Summer 2004

By Sandra Lim

PRWRA – Professional Résumé Writing and Research Association

Founded in 2000, PRWRA, is an organization dedicated to the empowerment and individual growth of its members through collaboration, improved industry awareness of career professionals and their services, and education / certification. PRWRA’s mission is to “empower its global members to utilize innovative resources in their complete career development/transition practices, in accordance with ethical business standards, and in continuous dialogue with its members, keeping pace with the 21st century careers industry.”

Laura DeCarlo, who has served as VP, Awards and Presentations, will assume presidency of the organization this year. She cites PRWRA’s focus on “professionals empowering professionals” as one of its greatest attributes.

Membership primarily consists of, but is not limited to, owners of résumé writing and/or career coaching businesses. PRWRA is truly an international organization, boasting members from not only North America, but Barbados, Bermuda, China, Germany, Greece, Japan, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria, Pakistan, Puerto Rico, Saudi Arabia, Scotland, Singapore, South Korea, Spain, and the United Kingdom.

Members are offered many certification opportunities unique to the industry:

• Certified Resume Writer (CRW)
• Certified Expert Resume Writer (CERW)
• Certified Master Resume Writer (CMRW)
• Certified Electronic Career Coach (CECC)
• Certified Career Research Professional (CCRP)
• Certified Federal Resume Writer (CFRW)
• Certified Web Portfolio Professional (CWPP)

Additional membership benefits include a PRWRA’s popular annual convention for learning and networking. The 2005 Convention will take place in Las Vegas.

Website: www.prwra.com

Contact:

Laura DeCarlo
President
lauraads@aol.com
Tel: 1-888-86-PRWRA (77972)

Sandra Lim, CPRW, CCM, CECC, Cert. Cybercounseling
newcareer@abetterimpression.com

By Melissa Martin

Teleseminars

A new dimension of online learning has burst on the scene and the US is leading the way. Canada, with its distinction of being a leader in the career field, is lagging behind our neighbours to the south. Teleseminars are changing the learning landscape and burning up the telephone lines with individuals who yearn for an alternative means of learning.

Ethical Guidelines for Ontario School Counsellors
Ontario School Counsellors Association
www.osca.ca
Naylor Publications Co., 2003

The Ethical Guidelines publication developed by the Ontario School Guidance Counsellors provides a very informative and descriptive framework to assist School Guidance Counsellors in clarifying their professional, ethical and legal responsibilities.

By Tracey Helten, Associate Consultant for Canadian Career Partners

If the owner of your favourite coffee shop told you that you couldn’t set foot in the store unless you provided your date of birth, name, address and email––would you go in? Without knowing why personal information was needed to buy a cup of coffee, or what the owner was intending to do with it, you would likely find another coffee shop. But if the owner explained that the information was only going to be used to randomly select and contact winners of free coffee for a year, you might just consider it.

By Malcolm Stewart, Ph. D.

In each decade since the 1950s, the average retirement age of Canadians has fallen. In 1994, the average age at first retirement was 60.4. By the mid-1990s the median age of retirement was about 61 for men and 58 for women – well below the ‘traditional’ retirement age of 65 (when pension benefits typically begin). Moreover, most retirees remain retired. In the mid-1990s only a small proportion — around 16 percent of men and 9 percent of women age 45 and over– returned to paid employment after formally retiring. However, the latest figures from Statistics Canada show a significant increase in employment among older Canadians, mirroring a trend that researchers have been tracking in the United States since the 1980s. In 2003, 11.5 percent of men and 4.1 percent of women age 65 and over – over a quarter million seniors — were engaged in paid employment, compared with 9.8 and 3.4 percent respectively in 1999. Why is this ‘up tick’ in labour force participation of older people occurring? Is it likely to continue and perhaps intensify? Are more and more of us likely to be working into our later years, as long as we are physically able to do so?

By Peter Cameron

Career counsellors, labour market analysts, employers and individual job seekers use the National Occupational Classification (NOC), the Career Handbook (CH) and Job Futures (JF) as a standardized way to of describing and understanding the world of work.

By Angus McMurty

I got my introduction to assessment tools in the late 90’s. I was working with a number of other researchers on Career Cruising’s occupational database. We had just completed putting together several hundred in-depth occupation profiles and almost one thousand multimedia interviews for our CD-ROM and online versions of Career Cruising.