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.

Purpose. Competence. Integrity. Impact.
Career
Development
Professionals

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.

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.

Career Development Professional Centre

Code of Conduct

Help us cultivate a Centre we all enjoy by reviewing and following the Code of Conduct.

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
  • Discriminatory jokes, language, or materials
  • Defamatory or abusive language or materials
  • Profane or illegal materials
  • 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.

Post your discussions or documents in the most appropriate group or topic

Especially within the social learning community, make reasonable efforts to ensure that posts and materials are allocated to the appropriate group or topic. This will prevent cluttering the feed and make it easier for everyone to find the information that they are seeking. Individuals who do this repeatedly will be contacted by one of the group admins and asked to follow these guidelines.

Privacy and Release of Information

CDPC-CEDC will not release your information to any third-party agencies.

Thank you and welcome to the CDPC