Career Coaching

By Caroline Veldhuis

When most of us hear the word “coach”, we think push-ups. But in the last decade almost 250,000 people around the world have had a little push towards personal success thanks to coaches helping them with everything from navigating their careers to planning their retirement. There are nearly 10,000 professional coaches practicing outside the athletic arena, and the profession is growing fast. For people working or training to work as career development practitioners, career coaching is a lucrative and rewarding niche one might want to consider as an area of professional practice.

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Canadian Practice Firms Network

Practice Firm: A Unique Concept in Employability

Since 1995, the practice firms have given the opportunity to almost 5000 Canadians to update their knowledge and acquire hands-on work experience while conducting an active job search. Throughout their activities, the participants benefit from the professional support of resource personnel.
The concept of the practice firm was born in Germany during the fifties. It plunges unemployed individuals in a simulation of the commercial activities of a real business trading with more than 3200 PF in 31 countries and their 28 counterparts situated in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia.

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Canadian Practice Firms Network

Practice Firm: A Unique Concept in Employability

Since 1995, the practice firms have given the opportunity to almost 5000 Canadians to update their knowledge and acquire hands-on work experience while conducting an active job search. Throughout their activities, the participants benefit from the professional support of resource personnel.
The concept of the practice firm was born in Germany during the fifties. It plunges unemployed individuals in a simulation of the commercial activities of a real business trading with more than 3200 PF in 31 countries and their 28 counterparts situated in Quebec, Nova Scotia, Ontario and British Columbia.

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Magellan

Magellan used the stars as his guide. Fortunately, your students don’t have to.

Magellan – A self-directed career exploration program linked to the NOC.

Now with sound and video clips.
For more information, please contact:
Career Systems Canada

416-321-3853

careersystems@globalserve.net

www.alparint.com

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The Young and the Enterprising

By Sandra Tam

With the general decline of ‘good,’ secure, well-paid jobs, today’s young workers are exploring less traditional career paths and employment arrangements. Self-employment is an increasingly popular employment option for youth. But are these ‘good’ jobs? The goal of this research project was to address this question by describing and analyzing the experience of self-employed youth with a focus on youth with businesses in the Information Technology sector. Human Resources Development Canada funded the project and a team of youth researchers at the Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres conducted the study. Forty-seven self-employed youth in Ontario were interviewed. The results provide mixed conclusions about the quality of work and economic feasibility of self-employment for youth. The following are some highlights of the study with implications for career counsellors.

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Snapshot

By Pat Harper

Ontario Association for the Application of Personality Type (OAAPT)

The Ontario Association for the Application of Personality Type (OAAPT) is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to promoting an understanding of personality type, and the effective and ethical applications of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® (MBTI®) and other related instruments. OAAPT is the Ontario chapter of the Association for Psychological Type (APT).

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Book Club

Who Am I? The 16 Basic Desires That Motivate Our Actions and Define Our Personalities

By Steven Reiss, Ph.D.
2000, Jeremy P Tarcher/Putnam, ISBN: 1-58542-045-X

Is it time for a new assessment tool in career counselling? This one is sure to garner some attention. Steven Reiss, a professor of psychology and psychiatry at Ohio State University, has developed a rather compelling theory of self-motivated behavior through extensive research and testing (psychometrists take note: his research process is outlined in this book).

Building on the work of pleasure theorists, who believe that humans take action to maximize pleasure and minimize pain, Reiss has furthered this theory of human motivation by dividing “pleasure” into 2 types, pleasure sensations deriving from wealth, looks and good health (pleasure based, he says, on “good fortune”), and value-based pleasure or happiness, which results when one’s desires are fulfilled, when something happens that is personally meaningful. The key to attaining this type of happiness varies from person to person because of personal differences in desires and values.

Through research, he has categorized value-based pleasure (desires) into sixteen types such as Independence (self-reliance), Order (organization), Idealism (social justice), Vengeance (getting even), Curiosity (knowledge), and so on. Each person has a different hierarchy of desires, which motivates individual behavior.

Part One of the book describes these 16 basic desires and shows individuals how to come up with their own profiles.

Part Two explains and analyzes the different desires with respect to relationships, career, family, and spirituality. Reiss shows readers how they might fulfill their desires, based on their particular profiles. For example, he suggests careers which will likely satisfy each of the desires, (and shows jobs to avoid) and he even includes a chapter on relating with co-workers and bosses. The chapter “Choosing a Fulfilling Career” and a discussion entitled “Is Changing My Job Worth the Risk?” will be of particular interest for career practitioners, while the entire book will be interesting for anyone interested in personality theory or self-assessment.

 

Career Counseling of College Students : An Empirical Guide in Strategies That Work

By Darrell Anthony Luzzo, PhD
2000, American Psyhological Association
ISBN:1-55798-708-4

Career practitioners working with college students will want to update their resources with this new book out of the APA (order online at www.apa.org). Devoted exclusively to career development theory, research and practice with the college population, Career Counseling of College Students presents over 200 proven and practical counselling strategies particular to this group. Contributing authors examine the advantages and disadvantages of career classes and workshops, the emotional and spiritual aspects of career choice, and the use of the internet and computers in career counselling. This research-based compendium also includes information on counselling specific groups like athletes, minority students and returning adults. An excellent, up-to-date sourcebook which addresses the latest challenges for college-level counsellors.

 

How About Mixing Business With Pleasure with New Books about Work:

 

Waiting: The True Confessions of a Waitress
By Debra Ginsberg
2000, Harper Collins
ISBN: 0060194790

For a taste of life on the other side of the table (perhaps something your clients are familiar with), or an empathetic and inspiring voice for your clients in the service industry, Waiting is an honest and entertaining account of the 20 years Ginsberg worked as a waitress, before she embarked on a full-fledged writing career. Described as “part memoir, part social commentary,” this richly-textured book shows how working at what is generally considered a low-level job is just as meaningful as any other profession –she has filled a book with her observations of human nature, interpersonal relationships, and the unique frustrations of a position which is often filled by people ‘waiting’ to move on to something else. And yes, there’s behind the scenes info on what really happens in the kitchen, too.

 

Gig: Americans Talk About Their Jobs at the Turn of the Millenium
Marisa Bowe, John Bowe, Sabin C. Streeter, Daron Murphy, Rose Kernochan, Editors.
2000, Crown Publishing Group
ISBN: 0609605887

The compilation of more than 120 interviews conducted across the United States, Gig is a funny, intelligent and eye-opening look at what it’s really like to work as an accountant/dog walker/psychiatrist…and more. The roots of this book lie in a popular weekly column on the site of Word.com, a hip, general-interest online magazine. Contributors to the book range from Hollywood sitcom stars and supermodels to part-time workers and low-income earners. The changing work-world is captured in the richly-textured personal experiences of these individuals, whose interviews are presented in very easy, very fun to read monologues of 4 to 5 pages each. The refreshing thing about this book is that it’s completely non-scientific, without any overarching methodology or analysis…it’s simply a person by person account of how people manage to make a living, and how those jobs affect the rest of their lives.

 

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Conference Sketches

By Phil Hedges, President, Ontario School Counsellors’ Association

OSCA 2000: Another Successful Conference

More than 250 delegates were informed, challenged and entertained at the annual conference of the Ontario School Counsellors’ Association

“Looking Out, Looking In” was, in many ways, a departure from past practice. For the first time, the organizing committee was not a local affiliate of OSCA. Instead, the committee was made up of representatives from the Central Region Ontario Colleges of Applied Arts & Technology and the Ontario College Application Services.

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Publications + Products

Becoming a Twenty-First Century Agency Counselor: Personal and Professional Explorations
By Kathryn C. MacCluskie and R. Elliott Ingersoll, 2001, Wadsworth, ISBN: 0-534-35605-2

Good Job!: A Young Person’s Guide to Finding, Landing, and Loving a Job
By Nancy Schaefer, 2000, Stoddart, ISBN: 0773761098

Intentional Group Counseling: A Micro Skills Approach
By Allen E. Ivey, Paul Pedersen and Mary Bradford Ivey, 2001, Wadsworth, ISBN: 0-534-52651-9

The Inside Track: Getting Hired to Teach in a Canadian School
By Barlow Patten, 2000, Thompson Educational Publishing, Inc., ISBN 1-55-77-114-0

Window on Youth Employment: Youth Employment Trends in Ontario
By Ontario Association of Youth Employment Centres, 2000, ISBN: 0-9698861-1-X

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