Conference Sketches

By Janis Foord Kirk

Perhaps the greatest challenge is changing the picture people have in their heads, Ontario’s ex-premier, Bob Rae, told career and employment specialists when they gathered in Ottawa recently NATCON, the National Consultation on Career Development.

Too many people are “looking in the rear view mirror” at the world in which they grew up, Rae observed. They’re expecting to find a national economy and finite resources. To find that incomes keep rising for a broad spectrum of people. They’re expecting to be part of a thriving middle class of mostly white males, among families with moms at home, and dads at work.

Peer into any corner of today’s workplace and you’ll find people struggling to deal with change: Changing technology and information. Shifting demands for skills and credentials. Changing views of the future.

The career counselling field is challenged as much as any other. Managing a career today is a complex undertaking, even more so, when you’re the people others turn to for guidance and council.

Perhaps the greatest challenge is changing the picture people have in their heads, Ontario’s ex-premier, Bob Rae, told career and employment specialists when they gathered in Ottawa recently NATCON, the National Consultation on Career Development.

Too many people are “looking in the rear view mirror” at the world in which they grew up, Rae observed. They’re expecting to find a national economy and finite resources. To find that incomes keep rising for a broad spectrum of people. They’re expecting to be part of a thriving middle class of mostly white males, among families with moms at home, and dads at work.

And they’re certain to be disappointed, Rae told NATCON delegates. Describing himself as a “democrat with no illusions”, Rae noted that “economic sovereignty is an illusion…globalization is a fact of modern life and if we hope to prosper, we have to embrace it…governments can’t stop the force and impact of technology.”

But governments do have a role to play, and a significant one, according to Jeremy Rifkin, who called NATCON delegates to social activism. Elaborating on the theme of his book, The End of Work (Tarcher Putnam). Rifkin maintains that the traditional labour marketplace for human effort is shrinking, and will continue to shrink. We have to demand a shorter work week (for the same pay) and share the work that is available, he believes.

At the same time, policy makers must come up with new regulations and taxation policies to pay for this, and to pay people for working in what is now the volunteer sector.

Rifkin and Rae were just two of more than 200 presenters to challenge these career counsellors on the work they do and how they do it. Self-knowledge is the basis of any career plan, and this was reflected time and again in workshops on emotional intelligence, self awareness inventories, values, personal motivation and self esteem. There seemed to be a particular emphasis on ways to help people delve into their own memories, stories and anecdotes in search of career goals that have meaning and purpose.

And just to prove that although things have changed in this field, others have remained the same, there were workshops on resumes and interviews and search techniques.

Some presenters took on the thorny issue of certification and accreditation. One looked at ways to value non-academic learning. Others featured Prior Learning Assessment and Recognition. (PLAR) and made the point that assessment of this kind should be ntegrated into career counselling.

Then there’s the accreditation of career counsellors themselves. National guidelines and standards are being defined. Many in this field, especially in government and community services, moved into their jobs “through the ranks”, and the industry is working to find ways to assess and value their experience and to encourage upgrading.

New and emerging career technologies were also featured. There was a Cyber Cafe offering delegates a chance to review some of the government information and sites now available on the Internet. There were demonstrations of electronic products, including Career Cruising, a new CD- ROM occupational guide, and Career Explorer software. There was a presentation of Contact Point, a website for career counsellors (www.contactpoint.ca), and of WORKink (www.WORKink.com) a site for those working with people with disabilities.

This year’s NATCON marked Canada’s 24th consultation on career issues. The first occurred in 1974, when 20 or so representatives from our provinces and regions came together to discuss what was called at the time, “vocational counselling”.

Over the years, the conference has grown, almost in lock step with the career counselling field itself. Now jointly sponsored by Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), the University of Toronto and The Counselling Foundation of Canada, this year it attracted nearly 1300 delegates.

Lou Hawkes, from the University of Toronto’s Career Centre, is NATCON’s program co-ordinator. This annual gathering of career specialists has been designed from the very first as a “consultation” rather than a conference, Hawkes points out. Delegates are presenters and presenters are often delegates.

As such, NATCON has become an idea swap-meet, of sorts. Career and employment workers from government, community organizations, education (and to a lesser degree, the private sector) come together to gather and share ideas and try out different techniques and technologies.

And along the way, they enhance their own skills so they can turn around and help others enhance theirs.

It would be hard to find anyone in this audience who disagrees with Bob Rae, who observed that the only insurance policy people have today consists of strong skills, and an ability to cope with change and the impact of change.

About The Writer

Janis Foord Kirk is a career management consultant, newspaper columnist and the author of Survivability, Career Strategies for the New World of Work. E-mail her at kirkfoord@bc.sympatico.ca.

(Reprinted with the permission of The Toronto Star.)