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CAREER DEVELOPMENT SECTOR
Career Development Sector
The career development sector, in BC and in all of Canada, has yet to be clearly defined. There are many potential stakeholders, including career practitioners, consultants, service providers, purchasers of career development services (e.g., individuals, insurers, corporations, government funders), employers, educational institutions, relevant professional associations, and policy makers. Career practitioners might be employment/career counsellors, career coaches, job club facilitators, case managers, resource persons, or career planning facilitators providing services across all stages of the career planning process (e.g., self-assessment, exploring opportunities, lifelong career management).
Role and Importance of Qualified Career Development Practitioners
Increasingly, the services of qualified career development practitioners are in high demand. As a profession, we are finally moving into the mainstream. We have long served students, the unemployed, the disenfranchised, and workers in transition. However, now many employers and employees are starting to recognize that effective management of one’s career is an ongoing process. Career practitioners know that lifelong career management involves balancing individual and workplace needs and goals, and an ongoing assessment of changing labour market needs. Effective career management provides an opportunity to identify “more than just a job” and contributes to long term labour force attachment.
People engaged in the process of career planning, development and/or management are making crucial decisions that impact all facets of their lives. When they seek the services of a career development practitioner, they should feel confident and assured that the person helping them with these, potentially, life-changing decisions is qualified to provide the full range of services, operates under a code of ethics, is committed to professional development and lifelong learning, and works to a high standard.
Sector employers also need a standardized process for measuring the skills and qualifications of career practitioners. In our diverse sector, with a variety of professionals providing career services, it can be challenging to discern who is qualified for specific jobs. Although our Standards and Guidelines are comprehensive, the competencies are difficult to quickly and accurately assess when screening for employment opportunities. Highly skilled career practitioners may be overlooked because their qualifications are not immediately obvious. Employers may hire individuals with related degrees or graduates of various certificate or diploma programs without any way of reliably comparing their skills.
Having a clear benchmark by which to identify qualified career development practitioners will also be helpful to career practitioners themselves – the upcoming certification process in BC will help with this. At present, as our profession is unregulated and not widely understood, it can be difficult for a highly qualified career practitioner with, years of relevant experience, to effectively articulate relevant knowledge and skills to potential employers or other professionals.
Human Resource Development Issues
Because the career development sector is diverse and informal, it can be challenging to recruit, retain, and provide suitably challenging career opportunities for the variety of practitioners who provide career services in BC. Similar to most sectors in the BC economy, the career development sector is in the midst of transformational change.
Our sector is experiencing unprecedented shifts in human resource requirements. Throughout the province, already changing funding priorities are soon to be compounded; as funding devolves to the province from the federal budget under the new Labour Market Development Agreement, it remains unclear how services will change.
The career development sector, like other sectors, is facing some challenges. It has a “greying” workforce (i.e., this is a field apparently not attracting youth). Compensation is generally considered low. Career paths within the sector are unclear and there is a general lack of awareness about the breadth of the industry. Many career practitioners have no idea where in the labour market their skills will be valued outside of government funded agencies. Those who do want to transition beyond government contracts are unclear about entry points and the diverse expectations of employers and clients across the sector. Not only are the opportunities within BC’s career development sector unclear, most career practitioners don’t understand how their work might be valued and “in demand” outside of BC – both in other parts of the country and internationally.
This combination of a lack of clarity regarding the full breadth of opportunities, low pay, minimal benefits, and shifting funding envelopes (which typically result in shifting employers), makes it even harder for the sector to attract and retain its workers. We are faced with a challenging mix of skill shortages (i.e., employers reporting that they can’t find the specific skill sets they require), relatively high unemployment (as individuals laid off from terminated contracts look for new positions), skilled professionals leaving the field, and an ever-changing base of individuals and organizations providing career services in the province.
Looking Ahead
Despite the challenges, this is an exciting time for the career development sector. The work of career practitioners is beginning to be more widely recognized as contributing to the career success of Canadian workers and the growth of our economy. Work opportunities exist in a wide range of settings including community-based agencies, public schools and post-secondary institutions, corporations, unions and professional associations, rehabilitation programs, and private practice.
