20.5 – Design and Implement Career Program(s)
Purpose & Context
Educators, as career development professionals (CDPs), may design and implement comprehensive career programs to provide opportunities for students to set and achieve age- and grade-appropriate goals pertaining to living, learning, and working. As CDPs, educators recognize the importance of creating and delivering inclusive career development programming using a wide range of styles, media, and format. CDPs work with all students in an equitable career program.
Effective Performance
Competent career development professionals must be able to:
- P1. Locate and review provincially mandated curriculum, where available
- P2. Engage career influencers and other stakeholders either formally, e.g. Advisory Committee, or informally indiscussion
- P3. Assess needs
- Identify where career content in current curricular and extracurricular program is lacking in depth/scope ormissing entirely
- Determine the level of career awareness of key stakeholders
- Identify the level of community and partnership engagement in career service delivery
- Research labour market trends
- P4. Establish priority areas, for example:
- Develop recommendations to Improve staffing, e.g. student/guidance counsellor or career education teacher ratio,
grade- or industry-specific career specialists, training of guidance counsellors and career educators - Develop age- and grade-appropriate career interventions, activities, or resources, e.g. cross-curriculum career
integration, experiential learning - Build engagement of parents/guardians
- Create partnerships with external parties, e.g. industry/community partners, businesses, trade officials, alumni
- Develop or provide access to resources that support educators’ implementation of career programs, e.g. career
exploration sites such as CHOICES/Xello, comprehensive career planning sites such as Blueprint - Develop a career resource centre, e.g. self-help services, labour market information, occupational profiles
- Establish youth internship programs
- Develop school-to-work transition programs
- Develop recommendations to Improve staffing, e.g. student/guidance counsellor or career education teacher ratio,
- P5. Identify priority activities to reach goals, for example:
- Curricular and extracurricular programs
- One-on-one guidance services
- Career resource centre
- Individual personalized career plans
- Work-integrated learning programs
- Experiential learning
- Community involvement
- Volunteering
- Part-time employment
- Career workshops
- Career fairs
- Mentoring program
- Human library
- P6. Develop key performance indicators, for example:
- Number of partnerships with community stakeholders
- Number of completed individualized career plans
- Number of students who achieve an experiential learning credit or credential
- Number of grade 10 students who completed at least 2 career exploration activities
- Number of grade 11 students who can identify three key people in their support network, and how these people can
provide support - Number of grade 12 students who can identify 3 facts they’ve learned about financial planning and how these
relate to their career pathway planning - Learning maps, that document student plans
- Portfolio presentations, to provide evidence of breadth and depth of career planning
- P7. Formulate operating requirements, e.g. budget, facilities, services, supplies, equipment, technology, staff support
- P8. Develop program services, e.g. individual services, group activities, career fairs, volunteer fairs, career centre
- P9. Implement program:
- Develop an action plan
- Allocate resources, e.g. people, equipment, materials, financial resources
- Establish a schedule for progress reviews
- Prepare reports, e.g. progress reports, quarterly results, final report
- P10. Monitor implementation, for example:
- Track participation in experiential learning opportunities
- Assess level of involvement of career influencers, e.g. families, teachers, students, community/industry
partners
- P11. Measure program effectiveness using developed indicators, for example:
- Program’s impact on career decisions
- Student participation in career exploration and planning process
- Surveys of graduates
- P12. Revise program based on feedback from developed indicators
Knowledge & Understanding
Competent career development professionals must know and understand:
- K1. School counselling theory and techniques
- K2. Community resources
- K3. Characteristics of students, e.g. exceptional needs, special needs
- K4. Education system, e.g. educational supports and resources available for students
Contextual Variables
Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:
Level of support required, and offered, by stakeholders may vary, e.g. school administrator, staff members, parents, students, community, business stakeholders
Glossary & Key References
Terms
Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.
Career guidance: career services included in educational program.
Human Library: A metaphor for a local network of community members, including family members, representing diverse roles and occupations; these contacts are like resources in a library. Students can “check-out” several resources to find out more about community members’ roles, work, and local employment opportunities.
Information Sources and Resources for Consideration
Comprehensive Guidance and Counselling Program: Supporting Student Success. 2007. Revised updated 2010. Nova Scotia. Department of Education. Student Services. ISBN: 1-55457-078-6
Standards of Practice for Guidance Counsellors, 2014 Department of Education Newfoundland and Labrador
Reddy, L., Rauschenberger, J., Hurt, P. and Bray, J. Transforming Career Counselling: Bridging School to Career in the Workforce of the Future. Manufacturing Skills Standards Council (MSSC). April 2015. sme.org, MSSCUSA.org
Ministry of Education Ontario. Creating pathways to success: an education and career/life planning program for Ontario schools: Policy and Program requirements, kindergarten to Grade 12. 2013 http://www.edu.gov.on.ca/eng/document/policy/cps/CreatingPathwaysSuccess.pdf
Context Rating Scales
Criticality
Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?
Frequency
Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?
Level of Difficulty
Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?
Time Required to Gain Proficiency
Q: What is the average length of time or number of repeated events that are minimally necessary for an individual to become proficient in performing the skill to the standard?
A career development professional requires a minimum of one year experience as a career guidance counsellor.
Autonomy
Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone and/or as part of a team.
Automation
It is unlikely that this competency will automate.