Cannexus is Canada’s largest bilingual National Career Development Conference and will take place January 27-29, 2020 in Ottawa. The conference will bring together more than 1,200 professionals from education, community, government and private sectors to exchange information and explore innovative approaches in career counselling and career and workforce development.
The final conference programme is now available online and features:
How do I future-proof my career? Many jobseekers are asking themselves this very question today as technology continues to transform the labour market. Career service professionals need to understand the opportunities and challenges that automation brings to the workforce. In the new CERIC literature search Artificial Intelligence and Career Development, we look at the implications of AI for career service professionals in their practice.
Topics covered in the literature search include:
The impact of AI on the future workforce
AI and career coaching and training
Research and practices on AI-based career assessment tools
The rise of soft skills and emotional intelligence in the workplace
AI and career readiness among students
HR and recruiting with AI
There are now 56 literature searches available, including Career Development Theory and Career Management Models, Economic Benefits of Career Guidance, Parental Involvement in Career Development, Labour Market Trends, Mental Health Issues in the Workplace, and more.
Featuring comprehensive listings of key research and articles in career development, literature searches highlight critical points of current knowledge. As a student, academic or practitioner in the field, literature searches are helpful if you are researching the latest thinking or proven best practices. They are also valuable if you are considering a submission to CERIC for project partnership funding in order to gain an overview of major work already done in your area of interest.
CERIC will publish a book in the new year that makes the case that career development practice is a mental health intervention, and provides skills and strategies to support career development practitioners in their work. Written by Dave Redekopp and Michael Huston, Strengthening Mental Health Through Effective Career Development: A Practitioner’s Guide explores how practitioners do far more than help people prepare for, enter and navigate career pathways – they change people’s lives in ways that improve mental health and overall well-being. This resource will launch at the Cannexus20 National Career Development Conference in January and be available for purchase or free download.
Based on a CERIC-funded research project with international partners Life-Role Development Group Ltd., Simon Fraser University and Career Education Association of Victoria (also known as Australian Centre for Career Education), the guide shows ways to connect career development services to clients’ mental health concerns while clearly working ethically and within the boundaries of their role and competence. Practitioners will be equipped to improve their career development services, broaden their view of client concerns to include well-being outcomes as part of a whole-person approach to career/life planning, and strengthen their collaboration with healthcare service providers. The authors also emphasize their focus is mental health, not mental illness, and address this distinction in the book.
In the wake of a global mental health movement involving organizations, schools, post-secondary institutions, managers, employees and parents, the guide encourages career development practitioners to recognize that they have always influenced mental health in their work; the big changes are in understanding and communicating the value of career development intervention and its role in supporting positive mental health.
“As a career development practitioner, we know you have watched many clients or students transform. They came into your service or classroom lethargic, emotionally flat, tentative, and reactive. At some point – maybe while reviewing their strengths, clarifying their preferred future, researching work possibilities on a career website, job shadowing, learning how to study, or working through their résumé – something big happened,” Redekopp and Huston write in their introduction.
“Perhaps they found their footing on a career pathway, became more comfortable in their own skin about who they are, recognized that there were many potential places in the work world for them, or learned a strategy to help them cope with the things in life coming at them. You may not even know what the trigger was, but you know someone who was languishing is now taking life on, seeing meaning in what they are doing, seeing clearly who they are, and feeling hopeful about their ability to handle the future.”
The guide will support career practitioners to:
Consider the mental health impact of their services
Be intentional about the mental health impact of their services
Improve the mental health impact of their services
Evaluate the mental health impact of their services, and
Communicate the mental health impact of their services to relevant stakeholders, including policy-makers
The book has been written primarily for those who see themselves as career development practitioners, namely those who help clients or students, 1-to-1 or in groups. This includes academic advisors, career coaches, guidance counsellors, employment specialists and human resources practitioners working with a broad range of clients. Additionally, the book is intended to be of use to the supervisors and managers of career development practitioners, particularly those responsible for service evaluation, fund development, community engagement and service marketing. Researchers and academics will also find a robust and testable model of career development and mental health relationships as well as descriptions of specific interventions to better achieve positive mental health outcomes within career development practice.
Based in Edmonton, author Dave Redekopp is the national award-winning President of Life-Role Development Group Ltd. He has devoted more than 30 years to the development of better career development and workplace concepts and practices. Most recently, his research has focused on the links between career development and mental health. Co-author Michael Huston is a long-standing associate at Life-Role Development Group as well as a career development practitioner, and Associate Professor and Counsellor at Mount Royal University in Calgary. His research interests include adolescent stress and coping, career development as mental health intervention, and counsellor and career development practitioner education and training.
Advance praise for the book is coming from career development luminaries and mental health experts, including Mark Savickas, David Blustein, H B Gelatt, Norm Amundson, Denise Bissonnette, Bill Borgen, Kris Magnusson, Roberta Neault, Pete Robertson and Dr Joti Samra. The book has also received support from Knowledge Champions: Ryerson University, Wilfrid Laurier University, Australian Centre for Career Education and Simon Fraser University. Thanks to their backing, each delegate at CERIC’s Cannexus conference (January 27-29, 2020 in Ottawa) will receive a free copy. The book is expected to be available for pre-sales in early January via Amazon and Chapters.Indigo in both print ($28.95) and ebook ($19.99) formats. A free pdf will be offered for download after the launch.
Redekopp and Huston will be presenting a session at Cannexus, on Monday, January 27, 2020, on “Career Development & Mental Health: Coping Becomes Hoping.” The session will dive into the content of the new guide and address how career development processes bolster well-being.
On November 27, 2018, CERIC took a big leap into the next generation of content and learning with the launch of the new CareerWise website, Your source for career development news and views. Our French-language content site, OrientAction, a partnership with Quebec-based partner, GRICS, was also reimagined and relaunched at the same time.
The new CareerWise website replaces CERIC’s ContactPoint site, a pioneer on the web that served Canada’s career development professionals for more than 20 years. The revamp is based on extensive analysis of online user behaviour, best practices from the web’s most-read content sites, ansd focus group feedback and ongoing consultation with career professionals across the country. The changes reflect the evolving ways that people find and interact with information online while continuing CERIC’s commitment to offer web content for Canada’s career professional communities in a current and engaging manner.
The one-stop shop for professionals working in career development to stay up to date with continuous learning from trusted content that advances knowledge and skills
Quick and easy access to the most important career development information, resources and conversations, and actionable insights to apply at work
A career development content hub where you can: scan the latest news; search areas of interest; see what’s trending; connect to thought leaders; and contribute your knowledge
Over the past year, popular topics on CareerWise have included:
CERIC is committed to finding ways to keep making CareerWise better. If you want to tell us what CareerWise has meant to you or ideas for how we can better meet your needs, share on social media with the hashtag #MyCareerWiseStory.
If you want to receive career development-related news, please subscribe to receive our newsletter CareerWise Weekly. If you’ve been thinking about writing for CareerWise, check out our Submission Guidelines and send an email to Editor Lindsay Purchase at lindsay@ceric.ca.
CERIC has published a series of six Action Plans for professionals working with different client groups that provide practical discussions and activities based on the Guiding Principles of Career Development. Called Career Work in Action, the plans are authored by Karen Schaffer and Juliana Wiens, career counsellors based at Saint Mary’s University in Halifax.
The purpose of the Action Plans is to provide professionals with insights and ideas for working with clients that align with CERIC’s popular Guiding Principles of Career Development, designed as a colourful and engaging infographic. With a goal of bringing greater clarity and consistency to our national conversations about career development, CERIC launched the Guiding Principles during Canada Career Month in November 2016. Since that time, CERIC has worked to disseminate the Guiding Principles and develop resources and tools to support their application, culminating with the new Action Plans.
Action Plans cover the following client populations:
Youth: High school students, primarily in Grades 10-12, who are having to make career/ education-related decisions. These students may be engaged, highly engaged or disengaged
Post-Secondary Students: Students between the ages of 18-25, who come to post-secondary either directly from high school or after a short gap period. Many points also apply to mature students
Educated and Underemployed: Often recent graduates trying to find work in their field or move beyond entry-level roles but also includes workers who are precariously employed and mothers returning to work
Unemployed Long Term: Mature adults who have been unemployed for one year or more and who want to work. Unemployment could result from struggles with illness, time spent caregiving or a prolonged, unsuccessful job search
Newcomers to Canada: Adults who have come to Canada in order to re-establish themselves. Some will have chosen to immigrate in order to access opportunities, while others will have had to flee unrest or unsafe conditions
Transitioning to Retirement: Those between the ages of 55-67 who have fairly uninterrupted work histories. These individuals are most often middle to upper class, though it is acknowledged others in this age group do not have the luxury of retirement
Each Action Plan begins with situating the client population within the Guiding Principles to identify where their complexities and challenges lie, and then suggests discussion questions and activities that professionals can use when providing career support. The intended users of the plan are a broad spectrum of professionals – both inside and outside of the career development field – who may provide career-related support to those with whom they work.
With a focus on “How do we help?,” questions and activities in the plans are grouped around five key areas of career work, according to an Organic Career Support Framework presented by the authors. Suggested discussions and activities provide relevant conversational starting points, opening questions, concrete interventions and fun activities for each of the key areas of career support. The five key areas are:
Self-exploration – Helping clients figure out who they are and what they want
Decision-making – Supporting clients at key points of decision-making
Support through transition – Encouraging, coaching, supporting, advising through transition
Future thinking – Helping clients think ahead, anticipate future challenges and strategize around how to respond
Mental health – Providing support around mental health and well-being issues as they relate to career
Earlier this year, CERIC released a companion document to the Guiding Principles that outlines a selection of the extensive research that underpins them. Guiding Principles of Career Development: Anchored by Evidence lists expert quotes and references from a cross-section of journals and reports that illustrate the Principles’ currency, relevance and validity. The resource provides stakeholders with the theoretical grounding behind the Principles.
Action Plan authors Schaffer and Wiens will be presenting a session at the Cannexus National Career Development Conference on January 28, 2020 titled “An Experiential Journey Through the CERIC Guiding Principles.” The session will delve into how the Action Plans translate Guiding Principles into practical client interventions. This is a chance to experience the Guiding Principles as a reflective tool for professionals and learn new action strategies together with colleagues.
Download the Action Plans for free at ceric.ca/principles. A limited print run will be available for purchase at Cannexus for $10/copy.
Gamification is “the use of game mechanics and experience design to digitally engage and motivate people to achieve their goals”. (Gartner, 2014). What does gamification mean to career service practices? CERIC’s new literature search, Gamification and Career Development, highlights the concept and implications of gaming in career education.
Topics covered in the literature search include:
Concepts, tools and applications of gamification
Gamification and employee engagement
Use of gamification in the recruitment process
Gamification for millennials and non-millennials
Career counselling apps
Gamification vs game-based learning
Utilizing gamification in career assessment
Design and evaluation of gamification
There are now 55 literature searches available, including Career Development Theory and Career Management Models, Economic Benefits of Career Guidance, Parental Involvement in Career Development, Labour Market Trends, Mental Health Issues in the Workplace, and more.
Featuring comprehensive listings of key research and articles in career development, literature searches highlight critical points of current knowledge. As a student, academic or practitioner in the field, literature searches are helpful if you are researching the latest thinking or proven best practices. They are also valuable if you are considering a submission to CERIC for project partnership funding in order to gain an overview of major work already done in your area of interest.
In recognition of Elizabeth McTavish’s valuable contribution to the career development field, CERIC is awarding six bursaries to community-based counsellors for Cannexus20, courtesy of The Counselling Foundation of Canada.
CERIC received a total of 44 applications and wishes to acknowledge all the organizations that applied. Recipients of this year’s Elizabeth McTavish Bursary come from across the country, including Prince Edward Island, Quebec, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Newfoundland and Labrador. Bursary winners this year represent organizations that support youth, Indigenous peoples, newcomers, and people with mental health challenges.
The bursaries are awarded in honour of Elizabeth McTavish who began working with The Counselling Foundation of Canada in the late 1960s and served as Director of Counselling and as Executive Director of the Foundation for 25 years. As an early pioneer in career development, she believed that community-based organizations could play a significant role in providing career counselling and employment services on the front lines.
A bursary provides a full registration for the Cannexus conference plus $500 for expenses. The Cannexus20 conference takes place January 27-29, 2020 at the Shaw Centre in Ottawa.
The 2019 Survey of Career Service Professionals is a national survey run by CERIC, a charitable organization that advances career development in Canada. With the start of Canada Career Month, the survey is now open!
This comprehensive survey will take approximately 25–30 minutes to complete. Your responses will help CERIC, and the field at large, to better understand your interests and challenges, as well as your professional development and information needs.
This survey is only run once every four years – and presents a critical opportunity to take a snapshot of the profession and how it has changed over time. It was previously run in 2011 and 2015. In 2015, over 1,000 practitioners completed the survey and provided rich data that helped to inform CERIC’s work – from the research projects we fund to the learning we offer you.
CERIC is pleased to be partnering with local associations and organizations across the country to present several roadshows throughout November for Canada Career Month.
These FREE breakfast meetings will engage career development professionals as well as related stakeholders in the communities where they work and provide networking and learning opportunities linked to new CERIC research and resources.
The following dates have been confirmed for the roadshows:
CERIC wishes to thank the many local partners who are collaborating with us to host roadshows and share information with their members and networks.
If you’re interested in attending, simply follow the links to register or if you would like to partner with CERIC to host a future roadshow in your community, please contact Cyrielle Filias at cyrielle@ceric.ca.
CERIC supported the National Educational Association of Disabled Students (NEADS) to carry out a nationwide research initiative in order to understand the current best practices around accessibility, accommodation and universal design in career education of post-secondary students with disabilities. The webinar will be led by Frank Smith, the National Co-ordinator of NEADS.
Webinar Learnings:
Importance of combined academic and career-related experience for disabled students in college and university programs
How career professionals on campuses can foster opportunities and break down barriers for disabled students and graduates
Challenges for persons with episodic disabilities in post-secondary and employment experiences
Opportunities and advantages to hiring persons with disabilities who have post-secondary education
A new pan-Canadian CERIC-funded research project Settlement Services Counsellors Profile has identified a need to rethink the role of front-line settlement counsellors, especially as immigration levels rise. In this webinar, Iren Koltermann, Managing Director eCaliber Group and Dan Scott, Principal, Calience Research and Consulting will discuss the eight core competencies of front-line settlement counsellors.
Webinar Learnings:
The nature of the work of settlement counsellors, including their career path
The need for this role to evolve in response to the changing landscape of immigration and settlement
A simple approach to the identification and use of competencies
A description of key emerging competencies for the role of future settlement counsellors
Registered participants will receive a link to the recording of the webinars. So even if you can’t make to any of these two webinars, you will still be able to access all the learning.
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