News

CERIC has published a series of six Action Plans for professionals working with different client groups that provide practical discussions and activities based on the Guiding Principles of Career Development. Called Career Work in Action, the plans are authored by Karen Schaffer and Juliana Wiens, career counsellors based at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.

The purpose of the Action Plans is to provide professionals with insights and ideas for working with clients that align with CERIC’s popular Guiding Principles of Career Development, designed as a colourful and engaging infographic. With a goal of bringing greater clarity and consistency to our national conversations about career development, CERIC launched the Guiding Principles during Canada Career Month in November 2016. Since that time, CERIC has worked to disseminate the Guiding Principles and develop resources and tools to support their application, culminating with the new Action Plans.

Action Plans cover the following client populations:

• Youth: High school students, primarily in Grades 10-12, who are having to make career/ education-related decisions. These students may be engaged, highly engaged or disengaged
• Post-Secondary Students: Students between the ages of 18-25, who come to post-secondary either directly from high school or after a short gap period. Many points also apply to mature students
• Educated and Underemployed: Often recent graduates trying to find work in their field or move beyond entry-level roles but also includes workers who are precariously employed and mothers returning to work
• Unemployed Long Term: Mature adults who have been unemployed for one year or more and who want to work. Unemployment could result from struggles with illness, time spent caregiving or a prolonged, unsuccessful job search
• Newcomers to Canada: Adults who have come to Canada in order to re-establish themselves. Some will have chosen to immigrate in order to access opportunities, while others will have had to flee unrest or unsafe conditions
• Transitioning to Retirement: Those between the ages of 55-67 who have fairly uninterrupted work histories. These individuals are most often middle to upper class, though it is acknowledged others in this age group do not have the luxury of retirement

Each Action Plan begins with situating the client population within the Guiding Principles to identify where their complexities and challenges lie, and then suggests discussion questions and activities that professionals can use when providing career support. The intended users of the plan are a broad spectrum of professionals – both inside and outside of the career development field – who may provide career-related support to those with whom they work.

With a focus on “How do we help?,” questions and activities in the plans are grouped around five key areas of career work, according to an Organic Career Support Framework presented by the authors. Suggested discussions and activities provide relevant conversational starting points, opening questions, concrete interventions and fun activities for each of the key areas of career support. The five key areas are:

Self-exploration – Helping clients figure out who they are and what they want

Decision-making – Supporting clients at key points of decision-making

Support through transition – Encouraging, coaching, supporting, advising through transition

Future thinking – Helping clients think ahead, anticipate future challenges and strategize around how to respond

Mental health ­– Providing support around mental health and well-being issues as they relate to career

Earlier this year, CERIC released a companion document to the Guiding Principles that outlines a selection of the extensive research that underpins them. Guiding Principles of Career Development: Anchored by Evidence lists expert quotes and references from a cross-section of journals and reports that illustrate the Principles’ currency, relevance and validity. The resource provides stakeholders with the theoretical grounding behind the Principles.

Action Plan authors Schaffer and Wiens will be presenting a session at the Cannexus National Career Development Conference on January 28, 2020 titled “An Experiential Journey Through the CERIC Guiding Principles.” The session will delve into how the Action Plans translate Guiding Principles into practical client interventions. This is a chance to experience the Guiding Principles as a reflective tool for professionals and learn new action strategies together with colleagues.

Download the Action Plans for free at ceric.ca/principles. A limited print run will be available for purchase at Cannexus for $10/copy.

Gamification is “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”. (Gartner, 2014). What does gamification mean to career service practices? CERIC’s new literature search, Gamification and Career Development, highlights the concept and implications of gaming in career education.

Topics covered in the literature search include:

• Concepts, tools and applications of gamification
• Gamification and employee engagement
• Use of gamification in the recruitment process
• Gamification for millennials and non-millennials
• Career counselling apps
• Gamification vs game-based learning
• Utilizing gamification in career assessment
• Design and evaluation of gamification

There are now 55 literature searches available, including Career Development Theory and Career Management Models, Economic Benefits of Career Guidance, Parental Involvement in Career Development, Labour Market Trends, Mental Health Issues in the Workplace, and more.

Featuring comprehensive listings of key research and articles in career development, literature searches highlight critical points of current knowledge. As a student, academic or practitioner in the field, literature searches are helpful if you are researching the latest thinking or proven best practices. They are also valuable if you are considering a submission to CERIC for project partnership funding in order to gain an overview of major work already done in your area of interest.

In recognition of Elizabeth McTavish’s valuable contribution to the career development field, CERIC is awarding six bursaries to community-based counsellors for Cannexus20, courtesy of The Counselling Foundation of Canada.

CERIC received a total of 44 applications and wishes to acknowledge all the organizations that applied. Recipients of this year’s Elizabeth McTavish Bursary come from across the country, including Prince Edward Island, Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Bursary winners this year represent organizations that support youth, Indigenous peoples, newcomers, and people with mental health challenges.

The bursaries are awarded in honour of Elizabeth McTavish who began working with The Counselling Foundation of Canada in the late 1960s and served as Director of Counselling and as Executive Director of the Foundation for 25 years. As an early pioneer in career development, she believed that community-based organizations could play a significant role in providing career counselling and employment services on the front lines.

A bursary provides a full registration for the Cannexus conference plus $500 for expenses. The Cannexus20 conference takes place January 27-29, 2020­­ at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.

The 2019 Survey of Career Service Professionals is a national survey run by CERIC, a charitable organization that advances career development in Canada. With the start of Canada Career Month, the survey is now open!

This comprehensive survey will take approximately 25–30 minutes to complete. Your responses will help CERIC, and the field at large, to better understand your interests and challenges, as well as your professional development and information needs.

This survey is only run once every four years – and presents a critical opportunity to take a snapshot of the profession and how it has changed over time. It was previously run in 2011 and 2015. In 2015, over 1,000 practitioners completed the survey and provided rich data that helped to inform CERIC’s work – from the research projects we fund to the learning we offer you.

Complete Survey Now

Preliminary findings will be released at the Cannexus20 National Career Development Conference (January 27-29, 2020) and shared throughout the year.

For taking the time to complete the survey, you can enter into a draw to win one of the following prizes:

• 1 of 5 copies of the Career Theories and Models at Work book
• 1 of 3 free registrations to a paid CERIC webinar series
• Grand prize: 1 complimentary registration to Cannexus20

We also request that you forward this survey to your career services colleagues and networks and ask them to complete it as well.

You can also complete the survey in French.

Thank you in advance for your participation!