Competency Category:

Competency Series:

3.2 – Build Self-Agency

Purpose & Context

Career Development Professionals (CDPs) build self-agency of clients to promote independence and resilience, increase motivation, and reduce anxiety. Building self-agency also helps increase clients’ sense of control, hope, and confidence in their ability to achieve career goals.

Effective Performance

Competent career development professionals must be able to:

P1. Identify expressions of low self-agency, for example:
- Perceived incompetence, e.g. “I wouldn’t be able to do that”
- Low outcome expectations, e.g. “I could do that, but it wouldn’t work”
P2. Deliver intervention to improve self-agency, for example:
- Set achievable, short-term goals
- Select activities perceived as low-risk, e.g. list experiences to include in résumé
- Explore expressed interests, i.e. use intrinsic motivation
- Select activities to develop independence, e.g. ask client to complete self-assessment at home
P3. Assess impact of low self-agency beyond career development, e.g. mental health
P4. Refer to qualified professional, if required

Knowledge & Understanding

Competent career development professionals must know and understand:

K1. Causes of low self-agency, e.g. trauma, long-term unemployment
K2. Indicators of low self-agency, e.g. expressions of perceived incompetence
K3. Effects of low self-agency, e.g. pessimism, avoidance of goal setting

Contextual Variables

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

Depending on the client, low self-agency, i.e. a lack of perceived control over their own life, can pose a key barrier to career development. In this situation, its improvement should be a CDP’s primary goal.

Glossary & Key References

Terms

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

Self-agency: the power an individual has over their own life. Self-agency means that an individual has a sense of control over their actions or events that may affect them.

Information Sources and Resources for Consideration

None

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?

Occasionally, e.g. generally several times in a month

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 a minimum experience of working with at least 40 clients experiencing low self-agency.

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.

Be respectful

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.

Hate Speech could include and is not limited to:

Violent threats or language directed against another person

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Defamatory or abusive language or materials

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Advocating for, or encouraging, any of the above behavior

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.

Be considerate of the purpose of the Centre

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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