Becoming Adult: How Teenagers Prepare for the World of Work
By Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi and Barbara Schneider, Basic Books, 2000
ISBN: 0-465-01540-9
An excellent book for guidance counsellors, parents, teachers, and anyone working with teenagers, though it has somewhat of an academic bent. Readers may be familiar with Dr. Csikszentmihalyi’s books on flow (losing oneself in enjoyable activities – living in the moment) and creativity.
No one else was in the room, but ten other practitioners considered her problem and offered advice. Some were at their desks in northern Ontario. Some were at home or at work in towns and cities across southern Ontario. People from all across the country and even south of the border have been invited to the next meeting. It could have been a conference call, costing hundreds of dollars, but this didn’t cost her a cent. It was a virtual meeting at Contact Point’s C-SPACE.
By Marc Verhoeve, Cybertraining Consultant
The city of San Antonio, Texas, is a picturesque city located within 200 kilometers of the Gulf of Mexico. Comparable to Toronto in population, it is imbued with Mexican culture and cuisine; its economy is dependent on two industries: five armed forces bases and conventions.
San Antonio is this year’s location for the 2001 American Counseling Association Conference, which hosted from March 15th to 20th professional caregivers, representing specialties such as career development , mental health, geriatrics, rehabilitation, marriage, social work, spirituality, and gay, lesbian and bisexual issues. Daily, from 8AM to 8PM, a total of 578 workshops competed for the professional development thirst of 4100 delegates
The delegates and presenters were primarily American; the non-American presenters [in addition to myself] hailed from Israel, Mexico, and Taiwan. My two sessions were “Cybercounselor’s Professional Toolkit” and “It Takes a Community to Develop a Career“.
The conference theme, “Counseling at Its Best: Celebrating the Human Spirit” nurtured a plethora of workshop topics, such as:
- Violence Prevention in Urban Schools
- Recovery from Severe Long-Term Illness
- Empowering Women for Equity
- Living a Virtual Existence: A Look at Internet Addiction
- Adoption and Family Rituals
- Strategies for Developing Web-Based Counseling Courses
- Counselor Training Model in Taiwan: Retrospection and Future Development.
Because of the number of simultaneous workshops, the delegates utilize a “drive-thru learning model”. They plot their workshop priorities, and may only stay in a session until the handouts are distributed. Presenters respond to this tactic by keeping the handouts until the end of their session. One popular format are the poster sessions, where the presenter posts details of a project, and responds to delegates’ questions.
Despite the expenses involved in attending this conference, it provides an incredible smorgasbord of professional development experiences. I heartily encourage counselling practitioners to consider attending [and presenting] at this outstanding conference. The locale for next March’s ACA Conference is New Orleans.
If you wish more details [or advice about proposal/ presentation protocols], please feel free to contact me:
Marc Verhoeve
Cybertraining Consultant
verhoeve@sympatico.ca
By Mark Franklin, M.Ed., P.Eng.
One poll after another reveals that North American workers feel frustrated or unchallenged at work and would make a career change if only they felt they could. The travel and tourism industry is experiencing a boom in active travel vacations. As a career counsellor and an active travel leader, I drew a connection between these two seemingly unrelated phenomena.
Association of Service Providers for Employability and Career Training BC’s Community Based Trainers
ASPECT is . . . a provincial association made up of over 140 members who provide employability and career training to people with barriers to employment; some members are private trainers and some are non-profit agencies.
ASPECT membership . . . is available to organizations in BC that provide community based employment and career training. ASPECT members deliver a variety of programs and services designed to assist individuals to overcome their employment disadvantages.
ASPECT exists to . . facilitate resource sharing and problem solving between agencies, promote good working relationships between agencies and government and to coordinate professional development opportunities for the management and staff of member agencies.
ASPECT administers . . .Job Start, a wage subsidy program for young people aged 17 to 24 and Training Works! A workplace based training program. ASPECT subcontracts the delivery of these programs to its qualified member agencies.
ASPECT members receive:
- Coordination and assistance with advocacy activities
- Requests for proposals to administer ASPECT programs
- A provincial directory of all member agencies
- Quarterly newsletter ASPECTIVES
- Information about regional professional development activities, and
- Invitations to participate in conferences and the Association’s Annual General Meeting.
ASPECT advocates . . . on behalf of its member agencies and their clients, both federally and provincally. On the national front, ASPECT represents its members with the following committees and organizations:
- The Canadian Coalition of Community Based Trainers (CCCBT)
- The Canadian Association of Education and Training Organizations (CAETO)
- The Canada Career Consortium (CCC)
- The National Headquarters of Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC), and
- The National Reference Committee for the First Source web site
ASPECT Board of Directors . . . consists of executive members as well as regional representatives from the Fraser Valley, Thompson-Oakanagan, Kootenays, Vancouver and Vancouver Island. The Board meets frequently to exchange information through networking, events and conference calls. ASPECT maintains a provincial office, located in Victoria.
Denise Dawson is a Certified Human Resources Professional (CHRP) with a background in the management of a large non profit community based training agency. As Director of Membership Services with ASPECT, her role is to provide members with information, research, advocacy and professional development opportunities.
By Diane Strong, Office Workers Career Centre
“The use of the Internet for business purposes is already having a profound impact on the largest non-managerial occupational group in the workforce – office support workers. E-business practices are changing the tools clerical workers use, where they work, who they are employed by, and their relationships with clients, customers, suppliers, managers and colleagues.” That’s a central conclusion of research by the Office Workers Career Centre to evaluate the impact of e-business on administrative and clerical workers.