Our Profession
Career Development Professionals
help individuals navigate learning & work transitions across the lifespan.
Career Development Professionals help individuals to manage learning and work, acquire and enhance skills, seek and create employment, and access community services that support personal and professional growth in an increasingly complex, interdependent and changing world.
Career Development Professionals collaborate with employers, education and training providers, community-based services, and other private and public institutions to promote positive health, social, and economic outcomes of individuals, institutions, and communities.
Development
Professionals
- help Canadians to be architects of their careers.
- mobilize their competencies to meet the complex needs of Canadians.
- adhere to a Code of Ethics that supports reflection and accountability.
- promote positive health, social, and economic outcomes for individuals, institutions, and communities.
For over 30 years, our sector has worked collaboratively to advance the profession of career development, and to raise the bar for our standards of practice. In 2021, our ongoing work revitalized our original standards to create three new dynamic cornerstone documents – Competency Framework, National Competency Profile, and Code of Ethics – that inform and underpin Career Development Professional’s scope of work. All three assets can be used to develop training curricula, track professional progress and growth, create certification programs, and inform the public of the value and importance of career development. In addition to the cornerstone documents, a competency self-assessment tool was developed, helping CDPs assess their strengths and areas for growth. Collectively, these have supported the work being done to launch national certification.
Click here to learn more about the history of these assets.
Following extensive consultation across Canada from 1996 to 2000, the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners (S&Gs) were launched in early 2001, mapping out the professional competencies and ethical framework to support quality career service delivery. While the S&Gs served us well and valiant attempts were made to update them over time, it was clear that a comprehensive new competency framework, code of ethics, and approach to certification were needed. The Supporting Canadians to Navigate Learning and Work (2018-2021) project built on the foundation of the S&Gs to accomplish this.
The project was funded by the Government of Canada’s Sectoral Initiatives Program, fueled by over 5,000 volunteer hours from hundreds of Career Development Professionals (CDPs) and subject matter experts, and coordinated and managed by the Canadian Career Development Foundation.
The Supporting Canadians to Navigate Learning and Work project resulted in the following bilingual assets:
- A new definition of Career Development Professional
- The Pan-Canadian Competency Framework for Career Development Professionals
- The National Competency Profile for Career Development Professionals
- The Code of Ethics for Career Development Professionals
- A piloted national certification program that includes a robust exam, a performance assessment tool, and supplementary study guide
- Three micro-credentials
Between 2018 and 2021, in workplaces on the phone and via video calls; over coffee or, tea, and across every time zone in Canada, CDPs researched, developed, consulted, refined, and validated every aspect of this project.
379 CDPs participated in coffee conversations and focus groups from September to November 2019, to discuss and develop each competency.
105 Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) reviewed multiple competency series to ensure completeness, accuracy, and clarity.
9 subject matter experts reviewed the totality of the Competency Framework prior to, and after translation.
40 CDPs wrote and reviewed over 370 questions for the multiple choice exam.
153 CDPs and 14 proctors pilot-tested the multiple choice exam.
18 CDPs validated the piloted questions for two forms of the exam.
12 CDPs piloted and provided feedback on the performance assessment component of the national certification approach.
CDPs contributed countless hours as part of the Code of Ethics Working Group, Post-Secondary Working Group, National Stakeholder Committee, and National Certification Steering Committee.
Generous thanks go to all those who devoted their time, expertise, insights, honest feedback, and wisdom to this initiative. Thanks to Emerit, a national leader in competency and certification program development for their constant and continued support of the project’s objectives.
Competency Framework
The Pan-Canadian Competency Framework for Career Development Professionals details the skills, knowledge, and actions demonstrated by effective career development professionals, career influencers, career educators, and thought leaders.
National Competency Profile
The National Competency Profile for Career Development Professionals is a curation of competencies from the Competency Framework that details and describes effective performance, knowledge, understanding, and abilities for ALL Career Development Professionals regardless of role/setting.
Code of Ethics​
The Code of Ethics for Career Development Professionals provides professional boundaries and practical directives for professional behaviour and practice for those who offer services in career development.
Taking Charge - Competency Self-Assessment
When it comes to your professional competencies, it's important to know your own strengths and areas for potential growth. Taking Charge is a free online tool that supports you to self-assess your current level of mastery and compare this to your desired level of mastery as a basis for building self-awareness and informing your professional development planning.
National Certification
After 20+ years of discernment, dialogue, co-creation, and testing, Canada’s National Career Development Certification (NCDC) program for CDPs is ready to launch in 2024 using a validated competency-based Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) model.