CANADIANARTSCHOOL.CA— by Ann Webb

LABOUR MARkET INFORMATION

HOT LINkS STEM Career

Run by Rich Feller at the University of Colorado, this site helps raise awareness of career options in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) with resources for career counsellors, educators, parents and students.stemcareer.com

Making Career Sense of Labour Market Information (LMI)This online booklet is geared at career practitioners and helps them find, understand and interpret LMI, so they can use it in their work. workapedia.ca/career-practitioners/making-career-sense-lmi

Working in CanadaPowered by the Government of Canada, the Working in Canada website provides job-seekers, workers and newcomers with information on the Canadian labour market.workingincanada.gc.ca

Making Sense of Labour Market Information

This booklet, produced by the Government of Alberta, helps job-seekers to interpret labour market information in order to facilitate decisions about their career and their job search.alis.alberta.ca/pdf/cshop/LabourMarketInfo.pdf

OECD Skills StrategySkills.oecd is a web portal that presents all the most recent OECD reports, data and videos related to skills, including its Skills Strategy, launched in May 2012.skills.oecd.org

Where’s the Work?This report, resulting from a partnership between Life Strategies and the Canadian Career Development Foundation, aims at providing career practitioners with a better view of the various settings where they can find work.bit.ly/MU5INd

Please visit canadianartschool.ca to familiarize yourself with its content and check back regularly as new material is updated on an ongoing basis.

contactpoint.ca 9

A Three-ProngedPARTNERSHIP FOR CHANGEPositive Outcomes for Aboriginal, Rural and Remote Students

— by kathy Harris

For the past three years, a new kind of business/education/career service partnership has been helping build Canada’s future—one person at a time. This is their partnership story.

Recognizing a Gap

Kathy Harris, now President of Jobmatics, (whose mandate is to equip individuals and organizations with the tools and skills to set compelling and aligned career journeys) recognized an urgent need created by the shift in Canada’s work paradigm. The world is moving from an industrial, top-down way of operating to an information-dense, shared responsibility way of doing business. This shift requires all workers, including young people entering the workforce, to know how to recognize work that is a good fit.

Moreover, rapidly advancing technologies and expanding markets/competition mean constant change. Constant change means constant learning—only compelling if people are drawn to what they are learning about.

Good fits for work and learning have become critical success factors for Canada’s economy. However, current and emerging workers do not know how to identify work and learning that is a good fit for them. This was the gap Kathy filled by creating her career decision-making process—Career Focusing™.

A Partnership is Born

Elaine Stewart, an employee of the Government of the Northwest Territories, Department of Education, Culture and Employment (ECE), learned about Career Focusing™ and recognized it immediately

as a missing piece in their classrooms. The good news was Career Focusing™ had already been developed into a classroom-ready program by Penny Hopkins, a guidance and career education department head, who recognized the need for a how-to program. Penny also co-authored a little-sister program (Smart Focusing™) for junior high students. Together, the programs provide a scoped, sequenced and developmental “how-to-make-career-decisions” program that gives students in grades 7 to 12 the tools and skills they need to make sophisticated career decisions they will stick with.

With full endorsement from ECE, Elaine wanted to implement the program but needed a funding partner. Happily, a mine operating in the Northwest Territories was looking for a sustainable way to invest in their Impact Benefit Agreement (IBA) communities, with a focus on youth. Elaine introduced them to the Jobmatics programs that not only equip teachers with a how-to method to teach their students, but is also sustainable because Jobmatics develops territorial trainers to keep the training and support going. A new kind of partnership was born.

The partnership is unique because businesses/sectors typically partner with education to attract students, but the mine looked beyond this to the broader needs of their communities. They understood that young people who are on compelling career journeys contribute more fully to their families, communities and country. The mine’s funding support is equipping schools to build their students’ capacity in setting career plans and putting them into action thereby becoming fully engaged, highly productive, healthy contributors to their world—wherever their journeys may take them.

The Benefits of the Partnership

Ultimately, the mine (and the mining sector) will benefit both directly and indirectly from their investment. The mine’s IBA community relations are enhanced because they are investing in the youth of these communities. As well, they are underwriting the expansion of a well-educated and focused future labour force pool, which they—and other employers—can draw from. Furthermore, those students who do choose to work for a mine will be more likely to engage in the ongoing learning necessary for advancement.

This mine’s focus is on building students’ capacity to make career decisions they stick with. The outcomes are extremely positive, especially with Aboriginal, rural and remote location students. It is the hope of those involved in this project that other corporate and education groups will see the benefits of building a better Canada—one person at a time—by partnering to bring how-to career decision-making programs to other classrooms across Canada.

kathy Harris, a 35-plus-year veteran of the career industry and President of Jobmatics, is author of a ground-breaking how-to program for making career decisions that take people to work and learning that is a good fit so their decisions have sticking power. It is being used across Canada with people in grade 7 through to retirement to help them recognize work and learning that they will be excited about and committed to doing.

10 The Bulletin

Surrounded by media messages of “tough economic times,” we may inadvertently limit the options we explore with clients. What if our assumptions about limited opportunities are incorrect? A challenge for service providers is that clients see practitioners as authorities on the world of work, whether practitioners view themselves that way or not—after all, that is one of the key reasons clients seek out these services. This perception on the part of clients implies an ethical responsibility for practitioners—a responsibility as professionals to learn and grow and to be aware of our limitations including limiting beliefs. If we avoid this responsibility, we may be engaging in a form of harm known as “dismissiveness,” not recognizing, or trivializing the impact of our assumptions on others.

Data from the Employment Readiness Scale™ (ERS) suggest there are some important gaps in addressing clients’ needs for assistance in managing work and career transitions. We believe there may be a series of limiting beliefs contributing to this issue.

Limiting Belief #1: Tough Economic Times

Our media are filled with headlines about slow recovery from a recession, the jobless rate, plant closures, layoffs, cutbacks and so on—generally a picture of doom and gloom. Added to that is a strongly-held belief that our Canadian economy, including job creation, is tied to the vibrancy of the U.S. economy.

However, Canada as a whole now exports more to Asia than to the United States. Global growth is now centered on Asia, and overall the Asian economy is growing at 8.4%, with China the leader at 9.5%, according to a B.C. stats report from 2011. Also, Canada and the U.S. are facing the

void about to be created by the retirement of millions of baby boomers, starting this year. So the economic picture, taken as a whole, is actually quite optimistic.

Limiting Belief #2: The Best Work Structure

Our typical picture of a “good” job is one of long-term employment in one’s current location, working full-time in an office or plant, with full benefits. Our media tends to criticize any other model, asserting that part-time work is low-paying and marginalizes the worker. On reflection, though, the “good” job scenario can actually be considered a passive, entitlement model. Once hired, the worker simply follows a job description and expects regular increases in pay and benefits.

Charles Handy was one of the first to begin speaking positively about a different model. Over 20 years ago he made the distinction between “core” workers and “portfolio” workers, asserting that the portfolio life was actually more secure than a one-income life. Handy maintains that proactively seeking out several different contracts offers more security than being dependent on a single employer who could choose to terminate one’s employment at any time.

What we see emerging is a wide range of work structures. For instance, if labour mobility is assumed, then there is a wider range of choices for workers who come to service providers just looking for full-time employment with a single employer. If the growing trend towards distance working (teleworking) is accepted, then the field broadens considerably. A more proactive work structure model is that of the portfolio worker. Here the person markets their skills to a range of companies, remaining an independent contractor.

Limiting Belief #3: Drawbacks of a Portfolio Life

The usual assumption is, without a full-time job, a person would have no pension or insurance benefits. Further, working on one’s own, whether as a teleworker or a portfolio worker, is assumed to be lonely.

With the growth of “solopreneurs,” the supports for individuals have changed. Association memberships and their networking activities can provide social and business support. For instance, the B.C. Chamber of Commerce now has an affordable group plan that is available to individual self-employed persons who are members of a Chamber of Commerce. It includes life insurance, dental and health insurance, and business overhead insurance.

A newer trend that has spread to over 20 countries is “co-working” where a number of portfolio workers share a business office, high-speed Internet and networking opportunities so that they have social contacts and support.

Limiting Belief #4: The Basis of Success

There are factors critical to success that may not be considered in a traditional assessment at an employment services office. More and more companies are looking for persons who have an innovative mindset, can problem solve, learn quickly and communicate effectively across cultures. The portfolio worker also has to be able to identify needs to be met in their community, or other arenas into which they have connections, and match these needs with their own skills and experience.

First Do No HarmExpanding Our Thinking About Opportunities

— by Dorothy I. Riddle and Valerie G. Ward

contactpoint.ca 11

Limiting Belief #5: Self-Employment Requires Advanced Education

When thinking about the types of contracts a portfolio worker might obtain, often the focus is on specialized professional skills that would require a post-secondary education. There is an assumption that, without advanced education, workers are limited to dead-end, low-paying jobs.

In 1999, the Canada Career Consortium compiled a resource handbook called Career Directions—Occupations: University Not Required. While some of these require specific experience, others are suggestive of areas that might be of interest to clients who position themselves as portfolio workers or solopreneurs. Here are some current examples: a highly-organized person could become a clutter consultant. A person with an excellent sense of space and design could become a home stager for real estate companies. Other possibilities include cleaning and maintenance, meal preparation for working parents, personal assistant to run errands and so forth.

Considering Professional Development

For clients who are aware of their skills and interests and have realistic expectations, the work opportunities are almost limitless. Using Vance Peavy’s model for adult learning (1992), career and employment counselling practitioners have three areas of professional development to consider:

1. Perceptual awareness. Becoming aware of one’s own limiting beliefs, clients’ limiting beliefs, and the realities of alternate work structures.

2. Discretionary judgment. Screening clients differently so the options of alternate work structures emerge,

and ensuring there are interventions available that support clients in evaluating and choosing alternate work structures such as portfolio work.

3. Skillful practice. Creating an alternate screening protocol and having patience with oneself as one learns a new approach.

One of the policy issues that will need to be addressed is how a service provider’s success is measured. If we assume the various forms of self-employment are only for a minority of clients and “not as good as” full-time jobs, we may overlook the potential of valuable interventions such as business readiness programs. If we define success primarily in terms of clients acquiring a full-time job or completing a training program, then helping clients explore alternate models such as portfolio work will not be a priority. To ensure we work towards expanding rather than limiting clients’ visions of what is possible for them, we need to continue to evolve our outcome measures to similarly expand what is acknowledged as success.

Valerie Ward, MA, has over 30 years’ experience developing programs, learning resources, partnerships and strategies to address the career development and labour market adjustment needs of service providers and their clients. Co-developer and owner of the Employment Readiness Scale™ (EmploymentReadiness.info), she heads Valerie G. Ward Consulting Ltd. near Vancouver.

Dorothy I. Riddle, PhD, is a certified management consultant, psychologist, economic development and social change specialist and award-winning author. She heads Service-Growth Consultants (servicegrowth.com/blog), co-developed the Employment Readiness Scale™ and currently manages its operations. She has trained hundreds of employment service providers in Canada, the U.S., Australia and the U.K.

Elizabeth McTavish

BursaryApply by September 28 for a bursary to Cannexus13!In recognition of Elizabeth McTavish’s invaluable contribution to the field of career counselling, The Counselling Foundation of Canada is providing a select number of bursaries for a full registration at the Cannexus conference ($500 value) plus $150 for expenses.

Applications must be from non-profit, non-legislated, community-based organizations. Bursaries will be awarded based on regional equity.

During a year of economic uncertaintyamong not-for-profits, the ElizabethMcTavish Bursary allowed me anexperience that would not have beenotherwise available. As a youngprofessional, I truly value Cannexus.At the conference, I was able to learnmany new techniques along withhearing many inspirational speakers.The bursary goes a long way inpromoting the professionaldevelopment of counsellorscoast to coast.

Ben McNamaraEmployment Counsellor Multicultural Association of Fredericton Elizabeth McTavish Bursary recipient

Cannexus is presented annually by CERIC, the Canadian Education and Research

Institute for Counselling.

Cannexus13 will take place January 28-30, 2013 in Ottawa.

For a bursary application, please visit Cannexus.ca. Contact us with any

questions at 416.929.2510 or cannexus@ceric.ca.

12 The Bulletin

The purpose of this article is to compare some of the findings from CERIC’s Survey of Career Service Professionals 2011 with those of similar surveys CERIC undertook in 2006 and 2007. All three surveys delved into professional development, research, career competency and mobility as well as issues pertaining to technology. Although elements of these surveys differ, a comparison of findings nevertheless offers some very interesting insight. In brief, interest in assessment tools continues to grow and the desire to focus professional development on adults in career transition

has increased greatly. Furthermore, there has been a big drop in the percentage of organizations involved in career development research. Lastly, practitioners in 2007 and 2011 share the same opinion about what skills they need to upgrade to meet their employers’ needs with individual leadership & initiative leading the way. Here are some of the details about what we learned when comparing results from the respective surveys:

Professional Development and Learning

Respondents were asked in 2006 and 2011 where they would like to focus their professional development over the next year. The top five answers provided in these respective surveys showed some interesting differences. The first choice in 2006 is career counselling techniques/interventions (44%), followed closely by career assessment tools and career and labour market information (both at 41%), and individual counselling skills related to the provision of career development services tied with trends and issues in the workplace at 38%. Career assessment tools gained three pointst (44%) and are the first choice in 2011. It is followed by career and labour market information (down five points to 36%), future trends—macro global business issues (32%), and diverse populations—e.g. new Canadians, rural population, persons with disabilities etc. (27%). Individual

counselling skills related to the provision of career development services is the fifth highest choice at 26% down from 38% in 2006 where it ranked eighth overall.

The respective 2006 and 2011 CERIC surveys also asked what client group career service professionals would most like to focus their professional development upon. Adults in career transition are the top choice of respondents in both years. It is important to note that this client group gained considerable importance over the five-year period as it increased from 48% in 2006 to 63% in 2011. The other top five choices in 2006 are students/graduates (45%), youth (37%), new Canadians/immigrants (32%) and older workers (26%). The gap between the first and the second choice is much more pronounced in 2011. Whereas the difference is only three per cent in 2006, there is a 23% drop off in the most recent survey as post-secondary students is far below adults in career transition at 40%. The unemployed (37%) ranked third, followed by new Canadians/immigrants (34%) and people belonging to a sexual minority group (33%).

Research

Several questions were asked about research in the 2006 and 2011 surveys that provide interesting comparisons across time. For instance, more than half (58%) of 2006 respondents note that their organization is involved in career development research compared to slightly less than a quarter

SPECIAL REPORT:

Assessment Tools Continue to TopPD WISH LISTSurveys Also Show a Big Drop in Career Development Research over Past Five Years

— by Mario R. Gravelle

The Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) plays a part in generating primary data about the career counselling and career development field. CERIC recently carried out a survey to uncover the opinions of career service professionals. The online survey was conducted between October 14 and November 18, 2011. Participants were recruited via an open call across CERIC’s e-mail lists. Supporting organizations also forwarded the survey notification to broaden representation. It was completed by 1,013 respondents from the field. CERIC undertook similar surveys in 2006 and 2007. Whereas 765 career service professionals completed the 2006 survey, 503 answered it in 2007.

For more detailed findings about the 2011 survey please consult the Highlights Report: Survey of Career Service Professionals available (in French and English) on the CERIC website (ceric.ca). Thematic articles will also be distributed via The Bulletin throughout 2012.

contactpoint.ca 13

(23%) in 2011. A follow-up question about the type of research being undertaken shows some differences over time as well. Qualitative research more than doubled (from 22% to 50%) while quantitative research saw a two-fold increase (from 19% to 38%). By comparison, follow-up studies only experienced a slight increase from 2006 to 2011 (from 25% to 28%). Consequently, it has fallen from the most prominent type of career development research to the least.

The percentage of career service professionals that evaluate the impact of career counselling/career development programs or services has remained largely the same from 2006 to 2011. A total of 54% of respondents mention doing so in the earlier survey compared to 60% in the latest poll. Both surveys asked a follow-up question about the type of information that these evaluations focus upon. While every category decreased, changes in client attitudes, knowledge and/or skills after an intervention experienced the most significant change as it dropped by almost half (from 74% in 2006 to 38% in 2011). It is now by far the least popular measure tracked in evaluations by career service professionals.

Career Competency and Mobility

The 2007 and 2011 surveys included a question about how career service professionals felt they could upgrade their skills to meet their employers’ needs. Team building & motivation (77%) was voted the top ranked competency enhancement opportunity in 2007 while individual leadership & initiative (66%) received the highest mark by 2011 respondents. The next four in the earlier survey are: Negotiation & conflict management (76%); individual leadership & initiative (72%); judgment & decision making (71%); and priority setting, managing work, delegation & follow-up

(70%). Rounding out the top five in 2011 are performance evaluation & support (65%), team-building & motivation (64%), negotiation & conflict management (63%) and judgment & decision-making (59%). It is interesting to note that two choices saw very significant decreases from 2006 compared to 2011. While 62% stated that enhancing their skills in operational awareness would suit their employer’s needs in 2007, only 36% did so in the most recent survey. Customer service orientation experienced a similar decrease as it dropped 22 points between 2007 and 2011 (from

70% to 48%). It consequently lost some ground in the ranking from fifth to tenth most important.

Mario R. Gravelle joined The Counselling Foundation of Canada in early 2011 as Learning and Innovation Analyst. His responsibilities include instituting and overseeing knowledge capture and knowledge transfer activities about projects that the foundation supports. Gravelle is completing his doctoral dissertation in history at York University (BA from Concordia University and MA from the University of Ottawa).

What types of research are you undertaking? (Select all that apply)

If you are currently evaluating your program, what are you focusing upon? (Select all that apply)

Qualitative Research

Changes in client attitudes, knowledge and/or skills

after an intervention

50%

Quantitative Research

Follow-up Studies

Track client outcomes (i.e. job/return to school)

Track client satisfaction

22%19%

38%

25% 28%

2006 2011

74%

38%

83%

53%

88%

57%

14 The Bulletin

CONFERENCE SkETCH A Review of the Nova Scotia Career Development Association 2012 Conference

— by Patrick Brush

The 14th Annual NSCDA Career Development Conference—“Hoped-filled Approaches to Career Development” was held on May 30 – June 1 in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. This conference has continued to offer a place for career practitioners within the province to connect and be open to new ideas that assist us and challenge us in the work that we do. This year was no exception, as we had Gray Poehnell as our pre-conference workshop facilitator presenting on Guiding Circles. Gray also delivered the keynote address on Hope-filled Engagement, challenging us to be respectfully present to those with whom we work. Gray also facilitated a workshop on the topic of Mattering on the final morning of the conference. The feedback for Gray was very positive.

We were also fortunate to have Joan Jessome, President of the Nova Scotia Government Employee’s Union, with us as our conference closing speaker. She shared her remarkable life story which inspired us and made clear the source of her extraordinary commitment to social justice. Joan also spoke to us about her passion for her career— advocating for

the rights of workers and all those who are marginalized in Nova Scotia. I believe that it is important for the career development sector to hear from, and make better connections with, the labour movement. One person wrote that they found Joan inspiring and hopeful. Her talk challenged us to remember that advocacy is hope in action.

This year there was real growth and excitement with the conference. Three events were held in conjunction with the main conference: a Mental Health Charting the Course pre-conference session; a Career Summit Dinner hosted by Career Cruising; and a networking luncheon hosted by CERIC. We were also fortunate to have many talented presenters who offered 30 diverse workshops. This year was our first year to have these workshops coded to the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners.

The conference this year, while a positive event, also challenged us as it called upon us to be hopeful in challenging economic and social times, where many of our clients, and in fact we as career practitioners, are

feeling less hopeful than usual due to the current labour market conditions. In fact the current labour market conditions in Canada and beyond are going through drastic changes that affect both those who are not working and those who are. This year the conference was under pressure, as organizations and government departments that have traditionally sent their employees to the conference in the past were under considerable funding restraints. As well, core funding that we have always received in the past was cut in half. The Conference Planning Committee worked particularly hard to find new sources of funding and stay within our budget!

The conference serves a vital component in providing a place to connect with one another and learn best practices in career development. For many of us working in the field it can be challenging to stay hopeful in our work when more and more, on a daily basis, we witness injustice, inequality, poverty and other social ills. Gray Poehnell and Joan Jessome both provided some solid examples for us on how to be hopeful and committed to our clients in these challenging times. It is my hope that we use this wisdom to work at influencing systems so they better meet the needs of those who we are working for, our clients.

Patrick Brush, BA, B.S.W., S.W.C., has a Bachelor of Social Work degree from the University of Calgary and currently works as a career practitioner, doing case management with unemployed adults. Patrick lives and works in the Annapolis Valley of Nova Scotia for PeopleWorx, and was Chair of the 2012 Annual Nova Scotia Career Development Association Conference. Contact him at pbrush@peopleworx.ca.

Gray Poehnell and Joan Jessome both provided some solid examples for us on how to be hopeful and committed to our clients

in these challenging times.

contactpoint.ca 15

THE GET THE LIFE You LovE CAMPAIGNIncluding National Career Development Week – The Australian Experience

— by karen Penrose

The aim of the Get the life you love campaign (including National Career Development Week) is to promote public awareness of career development. The campaign encourages all Australians to develop the skills to manage their own life, learning and work across the lifespan. The campaign is an initiative of the Career Industry Council of Australia and has been funded by the federal government since 2006.

Although the celebration week (National Career Development Week) is held in the third week of May each year, the campaign is a yearlong initiative which supports careers events held throughout the year.

In Australia today it is of increasing importance to link education and training to the world of work and support young people to make informed choices about their future education, training and employment options.

From the beginning of the campaign it became apparent that while careers advisers in most Australian educational institutions have career development qualifications, most did not have “event management experience” and many found it a challenge to develop creative ideas for events and activities—especially events to engage young people. Consequently, the campaign provides not just encouragement but also the ideas and easy-to-use resources to people working with Australians of all ages to organize career development activities. While a large percentage of registered events each year

are organized by qualified careers advisers, approximately 25% are organized by people working in community programs and government departments.

Feedback has indicated that the most significant reason for the continued and growing support of the campaign has been the provision of easy-to-use resources that have been developed by the campaign and which are available for download through the campaign website. These resources include:

> Career Factsheets—including 13 student Career Factsheets; 10 workforce Career Factsheets, three Career Seminar and Expo Factsheets/Worksheets as well as Event Templates

> Videos (28 career development message videos on our YouTube Channel—AusCareerWeek)

> Downloadable Chatterbox activities (for younger students)

> Event ideas and “How to” Templates to help people to organize a career development event or activity

In the early years, the campaign was based solely on the provision of the inspiration and resources, however to assist in the development of our understanding of the requirements of careers advisers and everyday Australians, a “direct-engagement” approach has been incorporated into the Campaign. This has resulted in the campaign team hosting a career development information

booth at National Careers Expos and the team organizing a series of Get the life you love Community Forums around the country. This interaction with students making career decisions and adults in career transition has assisted us to develop new resources for the campaign.

The Community Forums were designed to inspire students and individuals to “get the life they love” through understanding that they need to know their interests, skills, options and opportunities to make a successful transition into an increasingly complex labour market. The Get the life you love Community Forums have been extremely successful, with students reporting an increased “motivation to investigate their career options” as a result of attending the Forum. The Forums, hosted by a well-known MC, include three celebrity guest speakers (TV, radio or sportspeople—that students recognize and respect) and six local “every day” people with inspiring career stories. Guest speakers are asked to draw from their own personal career journey to inspire and motivate students.

karen Penrose is the Project Director of the Get the life you love campaign (including National Career Development Week). Karen has over 15 years’ experience managing national careers projects. More information about the Australian Get the life you love campaign is available on the campaign website—getthelifeyoulove.com.au.

16 The Bulletin

CONTACTPOINT:

REPORTS & TRENDS

ContactPoint is pleased to announce the launch of its Reports & Trends section that allows career practitioners to more readily access information that impacts their work and their clients. The new section includes fact sheets, policy papers and statistical reports about:

> Labour market information

> Recruitment

> Employment policy

> Workplace conditions

> Education and training

> Migration

> Skills development

> Foreign qualifications

> Specific labour market participants (e.g., youth, women, older workers, people with disabilities and new Canadians).

We are gathering this material from over 30 content providers across Canada and the world. Publishers include government, not-for-profit community organizations, think

tanks, financial institutions and public opinion groups. Material is updated on a weekly basis with typically 10 new items added per week.

Here are the highlights of two reports that are currently available:

Older Workers in the Labour Market

TD Economics, a division of TD Canada Trust, publishes labour, finance and industry-related information products. TD Economics published a special report

18 Spadina Road, Suite 200, Toronto, ON

M5R 2S7 | 416.929.2510

Charitable Registration # 86093 7911 RR0001

ceric.ca

Project Partnership Funding AvailableCERIC is currently accepting partnership proposals to develop innovative resources for counselling and career development.

CERIC’s Practical & Academic Research Committee has identified as priority areas:

•Labour market information•Early intervention•Evaluation•Intersection of diversity and work

For more information or to download a Letter of Intent application, visit ceric.ca.

CERIC’s Professional Development & Ongoing Learning Committee has identified as priority areas:

•New emerging career development theories and career management models

•The impact of social media on how career practitioners are doing their work

•Entrepreneurial education and career development

contactpoint.ca 17

in February about older workers in the labour force. The authors argue in Older workers stampeded into the labour market that since the recovery began in mid-2009 individuals aged 60 years and older have accounted for about one-third of all net new job gains.

This is especially striking considering older workers accounted for just 8% of the total labour force. It is explained that nationally most of the job gains during the recovery have been concentrated in service-based industries such as professional, scientific and technical services and health care. While older workers recorded substantial gains in the each of these rapidly growing sectors, they made the most gains in the retail sector.

The report notes that several factors are fuelling the increased participation of older workers in the labour force including: the rise of non-standard employment arrangements, better health outcomes later in life allowing older Canadians to work longer, the end of mandatory retirement, advances in technology which have led to fewer physically intensive occupations, shortages of skilled labour, and having to work because the economic downturn has hurt retirement savings.

Career Preferences of Boys and Girls

The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), formed in 1961 and representing 34 countries, strives to promote policies that will improve the economic and social well-being of people around the world. The OECD published What kinds of careers do boys and girls expect for themselves in 2011 based upon data that asked 15-year-old students what they thought they would be doing in early adulthood.

The report states that in almost all OECD countries, girls are more ambitious than boys. On average, girls were 11% more likely than boys to expect to work in high-status careers such as legislators, senior officials, managers and professionals. The report also notes that in recent years, girls in many countries have caught up with or even surpassed boys in science proficiency.

Better performance in science or mathematics among girls, however, does not necessarily mean that girls want to pursue all types of science-related careers. In fact, careers in engineering or computing still attract relatively few girls. On average among OECD countries, fewer than 5% of girls, but 18% of boys, expected to be working in engineering or computing as young adults. Although few girls expected to enter some science careers in every OECD country, more girls than boys reported that they wanted to pursue a career in health services, a science profession with a caring component.

The authors mention that Charles and Grusky’s concept of cultural gender essentialism may explain these patterns. According to this theory, the preferences of women and men, and subsequently their employment paths, are rooted in cultural and institutional phenomena. The ideology of gender essentialism represents women as “more competent than men in service, nurturance and social interaction.”

CERIC hopes that ContactPoint’s new Reports & Trends section will prove to be a valuable resource for career service professionals. Please visit this section on contactpoint.ca regularly.

Virtual

virtuel

Virtual Cannexus. Convenient &

affordable learning!

Virtual Cannexus brings you videos of some of the top-rated education sessions from the 2012 Cannexus National Career Development Conference.

cannexus.scholarlab.ca

Virtual Cannexus was a great way to ‘attend’ extra sessions from the conference and bring some great content back to share with staff who were not able to attend in person. This is a great resource! 

Presented by:

Sponsored by:

– Jennifer Browne, Director of Career Development & Experiential Learning, Memorial University

Single session is only $24 or buy the whole package for $69!

18 The Bulletin

Canadian Association for Co-operative Education (CAFCE) ConferenceJuLY 29 – AuGuST 1, 2012Whistler, BC, CANADAcafce.ca/en/conference-2012

3rd International Conference on Education and Educational Psychology (ICEEPSY 2012)OCTOBER 10 – 13, 2012Istanbul, TuRkEYiceepsy.org

Literacy and Learning Symposium 2012OCTOBER 17 – 19, 2012Community Learning Network, Literacy Alberta & the Centre for Family LiteracyEdmonton, AB, CANADAliteracylearning.ca

Australia Adult Learners’ WeekSEPTEMBER 1 – 8, 2012Adult Learning, AuSTRALIAadultlearnersweek.org

2012 Recruitment Innovation SummitOCTOBER 16 – 17, 2012Recruiter Networking Group & Human Resources Networking GroupToronto, ON, CANADAhrng.ca/Conference2012

Cannexus13 National Career Development ConferenceJANuARY 28 – 30, 2013Canadian Education & Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC)Ottawa, ON, CANADAcannexus.ca

Learn @ Work WeekSEPTEMBER 17 – 21, 2012Canadian Society for Training andDevelopment (CSTD), CANADAcstd.ca/?page=LWW

Futures (24th Annual) Encouraging Youth ProsperityOCTOBER 17 – 19, 2012First Work, Collingwood, ON, CANADAfirstwork.org/futures For an extensive listing of training

opportunities, visit the Event section of

contactpoint.ca

uPCOMING EVENTS

Graduate Student Engagement ProgramCERIC encourages the engagement of Canada’s full-time graduate students whose academic focus is in career development or related fields. Faculty members are asked to help identify appropriate graduate students.

Through this program, graduate students will be introduced to CERIC and invited to:

•Compete for the CERIC Graduate Student Program Award, which provides funding to attend and present at the Cannexus conference;

•Join one of CERIC’s Committees (one graduate student per year);

•Write articles for ContactPoint / OrientAction or The Canadian Journal of Career Development;

•Participate in a contest held in alternate years for CERIC to publish a relevant thesis;

•Connect with other graduate students through the GSEP Network, a dedicated LinkedIn group.

For more information, contact admin@ceric.ca or visit ceric.ca.

18 Spadina Road, Suite 200, Toronto, ON

M5R 2S7 | 416.929.2510

Charitable Registration # 86093 7911 RR0001

ceric.ca

contactpoint.ca 19

NEW RESEARCHNOUVELLE ÉTUDE

Sondage des spécialistes de l’orientation professionnelle du CERICDownload report at ceric.ca

RESOURCES & PROjECTSRESSOURCES & PROjETS

Assessment Guide for Career and Guidance Counselling

In partnership with / en partenariat avec l’Ordre des conseillers et conseillères d’orientation du Québec (OCCOQ)

Guide d’évaluation en orientation

Career Centre Evaluation: A Practitioner Guide

Évaluation des centres de carrières :Le guide du praticien

Groupe de travail sur les mesures de performance du centre de carrière universitaire

CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals

Téléchargez le rapport à ceric.ca

In partnership with / en partenariat avec University Career Centre MetricsWorking Group

Emerging Green Jobs in Canada

In partnership with / en partenariat avec Green Skills Network (First Work)

Hausse des emplois verts au Canada

CERIC (Canadian Education and

Research Institute for Counselling) is

a charitable organization that advances

education and research in career

counselling and career development.

Le CERIC est un organisme

caritatif voué à la progression de

l’éducation et de la recherche en

matière d’orientation professionnelle

et de développement de carrière.

INITIATIVES

CERIC funds both research as well aslearning and professionaldevelopment projects that advancethe body of knowledge in careercounselling and career developmentin Canada. For more informationabout our current funding prioritiesand project partnership details,please visit ceric.ca.

Le CERIC finance à la fois des projets de recherche et des projets pédagogiques et de développement professionnel qui promeuvent l’ensemble des connaissances dans le domaine de l’orientation professionnelle et du développement de carrière au Canada. Pour de plus amples renseignements sur nos priorités de financement et nos partenariats de projets, visitez le site ceric.ca.

ProjectPartnershipsPartenariatsde projets

Canada’s bilingual National CareerDevelopment Conference promotingthe exchange of information andinnovative approaches for careerdevelopment and counselling.Ottawa, January 28 - 30, 2013.

Cannexus est un congrès national bilingue favorisant l’échange d’informations et d’initiatives novatrices dans le domaine de l’orientation et du développement de carrière. Ottawa, du 28 au 30 janvier 2013.

ContactPoint is a Canadian onlinecommunity program providing career resources, learning and networking for practitioners.

OrientAction est un programmecommunautaire canadien en lignedestiné aux praticiens(iennes), qui fournit des ressources sur le développement professionnel, l’acquisition de connaissances et le réseautage.

The CJCD is a peer-reviewedpublication of career-relatedacademic research and bestpractices. cjcdonline.ca.

La RCDC est une publication évaluée par les pairs qui porte sur la recherche universitaire et les meilleures pratiques. rcdcenligne.ca.

GraduateStudents

Étudiants aux cycles supérieurs

Graduate Student EngagementProgram and Graduate StudentAward. For information,visit ceric.ca.

Programme de mobilisation desétudiants(es) aux cycles supérieurs et Prix des études supérieures. Pour obtenir plus d’informations, veuillez visiter ceric.ca.

ceric.ca18 Spadina Road, Suite 200, Toronto, ON M5R 2S7 | 416.929.2510

Charitable Registration # I Numéro d’enregistrement d’organisme de bienfaisance 86093 7911 RR0001

We’d like to hear from you!Submit an article, or send your comments and suggestions to: contactpoint@ceric.ca.18 Spadina Road, Suite 200, Toronto, Ontario, Canada M5R 2S7 T 416.929.2510 F 416.923.2536 contactpoint.ca

We reserve the right to edit all submissions. See contactpoint.ca for submission guidelines. Views expressed by Bulletin contributors are not necessarily those of CERIC. Mention of programs, services, products and initiatives is not an endorsement of these items.

ContactPoint is a multi-sector online community for professionals in the career development field dedicated to providing interactive dialogue, networking, resources and learning to advance the profession.

ContactPoint is a program of CERIC funded through a grant by The Counselling Foundation of Canada.

WHAT’S NEW

contactpoint.ca

Join Us for Cannexus13!

There are so many ways for you or your organization to get involved at the next Cannexus conference, to be held January 28 – 30, 2013 in Ottawa: as a delegate, a presenter or a sponsor!

We are expecting more than 750 attendees this year—the networking possibilities alone are well worth the admission price! Featuring more than 100 concurrent sessions, keynotes from Cindy Blackstock, Roxanne Sawatzky, Debbie Muir and Mark Tewksbury, as well as an exhibitor showcase, Cannexus is a priceless occasion for learning and professional development. Add a pre-conference workshop (or two!) to maximize your Cannexus experience.

Register as a delegate or an exhibitor before August 31st to save $100 off the regular registration price! Visit Cannexus.ca for more information.

New Sections Added to ContactPoint; Redesign Underway

In addition to the new Reports & Trends section (see page 16 of The Bulletin), the contactpoint.ca website features a new Awards section, focused on the different bursaries and prizes available for career practitioners in Canada. Also, new types of

events were added to our Events board: you can now promote Career Weeks and Career Fairs on ContactPoint.

ContactPoint will not be taking any vacation this summer, as we are busy with the redesign of our website. The new site is anticipated to launch in December. As part of this process, the ContactPoint Task Force, made up of prominent volunteers from the Canadian career practitioner community, is helping us to review and update the resources available on the site.

Have any suggestions for the redesign? Contact us at contactpoint@ceric.ca.

Career Centre Evaluation Guide Recognized

A CERIC-funded project designed to help university career centres better evaluate the impact of their activities has been recognized with a 2012 Outstanding Achievement Award by the Canadian Association of Career Educators & Employers (CACEE).

Career Centre Evaluation: A Practitioner Guide is a customized online resource to help university career centres design effective evaluation strategies. This resource provides a look at how five different career centres have tried to understand the components of evaluation and how they developed tools to use in their settings.

This project was created through a partnership between CERIC and a working group of the career centre leaders at the University of Toronto, Trent University, the University of Waterloo, the University of Western Ontario and the University of Windsor. The evaluation guide can also be used by career centres in other post-secondary as well as community settings. Access the free guide at ceric.ca/careercentreevaluation.

Hope-Centered Career Development with College Students

An international research team under the leadership of Dr. Norman Amundson (University of British Columbia) and Dr. Spencer Niles (Penn State University) is undertaking a CERIC-funded research project on the importance of “hope” for the career exploration and decision-making of entry-level college and university students.

This study will use the Hope-Centered Career Inventory (HCCI) and in-depth interviewing to create a better understanding of how hope contributes to career outcomes such as vocational identity, school engagement, academic achievement and career aspirations. Follow this research at ceric.ca and click on “Projects.”