CERIC

The first group of soldiers, mostly from 5 Canadian Mechanized Brigade Group, return to Canada after completing Roto 6 of Operation UNIFIER, April 4, 2019, at Jean-Lesage Airport, Quebec, Qc. Photo: Trooper Marc-André Leclerc VL05-2019-0019-004. This image is a copy of the version available at http://www.combatcamera.forces.gc.ca/gallery/cc_photos/detail/?filename=VL05-2019-0019-004&assetId=129352

2024

Updated edition of Military to Civilian Employment book to be published next year

January 16, 2024By Rachel So

The CERIC Board of Directors recently approved a project to revise Military to Civilian Employment: A Career Practitioner’s Guide for publication in January 2025. The new edition would reflect substantive changes within the Canadian military ecosystem and ensure that Canadian career professionals have an up-to-date resource to help ex-military clients smoothly transition from military roles into the civilian workforce.

This second edition of the book will once again be authored by Canadian careers expert Yvonne Rodney, in collaboration with the Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group, Veterans Affairs Canada, Military Family Services as well as the Chief of Reserves and Employer Support. Organizations in Canada active in supporting veterans and military-to-civilian transitions are also again invited to become part of the project as Knowledge Champions.

First released in 2016, more than 16,000 copies of the original book have been distributed. As with the first edition, the follow up will also be available both for sale as well as free download in English and French. The original edition was embraced by career development professionals across Canada seeking to be better equipped to support veterans in navigating the civilian job market and educational opportunities.

“The Military to Civilian Career Guide is an invaluable tool for Career Development Practitioners (CDPs) working with transitioning members of the military. It provides knowledge and comprehensive insight into needs, skills and experiences of members of the military, as well as effective tools and strategies for next steps. Yvonne uses storytelling, which brings the guide to life, providing a more immersive and dynamic learning experience. We have assisted military members and their families with career transitions, and we could not have done this as effectively without this guide. We look forward to an updated version of the Military to Civilian Career Guide which will ensure we provide the best possible service for our clients.”

– Sue Watts, Executive Director, Employment + Education Centre, Brockville, ON

The demand for support with employment transition for veterans remains high. The 2021 Statistics Canada Census of Population shows there are more than 450,000 veterans in Canada (up to age 59). Additionally, each year in Canada, approximately 8,000 military members are released from service (up from 5,000 each year when the original book was published) and increasingly at a younger age.

Content for the second edition of the book will be updated to address current realities. In particular, the concept of “Military Cultural Competent Counselling” or M3C has emerged as a foundational approach to supporting veterans. Military cultural competence requires learning about military and veterans’ culture to be able to understand their unique experiences. Further, the kinds of services and support provided to transitioning military members has shifted as a result of Canada’s new Strong, Secure, Engaged Defence Policy and been augmented under the framework of the “Seven domains of well-being,” of which employment or meaningful purpose is at the top. It is also anticipated that new chapters would be added on reservists as well as on recruitment for the first time, informing career professionals about opportunities for clients to join the military as well as exit it.

In the decade since CERIC began to develop the first edition of the book, it has continued to support military transition, including funding another project A Question of Style, that examined employer bias regarding veteran working style and continued to point the way for how career professionals can best support veterans in making the transition from military to civilian careers.

The upcoming Cannexus conference, taking place Jan. 29-31, 2024, both online as well in Ottawa will also feature several military-focused presentations:

MCC: Military Cultural Competency Counselling with Jordan Camarda, Canadian Armed Forces Transition Group (in-person)
Empowering Military Spouses’ Employment and Economic Opportunities with Elizabeth Nicholas, Trenton Military Family Resource Centre and Vanessa Walsh, Canadian Forces Morale and Welfare Services (virtual)
Canadian Forces Recruiting Group will also be back exhibiting for the first time since 2020

For more information on this project or to get involved, please contact Sharon Ferriss, CERIC’s Senior Director of Marketing and Communications at sharon@ceric.ca

2024

CERIC celebrates 20 years of Advancing Career Development in Canada

January 11, 2024By Rachel So

In 2024, CERIC is marking 20 years as a national charitable organization, advancing the field of career development in Canada. We have worked over that time to support diverse communities of career and employment professionals through education, research and advocacy.

During the course of the coming year, we will be highlighting our history, our impacts, and our future directions to achieve our vision of a Canada where people have the capacity to use their skills and talents towards a more fulfilling future for all.

Of course, these past two decades have only been possible with the incredible leadership and support of our funder The Counselling Foundation of Canada, our project partners, supporting organizations, Board members and Advisory Committee volunteers, and staff.

We’ll kick off our anniversary celebrations on Jan. 29 at Cannexus, Canada’s Career Development Conference, which takes place both in Ottawa and virtually.

Just some of the exciting initiatives to be showcased at Cannexus include:

Release of two seminal CERIC-funded reports – Hidden Sector, Hidden Talent: Mapping Canada’s Career Development Sector and Career Development 2040: Preparing for Possible Scenarios of Work and Careers
Publication of three new CERIC resources: Practice Principles: Career Theories and Models at Work, Exploring Possibilities! Journeying Through Career-Related Learning in Grades 4–6 and L’accompagnement visant l’intégration des personnes réfugiées faiblement scolarisées : une perspective interculturelle en orientation  
Relaunch of CERIC’s Canadian Career Development Researcher Database featuring 200+ leading anglophone and francophone researchers from across Canada, in both academic and community-based settings

With funding from The Counselling Foundation of Canada, CERIC began operations in 2004. CERIC provided a home for many important programs that preceded it, including the ContactPoint (now CareerWise) and OrientAction online content communities and the Canadian Journal of Career Development. CERIC launched the Cannexus conference in 2007 and has seen it develop into the largest annual event of its kind in the country. It has also nurtured a variety of project funding partnerships that have created innovative resources for career counselling and development.

Over the past 20 years, CERIC has maintained its focus on increasing the economic and social well-being of people in Canada through career development. Our current strategic mandates to realize this are by “Promoting career development as a priority for public good” and “Building career development knowledge, mindsets and competencies.” During this time, we have continued to evolve to meet the changing needs of Canada’s career development professionals, enabling and supporting thought leadership, learning and skill building, community collaboration, and raising the profile of the field.

2024

Navigating diversity recruitment across Canadian police forces

January 5, 2024By Amelie Almonacil

By Amanda Assi (Cannexus24 GSEP Award winner)

Police officers play an integral part in enforcing community laws and maintaining order; however, recent surveys show a trending decline in the public’s trust and confidence in Canadian police every year (Government of Canada, 2023). More specifically, Canadians rank police low on areas of sensitivity and fair treatment of minorities, including Indigenous people, racialized groups, people with a disability and 2SLGBTQ+ individuals (Government of Canada, 2023). These results emphasize the need for policing organizations to re-evaluate the effectiveness of their diversity and community policing strategies to ensure they are appropriately meeting the needs of all communities.

Most Canadian policing organizations have statements or strategies regarding their commitment to equity, diversity and inclusivity (EDI) to meet the needs of Canada’s increasingly diverse populations. Many police forces have initiated bias and diversity training programs to reduce the impact of negative biases on marginalized groups. However, the long-term effectiveness of these programs is not substantiated (Lai & Lisnek, 2023).

A common solution in combatting concerns of bias and sensitivity toward marginalized groups is increasing representation of those groups in recruitment efforts (Olzmann, 2020). Diversification of police forces has been promoted as a way to improve police-community relations, reduce systematic biases and promote equitable policing (Peyton, et al., 2022). The representation of marginalized groups in policing has been demonstrated to be effective in increasing community trust and co-operation, and improving treatment of minority communities (Riccucci, et al., 2018; Bradbury & Kellough, 2011).

Although diversification of police forces may mend many of the concerns regarding public trust, there are recruitment barriers amongst marginalized populations (Jordan et al., 2009). Generations of systemic and discriminatory polices within policing have contributed to a lack of trust among marginalized groups, which has a negative impact on interest in pursuing policing as a career (Vermeer et al., 2020). Vermeer and colleagues also found that recruitment efforts by police organizations use mainstream outlets that marginalized communities may not access, including word of mouth of current employees or conventional advertisements. However, successful recruitment of diverse individuals is shown to increase trust within the community and decrease perceptions of bias with law enforcement agencies (Hodges, 2015; Szeto, 2014).

Therefore, as Canadian policing organizations grapple with statistically decreasing levels of trust, this will inevitably continue to affect recruitment efforts and the public’s perception of fair treatment by police (Government of Canada, 2023; Vermeer et al., 2020). Research demonstrates that the inclusion of diverse populations has increased community policing efforts, while diversity programming is shown to have marginal effects on changing officers’ beliefs or behaviour; this supports the need to implement changes at the recruitment process level (Hodges, 2015; Szeto, 2014; Lai & Lisnek, 2023).

In this context, I propose that additional research is needed to identify qualitative information about how recruiters expect and anticipate police officers to demonstrate the values of their EDI statements. This information could be used to improve recruitment screening process by operationalizing and identifying qualities that are important for police services to embody. In turn, these efforts ameliorate the relationship between police organizations and marginalized communities, by providing recognition and space for their experiences in policing and by demonstrating concern of sensitivity and fair treatment at the employment intake level.

Amanda Assi is a graduate student pursuing an MSc in Counselling Psychology at the University of Calgary. She aspires to contribute to research pertaining to diversity and social justice efforts in the recruitment of law enforcement personnel. Amanda’s expertise derives from her experience as a member of a police recruitment team in a large policing organization.

References

Bradbury, M., & Kellough, J. E. (2011). Representative bureaucracy: Assessing the evidence on active representation. The American Review of Public Administration, 41(2), 157–167. https://doi.org/10.1177/0275074010367823

Government of Canada, R. C. M. P. (2023, January 5). Client and partner survey results 2021-22. Client and partner survey results 2021-22 | Royal Canadian Mounted Police. https://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/en/reports-research-and-publications/client-and-partner-survey-results/client-and-partner-survey-results-2021-2022

Hodges, B. (2015, October 8). 7 tips for building a diverse police workforce. Police1. https://www.police1.com/police-products/training-products/articles/7-tips-for-building-a-diverse-police-workforce-r5aNKKwatMZqCrsM/

Jordan, W. T., Fridell, L., Faggiani, D., & Kubu, B. (2009). Attracting females and racial/ethnic minorities to law enforcement. Journal of Criminal Justice, 37(4), 333–341. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.06.001

Lai, C. K., & Lisnek, J. A. (2023). The impact of implicit-bias-oriented diversity training on police officers’ beliefs, motivations, and actions. Psychological Science, 34(4), 424–434. https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976221150617

Olzmann, J. A. (2020). Diversity through equity and inclusion: The responsibility belongs to all of Us. Molecular Biology of the Cell, 31(25), 2757–2760. https://doi.org/10.1091/mbc.e20-09-0575

Peyton, K., Weiss, C. M., & Vaughn, P. E. (2022). Beliefs about minority representation in policing and support for diversification. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 119(52). https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2213986119

Riccucci, N. M., Van Ryzin, G. G., & Jackson, K. (2018). Representative bureaucracy, race, and policing: A survey experiment. Journal of Public Administration Research and Theory, 28(4), 506–518. https://doi.org/10.1093/jopart/muy023

Szeto, J.K. (2014), Policing Diversity with Diversity: Exploring Organizational Rhetoric, Myth, and Minority Police Officers’ Perceptions and Experiences, Unpublished Master’s thesis, Wilfrid Laurier University, Ontario, Canada.

Vermeer, S.-J., Stickle, B., Frame, M., & Hein, M. (2020). Reasons and barriers for choosing police careers. Policing: An International Journal, 43(5), 817–830. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm-05-2020-0074

Picking a job over a career: The woes of immigrants

January 5, 2024By Amelie Almonacil

By Alison D’Cruz

As a newcomer immigrant, the first thing on my mind was to get a job as quickly as I could so that I could afford to live a decent life in Canada. I had heard the stories of immigrants finding it hard to secure appropriate employment. So, without much understanding of the Canadian labour market, I had but one goal: to get “A” job! I had silenced the nagging voice in my mind, telling me that although I was a newcomer to Canada, I was not new to the workforce and instead had spent years building my skillset and career. Was I really willing to let go of it and settle for a job I didn’t want?

Canada welcomes thousands of immigrants like me each year to meet its demand for skilled labour and population growth (IRCC, 2020). However, many immigrants face difficulty in gaining suitable employment owing to their lack of Canadian work and educational experience, proficiency in either of the official Canadian languages or familiarity with Canadian culture (Sinacore et al., 2011). Depending on their needs and ability to remain without employment, many take up jobs not commensurate with their experience, thereby finding themselves in a state of underemployment (Kennedy & Chen, 2012). Underemployment is particularly problematic if the existing job starts to become the focus of subsequent job interviews on account of being the most recent and only Canadian experience of an immigrant.

I found the following strategies to be helpful in circumventing the “‘picking the job over a career”’ predicament of many immigrants:

Anticipate your challenges

Immigrating to a new country can never be easy but knowing what to expect can help with the transition. Doing research about your profession and talking to people with similar trajectories can help you anticipate the main challenges you are likely to encounter. However, don’t overestimate the challenges. Just because someone else encountered a particular issue does not mean you will. Seeking out conversations with people who currently hold the role you want, as well as connecting with their managers, can often give you better insight into that position and pathways to get there. You do not need to ask them for a job but make sure you maintain a line of communication with them.

Investigate your options

The trick to picking up your career from where you left off is to know your worth and keep reminding yourself of it. It is easy to take up the first job you are offered and then fall into a rut when nothing else seems to be working out. At this stage, it is advisable to look at other options like education. While many mature immigrants may hesitate to become students again, there are many benefits that come along with the additional credential such as access to networks and mentoring opportunities.

Communicate and demonstrate your skills

An immigrant’s international experience may not be what some employers are looking for but resumes and interviews are often a time to demonstrate your skillset. Be sure to highlight skills that are integral to the role and that you can demonstrate having acquired and practised over the course of your career. Sharing what you can do that no one else can provides a competitive advantage.

Replicating a career in a new country is as much of a psychological battle as it is a practical one. While there is no easy fix, there are certainly some strategies that work better than others. At the end of the day, what matters as immigrants is that we gave it our best shot.

Alison D’Cruz is a higher education professional and a PhD student in education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, University of Toronto.

References

Government of Canada, Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada. (2020). Immigration to Canada in 2019. https://www.canada.ca/en/immigration-refugees-citizenship/news/2020/10/infographic-immigration-to-canada-in-2019.html

Kennedy, T., & Chen, C. P. (2012). Career counselling new and professional immigrants: Theories into practice. Australian Journal of Career Development, 21(2), 36-45.Sinacore, A. L., Park-Saltzman, J., Mikhail, A. M., & Wada, K. (2011). Falling through the cracks: Academic and career challenges faced by immigrant graduate students. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 45(2), 168-187

2024

Youth-Centred Mentorship: An innovative approach to mentorship matching

January 5, 2024By Amelie Almonacil

By Joel Murphy (Cannexus24 GSEP Award winner)

Past research suggests that mentorship has a positive impact on both the employer and mentees (Ivey & Dupré, 2020). However, there are a lack of strategies, evidence, literature and models for how labour force attachment programs with a mentorship component can encourage organic and meaningful mentorship relationships within a formal program structure. The action of matching mentor and mentee represents a challenge and an area of needed research for organizations interested in supporting meaningful mentorship opportunities. Goosen (2009) bluntly advocates that the use of “forced pairing” leads to incompatibility.

The Youth-Centred Mentorship Approach (Y-CMA) represents an innovative concept developed to address this challenge.

Youth-Centred Mentorship Approach

The Y-CMA is a strength-based developmental approach and is informed by three key theories: Self-determination theory, empowerment theory, and intersectionality and social location literature. The hypothesis of this approach is that to support the longevity and ongoing success of participants’ engagement with mentorship throughout their careers, labour force attachment programs must support participants to develop internal motivation and personal capacity to value and pursue mentorship relationships during and beyond the duration of the program. The Y-CMA is a framework that creates spaces where participants are empowered to develop their own understanding of mentorship (autonomy & relatedness), reflect and identify what they want from mentoring relationships (autonomy) and understand what actions to take to accomplish their identified mentorship goals (competence).

The following is a quick breakdown of the eight steps within the Y-CMA.

Step 1: Relationship building

Foundational to the Y-CMA is the relatedness between participants and facilitators. This stage aims to create spaces where individuals can share about who they are, family of origin, cultural background, and any other topic which can help people get to know each other as unique individuals.

Step 2: Module 1 – What is mentorship and why is it beneficial?

This module is intended to help build understanding (capacity) around the potential impacts of mentorship and to emphasize the current desires and needs of participants (autonomy).

Step 3: Module 2 – What do you look for in a mentor?

Participants think critically about what type of mentor would help them accomplish the benefits they perceive (competency) as resulting from a mentorship relationship at this point in their life.

Step 4: Mentor recruitment

Career development professionals would then recruit mentors based on the insights from Step 3, while also encouraging participants to do the same.

Step 5: Module 3 – How do you find a mentor and ask?

This module focuses on finding a mentor, how to ask someone to be mentor and gives a snapshot of what mentorship “meetings” could be like (autonomy & competency).

Step 6: Mentor meet and greet

This activity is meant to act as an informal opportunity for participants and potential mentors to meet and interact with each other. Participants should be prepared to think critically and reflexively about the potential mentors they meet and consider which mentor they believe would be a good fit.

Step 7: Mentor matching

Following Step 6, participants will identify their top 3 mentors. They are then connected via online software (example: Mentor City) or email to further support their ability to affirm if it is a good match, based on their module training.

Step 8: In-person mentor training

This training is intended for both participants and confirmed mentors outlining organizational expectations, answering questions, and focusing on co-creating the expectations and intentions participants and mentors are setting for each other. During this time, facilitate some “get to know you” activities, discuss meeting rhythms and officially launch the mentorship relationship.

Joel Murphy is a PhD Candidate in Educational Studies at Mount Saint Vincent University, Nova Scotia. His areas of research are youth career development, futures research, program design, all done within an engaged scholar approach. Joel also works as an Impact and Innovation officer at the Centre for Employment Innovation, located at St. Francis Xavier University.

References

Jacobson, D., & Mustafa, N. (2019). Social Identity Map: A Reflexivity Tool for Practicing Explicit Positionality in Critical Qualitative Research. International Journal of Qualitative Methods.

Blake-Beard, Stacy, Bayne, Melissa L, Crosby, Faye J, & Muller, Carol B. (2011). Matching by Race and Gender in Mentoring Relationships: Keeping our Eyes on the Prize. Journal of Social Issues, 67(3), 622-643.

Dawson, Phillip. (2014). Beyond a Definition: Toward a Framework for Designing and Specifying Mentoring Models. Educational Researcher, 43(3), 137-145.

Deci, E., Connell, J., & Ryan, R. (1989). Self-Determination in a Work Organization. Journal of Applied Psychology, 74(4), 580-590.

Deci, E., Koestner, R., & Ryan, R. (2001). Extrinsic Rewards and Intrinsic Motivation in Education: Reconsidered Once Again. Review of Educational Research, 71(1), 1-27.

Goosen, X. (2009). The nature of mentorship in an industrial goods and services company. Acta Commercii, 9(1), 41–59. https://doi.org/10.4102/ac.v9i1.93

Ivey, G. W., & Dupré, K. E. (2022). Workplace Mentorship: A Critical Review. Journal of Career Development, 49(3), 714-729. https://doi.org/10.1177/0894845320957737

Lerner, R. M., Napolitano, C. M., Boyd, M. J., Mueller. M. K., Callina K. S. (2013) Mentoring and Positive Youth Development. In DuBois, D. L., & Karcher, M. (Eds.). Handbook of youth mentoring. SAGE Publications.

Njeze, C., Bird-Naytowhow, K., Pearl, T., & Hatala, A. (2020). Intersectionality of Resilience: A Strengths-Based Case Study Approach With Indigenous Youth in an Urban Canadian Context. Qualitative Health Research, 30(13), 2001-2018.

Messineo, L., Allegra, M., & Seta, L. (2019). Self-reported motivation for choosing nursing studies: A self-determination theory perspective. BMC Medical Education, 19(1), 192.

Tafvelin, Susanne, & Stenling, Andreas. (2021). A Self-Determination Theory Perspective on Transfer of Leadership Training: The Role of Leader Motivation. Journal of Leadership & Organizational Studies, 28(1), 60-75.

To, S., & Liu, X. (2021). Outcomes of Community-Based Youth Empowerment Programs Adopting Design Thinking: A Quasi-Experimental Study. Research on Social Work Practice, 31(7), 728-741.

Zimmerman, M. (1995). Psychological empowerment: Issues and illustrations. American Journal of Community Psychology, 23(5), 581-599.

2023

Graduate students win award to attend the Cannexus24 conference

December 18, 2023By Amelie Almonacil

CERIC has announced the recipients of this year’s Graduate Student Award, providing support for five graduate students to virtually attend the Cannexus24 Canada’s Career Development Conference, January 29–31, 2024.

The recipients are:

Jihène Hichri, PhD student, Education, Université du Québec à Montréal
Joel Murphy, PhD candidate, Education,  Mount Saint Vincent University
Amanda Assi, MA student, Counselling Psychology, Werklund School of Education, University of Calgary
Daniel Trudel, MA student, École de Counseling et d’orientation, Université de Laval
Annie Gourde, PhD student, École de Counseling et d’orientation, Université de Laval

The award, presented annually to select full-time graduate students studying career counselling or career development, provides free registration to virtual Cannexus and $1,000. The Cannexus conference promotes the exchange of information and explores innovative approaches in the areas of career counselling and career and workforce development. Student poster presentations will be available for viewing during the virtual conference.

Eligibility for the award is based on participation in CERIC’s Graduate Student Engagement Program (GSEP), which includes the submission of a one-page article on a career development topic. Read the award-winning articles and all the thought-provoking submissions on CERIC’s GSEP Corner.

GSEP encourages engagement of Canada’s full-time graduate students (master’s or PhD level) whose academic research is in career development or a related field. Interested in submitting your application to GSEP? The next cohort of the Graduate Student Engagement Program will open for applications in mid-2024. Check back soon!

2023

Unlocking potential: Toward a National Advocacy Campaign for career development in Canada

December 4, 2023By Lindsay

Career development can have a tremendous positive impact on individuals, employers and the economy. Unfortunately, it is a significantly underused resource in Canada. To help unlock the transformative potential of career development, a group of interestholders representing a diverse cross-section of the field across Canada – with the support of CERIC and human-centred design firm Overlap Associates – is working to develop a National Advocacy Campaign.

The purpose of developing a National Advocacy Campaign is to increase the visibility, profile and impact of career development in order to improve the working lives of everyone in Canada and build a more prosperous economy and equitable society. As we reflect on a year of work moving toward this goal, we wanted to share this journey with the broader career development community and invite in more voices as we continue to develop this initiative together.

This community-led initiative is being advanced through the collective leadership of individuals from a variety of career development organizations and institutions across Canada: ASPECT BC, CACEE, CCDF, CERIC, Challenge Factory, Employment and Education Centre, First Work, John Howard Society, Kwantlen Polytechnic University, Louis Riel School Division, ODEN, People for Education, SIEC, Skills for Change, The Neighbourbood Group and University of the Fraser Valley.

The idea to develop an advocacy campaign took root in CERIC’s Advocacy and Community Engagement Advisory Committee in 2022. The committee identified several opportunity areas for a campaign, which were refined at CERIC’s Cannexus conference in January 2023 through community consultation and a two-day design thinking workshop with 40 career development leaders. This led to the development of seven campaign prototypes for a potential future National Advocacy Campaign:

Join Me on My Journey
Endless Possibilities – Become Employable
Beyond Decent
CAREeRS
Path to Prosperity
Life Aesthetic
Career Web

This consultation also resulted in the creation of a Steering Committee and Working Group, which developed criteria for selecting a campaign prototype and interviewed interestholders to generate feedback on the campaign ideas. In October 2023, the Steering Committee selected the “Beyond Decent” campaign idea to further explore, based on an analysis of community feedback.

As the purpose of the National Advocacy Campaign is to increase the visibility, profile and impact of career development, we believe it is important for this initiative to involve, reflect and be embraced by Canada’s career development community. CERIC has engaged Overlap Associates to help integrate human-centred design – an iterative, collaborative approach to problem-solving – into the process of developing a National Advocacy Campaign. The “Beyond Decent” campaign idea will continue to evolve through the research and ideation phases, which will invite the collaboration of interestholders across the career development community in Canada.

We want to hear from you! Join our outreach list to stay informed, share your ideas and be a part of this transformative journey.

To explore the campaign prototypes, learn about the ongoing process for developing a National Advocacy Campaign and see who has been involved, visit our webpage, “A National Advocacy Campaign for Career Development in Canada.”

Have questions? Reach out to CERIC’S Senior Director, Marketing and Communications, Sharon Ferriss, at sharon@ceric.ca.

How to effectively support career transitions following a loss of meaning at work (IN FRENCH WITH ENGLISH SUBTITLES)

October 19, 2023By Amelie Almonacil

PAST FREE WEBINAR

Co-Presenters

Élodie Chevallier, doctorate in education (UQAM)

Réginald Savard, professor (UQAM), career counsellor and psychotherapist

Alexandre Brien, professor of career counselling (UQAM)

Pawel Zaniewski, M.sc., career counsellor and doctoral student in education (UQAM)

Original date and time

Monday, December 4, 2023 – 12:00 pm – 1:00 pm ET (Check your time zone)

Price

FREE webinar

Language

This webinar series was presented in French with English subtitles available on the recording.

Accessibility

This webinar offered AI-generated live captions available in multiple languages

English subtitles are available on the recording of this webinar.

Webinar overview

Loss of meaning at work is a growing source of motivation for career change, particularly when it follows a significant event. A striking example of this is the COVID-19 pandemic, which has given rise to a phenomenon of “quiet quitting.” This has prompted organizations such as CERIC and UQAM (Université du Québec À Montréal) to address the issue by funding project research aimed at understanding how major upheaval affects the meaning that individuals derive from their work and their decisions to change careers.

Indeed, given the events anticipated in the 21st century (climate events, climate-induced migration, pandemics…), it is essential to understand the factors underlying the loss of meaning at work, to analyze this process and to determine how to provide appropriate support.

Why career professionals should get involved

This webinar will present key findings from CERIC research on meaning at work. Employment and career counselling professionals will gain a deeper understanding of this evolving field and acquire evidence-based knowledge to enhance their practice. By considering factors that impact meaning at work and understanding how it can be lost, professionals can better support clients facing professional malaise. This webinar will help participants identify dimensions of meaning at work to support clients in creating new career plans that align with their values, promoting lasting well-being and job satisfaction.

Key learning objectives

Learn about the dimensions and components of meaning at work
Learn about the process of loss of meaning at work, leading to career transition
Help define a meaningful career plan

Overview of the research project

CERIC has funded a research project aimed at shedding light on how a career shock, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, influences the meaning of work and career change choices. As part of this project, a team from UQAM is seeking to better understand the career concerns of individuals since the start of the pandemic.

Learn more

CERIC webinars are hosted on the Zoom Events platform! Learn about it in our FAQ.

Élodie Chevallier holds a doctorate in education. Her research activities focus on meaning at work and career development. Since 2021, with a team from UQAM, she has been conducting research into understanding the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning given to work and career development.

Réginald Savard is a professor at UQAM, Career Counsellor and psychotherapist whose research focuses on effectiveness and change in career counselling with orientation, integration and adaptation challenges, as well as on training and supervision. He offers a variety of clinical supervision activities in career counselling and psychotherapy.

Alexandre Brien holds a doctorate in education from Université de Sherbrooke and a postdoc from Saint Paul University in Ottawa, and is a professor of career counselling at Université du Québec à Montréal.  Since 2022, he has been part of the research team seeking to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning given to work.

Pawel Zaniewski, MSc, Career Counsellor, is a doctoral student in education at UQAM. He is working on the effectiveness of career counselling for people reintegrating into work following a common mental disorder episode. Since 2022, he has been part of the research team seeking to understand the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on the meaning given to work.

Return to the upcoming webinars page

Return to the Past webinars page

2023

Explore the 100+ sessions: Program now available for hybrid Cannexus24 conference

October 4, 2023By Rachel So

The Cannexus24 hybrid program has now been released for both the virtual edition and Ottawa-based in-person version of Canada’s largest Career Development Conference, taking place Jan. 29-31, 2024. The program includes more than 100 sessions which will empower you to drive change and collectively build a brighter future.

Cannexus brings together professionals across the career and workforce development ecosystem to explore research, policy and practice. The Cannexus24 program emphasizes the role of career development in changing individual lives and building a stronger future for Canada. Last year, our in-person conference drew nearly 1,000 delegates and our virtual conferences more than 1,000.

Incredible keynotes will inspire delegates: future of work expert Hamza Khan, Paralympic champion Chantal Petitclerc, University of South Australia’s Dr. Nancy Arthur and award-winning researcher on Indigenous youth Dr. Sean Lessard. Featuring top researchers, practitioners and thought leaders from across Canada and around the world (Candy Ho, Gray Poehnell, Mark Franklin, Sareena Hopkins, Lisa Taylor, Seanna Quressette, Graham Donald, JP Michel, Dave Redekopp, Tricia Berry, Josh Davies, Roberta Borgen (Neault), Mary McMahon, Trina Maher, Sonny Wong, Sarah Delicate, Yvonne Rodney, Deirdre Pickerell, Rich Feller and many more), here is just a sampling of the sessions on offer:

Virtual

Embracing Upskilling in an Uncertain Job Market
Coaching Clients on Salary Negotiation
Evidence-based Outcomes Realized in Broad Community Counselling Service
Fork Theory: A Multi-pronged Approach to Support Neurodivergent Networking
Advancing Skills Training for Black Youth: A Panel Discussion
How Trauma Affects Career Development and Work Life
What Gen Z Values and Why It Matters
Harnessing the Power of Artificial Intelligence for CDPs!
Decolonial Approaches to Career Education: A Conversational Program
Growing Pains and Gains in Canada’s Intergenerational Workplaces

In-person

Mapping the Canadian Career Development Sector
What Indigenous Learners Need from Career Education
The Unconscious Conflicts Triggered by Our Clients’ Anxiety
Net Zero – Implications for Skills
Scaling Career Development in Higher Ed: Creating Faculty Career Champions
Building a Neuroinclusive Workforce
Meeting SME Talent Needs – Career Planning and Support
A JEDI Lens to Career Advice
ChatGPT and AI: Unlocking Potential, Amplifying Impact
Integration of Career and Mental Health Counselling
Essential LinkedIn Strategies for Optimizing Content at Every Career Level

Hybrid sessions act as bridges between the in-person and virtual conference, creating a shared Cannexus experience. In-person attendees also receive access to the virtual platform at the end of the conference. Both in-person and virtual attendees will have access to these recordings for three months.

Delegates can save by registering by the Early Bird deadline of Friday, Nov. 10. The cost during Early Bird is $340 for the virtual and $575 for the in-person conference. Members of groups of 5 or more save a further 25% off Early Bird rates as do members of 37 supporting organizations.

2023

Report reveals 10 megatrends that will shape work and careers in 2040

October 3, 2023By Rachel So

A new CERIC-funded report from Creative Futures Studio Inc. sheds light on 10 megatrends that will shape the future of work in Canada. The report, Career Development in 2040, digs into the trends that workers, employers – as well as those who advise them – need to understand to thrive in a labour market facing massive disruption. Based on an extensive literature review of as well as interviews with career development professionals (CDPs) and career services users, the report highlights 10 major trends: 

Work Anywhere 
AI & Automation 
Living with Climate Change 
Geopolitical Conflicts 
Reconciling the Impacts of Colonialism 
Economic Precarity 
Globalization Under Pressure 
Education, Disrupted 
Declining Mental Health & Well-being 
Generational Shifts

The report also identifies microtrends within each area (32 in total), including the impact of the “green skills revolution” on new jobs creation, greater recognition of the skills of neurodivergent individuals, the increasing popularity of the “learn and earn” model of post-secondary education and how Gen Z’s values-driven approach to work will inform their leadership. 

The purpose of this report is to explore this range of complex changes that may influence career development and career services by 2040, to help CDPs better prepare. Looking forward to 2040, what might be the role of career developers? Will “careers” as they are currently conceptualized exist in the same way, or how might they evolve given current macro-level changes impacting jobs? The year 2040 was selected so that career developers can reasonably anticipate changes over the next 15-20 years and, at the same time, boldly imagine new paths forward.

As the report outlines, we are living in a time of increased uncertainty. As a result, the needs of employers and workers are complex, uncertain and volatile, and by extension, so is the role of CDPs. Based on the major changes described in this report, careers may look very different in 2040. For example, an older workforce can mean new career services specifically designed for the unique needs of seasoned workers who may require age-related accommodations. Depending on how the 10 major changes in the report evolve over time, CDPs might need a range of new skills in the future, such as expanded digital skills that respond to emerging technologies; enhanced mental health interventions; coaching skills related to climate change and many more.

For this report, over 600 secondary sources were studied over the course of two months in 2023, including traditional as well as non-traditional publications. Researchers also conducted interviews with career development practitioners from across Canada who were asked to reflect on changes they were observing in the field, and what it could mean for 15 years in the future. “Users” of career development services were also interviewed about their possible careers in 2040 and the types of supports they could need.  

Given the future-oriented focus of this report, it was created using a strategic foresight research approach called horizon scanning. Strategic foresight is a discipline rooted in the academic discipline of futures studies and provides structured and evidence-based methods for understanding our futures. Strategic foresight is not about predicting the future, but instead explores a range of possible futures that could unfold based on changes that can be observed today. Horizon scanning is the approach used to identify these changes, capturing broad social, technological, economic, environmental, political and values-based changes with the potential to impact the future.

The report is the product of a Request for Proposals that CERIC released last year to explore how the changing nature of work will impact the concept of careers and the role and identity of career developers. Creative Futures was contracted to undertake this research project. Creative Futures Studio Inc., helps organizations to understand and apply strategic foresight and social innovation methods so they can make informed decisions about their future.

 The next phase of this project will translate the megatrends into three possible scenarios and engage CDPs in a deeper exploration of the possible implications of these changes. In doing so, CDPs will collectively identify key skill requirements, and how services may need to evolve by 2040. The results of this work will be available in early 2024.

Creative Futures co-founders Heather Russek and Jessica Thornton will present their findings at Cannexus, Canada’s Career Development Conference, being held Jan. 29-31, 2024, in Ottawa.

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