Volume 5 Issue 3, July 2014 Canadian Career …...Dr. Gideon Arulmani: Gideon spoke of “cultural preparedness”, not as a fully formed theory but as a number of linked concepts

Career DevelopmentsCareer Developments Volume 5 Issue 3, July 2014 Canadian Career Development Foundation

119 Ross Avenue, Suite 202 Ottawa, Ontario K1Y 0N6 CANADA

Tel: 613-729-6164 Fax: 613-729-3515 [email protected] www.ccdf.ca

Summary prepared by Sareena Hopkins, Canadian Career Development Foundation

Gideon Arulmani (India), Rachel Mulvey (Britain),

Julio González Bello (Venezuela) and Vincent Guillon

(France) shared their perspectives on the conference

theme and issues in our field.

1. What does the theme (At the Intersection of

personal, community and work-life realities)

mean in the context of the practice of career

development/guidance in your country or part

of the world?

Dr. Arulmani noted that the Indian/Asian cultures are

rooted in a collective worldview. Accordingly, as a

practitioner a client’s individual interests are

inextricably linked to her parents’, grandparents’

and community’s interests.

Dr. Mulvey reflected that the UK comprises four

countries with distinct powers, cultures and

traditions. She noted that the very meaning of

employment is skewed when “worklessness” is

passed down from generation to generation.

Dr. González Bello emphasized the importance of

positioning work within the broader context of

life (including personal, professional and family).

Dr. Guillon referenced six key dimensions of

guidance and noted that, in France, universality is

valued. Individual interests cannot supersede

broader institutional/societal interests.

2. What does the theme (At the Intersection of

personal, community and work-life realities)

mean in the context of the practice of career

development/guidance in your country or part

of the world?

Dr. Arulmani referenced the Ashram System – a

traditional Hindu perspective on life stages that is no

longer practiced but that holds deep meaning. It

delineates four life stages:

Preparation: Learning to live

Materialism: Earning money and becoming

prosperous

Sharing: Working to give back and build society

Renowned Life: Moving to spiritual pursuits.

At the Intersection of Personal, Collective & Work-life Realities ........ 1 Why Business, Education & Careers Sector Leaders Must Join

Forces: Reducing Zigzags ............................................................................... 3 Emerging Trends in Career Theory and Practice: International

Perspectives ....................................................................................................... 4 LMI Data for All: Open Data for Careers Work ...................................... 5 University Challenges for Individuals with Mental Disorder,

ADHD/ADD/LD/ASD ..................................................................................... 6 Older Workers and Career Management Skills ...................................... 7 Diversification of Career Paths: Individual & Collective Issues ........... 9 A Snapshot of Career Counselling Education in Canada .................... 11 An Action-Oriented, Hope-Centered Career Development

Approach ........................................................................................................... 12 The Gold Medal for Leadership in Career Development .................... 13

At the Intersection of Personal, Collective and At the Intersection of Personal, Collective and WorkWork--life Realities: life Realities: KeynoteKeynote

continues on page 2

The 2014 International Conference in Guidance and Career Development, organized by

l’OCCOQ and RQuODE in collaboration with the IAEVG was held in Quebec City June 4 – 6th.

More than 1250 delegates registered for the conference and over 200 symposiums, workshops,

papers and posters were presented. The Conference was a huge success and a rich learning

opportunity. This issue of Career Developments features some of the conference highlights.

http://www.orientation.qc.ca/

http://www.savie.qc.ca/rquode2/

http://www.iaevg.org/IAEVG/



In this perspective, retirement as we know it in the

Western world has no place and work is as a form of

worship. Dr. Arulmani pointed out that our lost jobs

have gone to India and that students are forgoing

education in favour of the income from the surplus of

low skilled/dead end jobs.

According to Dr. Mulvey, the current rhetoric in

Britain extols the capacity of lifelong learning to

solve employment issues and provide economic

relief. Yet this rhetoric does not translate into actual

policies and resources to create and/or support life-

long learning. Governments have assumed a laissez-

faire position, allowing the markets and employer

voices to set the agenda for career guidance.

Dr. González Bello emphasized the importance of

extending guidance beyond student transition points

to be truly cradle to grave.

Dr. Guillon outlined France’s approach, noting that

the “lifelong one-stop” shop was a myth and

differentiating the unique needs and services

associated with different life stages.

3. How is “social justice” defined and translated

into action in your country?

Dr. González Bello noted the polarized, conflicting

political perspectives in Latin America: attempts to

socialize on the one hand and capitalism on the

other. The key social justice issue is minimizing the

inequality and decreasing the gap between the rich

and the poor.

In the UK, there has been recognition of the need for

social justice across political sensibilities. Dr. Mulvey

noted that the current conservative coalition

emphasizes individualism and opportunity, with a

focus on encouraging individual resilience to deal

with inequality rather than addressing systemic roots

of inequality. Dr. Mulvey pointed to the employment

programs directed to ex-offenders during the London

Olympic Games as a noteworthy case

in point.

Dr. Guillon explored equality of

place and equality of chance, noting

the tensions when individualism

takes over from an approach of

solidarity and individual competitive-ness supersedes

being oneself with others.

Dr. Arulmani described India’s policy of reservation

in which nearly 20% of jobs are reserved for

minorities as long as they pass the entry exams. The

competition is so fierce for these jobs that non-

minorities need to achieve 99.4% to get in. This has

created a back-lash and the most recent election of

a far right conservative government may reflect the

frustrations of non-minority voters. Dr. Arulmani

posed the question: “If social justice is aligned to

certain segments of the population, is it social

justice at all?”

4. How are counsellors and counselling

psychologists in your country being prepared to

meet these challenges and what obstacles do

they face?

Dr. González Bello noted that 90% of practitioners in

Latin America are psychologists with specialized

training in guidance. The training does not

necessarily reflect current realities and innovations.

Dr. Arulmani suggested that the current challenge in

India is to value what is traditional and bring it into a

contemporary context. He called for “modernization

without westernization”.

Dr. Mulvey stated that a precursor for effective

training in the Britain would be greater clarity with

respect to the purpose and desired outcomes of

career development. Policy makers need to examine

the evidence and the needs and set appropriate

expectations before appropriate training can be put

into place.

Dr. Guillon noted that there is no agreement on the

definition of guidance and that many work with

minimal training. Frameworks are needed to

delineate what is needed for teachers, parents and

counselling psychologists.

continues from page 1—At the Intersection of Personal...



Summary prepared by Phil Jarvis, Director of Global Partnerships, Career Cruising

Presenter: Dierdre Hughes (OBE) and Professor Jenny

Bimrose (Warkwick University Institute for

Employment Research)

The presentation began with a succinct primer on labour market trends using hourglass symbolism. In the top of the hourglass, demand continues for high skill roles (i.e., managers and professionals). In the bottom of the hourglass, demand continues for low skill roles (i.e., care, hospitality). However, due to technology and globalization, demand has declined for traditional middle skill roles (i.e.,

clerical, blue collar).

As a result, entry to the labour force is getting tougher, with high youth unemployment and underemployment. Skills mismatches are increasingly apparent, with employers saying they can’t find people with the skills and experience they need despite the availability of many youth and adults without jobs. Unused talents and skills underutilization are apparent across many industry

sectors.

“Zigzagging” in learning and employment pathways is increasingly prevalent. Changing labour market realities have necessitated waves of change in public policy, and rethinking of curriculum and qualification

frameworks.

Deirdre and Jenny insist educators and employers must collaborate in preparing new labour market entrants, by offering “real world” learning experiences in the work-place blended with academic instruction as part of all students’ educational experience. What we in Canada call workplace learning opportunities, they call “work

inspiration.” I like that term.

To the presenters, “Helping young people to obtain genuine work experience – and, therefore, what the

Confederation of British Industry (CBI) calls ‘employability skills’ – should be one of the highest priorities for 16-18 education policy in the next few

years.”

The advantages of exposure to work inspiration for students include: insights to the world of work;

increased knowledge of industries of interest; enhanced or more realistic career aspirations; ‘insider advice’ from employees; improved work-readiness; and improved transitions to

work or other forms of education.

Advantages of work inspiration for employers include: enhanced recruitment and retention; increased levels of awareness and positive reputation of the business within a community; and the development of skills and competencies that are often featured in

organizational competency frameworks.

The presenters went on to describe four

implementation models for work inspiration:

The “brokered” model whereby local or national intermediary organizations source employers and make them available to schools

and colleges

The “deep brokered” model whereby local staff facilitate negotiations between a lead local

business and a small consortium of schools

The “autonomous actor/market” model - a new model of connecting employers and schools

through use of a national gateway website

The “school or college alone” model in which schools (especially colleges) invest in their own staff resources to find and work with local

employers

The presenters believe work inspiration models must

be generalized and that strategies to define and

Why Business, Education and Careers Sector Leaders Why Business, Education and Careers Sector Leaders Must join Forces:Must join Forces:

Reducing ZigzagsReducing Zigzags

continues on page 10



Summary prepared by Lynne Bezanson, Canadian Career Development Foundation

Presenters: Dr. Mary McMahon (Australia), Dr. Spencer

Niles (USA), Dr. Gideon Amulmani (India), Dr. Jacques

Limoges (Qc, Canada).

Moderator: Dr. Roberta Neault (BC, Canada)

The session format was 35 minutes per presenter

followed by a question-answer session amongst the

presenters as well as with the audience.

Dr. Mary McMahon: Systems Theory began in 1922 and

is currently gaining momentum. It is a meta-theory that

draws from a wealth of career development theories

and approaches including chaos, life-role,

developmental, narrative and happenstance. Systems

theory puts people in the context of the complexity of

their lives and the influences that interact and impact

on human development and behaviour. While some

influences are common, the actual lived experience of

each individual is unique. Systems theory is highly

individual and each individual is considered within his/

her own context.

Mary facilitated an interesting exercise in which a

counsellor and a client were seated at the front of the

room. The audience task was to identify the influences

and interactions impacting on each as they sat across

from each other about to have a conversation. As an

influence was identified, a participant from the

audience became that influence and stood beside

either the counsellor or client. By the end of the

exercise each was surrounded, making the point very

clearly that we are truly multi-dimensional and

complex beings. Mary emphasized that thinking

systematically does not come naturally to all and exact

causal relationships are not at all easy to decipher and

indeed many may not be decipherable. She highlighted

a guided reflection technique used in Systems Theory

that leads to an individual being able to begin to

identify his or her own system of career influences. She

noted as well that the approach is proving valuable in

qualitative research in learning and in narrative

approaches. As well there is increasing evidence that it

has many cross-cultural applications which is becoming

increasingly important and relevant in many countries.

Dr. Gideon Arulmani: Gideon spoke of “cultural

preparedness”, not as a fully formed theory but as a

number of linked concepts and very much a work in

progress. The concept is moving from practice (real

experience) to theory rather than the inverse. He spoke

of the concepts of career and work and the global

transformations, notably the Protestant and Industrial

Revolutions which created a re-thinking of the concept

of work. These revolutions were however about work,

and not about career. They also belonged to the

developed world. In developing countries, work was in

relation to the environment and skills and learning were

passed on. Such learning drew from a deep repository

of cultural experience.

Career is a relatively new concept that is now seen in

developed countries as a natural extension of work; in

traditional developing countries, however, the concept

of career is culturally unfamiliar. The tradition in

developing countries is the concept of “cultural

preparedness”. In a cultural preparedness approach,

Cultural Learning is at the heart of how to live one’s

life. The tension that must be addressed revolves

around “enculturation” which is the process whereby

individuals learn about their own culture through

experience, observation and instruction. This creates a

kind of equilibrium in which individuals see themselves

as part of a collective in which the collective is more

important than the individual. The tension is between

this and “acculturation” wherein people adopt cultural

traits and social patterns of another group and/or

another culture and in which, most commonly, the

individual takes precedence over the group. Career is

very much a cultural concept and there is no real

translation for the concept in Hindi. The closest is the

word “jiva” which means life and which suggests that

work is an extension of one’s life rather than one part.

Cultural preparedness and cultural learning is one way

of attempting to find an equilibrium between

enculturation and acculturation.

Dr. Spencer Niles: Spencer elaborated on the earlier

keynote address given by him and Dr. Norm Amundson.

Emerging Trends in Career Theory and Practices: Emerging Trends in Career Theory and Practices: International PerspectivesInternational Perspectives

continues on page 5



He reiterated the distinction between optimism and

hope. Optimism is a belief that things will turn out well

while Hope is action-oriented and directly connected to

intentional goal-directed action. He pointed out that in

career theories hope is assumed but largely absent.

Their work on hope is not a theory in itself but an

important contribution to understanding how to assist

people to strive to succeed. Spencer invited the

audience to participate in an experiential activity which

focused on a life experience that required action and

that was driven by hope. He asked the audience to

retain the idea that “energy flows where intention

goes”.

Dr. Jacques Limoges: Jacques spoke about his “keeping

on” paradigm highlighting the ongoing tension between

stress and performance. He took a holistic approach to

integrating various life roles, reporting that too much

“keeping on” results in people becoming overwhelmed

and burning out; however, too little results in

obsolescence. Neither extreme represents a healthy

work-life balance; sadly, only 52% of the workers he

studied report being in balance.

Dr. Roberta Neault: Roberta highlighted four overriding

themes from the presentations as follows:

The importance of acknowledging cultural and

systemic influences and the challenge to the field

to match a client’s cultural and conceptual needs;

The impact of history and constant change in

shaping lives;

The dynamics of balance and the importance of

continuously realigning challenge and capacity; and

Meaning and wholeheartedness.

Commentary

An excellent and thought-provoking session. I left the

session wanting to read, explore and understand theory

more deeply and more expansively. I am sure I was not

alone!

Summary prepared by Krista Benes Canadian Career Development Foundation

Presenter: Jenny Bimrose (University of Warwick)

As part of an Open Data policy initiative in the

United Kingdom, the University of Warwick is leading on a major three year project (2012 to 2015)

entitled: “LMI for All”, funded by the UK Commission

for Employment and Skills. It aims to make all labour market information (LMI), the collection of which has

been collected by the public purse, available to everyone from a single database. In an effort to

respond to key user groups of career services and

deliver LMI in a meaningful way, open competitions are being run for application developers to create

easy to use LMI applications for handheld devices.

Winning applications collate data sources into an accessible and attractive form, facilitate its easy use

with other data sources, provide users with as much information as possible on employment and

unemployment rates by region and occupation,

occupation descriptions, vacancies, employment levels and average salaries. The vision is for data to

continues from page 4—Emerging Trends in Career Theory and Practices...

LMI Data for All: Open Data for Careers WorkLMI Data for All: Open Data for Careers Work

be automatically updated as original data sources are

updated. Applications also need to translate the information into practical use on the individual level.

Using data sources like the Office of National Statistics, Devolved Nations, Government bodies such

as BIS and DfE DWP (Social Security Organization), Eurostat and CEDEFOP app designers have started to

integrate the LMI into a meaningful and accessible

form. The use of the ‘LMI for All’ database is being closely monitored. From one the most recent open

competitions, the winning application can be viewed

on this youtube link: (https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=XcEhpWhPV1M&list=PLuvzHvGAOplwMwvci

8b8LrzVz8fpiaXiu&index=4).

The second place app, “JobHappy”, was created by a

16 year old teenager and can be viewed here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7imKYpvKZjk&

index=6&list=PLuvzHvGAOplwMwvci8b8LrzVz8fpiaXiu&n

oredirect=1

The overall link for the LMI for All portal, with

information about the development and access to

the web portal is: http://www.lmiforall.org.uk/.

(https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=XcEhpWhPV1M&list=PLuvzHvGAOplwMwvci%208b8LrzVz8fpiaXiu&index=4).





Summary prepared by Donnalee Bell, Canadian Career Development Foundation

Presenters: Marie Ducharme and Sara Savoie,

Université du Québec à Montréal (UQÀM)

Seventy percent of those accessing guidance services

at the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM) have

an invisible disability. UQAM is not unique. On

university campuses across the country, the numbers

of clients with invisible disabilities have grown

significantly over the past 20 years. Many guidance

counsellors and career practitioners working on

campus are unsure how to support these clients in

university yet legislation (ACT 21) states that these

students must be afforded the supports to integrate

into campus life.

As a way of supporting service providers, UQAM has

developed a list of best practices for supporting

these students at UQAM:

1. Understand the disability: Often this means

researching and accessing experts. It is important

to recognize that each client is unique in their

disability and may have multiple invisible

disabilities that need to be addressed.

2. Assess both the strengths and challenges:

Assessment is key, but it often only looks at

challenges. Students’ strengths must also be

understood. The presenters profiled the typical

strengths and challenges of students with a range

of LDs, ASD, ADHD/ADD, and mental illnesses and

listed the supports that generally help these

students to progress through and be successful at

university. For example, students with LDs have a

strong experimentation focus, vivid imaginations,

strong conception and perception skills, and are

naturally curious. They need support with note

taking, completing exams, expressing ideas into

writing, and self-esteem. The presenters

emphasized that it is important that students

with invisible disabilities see and are realistic

about their strengths and challenges.

3. Coach for independence and protect self-

worth: While all post-secondary students need to

be independent, this need is far greater for these

particular students because they face constant

challenges to their independence. It is crucially

important, then, that service providers

understand a student’s abilities (strengths and

weaknesses) in order to maintain the student’s

self-worth.

4. Know what’s available and create services

where there are gaps: In University, integration

for these students takes longer, so getting

supports in place quickly is important. Not all the

services that students need are available on

campus. For example, quiet and/or stimulation

rooms are effective supports for students with

ASD and/or attention disorders, but typically not

available on campus. UQAM created these

through advocacy for their students.

5. Try new things: Sometimes the strategies that

these students used in high school no longer work

because the workload in PSE is higher. The

presenters recommend having a wide range of

supports at your fingertips.

6. Phantom Advocacy: Many students feel

vulnerable and stressed about “coming out” to

fellow students and teaching staff for fear of

being judged. The key for UQAM is to work with

professors, the administration and student

support offices in a way that tries to protect the

student from “being fully out.”

University Challenges for Individuals with a Mental Disorder, University Challenges for Individuals with a Mental Disorder, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)/Attention Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD)/Attention Deficit Disorder (ADD), Learning Disability (LD) or Autistic Deficit Disorder (ADD), Learning Disability (LD) or Autistic

Spectrum Disorder (ASD)Spectrum Disorder (ASD)



Summary prepared by Suzanne Klinga

Canadian Career Development Foundation

Presenter: Dr. Lyn Barham, Fellow, NICEC

Background: An Aging World

The world is growing older. In less than 10 years the

number of older persons (65+) will surpass 1 billion,

with the most significant increases occurring in the

developing world which has limited recourses to deal

with this demographic trend. By 2050, 80% of the

world’s older persons will live in emerging and

developing economies.

Dr. Barham pointed to three contributors to the

changing demographics:

Migration

Declining birth rate (especially in developed

nations)

Increasing longevity

Older people are often seen as a deficit by society.

This construct needs to be challenged and

longevity must be seen as a positive trend and an

opportunity.

Policy Responses and Concerns – An Aging World

Demands Changing Policies

Two concerns relate to the aging workforce:

As older workers retire, there is a shortage of

skilled workers. In the UK, 13 million vacancies

are projected, with only 8 million young

workforce entrances. Migration will not be able

to make up the needed participation rate.

As the aging population grows, there will be

more people drawing pension funds than

younger working people contributing to them.

This is a public policy issue, with various possible

responses:

Increase the retirement age;

Raise the pensionable age;

Increase immigration; and/or

Rethink work and workforce structures.

The growing older

cohort is one of

the largest voting

groups in EU

elections and,

therefore,

commands policy

attention.

Dr. Barham asked:

Should people

work for the

economy or should

the economy work

for people? Is

economic

development the

only measure a

nation’s progress?

She pointed to alternative models of measuring

progress, including Bhutan’s Gross National

Happiness Index and Thailand’s Sufficiency Economy

Index. If the economy is meant to work for people,

this change in demographics and the retention of

older people in the work force is an opportunity to

look at more flexible work and workforce structures.

There are multiple aspects of age:

Chronological age (the least informative)

Biological age (changes/deterioration of the

body)

Social-cultural age (influenced by society’s

expectations)

Psychological age (changes in abilities, memory

and attitudes)

Dr. Barham advocates celebrating and capitalizing on

these changes. The older generation is a great

reservoir of talent, skills and experience. We need to

Older Workers and Career Management SkillsOlder Workers and Career Management Skills

continues on page 8



look at how different generations can live and work

together.

Older Workers Needs and Concern-How Do We

Support Careers of Older Workers?

People in their fifties vary hugely in terms of their

work situation, their expectations, their attitudes to

work, their financial position, their health and their

personal lives. Many difficulties, which they

encounter, stem not from an inability to face up to

the trade-off between income and leisure in later

life, but from a lack of choice and control. (Philipson

and Smith, 2005)

Increases in life expectancy mean that, for many

people, there will be an extended period of active

retirement. It is

becoming less an issue

of ‘when’, but ‘how’

to retire. Research

shows that a

managed retirement

process enhances

physical, mental and

financial well-being in

later years.

Retirement needs to

be viewed

as a

process

rather than

an event.

Often, there is an assumption that pension income

‘solves’ older workers’ financial issues. But, it is

important that financial planning be well integrated

into career services, especially as it concerns

retirement.

Changes in Social and Intrinsic Work Values

Although individual differences outweigh the

commonality of age, there tends to be a strong shift

in older workers away from ambition, from building

work identity or seeking hierarchical and financial

advancement towards the belief that there is more

to life than work. Older workers have a greater

unwillingness to compromise core values especially

those around family.

Thinking about Time as an Important Factor in

Career Concerns for Older Workers

When helping older workers with their careers we

have seen ‘Time’ emerge as an unforeseen theme.

Time horizons change over the course of one’s life

and in older workers time is valued and not seen to

be something that is ‘wasted’. Employers and career

advisors need to be aware about older workers

perspectives about time. Their ‘future time

perspective’ affects their orientation to values,

particularly when it comes to family.

Implication for Career Guidance Services for

older workers

In relation to older workers, career guidance

practitioners need to be aware of life experience,

life circumstance (financial, social and intrinsic work

satisfactions), factors of time and recognizing

retirement as a process, not an event. As the

number of older workers utilizing career guidance

services continues to grow it will be important to:

Develop conceptual frameworks about the later

stages of career

Respect individuality within common trends

Consider methods of initial engagement

(publicity, staff, premises and delivery modes)

Training and development needs for staff

Be a “Age” champion – keep issues of older worker in

the forefront.

continues from page 7—Older Workers and Career Management Skills...

can see a reversal of these

phenomena. Indeed, since the

late 1970s, we have been

witnessing individual life

course diversification

characterized notably by

moving back and forth

between states and stages

that used to follow one after

the other in sequence. This

diversification is seen by

several authors as a destandardization of individual

careers caused by two other phenomena:

deinstitutionalization, which refers to the

erosion of the social guarantees of a salaried

society, the out-come being that stable jobs are

much less numerous today, and

dechronologization, which reflects the fact that,

to a large extent, age has lost its role as a norm

in relation to specific social or psychosocial

expectations, which may be manifested, for

example, by the fact that people may have to

reorient themselves when they reach their

fifties.

In this context, the issue of life-long career guidance

must be raised. It becomes a major issue for indivi-

duals and groups, and it is actually situated at the

intersection of personal, community, and work life

realities. The significance and complexity of offering

guidance to people in this process is apparent, as

well, because this guidance should not be limited to

the work sphere alone, but must take into account

all roles that people are called upon to play in their

lifetimes, as well as the contexts (social, family,

economic, etc.) in which they are set.

The problems outlined above help us to understand

the extent to which guidance and career

development are topical issues and at the heart of

political and social debates, not only at home but

Summary prepared by Charles Bujold, Université Laval

Keynote presented by Dr. Geneviève Fournier,

Université Laval, Québec

At the start, the participants were given five

questions to think about:

1. What is meant by sustainable integration into the

labour market?;

2. Where does individual freedom fit in when it

comes to individuals building a life?;

3. How, through our guidance and career

development practices, can we facilitate

sustainable, satisfying integration into

meaningful employment?;

4. How, in training the next generation, can we

prepare them to provide people with guidance

and career development throughout their career

paths and during the transitions along the way?;

5. How, through our research, can we help come up

with explanatory hypotheses and possible

solutions?

To begin thinking about these questions, the speaker

first looked at three major transformations that she

believes have affected not only people’s career

paths, but also their life course. When speaking

about the changing nature of the labour market,

characterized by the rise of individualism and

uncertainty, she brought these changes to light by

borrowing an expression from sociology: “3D

system,” i.e., destandardization,

deinstitutionalization, and dechronologization.

During the Fordist period of the industrial era, career

paths were homogenous and predictable, thus

reflecting a phenomenon of standardization.

Supported by the state and work organizations

(phenomenon of institutionalization), those paths

were set in an "employment for life" context. For its

part, chronologization refers to the chain of roles

(including the work role) and life stages. But in the

post-industrial and post-Fordist salaried society, we

Diversification of Career Paths:Diversification of Career Paths: Individual and Collective IssuesIndividual and Collective Issues

Dr. Geneviève Fournier






around the world, as shown by the many reports

published over the past 10 years. According to Dr.

Fournier, guidance and career development may be

such topical issues around the world because our

profession was able to take into account the major

transformations that have marked the changing

nature of societies and suggest relevant approaches

when individual and community benchmarks

changed.

Dr. Fournier then looked at the challenges to the

classical theories of career development formulated

against the backdrop of a stable labour market and

identified three criticisms levelled at these theories:

1. a phase-based and linear conception of work life,

generally seen as being independent from other

life spheres;

2. the exaggerated importance attached to the

stability of certain character traits, such as

interests;

3. too little importance attached to contingency

factors, such as chance events, changes in con-

texts, and the forks that appear in career paths.

The speaker shed light on two perspectives for

analyzing these challenges, proposed in the early

2000s: the constructivist perspective (e.g., the life

designing paradigm proposed by Savickas and an

international team of researchers) and the systemic

perspective (e.g., the contextualized action theory

of Young, Valach, and Collin).

On the basis of the preceding, we can note the

substantial changes in the concept of guidance and

career development that have occurred over the past

two or three decades, as well as in research and

professional practices.

In closing, Dr. Fournier noted the many challenges

facing:

1. people working in the school system or in the

fields of employability, socio-occupational

integration, and business with young and older

people dealing with impasses in their career and

social paths and whose physical health is

becoming fragile;

2. students who must think about the complex

issues of the academic world and the workplace

and the contribution they want to make to the

development of individuals in the workplace, as

well as the growth of a more just society;

3. trainers of the next generation of practitioners,

who are responsible for developing the skills,

critical thinking, and capacity for innovation of

future career counsellors;

4. researchers, given the need for studies to test

and validate the new theoretical models in

guidance and career development, specifically

with respect to contemporary career paths.

Despite the real progress made over the past 20

years with regard to theories and practices, Dr.

Fournier believes we are still in a period of transition

and tremendous dynamism, with the challenges this

poses for the development of guidance and career

development practices and research.

continues from page 9—Diversification of Career Paths...

implement appropriate measures to strengthen

employer/education links must connect with the

work of career development professionals.

This presentation resonated with me because it

is so in tune with InspireNB (inspirenb.ca), now

being implementing province-wide in my new home

province, New Brunswick.

For Deirdre’s and Jenny’s PowerPoint go to: http://

deirdrehughes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/

Why_business_education_and_careers_sector.pptx

Download the National Careers Council’s “An

Aspirational Nation: Creating a culture change in

careers provisions” here: https://www.gov.uk/

government/uploads/system/uploads/

attachment_data/file/205147/bis-13-919-national-

careers-council-report-an-aspirational-nation-

creating-a-culture-change-in-careers-provison.pdf.

Deirdre Hughes: [email protected]

Jenny Bimrose: [email protected]

continues from page 3—Why Business, Education and Careers Sector ...

http://www.inspirenb.ca

http://deirdrehughes.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/Why_business_education_and_careers_sector.pptx



https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/205147/bis-13-919-national-careers-council-report-an-aspirational-nation-creating-a-culture-change-in-careers-provison.pdf





mailto:[email protected]

mailto:[email protected]



Summary prepared by Deirdre Pickerell, Life Strategies Ltd.

Presenters: Jessica Isenor, Roberta Neault and Sareena

Hopkins

This presentation shared the results of a recent

research project exploring career counselling

education in Canada. The pre-research perception

was that career counselling was marginalized within

counselling programs; the “career” course is an

elective in many programs and some programs don’t

have a career course at all. When career courses do

run, they sometimes aren't taught by career

specialists and, in some cases, are taught by grad

students with no interest or expertise in the career

area but who need to fill their course load.

The research partnership between the Career

Counsellors Chapter of the Canadian Counselling and

Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) and the Canadian

Career Development Foundation (CCDF) sought to

identify:

Which Canadian counselling programs offer a

career course

How often career courses run

Who teaches the career courses and what

experience/research interests those instructors

have

The research began with in-depth reviews of

institution websites to get a sense of department,

programs, and areas of speciality. The researchers

then moved to a questionnaire to collect more

specific data, including course title and description,

credits, and information about whether the course

was mandatory vs. elective, instructor qualifications,

and how many times the course ran within recent

years. The research team completed as much of the

questionnaire as possible, to help minimize the time

and effort it might take for a university

representative to “fill in the blanks.”

Overall, the researchers collected data across 58

separate programs. Results were interesting, and

also showed a clear differentiation between English-

speaking Canada and programs in Quebec where

there are significantly more opportunities to

specialize in career and work with career experts.

Of the 23 programs that indicated a specialization

(e.g., trauma, art, play, career), career was a

speciality in only four; of those, three were in

Quebec. Career courses taught by core faculty were

a rarity in English Canada; core faculty who self-

identify as having an interest/focus on career were

even rarer.

Broadly, the research indicated that, despite work

being an integral part of most people’s lives,

counsellors are not getting the training they need to

support clients with career concerns. Counselling

students likely don’t even realize the importance of

career when in programs where the career course, if

it exists, is an elective and not taught by individuals

with any interest or expertise in career.

For more information, contact the Career

Counsellors Chapter of the Canadian Counselling and

Psychotherapy Association through the current

President, Jessica Isenor: [email protected]

A Snapshot of Career Counselling Education in Canada A Snapshot of Career Counselling Education in Canada

Presenters: Dr. Norman Amundson, University of British

Columbia, Canada & Dr. Spencer Niles, College of

William and Mary, USA

Norm Amundson and Spencer Niles walked their talk,

using humour, active engagement, metaphor, and

even a Montreal Canadiens baseball cap to connect

with participants in their keynote address at the

IAEVG conference in Quebec.

They set the context for their presentation by talking

about hopelessness as an underlying theme for many

of our clients, regardless of

what their specific problems

are. Career counsellors are

uniquely positioned to help

clients identify possibilities for

a new tomorrow, restoring a

sense of hope.

The hope-centered approach

to career development is a

theoretically-grounded model

influenced by Snyder’s work on

hope, Bandura’s work on agency, and Hall’s work on

Protean, adaptive careers (Niles, Amundson, &

Neault, 2011). Hopeful thinking comprises goals

(what to do), pathways (how to do it and adaptive

planning), and agency (the motivation and will to

accomplish those goals). Action-oriented hope is

much more than wishful thinking; instead it’s

grounded in achievable goals with realistic pathways

and the motivation to keep moving forward, even

when obstacles are encountered.

Amundson is well known internationally for his work

with metaphors and the hope-centered model is no

exception. A children’s pinwheel toy illustrates how

hope is the linch-pin, connecting all components of

the model to each other (i.e., self-reflection, self-

clarity, visioning, goal-setting and planning, and

implementing and adapting). The pinwheel metaphor

also illustrates the impact of the environment – both

external winds and intentional interventions can set

the pinwheel in motion.

In their keynote, Amundson and

Niles noted that successful people

rarely make time to slow down and

reflect. They cited authors who

had influenced their work with

concepts including “busyness is an

offence to the soul” and “we focus

too much on human doing but

need to focus more on human

being.” A key to a hope-centered

approach to career development,

therefore, is to pause and find a healthy balance

between constant “doing” and simply “being” who

we are each meant to be.

Amundson and Niles introduced research conducted

in the US and Canada using their Hope-Centered

Career Inventory (HCCI; Amundson, Niles, Yoon,

Smith, & Mills, 2013). Through case examples and

video clips, Amundson and Niles reported findings

from their international work. Study participants

have confirmed that a hope-centered approach

ignited their inner fires again so that they could

successfully move on to achieving their unique goals.

Reference

Amundson, N., Niles, S., Yoon, H. J., Smith, B., In,

H., & Mills, L. (2013). Hope-centered career

development for university/college students: Final

project report. Toronto, ON: Ceric. Retrieved from

http://www.ceric.ca/ceric/files/pdf/CERIC_Hope-

Centered-Career-Research-Final-Report.pdf

Niles, S. G., Amundson, N. E., & Neault, R. A. (2011).

Career flow: A hope-centered approach to career

development. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

An ActionAn Action--Oriented, HopeOriented, Hope--Centered Career Centered Career Development Approach Development Approach

Dr. Norm Amundson

Dr. Spencer Niles



The evening of June 3rd, 2014 was memorable and

meaningful. The 2014 IAEVG Conference in Québec

City opened with an International Welcome Cocktail

attended by over two hundred delegates and held in

the magnificent “Chapelle du Musée de L’Amérique

française”. The Cocktail was generously sponsored

by Université Laval. The organizers of

the conference, Laurent Matte,

Président de OCCOQ and Nicole

Galarneau, Director of RQuODE

graciously set time aside during this

special evening for the presentation of

two Gold Medals and Diamond Pins for

Leadership in Career Development.

The two deserving recipients of these

honours were Sareena Hopkins and

Michel Turcotte.

Stuart Conger, a Canadian and international icon in

career development, was a lifelong champion of

leadership. In 2003, he decided to personally create

an award to recognize individuals who, in his view,

had consistently and over time made exceptional

contributions to advancing career development

policy, research and practice. In his lifetime, he

personally awarded five Gold Medals for career

development leaders, and in his last year of life, he

selected two final recipients. Sadly Stu Conger

passed away in 2013. The career development

community was honoured that Stu’s wife, Shirley

Conger, personally presented the awards on his

behalf. As these will be the last Gold Medals and

Diamond Pins to be given, it was especially wonder-

ful to be able to do so in such a magnificent setting

and with such a distinguished audience present.

Sareena Hopkins is Co-Executive Director of the

Canadian Career Development Foundation. Her vision

for career development as a recognized profession,

her determination to establish a pan-Canadian

representative and influential body for the career

development community, and her capacity to create

and nurture collaborations that really work, are

changing the face of career development in Canada.

Sareena is the founder and Chair of the Canadian

Council for Career Development (CCCD). She is

singularly responsible for establishing and growing

the CCCD, bringing together career development

leaders from across Canada to address priority issues.

Certification of career development practitioners,

reciprocity agreements across provinces, increasing

the profile of career development with policy

makers, developing a common language, profiling

the evidence base for the field are

all initiatives being led by working

groups under the CCCD umbrella.

Canada has never had a

representative national career

development body and it has been

a major roadblock for the field as

a whole. Sareena’s leadership, along with her

warmth and energy, has changed that and will

continue to do so.

Sareena demands excellence in everything she does.

At the same time, she is a compassionate, person-

centered and dedicated individual as exemplified by

her commitment to volunteerism. Her volunteer

roles include Director of the IAEVG Administration

Centre, recipient of the Mental Health Service

Award, Past-President of Project Upstream (an

organization committed to housing and supports for

the persons with mental illness), Past-President of

the Career Counselling Chapter of the Canadian

Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, and past

member of the Board of Directors, Rideauwood

Addiction and Family Services.

The values of CCDF are abundance (putting whatever

is developed internally into the public domain),

collaboration, innovation, quality and integrity. No

individual could exemplify these values more

powerfully and purposefully. Sareena is shaping and

mobilizing the field of career development in Canada

towards influence and excellence.

The Gold Medal for Leadership in Career DevelopmentThe Gold Medal for Leadership in Career Development




Michel Turcotte is the visionary behind many

activities that have brought recognition to career

development in Canada. Guided by a vision of

accessible career development services delivered

competently and professionally, he has worked with

unfaltering commitment to mobilize the driving

forces of the career development field in Canada.

Michel spent most of his career in the Canadian

public service. He gave true meaning to his role as a

public servant for more than 20 years by serving as a

link between the community and public

employability policies and services, bringing together

the country’s key stakeholders for the purpose of

innovating, moving a research agenda forward, and

facilitating Canada’s participation in international

thinking on career and employment counselling and

services. Throughout those years, he was an

exceptional catalyst who encouraged debate and the

sharing of ideas which have advanced the field of

career development in Canada.

He exercised ongoing leadership in the organization

of the first Pan-Canadian Symposium on Career

Development, Lifelong Learning and Workforce

Development following the model of the

international movement of Symposia on Career

Development and Public Policy, which began in

Canada and is now held regularly in different

locations around the world. He participated actively

in the development of the Canadian Standards and

Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners and

was instrumental in the establishment of the

Canadian Research Working Group on Evidence-Based

Practice in Career Development.

Michel has also been a leader in professional

associations. From 2001 to 2006, he was the

President of the Ordre des conseillers d’orientation

et des psychoéducateurs du Québec, the largest

professional association of career counsellors in

Canada. He sat on the board of directors of the

Canadian Counselling Association (CPA) and on the

board of the International Association for Educational

and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG). He was the chair

of the CPA’s Certification Committee. He is currently

a doctoral candidate in career counselling at

Université Laval.

Michel’s actions have changed the landscape of

career development in Canada. He has earned the

respect and recognition of his peers and contributed

to keeping the flame of career development burning

bright.

To see photos of the conference and the Award

Ceremony specifically, visit the IAEVG Conference

website, go to photo album and click on Tuesday

evening. It truly was a night to remember.

continues from page 13—The Gold Medal for Leadership ...

Stu Conger for Leadership

in Career Development

Gold Medal Winners

Michel Turcotte (left) and

Sareena Hopkins (right)

with Shirley Conger

(middle)



http://aiosp-congres2014-quebec.ca/

http://aiosp-congres2014-quebec.ca/

Documents

Volume 5 Issue 3, July 2014 Canadian Career …...Dr. Gideon Arulmani: Gideon spoke of “cultural preparedness”, not as a fully formed theory but as a number of linked concepts