CERIC is now making available regional breakdowns of its 2015 CERIC Survey of Career Service Professionals for Atlantic Canada, Quebec, Ontario, Prairies and British Columbia. The survey provides a demographic snapshot (education, experience, salary) as well as examines professional development needs and research trends.

Survey results help CERIC, and the field at large, to better understand the interests and challenges of Canada’s career service community, including: how career professionals are enhancing their career competency and mobility, what the issue are keeping career professionals up at night, and how the public perception of the value of career development is evolving.

Some of the key differences that emerged among regions include:

• While over three-quarters of those in the field reported having at least an undergraduate university education, a closer look at the responses by regions shows that Quebec far outpaces the rest in terms of post-graduate completion. Over 80% of participants from that province have at least a Master’s level degree. This rate is twice as high as that of Atlantic Canada, which recorded the second highest at 41%, and almost three-times greater than the Prairies at 28%.
• Career service professionals in the Prairies and Ontario revealed that learning more about “job search strategies” was most important to them while “job development” drew the highest interest from respondents in British Columbia, Quebec and Atlantic Canada. Learning about “self-employment and operating a business” garnered the least interest nationally.
• Respondents from the Prairies earned the most (60% had a gross annual before deduction salary/income over $55,000) followed by Quebec (55%), Ontario (54%), British Columbia (49%) and Atlantic Canada (36%).
• The majority of those in the career services field across the country share the opinion that the general public’s impression of the value of what they do has improved. More than two-thirds of those in Atlantic Canada believed that this is the case. However, a not insignificant share of respondents from British Columbia were of the opinion that the public’s perception has worsened. The one-fifth who held this opinion is almost twice as high as in any other region.
• Participants were also asked if they are evaluating the impact of their career counselling/career development program or services. More than half of respondents noted that this is part of their work with the highest rate in the Prairies (68%) followed by Ontario (66%), Atlantic Canada (64%), British Columbia (56%) and Quebec (51%).

More information on the 2015 national survey including the highlight report, summary slides and an infographic can be found at ceric.ca/survey2015. Watch for a full analysis of regional breakdowns in the Fall issue of Careering magazine.