Competency Category:

Competency Series:

25 - Strategic Delivery of Career Development Services

25.2 – Build Strategic Partnerships

Purpose & Context

Career Development Professionals (CDPs) establish strategic partnerships with community-based organizations, third party providers and agencies who share common values and goals. The partnerships provide opportunities to share specialized capabilities and resources to address challenges the organization may not have the capacity to address on its own.

Effective Performance

Competent career development professionals must be able to:

P1. Identify opportunities to improve organizational outcomes through use of partnerships, e.g. increase outreachcapacity
P2. Identify potential community-based organizations with whom partnership would be beneficial, e.g. settlementagencies, associations that support employment of people with disabilities
P3. Meet potential partners, e.g. community-based organizations, agencies
- Confirm interest in establishing partnership
- Clarify shared goals and objectives
- Identify opportunities to work together, e.g. shared services, shared resources
- Identify requirements, e.g. work schedule, financial mechanism, reporting, measurement of success
- Develop action plan to achieve partnership goals
P4. Develop partnership agreements, considering:
- Purpose
- Governance
- Strategic goals
- Services and resources
- Funding agreement
- Communications
- Key performance indicators
- Reporting mechanism
P5. Maintain partnership engagement, for example:
- Schedule regular reviews to assess partnership progress and challenges
- Establish communication processes
- Hold collaborative planning meetings, as needed, e.g. weekly, bi-weekly, monthly

Knowledge & Understanding

Competent career development professionals must know and understand:

K1. Types of partnerships, e.g. community, government, education, faith-based
K2. Community resources, e.g. physical assets, economic assets, knowledge, networks, local institutions
K3. Current partnerships, e.g. effectiveness of relationship, delineation of roles and responsibilities
K4. Organizational readiness for partnering

Contextual Variables

Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:

Reasons for establishing partnerships are numerous, including to eliminate duplication of effort, pool resources, address social issues, create long-term social change, and deliver services.

Types of partnerships will vary, e.g. informal or formal agreements

Glossary & Key References

Terms

Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.

Partnership: organizations who work together to achieve a common goal.

Information Sources and Resources for Consideration

John Snow, Inc. (JSI). Engaging your community: a toolkit for partnership, collaboration and action. 2012. https://publications.jsi.com/JSIInternet/Inc/Common/_download_pub.cfm?id=14333&lid=3

Context Rating Scales

Criticality

Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?

Minimal risk: SOMEWHAT CRITICAL

Frequency

Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?

Circumstantially, e.g. per project, when a specific event arises

Level of Difficulty

Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?

Moderate difficulty or complexity

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 the experience of developing at least 5 partnership agreements, representing a broad range of stakeholders.

Autonomy

Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone.

Automation

It is unlikely that this competency will automate.

Requisite Work Aids, Tools, Equipment or Materials

None

Our Purpose

Thank you for being a part of the Career Development Professional Centre. To ensure that all members have the best possible experience, we have a few ground rules that we ask everyone to adhere to. This code of conduct applies equally to every person in the community and is intended to foster an online space that is inclusive, safe, and welcoming to all.

Centre Rules

Be welcoming

We strive to be a place that welcomes and supports people of all backgrounds and identities. We aim to be a place that promotes excellence and innovation in career and workforce development. Please extend respect to all members; we all come from different backgrounds and levels of knowledge and there is no such thing as a stupid question.

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We won’t all agree all the time, but when we disagree don’t let those disagreements turn into personal attacks. A place where people feel uncomfortable or threatened will not be a productive one. When having discussions in the online community, commenting on a library article, or participating in other Centre activities, strive for productive conversations around the content being presented, not the person behind the content. Any comments determined to be “hate speech” towards any individual or group will be deleted, and the user account may be locked until an investigation regarding the comment has been concluded. The user may be given a written warning or removed from the CPDC platform depending on the findings of the investigation.

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Violent threats or language directed against another person

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A good rule of thumb is to never say anything that you wouldn’t be comfortable with the world seeing or that you wouldn’t want anyone knowing came from you. We ask that you keep in mind the focus of this place, which is building excellence and innovation in career and workforce development for all individuals.

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The Centre focuses on building excellence and discussing innovation in the career and workforce development field. The goal of the social learning community is to communicate goals, challenges, constructive feedback, and questions in relation to career and workforce development. The Centre should be a place for continued learning and development as well as a place to discuss the future of our field (solicitation without written consent by the Project or Advisory team, is strictly prohibited). Any post or comment that is determined to be soliciting any individual or group will be deleted, and the user account may be locked until an investigation regarding the post has been concluded. The user may be given a written warning or removed from the CPDC platform depending on the findings of the investigation.

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