Career Briefs

Help for military to civilian transitions

The Military to Civilian Employment: A Career Practitioner’s Guide is now available, having launched at the Cannexus16 National Career Development Conference. An average of 5,000 Armed Forces personnel exits the military each year, many of whom seek to use their unique skill set in the civilian labour market. The guide will equip career professionals with what they need to know to assist veterans.

Highlights of the guide include:

• Understanding the needs of veterans and military culture
• Equipping veterans for the job search
• Enhancing coping and adaptation
• The education/qualification conundrum
• Career needs of military spouses

Produced by CERIC in partnership with Canada Company, the guide is available in both English and French. It can be purchased in print, ebook or downloaded for free at the CERIC website.

More information at ceric.ca/military.

The PhD goes beyond the Academy

Academia is not the end of the road for PhDs, according to a recently published Conference Board of Canada report entitled Inside and Outside the Academy: Valuing and Preparing PhDs for Careers. Whether PhDs are choosing to work in alternative careers due to issues of precarious employment within universities, or because their skill set is in demand in a variety of occupations, the Conference Board reports that fewer than 20% of PhDs in Canada are employed as full-time tenure-track professors.

The report examines the social contribution of PhDs, the knowledge and skills PhDs have gained, the need for professional skills development, and describes existing national and international programs.

If you have not already encountered PhD clients transitioning from academia to the workplace, chances are seemingly high that you will.

Read the report at conferenceboard.ca.

Syrian refugee employment challenges and opportunities

As Canada begins to welcome 25,000 Syrian refugees, career development professionals have a unique opportunity to assist and advocate for the influx of individuals set to enter the workforce.

New Canadians face difficult challenges related to employment and often experience underemployment as a result of language barriers, lack of an established social network, qualifications not being recognized and cultural misconceptions. Underemployment of newcomers was estimated to cost Canada more than $20-billion in 2012, according to a report from CIBC.

With support from CERIC and the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), a research team led by the University of Winnipeg will investigate four cities in Canada to examine best practices for career development and integration of newcomers, in particular refugee youth. The project aims to create strong support networks, co-create new projects and services, and prepare counsellors and teachers to provide career development through the education system.

Learn more about this project at ceric.ca/projects.

Assisting students with career decisions in the computing disciplines

In partnership with Mount Royal University, CERIC will fund a new project to improve career counselling for students interested in information and computer technology. The project will produce both a Practitioner’s Guide and Student’s Guide.

Over the past 15 years, computing has undergone significant change, resulting in five sub-disciplines (or career areas). These five disciplines, defined by the Association of Computing Machinery (ACM), are: computer science (CS), information systems (IS), computer engineering (CE), software engineering (SE) and information technology (IT).

Research and practice have shown that there is considerable overlap between the computing sub-disciplines, but universities tend to offer distinct computing degrees that typically do not blend curricula between the different disciplines. For students, this poses a strain, as majors need to be chosen early on in their post-secondary education process. The outcome of this project for students will be to support their career selection process, so that they may make career choices that are more in line with their values and interests.

Learn more about this project at ceric.ca/projects.

Labour market experiences for people with disabilities in Canada

Statistics Canada recently released two reports on the experiences of Canadians with disabilities based on the 2012 Canadian Survey on Disability (CSD), stating that 13.7% of Canadians aged 15 years or older reported some type of disability which limited their daily activity as a result. At the same time, 0.6% of Canadians were identified as having a developmental disability (e.g. autism, cerebral palsy or Down syndrome).

The Developmental Disabilities Among Canadians Aged 15 Years and Older report found that the prevalence of developmental disabilities is highest among young adults. More than half of this population was found to have less than a high school education and less than one quarter were employed, often in part-time and poorly paid positions.

A Profile of the Labour Market Experiences of Adults with Disabilities Among Canadians Aged 15 Years or Older found that most people with disabilities who had workplace accommodations requested modified/reduced hours, which was reported as being a barrier to employment advancement. Skills development and education were found to be the two factors that led to more successful employment. The report calls for more research incorporating employer and service provider perspectives to progress toward full participation of people with disabilities in the labour market.

Read the reports at statcan.gc.ca.

An overview of the career service sector in Canada

More than 1,000 respondents completed CERIC’s 2015 Survey of Career Service Professionals. The survey takes place every four years and provides a snapshot of demographics within the field, research trends and education needs.

The landscape in career services continues to evolve as funding service models change, new technologies emerge, and shifting economic conditions persist. Survey findings help CERIC, and the field at large to understand interests and challenges of career service professionals, including: what they are most proud of, what keeps them up at night and how they think the public perceives their work.

Detailed results will appear in future issues of Careering magazine and on the CERIC website throughout 2016, including regional and sectoral analysis.

Keep up-to-date on survey findings at ceric.ca/surveys.