Insight into Impressive Practices in Career Services: A Reference Guide

Synopsis

This is the second of two reports summarizing the findings of a CERIC-backed study, led by Dr Peter Dietsche and Jim Lees of PSE Information Systems, that sought to establish the importance that publicly funded universities and colleges place on the provision of career development services and to highlight particularly impressive models of career services across the country.

This reference guide analyzes the results of interviews with career services staff at 15 Canadian post-secondary institutions that scored above the mean on an Impressive Model Scale. The findings are presented in two parts. The first part of the guide details specific themes identified during the interviews relating to:
Common characteristic among the impressive models
Historical emergence of the modelsInstitutional commitment to career services
Barriers to implementation of the models
Funding sources and issues

The second part of the guide features profiles that summarize the key characteristics of the career services model at each post-secondary institution, and information on up to three “best practices” provided by the career services staff at the institution.

The purpose of this reference guide is to surface the policies and practices that Canadian college and university career services professionals have developed in institutions seen as having an impressive model of career services delivery.