Careering

The Guiding Principles of Career Development are as relevant as ever but may resonate differently today

Juliana Wiens and Karen Schaffer

After many Cannexus roundtables, CERIC articles and keynote speeches focusing on the “future of work,” the future has arrived in all of its messy complexity. The multiplying impacts of technology (fast-forwarded by COVID), demographics and climate change are causing real-time changes in job possibilities and in the movement of people across the globe. Keeping pace with these changes requires constant skill updates.

News stories proclaim that “no one wants to work any more,” and these stories often focus almost exclusively on employer frustrations without grappling with the changing nature of work itself. All of us – every single one of us – have had to confront or explore unexpected questions about work in the past couple of years. What do we value? What places and modalities do we work from? How are we managing or being managed? How important is the work that we do?  We’ve been confronted with new definitions of the term “essential worker,” and all of these changes have shaken our systems to the core.

Read more on the Guiding Principles

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Never before have career professionals been so visible, so desired, so … essential. And in this context, CERIC’s Guiding Principles of Career Development are as relevant as ever. We encourage you to take a moment and read them, even if you’ve read them before. Which principle speaks to you more strongly this time ‘round? Which one reminds you of a client or a news story you’ve seen recently? Which principles now resonate differently given the events of the past couple of years?

The Guiding Principles themselves are too chunky for the average person to memorize or recite. The point is not to spout them, but to embody them. People need the validation of knowing that they are not mistaken, that work has changed and that a new approach to career is necessary.

Some key takeaways:

1. If the new world of work is complex, then career work must allow for that complexity. Step-by-step career planning belongs in a former era. Allowing for complexity means shifting with the client while helping them build decision-making skills, manage transitions, notice possibilities and uncover new career directions.
2. Clients are in a state of flow among Self-Exploration, Decision-Making, Transitioning/Action, Future-Thinking and caring for their Mental Health. In the Career Work in Action series (a series of six Action Plans for working with different client populations based on the Guiding Principles), we focus on helping the client understand their career within the framework of these five areas as they figure out what they need at any given time (download for free at ceric.ca/principles). Within each area, the client develops career skills and builds resilience through/during change.
3. To best support our clients, career professionals must remember that these big changes affect us too. It’s okay to want things to change. It’s okay to resist change. It’s okay to hate change. But we have to recognize that change is no longer the wave on the horizon, it’s here and we’re all surfing it. Having compassion for ourselves in addition to those we meet with will help us stay upright on the board.

The Guiding Principles are a sturdy support and worth revisiting as conditions keep changing. By reminding ourselves that career development is “dynamic, evolving, and requires continuous adaptation and resilience,” we can “navigate with purpose” and maybe, just maybe, enjoy the ride.

Juliana Wiens and Karen Schaffer are Career Counsellors in Halifax and the authors of the Career Work in Action series for CERIC. In their free time, Wiens does stand-up comedy and Schaffer writes romcoms. Neither of them could come up with a good punchline for this bio.

Four ways that Canada’s skills development systems need to change

Karen Myers and Malika Asthana

Canada’s skills development systems are still traditional in many ways, built around the expectation that the education we complete in our early lives will equip us with the skills we need for the rest of our working lives. It’s a linear way of thinking about skills – first we learn, then earn, then rest. This doesn’t align with the realities of workers who may be exiting and returning to the workforce more than once due to caregiving responsibilities, or who may need to upskill or reskill due to industry-wide layoffs, technological changes or the transition to net-zero emissions.

The most recent data shows that upskilling for working adults is beneficial but limited. A recent Statistics Canada study found that only a small proportion of laid-off workers participate in further education or training. However, those who do enrol in, and complete, short-term credentialled training (college or CEGEP certificates or diplomas) experience substantial earnings gains relative to those who don’t.

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It’s clear that we need to do more to connect working adults to upskilling opportunities. Inspired by the work of skills expert Michelle R. Weise, we articulate four key ways that our skills development systems need to change:

1. Better navigation: Many working adults don’t know how their skills and interests align with in-demand career paths, and what new skills they might need to develop. We have to provide working adults with the information and support they need to take ownership of their career journey.
2. More financial and wraparound supports: It’s time to design programs around the needs and circumstances of working adults – understanding how they learn best, what their primary motivators are and where they may need supports like mental health counselling, transportation subsidies and childcare.
3. Targeted training: In the current training marketplace, people struggle to find what they need. We need to invest in building a curated marketplace of accessible, targeted and high-quality training. And as credentials continue to flood the market, learners need support to compare programs on cost, time to complete, modality of delivery and learning outcomes to ensure they are maximizing their return on investment.
4. Integration of working and learning: Waiting until workers are laid off to help them upskill is inefficient and damaging. Employers need to view talent development as a business requirement, and ensure employees have the time and resources to seamlessly combine learning and earning.

To make this work, we’ll need high-quality career services powered by competent career development professionals who can support working adults to navigate their work and learning journeys.

The good news is that there are already seeds of innovation:

For example, Blueprint – with funding from the Future Skills Centre – is collaborating with the Canadian Career Development Foundation and MixtMode to prototype and field-test a dual-client delivery model that serves both employers and individuals regardless of their employment status. This model aims to ensure employers have the talent they need, and workers are supported with tools and resources to take active ownership of their career development.

There are also exciting innovations that connect employers and their employees directly with training options in a seamless interface. For example, D2L has developed an upskilling platform, D2L Wave, to help employees feel confident that the training they pursue will be valued by their employers and will support their career development. D2L works with employers to curate a catalogue of credentialled courses that align with business needs. Employees can enrol in these training options from post-secondary institutions and other providers in areas such as strategy, finance, human resources and marketing using employer-provided education benefits.

These innovations are a step in the right direction, but there is still much to learn. We need more and better data to help us trace people’s skills pathways and understand where there are gaps, to figure out how to build on what’s working or pivot from what is not.

The time is ripe for a broader policy conversation about how we can broaden access to upskilling opportunities and ensure that working adults are truly prepared for the future of work.

Karen Myers is the CEO of Blueprint. Myers leverages over 20 years of experience to lead a non-profit organization dedicated to using data and evidence to improve the social and economic well-being of Canadians. She has built a solid reputation for her ability to lead large-scale, complex projects in a range of policy domains including employment and training, poverty reduction and income security. 

Malika Asthana is a Manager at D2L, a global learning innovation company. She is passionate about leveraging her background in strategy, public affairs and policy research to facilitate conversations and share perspectives on the future of education and work.

Being intentional about how your work influences client mental health supports positive outcomes

Michael Huston and Dave Redekopp

Tenacity in the pursuit of connections between career development and mental health was one of our hopes when we approached CERIC and the Australian Centre for Career Education (formerly CEAV) to write a book on this topic. It is too early to say if our field will have an ongoing interest in mental health outcomes, but since the 2020 release of the Strengthening Mental Health Through Effective Career Development book, we’ve been heartened by ongoing Canadian and international interest.

We’ve presented at conferences in Canada and abroad; participated in a study on career development and mental health in schools; worked with the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF) on the MHO-5, a simple measure of changes in mental health outcomes; and partnered on an initiative to create a practical toolkit to guide well-being discussions within employment and career services.

Sensing the interest in and general momentum of the topic, we identify opportunities below for advancing mental health-informed career development practice. As we describe in our book, your work already influences client mental health, so why not be intentional about this? Career development intervention has effects on life (e.g. getting a job), abilities (e.g. career management skills), self-perceptions (e.g. self-efficacy), opportunity-perceptions (e.g. seeing meaningful work possibilities) and opportunities (e.g. having doors opened to informal learning); all of these effects link directly or indirectly to mental health outcomes.

The buck starts here. It is up to you to sustain interest in revealing and communicating the mental health outcomes accrued from career development services. Please do not wait for government, educational institutions or charitable organizations to lead the charge. You and those you serve are the first-hand witnesses to well-being improvements and will benefit most from stakeholders appreciating your role in these broader outcomes.

More on mental health and career development from CareerWise

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How career development is also a mental health practice

CDPs are a conduit. Despite marked improvement in societal understanding of mental illness and mental health, there is still considerable stigma about seeking help. Mental health concerns occur for one in five Canadians in any given year, and by age 40, half have experienced a mental illness (Smetanin et al., 2015).

In addition to the mental health-bolstering impact of our work, CDPs are a likely conduit to mental health supports. Unemployed people experience significant stress and related mental health concerns, but they are more likely to meet with a career practitioner than a mental health specialist for a few reasons: needs for food and shelter take precedent over well-being, waiting times for mental health services are daunting and stigma remains real. Our impact is amplified when we:

1. Understand and can teach our clients how mental health and career development are related
2. Are connected and can refer to a network of mental health professionals

Measuring matters. Career development work is usually measured and seen as successful when there is a clear career-related outcome (e.g. a client starts a new job or educational program). Improvements in client mental health appear early in interventions and it serves us to measure and communicate the difference we make.

Although most of us don’t see measurement as central to our roles, improvements in “hope” or “meaning” (definitional mental health outcomes) are obvious to clients and can be quickly measured by verbal report or short questionnaire. Our work on the MHO-5, mentioned above, suggests measuring is easy to do, clients find it relevant, and it augments and supports career development intervention.

Sharing measurement matters. We ask you to communicate the impact of career development on mental health in ways that will resonate with your colleagues, clients, administrators, funders and neighbours. You have always known your work supports mental health; the people around you likely do not.

Start with the people you trust the most. Let them know the mental health changes you have seen and measured. Listen to their responses and find out if they are really hearing you. Refine your approach until you know your message is being heard. Expand your efforts to broader audiences. Then, repeat! It is not difficult to include mental health in almost every discussion about career development. We invite and encourage you to do so.

Trauma is a mental health concern. Traumatic injuries can impair access, entry, engagement and ultimately the outcomes of career development intervention. Working within boundaries of competence – career professionals are not mental health or trauma experts – CDPs benefit from having some knowledge of trauma and its impact. They can then use their skills to create safety, navigate disclosure, and link clients to mental health services and resources.

You know your work is a valuable contributor to mental health. We invite you to intentionally strengthen, measure, and communicate this contribution. Doing so will, at minimum, raise your spirits, help your clients and improve your practice. Doing so may also create an ongoing and public conversation about the value of career development services.

Michael Huston is a counsellor and focuses on career development with specific interest in counsellor training, career intervention strategies and outcomes, career development as mental health intervention, and work and well-being.

In 35 years of working in the career development field, Dave Redekopp has been privileged to teach, develop and deliver programs, develop products, research and consult in almost all aspects of career development.

References

Smetanin, P., Briante, C., Khan, M., Stiff, D., & Ahmad, S. (2015). The life and economic impact of major mental illnesses in Canada: 2011-2041. Prepared for the Mental Health Commission of Canada. Toronto: RiskAnalytica.

Leveraging the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals in career development practices

Candy Ho

Despite our best efforts, career development remains an underappreciated field that seems unfamiliar to the general population. We have an immense opportunity to help people realize the impact and value career development practitioners bring to enriching lives and communities.

Case in point: in 2021, the Labour Market Information Council and Future Skills Centre reported that only 19% of Canadians aged 25-64 have accessed career services within the past five years – a drastically low rate compared to other OECD countries. That said, 95% of those who accessed career guidance reported positive changes from their experience.

On the employer front, according to CERIC’s National Business Survey, only 12% of executives surveyed had worked with career development professionals (CDPs), while 45% reported they were unaware of CDPs prior to the survey. Yet, 73% of executives believe employers have a responsibility to offer career management programs, citing needs in employee training, upskilling and career goal-setting.

These surveys demonstrate that career development is somewhat of a “secret” superpower; only when people uncover it does its potential get unleashed. It behooves us all to work toward making this superpower the worst-kept secret, so that career development becomes mainstream in the fabric of life.

Engaging more people in career development is crucial during this time of chaotic change, which has left many people struggling to adapt and experiencing anxiety and overwhelm. Simultaneously, jobseekers and career development practitioners are seeking to make meaning of their lives and to contribute toward some form of social betterment.

One framework that we can apply to career development to help individuals find purpose is the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals. The UNSDGs are “an urgent call for action by all countries…they recognize that ending poverty and other deprivations must go hand-in-hand with strategies that improve health and education, reduce inequality, and spur economic growth – all while tackling climate change and working to preserve our oceans and forests” (sdgs.un.org/goals).

The 17 SDGs, adopted by all 193 UN member states including Canada in 2015, are interconnected. Of note is SDG 17, Partnerships for the Goals, emphasizing the idea that everyone plays a role in helping to achieve the other 16 goals – including CDPs. I firmly believe that our field has a unique ability to serve as a critical conduit between the SDGs and individuals’ career development.

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The SDGs provide a framework to identify challenge-based career opportunities, which can help give people a sense of direction and purpose. Instead of having clients first identify roles and jobs they wish to apply to, we can have them begin by considering a local or global problem they want to help address. I do this in my senior career capstone course, where students “declare their challenge” by identifying one or more SDGs they could see themselves helping advance. Throughout the semester, they derive insights on how they can meaningfully contribute their knowledge, skills and talents to their aspired professional roles.

The SDGs can also help CDPs understand the value of our work in a new and broader way. Students often arrive in my course with narrow professional goals (e.g. “I want to go into law and work my way up to become a law firm partner”). Incorporating the SDGs into the course has expanded their career possibilities. Students now begin by first considering the difference they want to make locally and/or globally, such as reducing inequalities or promoting clean water and sanitation. They reflect on why they feel compelled to make such a difference before they identify possible professional roles that would enable them to take action to advance these goals; connecting the head with the heart, so to speak. Shifting the focus from occupation to purpose recognizes our work as CDPs in helping clients consider what constitutes a meaningful life and what truly matters to them.

Ultimately, the work that we do in career development is about continual reflection, exploration and development of one’s qualities, experiences and skills – and how we see ourselves meaningfully enacting these elements in our life roles. Leveraging global frameworks such as the SDGs can help everyone understand career development in a more tangible way, thus making career development more accessible and more fully realizing the impact and value of our work.

Dr. Candy Ho is the Board Chair of CERIC. She is the inaugural Assistant Professor, Integrative Career and Capstone Learning in the University of the Fraser Valley in British Columbia, Canada. Additionally, she currently holds a one-year appointment as the University Lead, Sustainable Development Goals at Kwantlen Polytechnic University.

When schools equip students to become their own guidance counsellors, they can make purposeful decisions about their future 

Adriano Magnifico

When Andres Bazin was in high school, he was an average student – drawing Cs and Bs and meandering through his education. Career-wise, he was lost.

His origin story is likely one that attendees of a recent Manitoba Business Hall of Fame Dinner wouldn’t have predicted. Andres shared the riveting story of his unfolding career path – including becoming Operations and Marketing Director of Canendo Cannabis – to a packed house of business leaders.

He didn’t know it at the time, but when Andres joined the Junior Achievement (JA) program in high school, his focus for the future shifted. He became his own guidance counsellor.

His journey reminds me of the importance of empowering students to exercise agency over their career paths.

Collecting dots: The ‘what’

Becoming your own guidance counsellor means taking charge of your own career development, actively seeking experiences, information and mentors to be able to make purposeful decisions about life after high school.

Today’s high school guidance counsellors, often besieged with course scheduling, graduation requirements, mental health issues and equity challenges, have less time for detailed conversations with students about career pathing and the exponential evolution of future jobs and careers. 

Students can assert their agency by collecting “dots,” a term I use to signify experiences of all types – academic, extracurricular, family, meetings, community, jobs, volunteer work, mentorships. In other words, dots are the “what” of their lives.

Schools are a veritable goldmine of dots. Along with Manitoba’s 30 required academic credits, students have access to a variety of extracurriculars that run the gamut of interests, from sports to video gaming to the Junior Achievement program that Andres chose. When teachers help students step outside their comfort zones to test their skills, interests and capabilities, the dots can be life-altering.

Simply collecting dots, though, is not enough.

Connecting dots: The ‘why’

I’ve spent much of my time with students encouraging them to collect as many dots as possible, but I’ve learned those dots won’t bloom if students don’t reflect on them. Too many students consume high school credits and extracurricular activities without thinking about why some experiences deeply resonate with them and others don’t.

This backwards-first process is one Steve Jobs noted in his 2005 Stanford Convocation speech: “You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.” Looking backward and reflecting kindles the dormant “why” within students and alerts them to possibilities about skills, people and activities to which they feel a special connection. They are forced to ask questions from the inside-out, igniting their confidence, personal complexity and unique gifts.

I continue to iterate with teachers and students a big-picture tool called the LEAN Career Design Canvas to help students connect to their why in a process centred around collecting and connecting dots.

Mentors: The ‘how’

It’s not unreasonable to think that every high school student should graduate with a plan of some kind, and mentors can make all the difference.

Future planning prowess increases exponentially when students connect with outside mentors who share lived experiences, lessons learned, need-to-hear advice, purposeful insights and possible paths forward. Andres believes that his JA mentors were “the first people outside school to believe in you, especially when you’re tackling something new and you haven’t figured it out.”

High school career and guidance professionals would do well to build professional partnerships and networks in their schools to help students see where courses may lead them, which jobs connect with them and, most importantly, why they may want to pursue them.

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The business community is poised to help. Doug Harvey, CEO and Founder of DLH Group and a Manitoba Business Hall of Fame inductee, asserts that it is “the responsibility for all of us to use our learned knowledge to help young people (when asked) as their careers develop.”

Internships, job shadows, partnership projects, conferences, the Chamber of Commerce, volunteer venues and unique school-community collaborations are some of the spaces where students can connect with professional networks and discover influential mentors.

Imagine the possibilities

When Andres decided to join JA, his future changed. He collected an important dot – a key experience that helped him explore his boundaries, interests, network and skills.

He completed a LEAN Career Design Canvas and reflected on his best self to build a foundation of who he was, including what he valued, which skills he possessed and which industries connected to his sensibilities. Then, JA offered to him what his school couldn’t – a chance to converse with mentors outside of the classroom and connect to his why in real time.

Andres asserted his career agency by becoming the author of his purposeful path, completing a business diploma and becoming an entrepreneur.

His story is a powerful reminder of the possibilities that can emerge when high school students become their own guidance counsellors – choosing their what, reflecting on their why and plotting their how.

Adriano Magnifico is the Career and Entrepreneurship Consultant at the Louis Riel School Division in Winnipeg and a member of CERIC’s Advocacy & Community Engagement Committee.

We must come together as a sector to leverage the unique momentum driving our work today

Deirdre Pickerell

“Never before in human history has career guidance been more important”
– Anthony Mann, OECD (Educaweb, 2020)

From where I sit, with 30 years working in career and employment services / workforce development, the future is bright. We – career coaches, career counsellors, career professionals/practitioners, employment and training officers, trainers, job developers, case managers (the label does not matter) – are critical to the health and welfare of individuals, communities and the country.

And this isn’t just conjecture – we have evidence! In some cases, this evidence is broad and perhaps far removed from daily practice, such as:

• “Evidence for the broader economic benefits of career development show its positive impact on the labour market, the educational system and social equity” (Hooley & Dodd, 2015) or
• “Career guidance and development are critical for both continued labour force attachment, overall wellbeing, economic security, and career satisfaction” (Irwin, Lipsey, and Coronel, 2021).

In other instances, the evidence seems more closely connected to our daily work:

• “Clients participating in career services demonstrated statistically significant increases across all 16 indicators of mental health and wellbeing” (CCDF, 2021) or
• “At the end of the research period, over half of clients were employed (53%). Another 43% were either in school, training, or unemployed but looking for work” (CCDF, 2021).

Separate from the extensive literature that demonstrates the impact of our work, other significant research is available, or underway, that looks at our field from various vantage points. This is especially timely given the future of work, the COVID-19 pandemic’s disruption of many parts of the labour market and ongoing global discussions related to career guidance.

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Recent research completed as part of Future Skills Centre’s Responsive Career Pathways initiative observed that career development professionals and the services we provide are critical to supporting all individuals in Canada to navigate an ever-changing labour market. CERIC is also currently supporting two key projects that will provide important contributions to the sector. One is “Scoping the Canadian Career Development Landscape,” which seeks to fully map the sector so we have a better idea of who is doing career development work. The other, still in RFP stage, will explore “How the Changing Nature of Work Will Impact the Concept of Careers and the Role and Identity of Career Developers.”

The Canadian Career Development Foundation and its partners are leading an initiative to establish a professional home for the sector – a virtual centre building excellence and innovation in career and workforce development. The Career Development Professional Centre will be a home for the competency framework, code of ethics and associated resources. It will provide free or low-cost training on career development in our emergent labour market; create and nurture a community of practice, where CDPs can exchange and grow with respect to their practice; establish a central hub to promote existing training/events; and so much more. The Centre will highlight important literature and research on the evidence base of our sector and be a unified voice to advocate for the career development sector, highlighting how we contribute to the socio-economic health of individuals, communities and the country.

“Recent research … observed that career development professionals and the services we provide are critical to supporting all individuals in Canada to navigate an ever-changing labour market.”

Canada has long been considered a global leader in career and employment services, products, programs and resources, but there is something different now – a sense I haven’t felt before. Perhaps the sector is maturing and coming into its own; perhaps we are frustrated by ongoing and long-standing issues related to what Sarah Delicate and Angela Hoyt call The Illusion of the Employment Services Sector. Perhaps we recognize our clients are facing a labour market far more complex and chaotic than previously seen. Ultimately, the source of the momentum likely doesn’t matter. From my vantage point, we sit on a precipice and it is time to act.

We must come together as a field, not limited by geography, work environment, clients served or funding models. We must claim our place as experts in careers and allow that knowledge to shine through. We must be active participants in service design, rather than passive recipients of funding. We have an important role to play in helping employers see the value of investing in career services for employees and in supporting them to take even small steps. In essence, we need to stand proud as what we are – a profession steeped in rich history, deep knowledge and expertise – and fiercely defend the contributions we’ve made.

As a start, I’d encourage those working in career and employment services to reflect on what it means to be a career development professional and how your work impacts the lives of your clients. Think about what part of your work has made you feel proud. Then, walk forward, shoulders back, head held high and toot your horn, because what you do matters – and everyone needs to know it.

Dr. Deirdre Pickerell is a nationally recognized, award-winning industry thought leader with over 30 years’ experience as a career development specialist, human resource professional and adult educator. She has a strong history of strategic and collaborative leadership, research and resource/program development, training and capacity building throughout the career and employment services sector.

Career services are becoming increasingly responsive to the diverse identities and needs of students

Tracey Lloyd

The college-to-career promise continues to be the driver for many students as they enter today’s competitive labour market. Students traditionally pursue a college credential to prepare for future careers – increasingly, with the expectation of a job at the end of their journey. They seek practical skill development and career advice that will equip them to navigate the changes and volatility of the job market.

A college credential is often seen by members of immigrant communities as the pathway to career opportunities in Canada. In fact, the recently announced immigration targets suggest an even greater need for career education on the horizon and a critical role for career practitioners in college settings.

Drawing on my experience over the past decade at Centennial College working in career development, I share personal reflections on some of the changes that have shaped our approach to career education and the work of career practitioners in supporting each student’s unique transition to employment. Career development services are becoming more grounded in the lived experiences and responsive to the diverse identities of our students.

The complexity of the student population

Located in Toronto, Centennial’s student population represents many different ethnicities, cultures and lived experiences. Some students begin their journey at Centennial directly from high school, while others are mature learners, international students or recent immigrants. Many of them are the first in their families to attend a post-secondary institution.

The College is strongly connected to local communities, working closely with community partners to engage potential learners and facilitate their access to higher education. Career practitioners often work with students experiencing housing and food insecurity, financial constraints, concerns around settlement in a new country, systemic inequities, and a host of related mental health and well-being challenges.

Global instability, social unrest and the marginalization of underrepresented groups in many spheres, including employment, persist as we recover from the pandemic. Inevitably, this range of social factors influences the practice of career educators, who must consistently approach their work through a social justice lens, strengthen partnerships to provide more holistic and responsive services, and affect systems change.

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Career education and the role of the career practitioner

Centennial’s mission, “Educating Students for Career Success,” drives the work of the Career Services team. There is an emphasis on career education that begins with graduate employment in mind, recognizing the importance of integrating career learning activities throughout the student journey. The careers team works with college partners to support the integration of career skills in orientation, curricular and co-curricular programming, while developing and embedding resources specifically for students from equity-deserving groups.

The collection of career development resources for use by faculty and staff also includes a career resilience toolkit that integrates mental health/well-being and career development content. Given that most students do not engage with campus career offices, collaboration with our college partners helps to expand the reach of career education programming for students.

The on-campus employment toolkit, for example, is designed to have students connect experiences to their career goals and guide supervisors in creating inclusive learning and development experiences. Supervisors are required to highlight key employability skills in job postings and, in their assessment of candidates, are encouraged to explore the strengths students bring based on their diverse identities. The toolkit also provides a framework for supervisors to facilitate intentional career conversations and recognize signs that students may require other supports. These on-campus employment opportunities provide a safe space for learning, and are particularly beneficial for those with limited professional experience and international students, for whom this may be their first job in Canada.

As the College commits to enhancing work-integrated learning opportunities, practitioners engage various partners to address inequities in the workplace. We collaborate with ethnospecific organizations to facilitate employment and mentorship opportunities for racialized students. In hosting career events, we involve industry professionals and international alumni who are reflective of the student population. Career practitioners generally assume more of an advocacy role to increase access for students to meaningful employment.

Perhaps the most significant change is how we equip students for the world of work. With the shift to remote, hybrid and virtual learning, career advising is delivered in varied formats. Practitioners prepare students for virtual interviews and online networking opportunities, and advise students on how to effectively navigate remote work cultures. The ubiquity of applicant tracking systems, AI features in job search tools, online career educational resources and social media marketing trends requires digital fluency for both educators and students. Strengthening this essential skillset helps to level the playing field for students, as they will be better prepared to job search and work with digital tools.

Looking ahead

At the core of our practice is the career educator’s ability to build capacity and nurture a resilient mindset in the student’s visioning and realization of their career aspirations. It is also important to recognize factors that may affect the journey to employment and facilitate connections to internal and external resources where necessary. The career development process is nonlinear and does not occur in a vacuum. The work has become less transactional over time, moving beyond only skills assessment, resume and interview coaching. Increasingly, the career conversation is contextual and unfolds from the unique life experience of the student.

Centennial’s vision, “transforming lives and communities through learning,” anchors my philosophy to career education. I believe career educators in college settings have an instrumental role in improving social and economic outcomes for those they serve. Personally, I think it’s an exciting time to be part of the profession. As the demand grows, additional efforts are needed to continue to advocate, recognize and provide professional development opportunities for those working in the field.

Tracey Lloyd is the Director of Career Services and Co-operative Education at Centennial College, located in Toronto. Prior to joining Centennial, Lloyd was the Director of Employment Programs at Tropicana Community Services. She also taught in the Career and Work Counselling program at George Brown College. Lloyd holds a PhD in Adult Education from OISE/ University of Toronto.

Riz Ibrahim is the Executive Director of CERIC. He works with CERIC’s cross-sectoral Board and Advisory Committees to develop partnerships that enhance the body of knowledge for Canada’s career professional communities. Additionally, Ibrahim oversees all areas within CERIC’s mandate including the Cannexus National Career Development Conference, the CareerWise and OrientAction content websites and the peer-reviewed Canadian Journal of Career Development (CJCD).

Watch the full video interview with Counselling Foundation of Canada President Bruce Lawson or read an edited version of the interview transcript below.

In a sentence or two, describe why career development matters.

Career development matters because it touches all aspects of one’s life, aligning skills and work with values. It has the potential to create purpose and mattering, continuously changing through age and stage.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I recall at some point wanting to be an astronaut. I don’t know if it was because I saw footage of the moon landing or an early interest in science fiction, but that belief and that desire held with me well into high school. 

What was your first-ever job and what did you learn from it? 

My first job was stocking shelves at a convenience store. I learned that I really liked working. I liked the fact that I was gradually given more opportunity, more responsibilities. While I liked the paycheck, I only wanted to buy a JVC boombox and to save enough money to buy my mother a freezer.

Who has had the most impact on your career and how?

I can’t imagine flourishing in my career without the continuous support of my family. They’re always there on the good career days and on the bad career days. Their support helps me to overcome any obstacles that get in the way and puts things in the right perspective.

What is something you’ve learned about career development that you wish you had known earlier in your career?

I think alignment of values to what you do is key. And I’d never really connected the dots early in my life. That was a key piece of enlightenment. 

What do you think your 18-year-old self would think of your career today?

I think the 18-year-old me would be in disbelief. The work-life that I’ve ended up crafting is something that my younger self couldn’t have imagined. He always wanted to see a better world but didn’t necessarily know how to articulate that in terms of action. So, I think he’d also be thrilled.

What has being a parent taught you about career development?

If forever learning is part of career development, then with parenting it certainly started from day one. I’ve learned to respect and embrace the differences between my three daughters and recognize that they are continually changing. As a parent, I must look out for those signals of change, interpret these and support them as they navigate the complexities of the people they are becoming. 

What is one of your favourite Cannexus memories?

The one that stands out for me is the very first Cannexus. CERIC was very young and we were really not known when we held the first Cannexus conference in Toronto. The fact that we were able to successfully deliver on that was amazing.

What do you consider CERIC’s greatest achievement?

Cannexus really is, to me, the main sort of big achievement. Coming from its humble beginnings and running 17 years later, it’s been amazing to see it becoming a gathering place for career professionals in the broadest sense.

How do you feel about taking the next step in your career, to become President of The Counselling Foundation of Canada?

I’m really excited by this opportunity. I’ve had the privilege of building out CERIC for all these years and I’m looking forward to making a broader impact. I feel like I’m coming to a place that has strong walls and a strong roof and open doors and windows.

Picture 2013. Stephen Harper was Prime Minister and Rob Ford was Mayor of Toronto. A rail disaster brought tragedy to Lac-Mégantic and Alberta was struck by a catastrophic flood. After the “Great Kate Wait,” the Duchess of Cambridge and Prince William welcomed their first child. Froyo – frozen yogurt, for the uninitiated – was all the rage.

For CERIC (and the career development field more broadly) this particular year was momentous for a different reason: the launch of our Careering magazine. In 2013, this print and online publication replaced the ContactPoint Bulletin – a quarterly publication dedicated to career development resources and reflections. The shift from a newsletter to a professional “glossy print” magazine mirrored the continuing evolution of the field.

In the decade since, Careering has reached thousands of readers across Canada (and beyond). With the contributions of numerous writers, we have covered themes from “Mental Health and Employment,” to “Cultural Perspectives on Career and Work,” to “Career Mindsets” – and much more. We’ve explored each of CERIC’s Guiding Principles of Career Development, shared client experiences of navigating their careers, and interviewed notable figures including former Senator Murray Sinclair, astronaut David Saint-Jacques and future of work thought leader Zabeen Hirji.

We are indebted to our readers and writers. Careering has always been by and for the career development community; it would not have been possible without you.

As we celebrate this milestone, we are mindful of ongoing shifts in how people learn and consume information. Digital publishing has enabled access to wider audiences and facilitated knowledge-sharing across physical divides.

As it did with so many things, the pandemic disrupted our publishing model for Careering. Readers were no longer in the offices where they had received print issues tri-annually. Advertisers’ priorities had shifted.

After two years of publishing Careering exclusively online alongside our popular CareerWise and OrientAction websites, we recognize that we need to continue to evolve to meet career professionals’ learning needs. In our 2022 Content and Learning Survey of Career Development Professionals, respondents also expressed an appetite for change.

With a sense of nostalgia, gratitude and excitement, CERIC has decided to turn the page on this chapter of Careering. The Winter 2023 magazine will be the final issue of Careering as we currently know it.

We look forward to sharing more details about our plans for this publication in the year ahead. Rest assured, we have heard that readers continue to seek thematic, longer-form content alongside bite-sized learning. We are carefully considering this feedback as we continue to assess how we can best meet your needs.

For this special 10th anniversary issue, on the theme of Hindsight and Foresight, we welcome back many past contributors to reflect on where the field has been and where it needs to go. In our 10 Questions interview, we also speak to outgoing CERIC Executive Director Riz Ibrahim, without whom Careering would not have existed.

Thank you for coming with us on this journey, as we all work to advance career development in Canada. The road ahead will be winding and require ongoing learning, but we’re excited about the opportunities that lie in wait. We hope you’ll join us on the next stage of this adventure.