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The first phase of a CERIC-funded research project has now produced three literature reviews that examine what is happening in elementary education across Canada related to introducing and building career-related foundational skills. These newly available documents include: a review of scholarly literature; a curriculum and policy review; and a review of business and industry partnerships. 

The project, Career Development in Children: Identifying Critical Success Conditions and Strategies, is being undertaken by an international team of academic researchers led by Dr. Lorraine Godden of Ironwood Consulting and Carleton University. The research seeks to understand how foundational concepts and skills that are introduced and developed by teachers in Grades 4 to 6 connect to career-related learning in Canadian classrooms. 

The reviews have found that across Canada, provinces and territories have implemented a variety of educational strategies, initiatives, policies and programs to help young people achieve productive and fulfilling lives. Ministries, school boards and schools have a range of proactive frameworks and policies. However, several challenges impact their successful implementation. For example, many elementary schools have limited resources beyond the classroom teacher to support students’ career and life planning, and many teachers are not aware they are developing critical career skills in their students. 

Supporting Career Development in Children: A Literature Review 

This document contains a review of literature which investigates the practices to support the development of career-related foundational skills in children aged 9-11 in Canadian elementary schools. The review explores the scholarly literature related to career development terminology, career development frameworks and theoretical understandings, and empirical work that examines the ways teachers introduce and develop foundational career skills (e.g., healthy habits of mind and being, social and emotional skills, self-confidence, self-efficacy). This literature review recognizes that career vocabulary and terminology are the building blocks on which all career interventions are built. 

The literature review includes: 

• An extensive exploration of career-related terminology that educators might encounter in the career-related work in schools;  
• An exploration of how work is linked to career development;  
• A detailed overview of typical expected outcomes of career development;  
• An overview of empirical career-related learning and career development theoretical frameworks;  
• An outline of typical career-related learning outcomes seen in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United Kingdom;  
• An examination of what career-related learning looks like in elementary schools; and  
• A summary of contemporary issues related to career.  

Supporting Career Development in Children: Curriculum and Policy Review 

This curriculum and policy review examines provincial and territorial policy, reporting and curriculum documents for career-related learning, including relevant social studies, health and wellness, and social and emotional learning documents. This pan-Canadian exploration provides insight into what is happening in career education in Grades 4, 5 and 6, showing differences across the country. This review has involved developing a greater understanding of the role that geographic context plays in influencing practice related to delivering career-related learning.  

Findings include: 

• Some provinces and territories, such as Ontario, British Columbia and Yukon, have embraced a Kindergarten to Grade 12 approach to career education.  
• In other areas of the country, career education begins to emerge in Grades 5 and 6 (e.g., Alberta, Saskatchewan and the Atlantic provinces).
• Still other regions do not appear to have any formal career education currently in place at the elementary level (e.g., Nunavut). 

Supporting Career Development in Children: A Review of Business and Industry Partnerships 

This review examines partnerships between elementary schools and business and industry. It reports on industry perspectives regarding the importance of developing foundational skills and investigates formal partnerships between business/industry and schools or school districts. It also establishes where and how the wider business and industry community are providing services, programming, training, resources or partnerships to and with elementary schools across Canada. This exploration provides some important insights into these partnerships and confirmed that some elementary schools do partner with business and industry through various agreements and specialist councils. However, the research revealed partnerships to be more widespread for secondary schools. 

The review answers: 

• Which provinces and territories have business and industry partnerships?   
• What partnerships and programs currently exist between business and industry and elementary schools?   
• Which provinces and territories have Industry Education Councils?   
• What connections do Industry Education Councils have with elementary schools? 

  These three literature reviews are intended for and can benefit: 

• Teachers – in elementary and secondary schools who are supporting their students with career-related learning;  
• Guidance counsellors – who are delivering and managing career-related knowledge, information and services across their schools;   
• School leaders and district school board administrators – who are determining the scope of career-related learning across their schools;   
• Curriculum developers – who are looking for worthwhile practices to incorporate into career-related programming and development;  
• Policymakers – who are directing courses of action across the policy life cycle, and are evaluating the role of different policy actors within career-related policy in schools;  
• Government – who are making decisions as to what career-related learning should look like in schools; and   
• Business and industry partners – who are making decisions to form or undertake strategies that support career-related learning in their local and broader community schools.   

Research for this project is ongoing with data being collected from educators, parents and Grade 4-6 students in public school settings across Canada. This has involved ensuring the inclusion of diverse perspectives: Indigenous communities, immigrant communities, francophone communities, special needs educators, and urban, rural and remote communities.  

The next phase of this project is focused on the development of a teacher’s toolkit, including strategies and interventions teachers can use to develop critical career-related foundational skills with students. On Monday, January 23 at Cannexus, Canada’s Career Development Conference, Dr. Godden and fellow researchers will be leading a virtual research circle entitled Teaching Careers to Grades 4-6? Pilot Our Toolkit! In this interactive community consultation, participants can review the evidence gathered to support toolkit development, sample different class-based activities and provide feedback to help shape the final toolkit. 

Coinciding with Canada Career Month, CERIC published a series of four articles throughout the month of November exploring the value of career development in The Globe and Mail’s Leadership Lab. As the featured expert, CERIC Board Chair Dr. Candy Ho provided career advice and insights for employers as well as employees at all stages of life.   

How to recruit young millennial and Gen Z workers amid a talent shortage, Nov. 2: In this first article, Ho – who is also inaugural Assistant Professor for Integrative Career and Capstone Learning at the University of the Fraser Valley in BC – addresses the challenges that employers are having with recruiting early career talent at a time of historically low unemployment. Ho advises: “The first shift employers need to make to better engage young talent is to see an individual’s career as more than simply their job or their work.”  

Exit interviews are common, but to really help retention, firms should conduct stay interviews, Nov. 9: The second article in the series examines the opportunity for employer to inform recruitment and retention strategies by undertaking “stay interviews.” As Ho writes: “A stay interview is more than a simple check-in with loyal employees. It’s a career conversation between managers and staff that helps organizations understand their employees’ personal ‘why’: What is keeping them motivated at work and what their employers can do to keep them engaged.” 

Thinking about changing jobs? First, you should develop a career mindset, Nov. 16: In the third article in the series, Ho reflects on the pandemic disruptions of the past 2.5 years and how this had led many people to reflect on where they are, what they want, and what is possible. She counsels the development of a career mindset for individuals to be able to intentionally shape their futures. A career mindset includes: understanding your value, understanding your options, and understanding the winding path of life.  

The lines between professional and personal are blurring – and that can be a good thing, Nov. 23: The fourth and final article in the series argues that given current labour market issues – a skills shortage, an aging workforce and an anticipated recession in 2023 – executives can’t afford to ignore what employees need to thrive, both inside and outside their jobs. “Taking steps to understand what workers need to thrive enables organizations to exhibit empathy and address employees’ needs and challenges at the intersection of their work and life roles.” 

Has employee retention since the pandemic been more difficult for large employers or small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs)? Is employee mental health more of a challenge for rural or urban employers? In which region of the country do employers put the most effort into recruiting from underrepresented groups? The answers can be found in newly released data from CERIC’s Career Development in the Canadian Workplace: National Business Survey.

On CERIC’s behalf, Environics surveyed 500 Canadian executives in more than 11 industries including service, retail, hospitality, construction and manufacturing. The survey explored Canadian organizations’ views on skills gaps in the labour market; hiring as part of equity, diversity and inclusion strategies; and investing in employee career development. The national findings were released earlier this year at the Cannexus conference. Further survey findings are now available by employer size, location and region.

Employer size

A shortage of skilled workers is being experienced more sharply by larger employers with 100% of employers with 50+ employees reporting a shortage. Meanwhile, a shortage is still cited as the biggest challenged faced by employers with <10 staff as well as those with 10-49 employees.

The survey showed that larger employers have a greater number of employees working from home or hybrid at 52% compared to 33% (<10) and 31% (10-49). Larger employers are also better equipped in terms of the career management and mental health support offered to employees working from home.

The struggle to recruit is felt by employers of all sizes. Larger employers are more likely to have experimented with new recruitment policies and practices in the past two years (50% vs. 21% <10, 37% 10-49). In particular, SMEs put less effort into reaching members of underrepresented groups.

The impact of the pandemic on the retention of employees has been more challenging for employers with 50+ employees. Among larger employers, 55% find it more difficult to retain employees compared with two years ago.

When it comes to career development for employees, 57% of the employers with 50+ employees offer career management programs, compared to 17% of the smallest employers with <10 employees and compared to 34% for employers with 10-49 employees.

View by Employer size.

Location

Among the top challenges facing business, employee mental health was cited by 50% of the employers surveyed who were located in major cities and outside major cities, compared to only 23% of rural employers.

Recruitment has been proving more difficult for rural employers (53% say it is very difficult) than the ones in major cities or outside major cities. A key factor cited is low/uncompetitive wages offered by employers in rural areas.

There are some differences in the importance allocated to soft skills by location: Only 7% of rural employers mentioned communication skills while, for the employers located in major cities or outside them, an employee’s communication skills are very important (26% and 24%).

Employers located in rural areas are also less concerned about investing in upskilling employees and then losing them to other organizations than their more urban counterparts.

View by Location.

Regional

Agreement among employers surveyed that a skills gap exists between the skills the organization needs and the skills that jobseekers possess is strongest in Ontario and lowest in Quebec: 41% Ontario, 35% Prairies, 34% BC, 28% Atlantic and 20% Quebec.

Conversely, targeted efforts to recruit among underrepresented groups is highest among employers in Quebec and lowest in Ontario: Quebec 27%, BC 20%, Prairies 17%, Atlantic and Ontario 14%.

Among the top challenges facing businesses, finding young employees was a concern for three out of four Quebec employers but fewer than half of employers on the Prairies: Quebec 75%, Ontario 72%, BC  67%, Atlantic 57% and Prairies 44%.

There was very strong agreement with the statement “Employers have a responsibility to provide career management programs for their employees” in Ontario and lowest agreement in Quebec: Ontario 48%, Prairies 40%, BC 25%, Atlantic 23% and Quebec 15%.

Awareness of CDPs was similarly low across all regions of the country. In Atlantic, BC and Quebec, 17% of employers indicated both knowing of and having worked with CDPs, with that number being 11% in the Prairies and 10% in Ontario.

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Regional North American career development organizations CERIC (Canada), the Canadian Career Development Foundation (Canada) and the National Career Development Association (United States) are launching a Global Career Month social media campaign today called Career Development Changes Everything that runs throughout November 2022.  

Career Development Changes Everything is a hashtag campaign that invites everyone in the career development field and the public to post stories that amplify the value of career development.  Participants are asked to share their stories in video or written format on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and Instagram and using the hashtag #Amplifier2022.

Global Careers Month – North America : NCDA, CERIC, CCDF from Canada Career Month on Vimeo.

Participants looking to be an Amplifier for the Global Career Month celebration in North America can get started by making use of the prompts provided on the Career Development Changes Everything campaign website.

Social media posts that use the hashtag #Amplifier2022 will be entered into a giveaway with gifts from the Canadian Career Development Foundation, CERIC and the National Career Development Association.

Global Careers Month is a  collaboration with the Inter-Agency Working Group on Career Guidance (IAG WGCG), composed of Cedefop, the European Commission, ETF, ILO, OECD, UNESCO and World Bank during which the European and international organizations will promote a series of global and regional events.