By David Clemens
With 460 delegates and 90 presenters conducting 60 workshops and 19 carousels, OSCA ’99 – Living the New Millennium, held in Toronto on November 18 – 20, 1999 was a huge success!
By Elaine Clow-Martin
The Way to Go! Project was conceived by The Dufferin-Peel Catholic District School Board, to assist all students in finding satisfying and rewarding career paths, in high demand career areas. The Board has had a historical vision of addressing the needs of industry for a skilled workforce, to enable future economic development in the school community, the Province, and country as a whole. This “thinking outside the box” towards meeting employer’s needs for a skilled workforce is much more proactive, relative to some other school districts’ more traditional approach to providing career advice.
Taking Charge of Your Career Direction Career Planning Guide, Book 1, 4th Edition, Robert D. Lock, Wadsworth Publishing, 2000 – ISBN/ISSN: 0-534-35617-6
Theory and Practice of Group Counseling, 5th Edition, Gerald Corey, Wadsworth Publishing, 2000 – ISBN/ISSN: 0-534-34821-1
26th NATCON – National Consultation on Career Development, Ottawa, Ontario, January 24 – 26, 2000 – 26e CONAT, Colloque national touchant le développement de carrière, Ottawa, Ontario, 24 – 26 janvier 2000
Working With the Best – Labour Market and Career Information Association (LMCIA) Vancouver, BC, March 6 – 7, 2000
Creating Links – International Career Conference 2000 – International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, Perth, Australia, April 2 – 5, 2000
Opportunities Career Development Conference – Onestep Events Management, Toronto, ON. April 5 – 7, 2000
Partners 2000 – Linking Education and the Local Economy – , Conference Board of Canada, Halifax, NS. April 29 – May 2, 2000
Career Change: Everything You Need to Know to Meet New Challenges and Take Control of Your Career, 2nd Ed. by Dr. David P. Helfand, 1999, VGM Career Horizons
ISBN- 0-8442-4269-1
This book promotes itself as the one and only volume you need at your side to cope with the challenges of career change. After completing a “Work Values Satisfaction Assessment”, and assessing entrepreneurial characteristics, Helfand shows readers just how to go about getting a new career. He applies psychological principles from counselling, like cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT) that readers can use to clear up some of their stumbling blocks: low self esteem, overcoming fears of failure and success, perfectionism and procrastination. There are good tips for increasing self-esteem and expanding one’s opportunities. An entire section is devoted to groups with particular needs: women, the disabled, minorities, dual career couples, single parents, and mid-level managers. An extensive reading list and dozens of excellent resources round out the book.
Careers for Non-Conformists: A Practical Guide to Finding and Developing a Career Outside the Mainstream , by Sandra Gurvis, 2000, Marlowe & Co. (NYC)
ISBN: 1-56924-684-X
Are you a nonconformist? What does the term really mean? So starts this book on “non-traditional” work for entrepreneurial types. The book is organized into chapters according to discipline, e.g., Animal Careers, the Law, Physical Fitness, etc., with several jobs listed in each category. Information for each job is grouped under the headings “What it Takes”, “What to Expect”, “What you’ll Need”, and “A Career Sampler”, providing the usual information on training, a typical day, expected earnings, where to get clients and more. A lot of this information is available in other books, but Gurvis writes well and is always on top of trends – the content of this book exemplifies just how much the world of work has changed and provides some interesting options for those ready to go out on their own.
Career Xroads 2000- 500 Best Jobs, Resumes and Career Management Sites on the Web, by Gerry Crispin & Mark Mehler, 1999, MMC Group
ISBN: 0-965223922
This resource is an international directory of the best websites for career-related purposes, including several Canadian sites (most are listed at Contact Point). The sites are listed alphabetically with contact information (snail mail addresses) and the sites are cross-referenced in lists at the back, according to purpose (job site, career information site, etc.), sector of employment, country and more. Also worth a look is the companion website, where you can register for free online updates! This one’s a gem for anyone working in career development.
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Create! Motivate! Innovate! – Ontario Society for Training and Development (OSTD), Toronto, Ontario, November 15 & 16, 1999
PLAR 99 – Learning Has No Boundaries – Canadian Labour Force Development Board, Vancouver, BC, November 15 – 17, 1999
OSCA ’99: Living the New Millenium – Ontario School Counsellors Association (OSCA), Toronto, ON. November 18 – 20, 1999
By Pauline Pitcher
For the past two years, I have worked as an Employment Counsellor/Facilitator with JVS of Greater Toronto in partnership with Skills For Change in the delivery of an Employment Assistance Services Program targeted towards foreign-trained professionals and tradespeople. Human Resources Development Canada funds the program. Recently, there have been several initiatives to profile this group such as featured articles in the Toronto Star and the quarterly H.R.D.C. publication, The Pulse. In addition, Skills For Change has a program known as Access to the Trades and Professions. One of its many efforts has been the coordinating of several focus groups to discuss and report findings on the systemic barriers foreign professionals and tradespeople face in respect to employment.
If your clients are considering adding the letters “MBA” behind their names, they might want to look at the October 29 issue of Canadian Business Magazine (Volume 72, Issue 17) for the Best MBAs 1999 report. This year there is a lot of coverage of Executive MBA’s (the highly respected crash course your boss usually pays for), a report on new technology-oriented programs in Hamilton and Saint John, and a case-study competition for those who want to test their business acumen before they actually enroll in a program. All this in addition to the usual rankings, a grid comparing prices of schools, average salary increases and more. Good bedside reading for those who want to find out a little more about the degree. Some articles are available atwww.canadianbusiness.com.
By Helen Peacock
“There is something unique and wonderful about attending an Enneagram conference. There aren’t that many other place where you meet someone in an elevator, and the first question you get is “So, what type are you?””