CERIC has a strategic priority to: Facilitate conversations between career practitioners and their constituents and communities to raise the profile and value of the career development field.
- Create opportunities for CERIC to initiate discussions between all groups with an interest in career development
- Increase awareness of the importance of career development among Canadians and of the difference that career professionals make
- Advance CERIC’s position as the “go to” source for expertise in the field
Discussion
CERIC has sought out a leadership role in catalyzing conversations around topical issues that relate to career development, and which have serious implications for the economic and social well-being of Canadians, such as the skills gap.
Canada’s Career Imperative
CERIC hosted a series of events across Canada to discuss fixing our “talent disconnect,” where individual skills and interests don’t always line up with emerging career options or what regional job markets immediately offer.
Called “Canada’s Career Imperative,” the goal was to initiate a national conversation about how to develop, connect and retain the best of our talent to meet the ever-changing needs of disruptive markets. This is a discussion in which business, education and government all have a stake.
A total of 178 individuals participated in the roundtables in seven cities with Canada’s Career Imperative culminating in a special plenary at the Cannexus conference that included Ian Shugart, Deputy Minister, Employment and Social Development Canada; Dan Kelly, President & CEO, Canadian Federation of Independent Business and Dr Roseann O’Reilly Runte, President & Vice-Chancellor, Carleton University.
Awareness
The results of successive national surveys commissioned by CERIC about how Canadians approach their own career development show that career development, its professionals and their rich contribution to the nation are greatly undervalued. CERIC aims to address this.
Career Development Matters
CERIC launched an awareness campaign with t-shirts that encouraged professionals to start conversations with colleagues, clients and neighbours about the impact of career development on the country and its citizens.
Reading “Career Development Matters” on the front and “Ask me why?” on the back, the shirts also included the ceric.ca/askmewhy url where people could continue the conversation online, sharing their thoughts on the value of career development and how career development professionals are making a difference to Canadians.
National Challenge to Promote Career Development
CERIC ran an online competition called the National Challenge to Promote Career Development with prizes of $5,000 for each of the top three ideas that enhance and promote the image of career development and its professionals in Canada as voted on by the career development community.
In recognition of CERIC’s 10th anniversary, The Counselling Foundation of Canada provided a grant to create the National Challenge. The competition aimed to “crowdsource” imaginative and resourceful strategies and foster a national dialogue that will help Canadians to recognize that career development matters to them and has a huge benefit to our country.
A total of 80 creative entries were submitted that ranged from a career development tour bus to an online career development quiz for Canadians. A panel of judges selected the Top 10. Online voting was then opened for people to choose their favourite ideas among the finalists. A remarkable 4,500 votes were cast.
Expertise
Disseminating the results of its research and education is vital to CERIC’s effectiveness, putting information into the hands of practitioners who can use it and influencers who can change career development systems.
Outreach & Recognition
CERIC promotes its resources and shares its expertise through multiple channels. Annually CERIC participates in an average of 30 different career development events hosted by organizations ranging from the Institute for Performance and Learning to the Ontario Native Education Counsellors Association, either by presenting, exhibiting or distributing materials.
In both English and French, CERIC facilitates numerous media interviews with various news organizations, including CBC Radio, CTV News, Toronto Star, The Globe and Mail and National Post.
CERIC has been recognized by Toronto’s George Brown College with an for its leadership in the field of career development. The Crystal Award for Learning and Leadership Organization from George Brown’s Career & Work Counsellor Program honoured CERIC for its “significant role to advance the work and profession of career and employment counselling.”