International Practices of Career Services

International Practices of Career Services, Credentials, and Training EDITOR

Hyung Joon Yoon CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:

Brian Hutchison Marilyn Maze Constance Pritchard Angelika Reiss

COPYRIGHT 2018

International Practices of Career Services, Credentials, and Training EDITOR

Hyung Joon Yoon CONTRIBUTING EDITORS:

Brian Hutchison Marilyn Maze Constance Pritchard Angelika Reiss

Copyright © 2018 National Career Development Association 305 N. Beech Circle Broken Arrow, OK 74012 Phone: 918-663-7060 www.ncda.org All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher.

Printed in the United States of America

Library of Congress Catalog-in-Publication Data Names: Yoon, Hyung Joon, 1978- editor. Title: International practices of career services, credentials, and training / editor Hyung Joon Yoon. Description: Broken Arrow : National Career Development Association, [2018] Identifiers: LCCN 2018036972 | ISBN 9781885333582 (pbk.) Subjects: LCSH: Career development. | Professional employees--Training of. Classification: LCC HF5549.5.C35 I585 2018 | DDC 331.702--dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2018036972

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements

1

About the Editors

2

CHAPTER 1 Introduction

5

Marilyn Maze, Hyung Joon Yoon, and Brian Hutchison CHAPTER 2 Qualifications for Australian Career Development Practitioners

12

Peter McIlveen and Carolyn Alchin CHAPTER 3 Career Service Provision In Canada: Deep Roots and Diverse

32

Practices

José F. Domene and Jessica Isenor CHAPTER 4 Career Services and Professionals in Mainland China’s Educational

49

Settings

Leili Jin CHAPTER 5 The Status of Career Services and Credentialing in Colombia from

81

2010 to 2016

Amilkar A. Brunal CHAPTER 6 The European Status for Career Service Provider Credentialing:

95

Professionalism in European Union (EU) Guidance Policies

Raimo Vuorinen and Jaana Kettunen CHAPTER 7 The State of Career Services and Career Professionals in India

112

Narender K. Chadha, Vandana Gambhir, and Chopra Mahavidyalya CHAPTER 8 Career Services and Professionals in Japan

128

Shujiro Mizuno and Yasuji Ozawa, and Keiki Matsumoto CHAPTER 9 The Status of Career Development in South Korea: Qualifications for Career Practitioners

Hyung Joon Yoon and Chong-Hyun Pyun

137

CHAPTER 10 The Practice of Career Counseling in Taiwan

160

Hsiu-Lan Shelley Tien, Yu-Chen Wang, Shu-Chen Jean Wu CHAPTER 11 Career Counseling in the United Arab Emirates

178

Dana Downey and Hazel Raja CHAPTER 12 The State of Career Services in Uganda

185

Henry Nsubuga and Julia Kronholz CHAPTER 13 History of Career Services Provider Credentialing in the USA

195

Mark Pope and Brian Hutchison CHAPTER 14 Syntheses and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials,

217

and Training

Hyung Joon Yoon and Brian Hutchison Index

239

Acknowledgements

1

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The editors of this book would like to express our sincere appreciation to all of the contributing authors. We would like to thank Alysha Cieniewicz, a doctoral student in the Human and Organizational Learning program at the George Washington University, who worked as an editorial assistant formatting all manuscripts in APA style. The George Washington University deserves our gratitude for the generous support to allow her to work with us on this project. The National Career Development Association headquarters’ staff led by Deneen Pennington who helped publish this book have our deep gratitude for their support. On a special note, Marilyn Maze—one of the editors—was the one who had the idea to publish a book on international practices on career development practice, credentialing, and training. Also, she was the main person who recruited most of the authors and editors, handled logistical issues, and provided the first-round edits for the submissions.

Editors Hyung Joon Yoon Brian Hutchison Marilyn Maze Constance Pritchard Angelika Reiss

2

INTERNATIONAL PRACTICES OF CAREER SERVICES, CREDENTIALS, AND TRAINING

ABOUT THE EDITORS Hyung Joon Yoon, Ph.D., CCSP, SPHR, is an Assistant Professor of Workforce Education and Development at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the National Career Development Association (NCDA) as Trustee-at-Large. He has trained career practitioners in South Korea, the United States, Morocco, and Canada. He has developed the Human Agency Based Individual Transformation (HABIT) model, and the Assessment of Human Agency (AHA) and co-developed the Hope-Action Theory (HAT) and Hope-Action Inventory (HAI). His career development research projects involved diverse populations such as North Korean defectors, unemployed individuals, immigrants, college students, and Syrian refugees in different countries. Brian Hutchison, Ph.D., LPC is an Associate Professor at New Jersey City University, and was formerly at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis. Dr. Hutchison is the President of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA), Treasurer of the National Career Development Association (NCDA), Past President of the Missouri Career Development Association (MoCDA), Editor of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association journal, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Counseling. His scholarship can be broadly described as focused within two primary counseling domains, school counseling and career coaching/counseling. These broad themes are infused into three primary scholarship areas: international issues in career/ school counseling, career theory and practice integration, and counselor training/ education broadly defined. Marilyn Maze, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association and a Principal with PsyCoun Consultants. She formerly worked for ACT where she was responsible for the development of the ACT Profile, DISCOVER and other computerized career planning tools. She is the 2016 recipient of NCDA’s President’s Award and chaired the Organizing Committee for NCDA’s credentialing initiative. Constance Pritchard, EdD, NCDA Fellow and Master Trainer, is the principal and owner of The Pritchard Group, an international organizational development and career management training firm. Constance has also worked in higher education in faculty and managerial roles where programs under her direction (orientation, career services, and advisement) have received national awards. Her dissertation research on small business hiring practices gained national accolades.

About the Editors

Angelika D. Reiss, MBA is the principal owner of StayConnected Careers and has national and international work experience in human resource management, career management, and training and development. She provided employee development services and career coaching to Fortune 500 companies and U.S. government employees working in state, federal, or Native American organizations. Her graduate studies included concentration areas in International Management, Industrial-Organizational Psychology, and Career Development.

3

4


Introduction

5

CHAPTER 1

Introduction Marilyn Maze Asia Pacific Career Development Association

Hyung Joon Yoon The Pennsylvania State University

Brian Hutchison New Jersey City University

This book, funded by the Second Century Fund of the National Career Development Association (NCDA), intends to help readers understand career development practices, the training of career professionals, and professional credentialing of them around the world. This project was initially started by NCDA to inform the NCDA Credentialing Commission for the development of new credentials in an effort to create competency-based identification of professional career services practitioners. This book and the companion credentialing initiative serves career practitioners, policy makers, and clients throughout the world. Policy researchers and policymakers addressing career issues, educators who support students’ career development, and career development practitioners including career counselors, career coaches, and career consultants are the intended audiences. This book can be used to generate ideas for nation-wide or regional career development policy, learn specific aspects in career development from other countries, and understand the status of practice, professional development training, and credentials around the world. This book entails status reports from 11 countries and European Union (EU). Contributing countries include Australia, Canada, China, Columbia, India, Japan, South Korea, Taiwan, Uganda, United Arab Emirates (UAE), and United States of America (USA). These countries were chosen carefully through the network of the National Career Development Association (NCDA) and Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA). Authors were invited to contribute by the editors of this book.

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A general outline of each chapter includes (1) career development practices in K-12, higher education, community, business/industry settings, (2) competencies that are required for career development practitioners, (3) professional training programs for career practitioners, and (4) credentials available in each country. Depending on the context of the respective country, information for these areas may be missing, marginalized, or amply addressed. Also, the sophistication of information provided depends on the level of maturity of career planning services within each country.

Similarities and Differences As you read the chapters from each country/region, you will notice a large number of similarities among practices and career planning goals. You will also notice some important differences. The following categories may help you to identify these similarities and differences:



Principles & goals: Each country/ region builds its training and credentialing system upon a stated set of principles and goals for career planning. Comparing services and target populations across cultures reveals similarities and differences that illuminate common trends in career development for the human species and culturally unique aspects of this development respectively.



Factors driving career services: In each country, the motivating factors may differ. Some typical factors that drive career services include labor market changes (sudden employment shifts, imbalance in demand for workers), population changes (such as an aging population, or a very young population), government regulations, and cultural factors and/or traditions.



Funding/economic sectors: Which sector is primarily providing the funding for career services and are the funds sufficient? The investment by federal, regional, or local systems matter as to whether investment is being made by government or business sectors. In some countries, funds are extremely limited.



Experts and expertise: Initially, career planning in a country is usually provided by professionals trained in other countries. As it becomes more prevalent, programs to train additional professionals are developed locally by private companies, universities, or government agencies. How prevalent are career planning professionals? How much have career development practices been localized? What types of training are being provided within the country?

Introduction

7

Providing Career Services is a Developmental Process All human endeavors persist on a developmental spectrum; professional career services are no different. Reading the chapters in this book, you will find countries at all stages of development. It is important to recognize that one country is not “behind” another except that the beginning of their developmental journey has simply happened at a different point in chronological time due to various sociopolitical factors. In practice, a country or region that is relatively new to the field is likely at a similar developmental stage as a more advanced country was at that same time in its development. In general, the first stage is for the private sector to recognize the need for career services and to provide them for a fee, which makes these services available to the wealthy elite. In some countries, awareness of the need for career planning services begins in institutions of higher education which recognize that students need this assistance and initiate a career center where designated staff provide career advice. Whichever sector initiates the awareness of the need for career planning services, the awareness grows and spreads over time. Services become more sophisticated and often grow in size and variety of offerings. Initial efforts must address bootstrap issues (i.e., threats to the survival of the program or service during initial stages of development). A common bootstrap problem is public awareness of the existence and effectiveness of career service. The service providers must build awareness and educate the public to attract target audiences. In so doing, they often begin by attracting the attention of the wealthy elite, then the general public, and finally government agencies who respond to the increased desire among the public for these services. When government agencies become involved, changes may occur more rapidly. While many countries in the world struggle to meet the basic infrastructure needs of their citizens (i.e. water and roads), others are acutely aware of the need for career planning services and strive to fund these services. When countries first make a commitment to provide career planning services, they typically either start with unemployed adults or in-school youth. Reading the chapters that follow, you will see examples of countries which started by focusing on one of these areas, then broadened their attentions. From a governmental perspective, providing career planning services includes:



Collecting data about the labor market in order to help the workforce focus on jobs that are or will become available



Training service providers throughout the country and setting training standards for service providers



Funding career planning services in locations throughout the country

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

Perhaps funding technology, such as computerized information or job matching systems, in order to simultaneous meet the needs of large numbers of people

 Defining policies for developing and providing these services Clearly, this is an ever-expanding process. As soon as each of these needs is met at some level, those providing the services identify potential improvements and begin to lobby for more and better services. After some years of government engagement in career planning services, the need for trained professionals in this field intensifies. Government or professional associations begin to define standards for training. Universities and private training companies develop programs to train career practitioners. Often, the situation in the field is diverse, with larger cities having more and better trained professionals providing career services, and rural areas trying to make do with the personnel available. As programs for training career services providers become established, leaders in the field began to develop theories that guide practice locally. Research into the effectiveness of various practices begins to provide evidence supporting model practices and concepts. This institutional knowledge is an important indicator of whether a country has developed career planning practices to a high level. Usually, this level of engagement in the field is accompanied by a widespread knowledge among the population of what career planning is and the need to engage in it. However, services offered in various parts of the country may continue to be uneven due to financial limitations and social values.

Factors that Affect the Level and Quality of Services The following factors seem to affect the level and quality of career education and services that are being offered in different countries:



Per capita income. Higher-income countries are usually better able to set aside funding for career planning services



Historical factors. Some countries, such as Europe and the USA, have been providing career planning services for a century or more, while other countries are just starting now. The longer career planning services have been offered in a country, the more service providers know about what is most effective in that country.



Cultural expectations of government. The culturally perceived role of government makes a difference. The expectations citizens have for the role of government to provide services like career planning varies greatly. For example, Singapore long had stable, centralized leadership invested in taking care of the people’s needs. Therefore, Singaporeans expect the government to keep tuning the economic engine which is bringing prosperity to Singapore. The government recently adopted an exciting new

Introduction

9

“framework” for career services which includes funding for training/retraining and availability of career services for all citizens. The world can watch with excitement, or perhaps envy, as a country develops all new and improved career development services based on this recent commitment by their national government. 

Government structure. In more centralized countries, citizens look to the national government for human services. In countries that prefer local control of human services, the types and levels of service may vary widely throughout the country.



Cultural differences. Some countries are clearly focused on prosperity. Career planning is viewed as a tool to enhance productivity, because happy workers are productive workers. Other countries are focused on Decent Work and expect all citizens to have access to career planning to help them find Decent Work. Other countries expect people to find their own way, or families to guide youth to the right fields, and view career planning as a service for special needs populations. Cultural differences are subtle. Watch for them as you read these chapters.

Reasons to Learn about Other Countries If you live in a country where career services are well established and widely available, why should you take an interest in the development of career services in other countries? As countries face career planning for the first time or expand their level of awareness and service goals to a new level, they look with fresh eyes at the problems in our field. Human problems tend to be universal, but solutions are often new and surprising. While our grandparents’ career services may have been adequate in their young adult years, the world today faces different problems and offers different options for solving them. Career theories developed a half-century ago often have a slightly dated feel, and we look for leaders who can explain today’s problems with fresh eyes. Some of these leaders may be found in countries with less history or a different history than those of developed nations. Societal values also have a big impact on career development practices. Some of the most fascinating career development ideas today come from blending Eastern and Western thinking in this field. Career services practices that seem perfectly normal in one country may feel strange in another country due to differences in values and cultural goals. As the populations of our countries become increasingly diverse, learning about the adaptations in other countries may help us to better serve certain populations within our own country. Countries that are rapidly expanding their thirst for career services can provide exciting opportunities for those who enjoy travel. Opportunities exist both for people interested in relocating, and for those interested in providing training and assistance on a temporary basis. The global career services community is vibrant and growing.

10


For some of us, learning about differences among the peoples of the world is a reward of its own. Expanding our own awareness by learning about various cultural differences and experiences is exciting. When we see others using skills that we practice often, but using these skills in a different way, this can be fascinating.

Summary Chart It is very difficult to classify an entire country into a simple taxonomy. The list below condenses a great deal of information and an amazing variety of perspectives into four factors that are relatively easily identified in these chapters. This list is in approximate order based on the length of time career services have been offered in the country (shortest to longest). However, the order of this list and the factors selected represent subjective judgments and each reader may wish to reorder this list and/or name other factors that are more relevant. This list is intended to help the reader make sense of the information in this book, as well as encourage the reader to think deeply about how to use this information. Table 1.1. Summary Chart Country Columbia Uganda

Populations served

Driving factors

School & university students University students

Academic success

Government

Selecting a major in a changing world Selecting a major in a changing world Rapid economic growth and labor market changes

Private universities

Rapid economic growth and labor market changes

UAE

University students

China

High school through adult

India

High school through adult

Funding sources

Availability of services Urban schools and universities One university

Universities

Some universities

Private initiatives

High demand in urban areas and educated populations

Public policy and private initiatives

Varied

Introduction

11

Korea

Government supported services for school through adult

Taiwan

School through adult

Japan

Intensely competitive labor market for highly educated population and growth of aging population Intensely competitive labor market for highly educated population

Government

High demand throughout the country

Private initiatives with government cooperation



Extreme aging issues and the shortage of young workers

Private initiatives with government cooperation


Australia


Finding productive employment in a changing labor market.

Government and industry standards drive funding

Widespread, but effected by economic conditions

Canada

School through retirement

Serving the needs of a diverse population

Local government with private involvement

Widespread and widely valued, but locally controlled

USA

School through retirement

Youth unemployment and adapting to labor market changes

Private initiative pushing governments to get involved

Widespread, but locally controlled

European Union

Lifelong services

Youth unemployment, lifelong planning, and need for communication among countries

Government initiatives to support public needs

Widespread, but effected by local economic conditions

After reviewing select chapters of your interest, we highly encourage you to review Chapter 14. Synthesis and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials, and Training. Chapter 14 provides a synthesis of the chapters including best practices and a master list of competencies for career practitioners and recommends future directions.

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CHAPTER 2

Qualifications for Australian Career Development Practitioners Peter McIlveen and Carolyn Alchin University of Southern Queensland

The practice of career development (or vocational guidance) has a long history in Australia, dating back to the early decades during the fledgling nation’s recovery from the Great War and Great Depression. Career development’s formal arrival was signaled in 1926 by the state government of New South Wales which invested in the establishment of a vocational guidance bureau “so that all children passing through our schools may be assisted to become selfsupporting and self-reliant citizens” (Morgan & Hart, 1977, p. 4). Other states followed suit, but their efforts were interrupted by World War II. Nation building after the war saw redoubled efforts to integrate vocational guidance into education and employment services. Holland’s now famous RIASEC framework was relatively unknown outside the USA in the 1960s (Taylor, 1967) but Australian researchers were quick to recognize its conceptual, empirical, and practical merits (Taylor & Kelso, 1973). In this era, the Graduate Careers Council of Australia (now Graduate Careers Australia) published graduate career information products and conducted research on graduate employment destinations on behalf of universities since the 1960s and 1970s. Similarly, career education has been present at various levels in the school system since the 1960s and formally declared a national priority in 1989 (McCowan & McKenzie, 1994). The landmark review of Australia’s career development (guidance) system by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (OEDC) revealed a diverse landscape ranging in extremes from world-leading excellence to disparate and disorganized (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation, 2002). With this historical background, we overview Australian career development practice in the contexts of education and employment, and begin with the recent emergence of the profession, career development practitioner.

Qualifications for Australian Career Development Practitioners

13

Evolution to Professionalization As a formally acknowledged and distinct profession, career development practitioner, is a relatively new phenomenon in Australia. Formal degree qualifications with a specific major in career development have a relatively short history in Australia. In the past decade, specific qualifications for career development practice flourished. Of course, there are traditional qualifications that include studies of career development in their coursework curricula, such as master degrees in psychology and education; however, qualifications that are accredited by industry as a specialist major in career development are a relatively recent innovation in the field. The emergence of these specialist qualifications in the Australian education and training system is due to a confluence of factors involving cooperation amongst government, professional associations, and universities, and the impetus provided by a number of government reviews of Australia’s career development system (Anderson, Milligan, Caldwell, & Johson, 1994; Koder, 1991) and the education and training needs of practitioners (National Board of Employment Education and Training, 1992). The critique provided by the Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation (2002) review is, however, regarded as a watershed moment for the field in the 21st century. The Australian government’s response to the OEDC review was nothing less than transformative. The Australian government sponsored the National Career Practitioners Forum in 2004 and commissioned its delegates to develop a strategy toward the professionalization of career development practice under the aegis of the Professional Standards for Australian Career Development Practitioners (Career Industry Council of Australia, 2011). The professional standards are central to the design and delivery of qualifications in career development and for practitioners’ membership of a professional association. This is not to suggest that there were no coordinated efforts and initiatives prior to the government’s momentous intervention and the commissioning of the Professional Standards. In other quarters, leading advocates argued for a national career development system (McCowan & Hyndman, 1998; Patton, 2002, 2005) and more effective use of existing expertise in vocational psychology (Athanasou, 2008). Beyond government purview, there were independent professional associations offering professional learning opportunities to practitioners (e.g., school guidance counselors, teachers, psychologists) providing career development services in different industry and educational sectors (e.g., schools, universities). Cooperation amongst 12 professional associations culminated in the formation of the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA). Voluntary formation of CICA as a cooperative body of professional associations, hereafter referred to as CICA Member Associations (MA), was hailed internationally as a model of good practice. Albeit independent of government, CICA was instrumental in the

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implementation of the Australian government’s program for a national approach to career development to redress the limitations reported by the OEDC. CICA’s most significant achievement is its release of the Professional Standards in 2006 (Career Industry Council of Australia, 2011). The Professional Standards stipulates the qualifications, continuing professional development, and ethics of professional practice for practitioners belonging to one (or more) of the professional associations that constitute CICA. Concomitantly, CICA established policies and procedures for the endorsement of qualifications that complied with its professional standards. It is crucial to note that the Professional Standards apply only to practitioners who are members of a CICA MA. Other professions (e.g., psychologists) offer career development services within the remit of their profession that is legally prescribed and statutorily registered by the Australian government and within the ethical guidelines of that profession. Whether psychologists’ training in career development is aligned with the professional standards is an entirely different matter (McIlveen, Hoare, McMahon, & Patton, 2010). Nonetheless, it is not unusual for psychologists to belong to a CICA MA (e.g., Career Development Association of Australia) and thereby be liable to two sets ethical codes and continuing professional development regimes. CICA’s authority as an industry body was established as much by its MAs amending their respective constitutions to comply with these new professional standards, as it was by the trust and cooperation among the MA that formed CICA. Similarly, education and training providers enjoined this spirit of cooperation by submitting their qualifications to CICA for endorsement. The universities, which sought endorsement of their qualifications, ipso facto, accorded CICA legitimacy as the steward of the Professional Standards. Had the universities chosen to disregard CICA and its presumed status as an industry body—one without statutory authority—then the career development field in Australia would be significantly different from what it is today. To understand the goodwill of the universities submitting their qualifications to CICA for endorsement, it is necessary to understand the complexities of the Australian education and training system. Indeed, it is impossible to appreciate the structure and quality of Australia’s education and training system without an understanding of its regulatory environment; thus, we subsequently provide an overview of the controls on providers and qualifications.

Regulatory Framework Australia, the nation, is a federation of states and territories, with three jurisdictional tiers of government: local, state/territory, and the national Australian government. The national Australian government, and the state and territory governments, regulate the education and training system (or systems to be more precise). In addition, industry and professional bodies are germane to the system and regulation via their setting standards for specific disciplinary


15

practices and registration of practitioners. This regulatory regime covers private providers (both for-profit and not-for-profit) and public providers operating in the vocational education and training (VET) and higher education (HE) sectors and the qualifications they provide. Qualifications in career development are offered in both systems are therefore subject to the regulatory framework. The Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) is the principal platform upon which all formally recognized qualifications are designed, accredited, and delivered. Providers may offer education and training programs that lead to the provision of an endorsement or qualification of some kind (e.g., training offered by a professional body); however, that learning experience is not recognized formally as a qualification, or part thereof, unless the provider and the qualification are offered under the provisions of the AQF (Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 2013). There are three levels of education and training in Australia: primary (K-6), secondary (712), and tertiary. The states and territories are principally responsible for primary and secondary schooling; however, the Australian government has considerable influence, directly (e.g., funding independent non-government schools) and indirectly (e.g., funding strategies for implementation by the States and Territories). Compulsory schooling begins with the preparatory years of early childhood, goes through to primary and finally onward to senior high school, culminating in the AQF qualification, Senior Secondary Certificate of Education. In most circumstances, the Senior Secondary Certificate is required for direct entry into postcompulsory programs in tertiary education. There are other entry pathways (e.g., from VET to HE) but these will be mentioned only when relevant herein. Tertiary education in Australia subsumes HE and VET sectors, and qualifications in career development practice are offered in both these sectors. The Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) stringently controls all HE providers. TEQSA regulates and assures the quality of Australia’s large, diverse and complex higher education sector. The Australian higher education system comprises both public and private universities, Australian branches of overseas universities, and other higher education providers with and without self-accrediting authority . . . TEQSA registers and evaluates the performance of higher education providers against the Higher Education Standards Framework - specifically, the Threshold Standards, which all providers must meet in order to enter and remain within Australia’s higher education system. (Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency, n.d., "TEQSA's role and functions," para. 1-2) TEQSA operates under the auspices of the Australian Minister for Education. Its authority is established by two acts of the Australian government, the TEQSA Act 2011 and the

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Education Services for Overseas Students Act 2000 (TEQSA Act, 2011). The TEQSA Act subsumes the Higher Education Standards Framework that stipulate mandatory requirements apropos Threshold Standards for: (a) student participation and attainment; (b) learning environment; (c) teaching; (d) research and research training; (e) institutional quality assurance; (f) governance and accountability; (g) representation, information and information management; (h) classification of HE providers; and (i) criteria for self-accreditation of courses offered by institutions. It is important to note the term “self-accrediting authority”, because not all HE providers have this authority. Australian universities are permitted to accredit their own degree programs in compliance with all relevant legislation and standards. The word, “university,” is legally prescribed under the TEQSA Act. Other, non-university, HE providers have limited selfaccreditation status but may not claim the status of a university. Other HE providers without selfaccrediting status, such as small private institutions that are not universities, must submit their proposed degree programs to TEQSA for accreditation. In addition to the legislation of the Australian government, universities are established by separate acts of the governments of their home state or territory and are required to report annually to respective parliaments, not only to provide evidence of the quality of their education and research activities but also to demonstrate their good governance and financial position. Other HE providers operating as private entities must additionally comply with corporate laws and regulatory authorities. Similar to its HE counterpart, the VET sector is regulated by the Australian government, and the state and territory governments. On a national level, the VET sector complies with the Australian Skills Quality Authority (ASQA) which registers providers and accredits qualifications. ASQA’s authority is established by the National Vocational Education and Training Regulator Act 2011 and its statutory role is to oversee implementation of the Standards for Registered Training Organizations, the Standards for VET Regulators, Standards for Training Packages, and Standards for VET Courses. These standards must be operationalized in accordance with the AQF. Unlike the HE sector, there are many VET providers in Australia, ranging from the colleges of Technical and Further Education (TAFE) which are owned by the state governments, through to private training companies that are registered training organizations (RTO). Some of the RTOs are operating as small businesses offering a limited number of quite specific courses whereas others are larger business entities offering courses across a range of disciplinary areas. Australia’s regulated education and training system is as much complex and bureaucratic as it is transparent and competitive, both domestically and internationally. Infringing the


17

regulations is regarded as a serious matter by the regulators and governments, and deregistration of courses and providers is a liable outcome. Flagrant infringements may lead to legal action. This ostensibly over-bearing regulatory system assures qualifications at world-class quality so that consumers can trust the brand of an Australian qualification that is accredited against the AQF.

Australian Qualifications Framework The AQF is an instrument for assuring consistency and transparency across the entire education and training system. Indeed, the AQF is available free of charge to the public. Providers use the AQF when designing or reviewing their qualifications, and regulators use the AQF to judge the quality of the qualifications. Industry or discipline-specific requirements for the curricula of qualifications, such as the Professional Standards for Australian Career Practitioners, are implemented in alignment with the AQF’s standards. The AQF is an integrated policy that comprises: 

The learning outcomes for each AQF level and qualification type.



The specifications for the application of the AQF in the accreditation and development of qualifications.



The policy requirements for issuing AQF qualifications.



The policy requirements for qualification linkages and student pathways.



The policy requirements for the registers of: o organizations authorized to accredit AQF qualification; o organizations authorized to issue AQF qualifications; o AQF qualifications and qualification pathways.



The policy requirements for the addition or removal of qualification types in the AQF.



The definitions of the terminology used in the policy (Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 2013).

An important objective for the AQF is to provide pathways into and through formal education and training programs. Thus, a qualification offered by a provider in one state is easily understood and recognizable to another provider in another state, which facilitates a nationally consistent approach to the transfer of qualifications and workforce across the borders of the federation. Australian qualifications are classified in terms of levels, objectives, outcomes, volume of learning, and nomenclature, ranging from basic certificate I through to doctoral degrees. The AQF levels are: 

Level one – certificate I;

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

Level two – certificate II;



Level three – certificate III;



Level four – certificate IV;



Level five – diploma;



Level six – advanced diploma, associate degree;



Level seven – bachelor degree;



Level eight – bachelor honors, graduate certificate, graduate diploma;



Level nine – master degree; and



Level ten – doctoral degree.

Qualifications from levels one to six are usually offered in the VET sector whereas Levels seven to ten are offered in the HE sector, but there is not a clear separation between the two sectors. There are some instances where a VET provider has special accreditation to offer a level seven bachelor degree that is a specific vocationally oriented qualification (e.g., degree in nursing). Universities may offer level five diplomas and level six associate degrees; however, these diplomas are regarded as transitional qualifications that enable a person to enter into a bachelor degree rather than take the diploma as a distinctive qualification for a disciplinary field. Furthermore, qualifications earned in the VET sector may be used for entry into and credit toward a bachelor degree.

Career Development Qualifications The qualifications in career development stipulated in the Professional Standards (CICA, 2009) are offered as a Certificate IV and Graduate Certificate. The AQF states, “the purpose of the Certificate IV qualification type is to qualify individuals who apply a broad range of specialist knowledge and skills in varied contexts to undertake skilled work and as a pathway for further learning” (Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 2013). The Certificate IV qualification is regarded as the absolute minimum entry-level qualification for practitioners working at an associate level practitioner rather than a professional level. Its development as a qualification was given impetus by the Australian government’s response to the OECD (2002) report. It was regarded as a professional development course for individuals working in the field and performing the tasks of a career practitioner but without specialist qualifications in career development (e.g., school teachers, employment counsellors). There are views that as the Certificate IV has provisioned a viable number of qualified and experienced staff, it can now be phased out, to raise, once again the education and qualification level of this emerging, vibrant


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and diverse profession. Furthermore, there are now sufficient graduate certificates to meet current demand (shown in Table 2.1). The graduate certificate is regarded as the minimum for practice at the professional level defined within the Professional Standards. The AQF states, “the purpose of the graduate certificate qualification type is to qualify individuals who apply a body of knowledge in a range of contexts to undertake professional or highly skilled work and as a pathway for further learning” (Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 2013). Graduate certificates are taken by individuals who are qualified in a particular profession (e.g., teacher, psychologist, guidance counsellor, human resources manager) or an academic discipline that is not itself an applied profession (e.g., sociology) but that nonetheless provides an appropriate foundation for career development practice. Table 2.1. Degree Qualifications Endorsed by the Career Industry Council of Australia Degree Qualification Provider

Vocational Graduate Certificate

Graduate Certificate

Graduate Diploma

Master of Education

  QUT AUT     ACU UQ   RMIT  JCU   Swinburne  CEAV UNE     USQ Note. These qualifications were endorsed by CICA at the time of writing this article in November 2016. Queensland University of Technology (QUT), Auckland University of Technology (AUT), Australian Catholic University (ACU), University of Queensland (UQ), Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT), James Cook University (JCU), Career Education Association of Victoria (CEVA), University of New England (UNE), Swinburne University (Swinburne), and University of Southern Queensland (USQ).

These qualifications range in duration. A graduate certificate if studied “full time” (i.e., four courses in a semester) takes one semester to complete. A graduate diploma requires at least two full-time semesters of study (i.e., one year) and a master degree requires at least three to four full-time semesters (i.e., one and a half years to two years). The programs are designed for individuals who are working and in need of part-time study options; thus, the time taken for each qualification is usually double because students take their courses at half the rate. In some cases,

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graduate certificates are embedded into graduate diploma and master degrees, and students may articulate from one degree to the next carrying full credit from their previous studies.

Qualification Endorsement by CICA The MAs that constitute CICA grant it the authority to “endorse” qualifications on their behalf and providers submit their qualifications to CICA for endorsement. An individual practitioner may use their endorsed qualification to apply for membership of a MA. This process of endorsement spares both practitioners and MAs the onerous task of assessing an applicant’s qualifications on a case-by-case basis. The word endorsement is chosen to distinguish CICA’s process from the word “accreditation,” which is more often associated with the discourse of TEQSA and AQSA. A course may be endorsed by CICA if the provider provides evidence that the course curriculum and the resources of the provider (e.g., academic staff) enable the development of the Professional Standards’ core competencies within its graduates. These Professional Standards are similar to others (e.g., International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 2003); therefore, only a summary of the competencies is provided here. The first core competency is career development theory, which focuses on description and application of career development theory and lifespan career development so as to be able to foster career development strategies and refer or assess appropriately. The second, labor market, relates to understanding and application of labor market information to support clients in the career needs (e.g., job applications, resume or assessment centers). The third, advanced communication skills, is effective teamwork and communications skills, including verbal, written and listening skills. It is important to note that counseling is underpinned by this competency. The fourth, ethical practice, applies to professional behavior and networking, and the requirement to take on the ethic of lifelong learning. Fifth, diversity, applies to recognition and respect for diversity, inclusive of (dis)ability, ethnicity, gender, age, sexuality, and more. Sixth, information and resource management relates to collecting, analyzing, and utilizing information, staying up to date with technology. Finally, professional practice, relates to maintaining and evaluating client services, procedures and processes, and to apply innovation, planning and organizational skills to continuous improvement. It is important to note that there are statutes across the Australian federation (national, state governments, and territory governments) that protect privacy and confidentiality, and impose strict regulations on the collection, storage, and release of personal information. Other statutes in Australia, across the federation, proscribe discrimination and harassment. Thus, the


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core competencies, particularly ethical practice, diversity, and information and resource management, must be understood in this legal context. The Professional Standards also include specialist competencies. These specialist competencies include assessment, counseling, program delivery, working with people with disabilities, project management, and employer liaison. Not all the qualifications endorsed by CICA equally teach for all the specialist competencies. For example, the coursework in some providers’ degree programs may be proportionally weighted toward one or other of the specialist competencies. In effect, this provides diversity in the HE market and enables providers to emphasize their strengths based on their faculty resources (e.g., elective coursework, the professional and research interests of faculty staff). Nonetheless, all personnel contracted to teach into the degree programs must have appropriate qualifications, usually one AQF level above the program (e.g., a master degree is required to teach into the graduate certificate degree). Recognized Prior Learning (RPL) procedures must also be articulated in an application for endorsement. Both TEQSA and AQSA emphasize the importance of RPL to enable the efficient transition between qualifications without the impost of students having to repeat coursework already completed in another qualification. For example, a practitioner who has completed a master of education with a major in guidance counseling should be afforded some credit for similar courses offered within a master of education with a major in career development. Alternatively, a practitioner who has completed a graduate certificate in Rehabilitation Counseling should be afforded some credit for electives in a Master of Education with a major in career development. Ordinarily, the maximum volume of credit is no more than 50% of the program. Unrelated coursed cannot be used for credit. For example, it is unlikely that a master degree with a major in mathematics would be attract any credit. The principle of RPL is also alive in the provisions for alternative pathways to membership of professional associations.

Direct and Alternative Pathways to Professional Status It is the MAs that effectively anoint a practitioner with the status of a professional. The most direct pathway to professional status is completing a qualification that is endorsed by CICA. Presently, the minimum qualification required for this level of membership is the Graduate Certificate in combination with relevant base qualifications (e.g., bachelor in education); however, practitioners with higher qualifications (e.g., master degrees) are well represented in the field. As a measure of equity, diversity, and inclusivity, an alternative pathway is available to prospective members of a MA. These practitioners must provide a portfolio of evidence attesting equivalence in terms of education and training, and industry experience, and continuing

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professional development in a work domain related to career development. Qualifications must be in a cognate field that corresponds to career development. These alternative qualifications typically include disciplinary fields such as: teaching, vocational education and training, guidance, behavioral sciences, psychology, counseling, human services, human resources, management, social science, sociology and rehabilitation counseling. For example, a psychologist with a master degree in psychology and several years working in a career development position, along with continuing professional development, may be admitted to professional status. Alternatively, an employment counselor with a master degree in business and human resources management, may be likewise admitted. It is likely that applicants via this route have qualifications that are higher than a graduate certificate in career development. Unlike the direct route, these applications must be adjudged on a case-by-case basis and each MA has a procedure for doing so. There is an equivalent alternative pathway for associate practitioners.

Continuing Professional Development Continuous professional development (CPD) is valued by CICA and by their MAs, and CPD is embedded into the Professional Standards. Practitioners across the membership associations are expected to complete a minimum of 15 hours CPD per year for associate practitioners and a minimum of 30 hours for professional practitioners. Some associations have higher levels than the CICA minima. Members must provide evidence of their engagement in CPD activities and attribute their professional development to the competencies as described by CICA professional standards (2009). This professional development can occur in a range of practice areas (e.g., counseling, project management) and in a diversity of ways (e.g., seminars, online learning, work-based learning, supervision). CPD may also include postgraduate studies for upgrading level of membership in an association. Practitioners are responsible for their recording of their CPD to demonstrate meeting the minimum requirements. Online databases are available for the completion of this requirement. Australian career practitioners have access to an online database sponsored by CICA; however, they are permitted to use another repository that is equivalent and able to furnish evidence should it be required in a random audit carried out by the relevant MA. This flexibility and efficiency of this provision is particularly important for practitioners who belong to another professional association and are obliged to use the system of that association. Although this may seem like double counting, belonging to another profession, particularly the statutory professions (e.g., teacher, psychologist), may carry the impost of CPD requirements in addition to that of their needs as a career development practitioner. Although CPD can be financially expensive, both in direct cost and opportunity cost (e.g., time away from work), it is noteworthy that Australian Taxation Office allows individuals


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to claim the cost of their CPD as a deduction against their gross assessable income for the purposes of calculating income tax, which defrays the financial impost of CPD. Also, some employers provide generous subsidies for practitioners’ professional development. In addition, maintaining CPD can be a condition of receiving significantly discounted professional indemnity (insurance) that is available to practitioners belonging to some of the MAs.

Career Development in Educational Settings There are at least three key instruments that may be used to inform career development learning curricula and pedagogies in Australia’s education systems: Core Skills for Work; Australian Blueprint for Career Development, and the Australian Curriculum.

Core Skills for Work Developmental Framework Core Skills for Work are “non-technical skills, knowledge and understandings that underpin successful participation in work” (Department of Industry Innovation Climate Change Science Research and Tertiary Education and Department of Education Employment and Workplace, 2013, p. 1). The framework is organized into three clusters subsuming ten skills: cluster one navigate the world of work (1. manage career and work life; 2. work with roles, rights and protocols); cluster two - interact with others (3. communicate, connect and work with others, recognize and utilize diverse perspectives); and, cluster three - get the work done (4. plan and organize, make decisions, identify and solve problems, create and innovate, and work in a digital world). The framework also takes a developmental perspective, suggesting that the skills are progressively enhanced: novice performer, advanced beginner, capable performer, proficient performer, and, expert performer. Core skills may be used to assess people’s current level of performance and then formulate a learning program to progress them through the developmental stages.

Australian Blueprint for Career Development The Australian blueprint for career development (ABCD) is a valuable resource used in education and training settings (Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs, 2009). The Australian blueprint for career development is a framework that can be used to design, implement and evaluate career development programs for young people and adults. At its core, the blueprint identifies the skills, attitudes and knowledge that individuals need to make sound choices and to effectively manage their careers. These career management skills will help young people to transition successfully to postsecondary training or a job after high school. They will encourage students to value learning by linking it to their hopes and dreams for the future. These skills will also help

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adults to transition successfully between learning and work roles that support their family and community responsibilities. The primary aim of the Blueprint is to enable teachers, parents, career development practitioners, employment service providers, employers or others who are in a position to support people’s careers and transitions, to work with a nationally consistent set of career management competencies which will help all Australians to better manage their lives, learning and work. (p. 8) The ABCD presents a detailed framework of career management competencies along with a rich battery of resources for individuals and practitioners. The entire package is available free of charge under the provisions of a creative commons license.

Australian Curriculum Australian education K–12 is delivered within a complex of national and state curricula, policies, and regulations. The overarching framework of the Australian Curriculum is administered by the Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority (ACARA). State and territory governments are responsible for the implementation of the national curriculum within their schools. Although the Australian Curriculum specifies learning areas that may indirectly address career development learning, there is no national career development curriculum per se, despite the availability of a K-12 curriculum (McCowan & McKenzie, 1994, 1997). Schools may implement their own career education programs separately to the stipulated curricula. An optional subject within the Australian Curriculum for years nine – ten is work studies. For example, in year nine, this subject addresses: learning to learn (e.g., plan and implement strategies and processes to improve their learning and enhance the potential to realize their aspirations and personal wellbeing); work skills (e.g., investigate a wide range of occupations, and the skills and personal qualities required in these fields); entrepreneurial behaviors (e.g., Identify types of entrepreneurial behaviors and their opportunities for application to 21st century work and enterprise); career development and management (e.g., recognize the importance of self-awareness in career and life design); the nature of work (e.g., describe the nature of work in Australia and the implications for current and future work opportunities; and, gaining and keeping work (e.g., identify the importance of rights and responsibilities for employers and workers). Upon completing year 10 work studies, students should have achieved the following standard: Students process the skills required to manage change and transition. They select learning strategies and career information and sources and evaluate and align their personal capacities. They select and apply appropriate communication methods in a range of contexts. Students form and work in teams on a range of work-related tasks and observe


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and incorporate the skills needed to work collaboratively. They apply entrepreneurial skills to plan, implement and complete a negotiated action project. Students evaluate their findings, propose actions, make recommendations and present these to an audience of stakeholders. They synthesize increased self-knowledge and career information to school and career-based decisions and create potential career scenarios. Students research a range of information and data to identify trends in work arrangements emerging over time and evaluate agencies and organizations that support various employment situations. Students practice using and responding to 21st century recruitment and selection tools, methods and skills for accessing real and created work opportunities. Students collect and interpret information on different cultural approaches to ways of working. They explain the importance of culturally diverse workplaces to managing work, work relationships and productivity. Students apply conflict resolution methods and skills to work-related contexts. (Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority, 2017) Ostensibly, the work studies subject is ideal; it is a nationally agreed curricular model for career development learning under the aegis of ACARA. Its status as an optional subject and it restriction to years nine and 10 diminish its implementation, however. Several professional associations represent career development practitioners, teachers, and allied professionals (e.g., psychologists) working in schools to provide career counseling and career education. These organizations are MAs that constitute the CICA. For example, at a national level, there is the Career Development Association of Australia, which is the largest cross-sector MA with more than 1000 members, as well as state-based organizations such as the Careers Advisors Association of New South Wales and Australian Capital Territory, the Career Education Association of Victoria, and the Queensland Guidance Counselors Association. Australian universities have diverse approaches to providing career development services. Many have a “careers service” provisioning students with support from orientation through, and sometimes past graduation. These services are wide ranging. For example, assistance with goal setting, development of employability skills, or career counseling, through to workshops on graduate application methods, and mock interviews. Services distribute and disseminate resources in different ways according to need. Some embed career development in courses, others provide co-curricular, or extra curricula opportunities to engage and learn in this space. Staff in these services are often members of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) which first became an institutional body in 1997. Their membership body comprises over 400 individual members in Universities and tertiary settings, as well as institutional members across Australia and internationally. NAGCAS provides input to the national careers agenda, drawing on their wide ranging stakeholders across career services, employers, international organizations and academics. The organization also provides regular

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state and national professional development opportunities, including a national conference each year. By and large, universities support expectations around their staff holding qualifications endorsed by CICA. On the whole, Australian universities provide professional career services that play an important role in students’ transitions into and through their degree programs and the workforce (Phillips, 2008).

Career Development in Employment Settings “Jobactive” is the Australian government’s current employment service designed to support Australians into work and to enable employers to find staff for their positions. We use the word “current” quite deliberately and critically. The Commonwealth Employment Services (CES) was established in 1946 as a post-war initiative to rebuild the nation. In the era of downsizing, rightsizing, outsourcing, or whatever euphemism may apply to the diminution of government departments by successive administrations, the CES was effectively disestablished only to have some of its services to unemployment people delivered by private sector non-government organizations on behalf of the government (i.e., outsourcing). The merits of the size and function of government departments are not the focus of the present paper; what must be stated, however, is that a long tradition of CES vocational guidance services were obliterated in the process of the CES’ disestablishment. This decision had an impact on the field because vital expertise lost its vortex of collaboration that resided within a central government department. The current Jobactive initiative funds more than 1700 job active providers (i.e., private, NGOs funded by government) around Australia to connect workers with employers. It provides supports for those from non-English speaking backgrounds, and individuals with disabilities. The Australian government expects these providers to provide quality services to employers and job seekers. The providers do not appear to need to demonstrate that their staff meet the CICA standards for career development practice; however, they are subject to a service guarantee that articulates what job seekers can expect from their provider. Whether this guarantee has sufficient scope and power to enforce the provision of high quality career development services is a question needed to be answered by review and evaluation of “Jobactive.” Perhaps one of the more laudable achievements of government in recent years is the Australian government’s National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), which is, by-and-large, the beneficiary of bipartisan political support. The NDIS is funded by the Australian tax-payer as national safety net that provides funding for individual support to people with a disability, their families, and their careers. It is promoted as providing a flexible and whole-of-life approach to supporting people to achieve their goals (National Disability Insurance Scheme, 2017). The NDIS is still in the roll-out phase and it the position of career development services in the mix of services to recipients is yet to be determined.


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Australia has a large, thriving private sector personnel recruitment industry that provides consulting services, individual services, and online services. It is important to note that it is illegal for employment agencies to charge a fee to client-jobseeker; fees must be paid by the client-employment. Career development practitioners associated with these private enterprises may be members of the CDAA or similar associations that serve human resources or organizational psychology consultants.

Issues and Future Perspectives Australian universities operate in a competitive market against one another in the domestic market and internationally against universities predominantly in the USA, UK, and Canada. These market forces combine with the heavy burden of regulation to produce a rationale for risk. Graduate certificate and master programs with enrolments that are deemed insufficient for whatever institutional reasons (e.g., financial return on investment, organizational restructures, lack of interest among academic staff) are at risk of cancellation. As with many niche programs or majors, there is always the risk of closure. Without doubt, forces driving the risk of closure will be present in the future. Other related professions facing similar risks have suffered considerable losses in their specialist master degree programs in recent years (e.g., counseling psychology). Thus, in present circumstances, it is unlikely that the number of Graduate certificate and master degree qualifications in career development will go up; in all likelihood, the number of programs will go down, perhaps to an equilibrium whereby the number of enrolments are sufficiently distributed among the number of institutions to mitigate financial risk of closure. As a voluntary cooperative without statutory status, CICA has no direct influence over the decision-making processes of universities that choose to rationalize their offerings in the competitive market of HE. Closure of qualifications in career development should sound an alarm to the field. The very institutions that afforded CICA its status as an industry body with purview over the endorsement of qualifications in career development, may ultimately erode its status by cancelling the programs it endorses. Alternatively, those universities that continue to offer qualifications may eventually disregard CICA’s endorsement regime to defray the concomitant administrative and financial burden of endorsement, and leave the decision of choice up to the customer. After all, there were programs operating before CICA’s endorsement regime existed. Should this scenario materialize in the coming years, the professional associations that constitute CICA as its MAs may have to take a different stance on their requirements for membership that currently require a CICA-endorsed program. Indeed, the Alternative Pathway

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to professional membership is already effective and currently recognizes qualifications in cognate disciplines (e.g., master degrees in guidance, counseling, psychology) that are not endorsed by CICA. Surely, a master degree in career development would be regarded as a cognate discipline within the conditions of the Alternative Pathway, regardless of whether the degree is or is not endorsed by CICA? Reactively abolishing the Alternative Pathway would be a financial death knell for professional associations that rely on members’ annual subscriptions for their existence. Thus, the profession is caught between a rock and hard place at present. Additional administrative or regulatory burdens cannot resolve this complex situation; a new approach is needed. Compared to the mature professions with statutory imprimatur (e.g., teachers, psychologists) and larger professions without statutory status but wielding market presence due to sheer numbers (e.g., human resource managers), the fledgling profession, perhaps better put as the proto-profession, career development practitioner, is vulnerable to competition from the established professions and from differences within its own ranks. For example, as clinical psychologists compete with and progressively take over the work traditionally available to counseling psychologists, they will find their place again in the work of career development. Similarly, organizational psychologists are already well qualified for career development practice (McIlveen et al., 2010). In 2015, CICA created a new labeling system, whereby career practitioners may apply to CICA to use the label of associate practitioner, professional, or leading certified practitioner. This labeling system supervenes the extant system of MAs affirming professional status on practitioners. Furthermore, it comes as an additional cost to practitioners. Only time will tell if the labeling system develops cache in the market in the eyes of the public, and does not concomitantly diminish the value proposition of being a professional member of a MA. For good or ill, governments do play a significant role in career development practice within education and training contexts, particularly those contexts under their regulatory gaze. Notwithstanding the Australian government’s enthusiasm for career development when The Honorable Dr. Brendan Nelson was the Minister responsible in the mid-2000s, successive governments of both political persuasions have steadily disinvested in national career development policies and programs. One promising initiative, the National Career Development Strategy, was released by then the Minister in the twilight days of the government as it transitioned into a caretaker mode ahead of a federal election. The new Minister subsequently paid scant attention to the strategy released by his predecessor. One can only speculate as to what would have happened if the Minister had held that strategy back for release by the incoming Minister. These historical notes serve as a reminder that the Australian government can strongly influence the career development system.


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The level of under-investment, if not dis-investment, in career development services is revealed in a report commissioned by CICA that produced astonishing findings: Research shows 1 in 3 career practitioners are provided with less than $1000 annually to undertake career development activities across their entire school. 1 in 2 schools with a population of over 1000 students have less than $3 per student to spend on career education. (Mcrindle, 2015) Of course, there are substantial variations among the states and territories, and among schools—public, Catholic, and independent. These findings are, nonetheless, a source of serious concern. Fortunately, there is some hope that the Australian government is once again taking an active interest in career development, in educational settings, at least. The present Minister for Education, The Honorable Simon Birmingham, has initiated a process to create a renewed National Career Education Strategy. The scope and impact of this renewal is yet to be seen.

Conclusion We write this paper knowing that the Australian system of career development is in flux. Our nation’s education systems are under constant government surveillance and review to further enhance their mission, operations, and productivity, within a volatile but lucrative international market, and this is despite its significant contribution to the growth of Australia’s society, economy, citizens, and those from abroad. With a focus on the changing world of work, globalization, basification, and mechanization, these issues are of paramount importance to the future workforce, economic growth, and emerging industries. Career development services can play a crucial role in how Australia manages its humanistic and socio-economic aspirations. To play that role will require consistent if not constant promotion of the multifaceted value of career development services.

References Anderson, D. S., Milligan, B., Caldwell, G., & Johson, R. (1994). Careers advisory services in higher education. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service. Athanasou, J. A. (2008). Vocational psychology: Realising its true potential. Australian Journal of Career Development, 17(3), 3-5. doi: 10.1177/103841620801700301 Australian Curriculum Assessment and Reporting Authority. (2017). Work studies. Retrieved from http://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/work-studies/nature-of-work-studies Australian Government Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. (n.d.). About TEQSA. Retrieved from http://www.teqsa.gov.au/about

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Australian Qualifications Framework Council. (2013). Australian Qualificaitons Framework (2nd ed.). Retrieved from https://www.aqf.edu.au/sites/aqf/files/aqf-2nd-edition-january2013.pdf Career Industry Council of Australia. (2007). Professional standards for Australian career development practitioners. Retrieved from http://www.cica.org.au Department of Industry Innovation Climate Change Science Research and Tertiary Education and Department of Education Employment and Workplace. (2013). Core skills for work developmental framework. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government. Koder, M. (1991). Careers advisory services in higher education institutions: Report of the National Board of Employment, education and training and the Department of Employment, education and training. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service. McCowan, C., & Hyndman, K. (1998). A career advisory system for Australia? Australian Journal of Career Development, 7(1), 35-41. Retrieved from https://www.acer.org/ajcd McCowan, C., & McKenzie, M. (1994). The guide to career education. For careers personnel working in Australian schools and colleges. Sury Hills, Australia: New Hobsons. McCowan, C., & McKenzie, M. (1997). The guide to career education. For careers personnel working in Australian schools and colleges. North Sydney, Australia: New Hobsons Press. McIlveen, P., Hoare, P. N., McMahon, M., & Patton, W. (2010). Reviewing psychologists' qualifications for career development practice in Australia. Australian Psychologist, 45(2), 84-97. doi: 10.1080/00050060903261512 Mcrindle. (2015, March 24). A snapshot of career practitioners in Australia [Blog post]. Retrieved from http://mccrindle.com.au/the-mccrindle-blog/a-snapshot-of-careerpractitioners-in-australia Ministerial Council on Education Employment Training and Youth Affairs. (2009). The Australian blueprint for career development. Retrieved from http://www.blueprint.edu.au/ Morgan, C. J., & Hart, G. R. (1977). Career education in Australia. Cambridge, UK: CRAC/Hobsons Press. National Board of Employment Education and Training. (1992). A national training framework for careers coordinators: A proposal. Canberra, Australia: Australian Government Publishing Service. Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. (2002). OECD review of career guidance policies. Australia country note. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/australia/1948341.pdf Patton, W. (2002). Training for career development professionals: Responding to supply and demand in the next decade. Australian Journal of Career Development, 11(3), 56-62. doi: 10.1177/103841620201100317


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Patton, W. (2005). Coming of age? Overview of career guidance policy and practice in Australia. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 5(2), 217-227. doi: 10.1007/s10775-005-8801-6 Phillips, K. P. A. (2008). Review of career development services in Australian tertiary institutions. Canberra, Australia: Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations. Retrieved from https://works.bepress.com/justin_brown/12/download/ Taylor, K. F. (1967). Review of the psychology of vocational choice: A theory of personality types and model environments by J. L. Holland. Australian Journal of Psychology, 19, 276-277. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/1162123 Taylor, K. F., & Kelso, G. I. (1973). Course of study and personality: An Australian test of Holland's theory. Australian Journal of Psychology, 25(3), 199-209. doi: 10.1080/00049537308255846 Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency Act 2011. (2011). Retrieved from http://www.teqsa.gov.au/about/legislation

Author Bios Peter McIlveen, PhD, is Research Director of the Australian Collaboratory for Career, Employability, and Learning for Living (ACCELL). Dr McIlveen is a psychologist and an associate professor with the School of Linguistics Adult & Specialist Education at the University of Southern Queensland, Australia. He serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Vocational Behavior, Australian Psychologist, and Frontiers in Psychology. He has served the career development profession as vice-president of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA) and the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA), and as president of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS). Correspondence to: [email protected] Carolyn Alchin is a Masters qualified Career Development Practitioner, a focused business person, and a motivated educator. She is the Career Development Association of Australia’s (CDAA) 2016 practitioner of the year. She has more than 15 years’ experience in the business, education and careers sector and currently serves on the National executive committee for the CDAA. She has worked in higher education, public and private sector roles and is passionate about supporting professionals, practitioners and clients to understand and access their potential. Correspondence to: [email protected]

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CHAPTER 3

Career Service Provision in Canada: Deep Roots and Diverse Practices José F. Domene University of New Brunswick

Jessica Isenor University of Ottawa

In Canada, individuals, community and government organizations, and religious institutions have been involved in assisting people with employment related needs for over a century. This history begins prior to the 20th century, with efforts by groups such as the Salvation Army and the YMCA to provide support for unemployed men (Van Norman, Shepard, & Mani, 2014). It also features the work of social activists such as Etta St. John Wileman, who lobbied for government action to create employment bureaus across Canada at the beginning of the 20th century (Counseling Foundation of Canada, 2002), and Wilfid Éthier and Paul-Émile Farley, who laid the groundwork for establishing the profession of vocational guidance in Quebec during the 1930s (Cournoyer, 2014). From these deep roots, career service provision has grown and diversified in Canada, to the point where many educational institutions, public agencies and private organizations are involved in service delivery and several different professions define career development work as being within their scope of practice. The diversity that characterizes career service provision in 21st century Canada is also a reflection of the social, political, and geographic context of the country. Some knowledge of this context is necessary to understand the status of career services in Canada. Gazzola (2016) describes three aspects of Canada's geopolitical context that are important to consider in understanding the professional identity of counselors in Canada, which are equally applicable to career service provision: It's size (territory and population), multicultural nature, and linguistic duality. Canada's territory spans 10 million square kilometers, making it the second largest country in the world by geographic size. In contrast, its population is relatively small, with

Career Service Provision in Canada: Deep Roots and Diverse Practices

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approximately 36.3 million inhabitants spread across 10 provinces and three territories, but concentrated in the provinces of Ontario (38.5% of the total population) and Quebec (22.9% of the total population) (Statistics Canada, 2016). Canada's large geographic size, combined with the uneven spread of the population across the country, contributes to a situation where social services, including career services, are fragmented and diversified across the country. In addition, as Gazzola (2016) explains, Canada defines itself as an officially multicultural society, with government policies, immigration practices, and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms all reflecting the concept of multiculturalism. This multiculturalism is also evident in the country's demographics, with approximately 20% of population being foreign-born, approximately 4% identifying themselves as Aboriginal, and a large influx of new immigrants originating from around the world arriving in the country every year. The multicultural nature of Canadian society contributes to the diversification and specialization of career services in Canada. Finally, Canada has two official languages, French and English, which are a legacy of its colonial history. This linguistic duality is unevenly spread across the country, with French speakers making up most the population of Quebec, but only a small minority of the population in the other provinces and territories. The distinct language and history of Quebec are evident in the provision of career services in Canada, where multiple aspects of the profession are different in that province than in the rest of the country. Considering these three contexts, it is evident that there can be no "one size fits all" approach to the regulation and provision of career services, or to the education and credentialing of career service providers in Canada. Given the diversity that characterizes the field, it is challenging to definitively identify the total number of career service professionals in Canada. This challenge is exacerbated by the fact that career services in Canada are provided by individuals from numerous different professions, who affiliate with a range of distinct professional associations. Nonetheless, the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC) conducts a survey of career service professionals across the country, every four years. Their most recent survey of 1004 professionals reported that the field has a higher ratio of females (82%) compared to males (18%) and that this disparity was projected to increase, as 38 percent of females were in the 25 to 44-year-old age group as compared to only six percent of males (CERIC, 2015). In terms of work setting, 30% of survey respondents were employed in the post-secondary sector, 35% in a non-profit organization, 20% in private organizations, and 13% in the government sector. None of the survey respondents reported working in the K-12 school system, possibly because career guidance in schools is mostly provided by school counselors rather that career development specialists.. Regarding education level, CERIC's survey revealed that approximately 33% of career service professionals hold a bachelor’s degree as their highest degree, while 41% percent hold a master’s degree. Importantly, only 20% of respondents reported that their education had a specific focus in counselling or educational psychology.

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Additional data from a report from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), estimated the Canadian career services field to include over 100,000 workers, although this estimate may be low if you factor in the diversity and breadth of worksettings and the inter-disciplinary nature of some of the work in the career services field (OECD, 2009, p. 21). The OECD estimate included approximately 90 university-level institutions, over 200 community colleges, over 10,000 community-based organizations, approximately 489 school boards in Canada, private sector agencies and independent practices, and private companies developing career information, products and publications. In the remainder of this chapter, we elaborate on the current state of career service provision in Canada, focusing on the nature of career services in three specific settings: K-12 schools, post-secondary institutions, and adult career service settings. We then discuss the training and credentialing of career service providers and conclude the chapter by identifying key future directions for the field in Canada.

Career Services in K-12 Schools In Canada, education is legislated to be a provincial rather than a federal responsibility, with the result that provincial and territorial governments set the policies related to school-based career and guidance services. Therefore, there is considerable variation across the country in terms of the types of career services provided, and the qualifications of the service providers. Not only do school-based career services vary from province to province, but there can also be considerable variation from school district to school district, with a wider range of services typically being offered in more populous areas of the country than in rural and northern regions. Nonetheless, there are some characteristics of career services within the K-12 system in Canada that are common across multiple settings. In Canada, provincial ministries of education policies typically require that career education be provided within the educational curriculum. This integration takes a variety of different forms across the provinces. For example, some provinces have units on career exploration in the elementary school curriculum and/or a year-long course in career and life planning at some point in high school (Shepard & Mani, 2014). In contrast, the province of Quebec has adopted the Guidance-Oriented Approach to Learning, in which school counselors work with teachers from all subject areas to infuse career development across the entire high school curriculum. In addition to career education within the K-12 curriculum, Canadian schools also provide individual and group career counseling services, which is typically the responsibility of school counselors and related guidance personnel (Shepard & Mani, 2014). Although schools in Canada normally have positions for school counselors or equivalent guidance personnel within


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their teaching staff, this does not provide an accurate estimate of the number of career services provided within the K-12 system. Counselor positions are dependent upon the size of the school: large high schools may have several school counselors on staff, while smaller schools, especially at the elementary level, may only have access to a school counselor on a part-time basis. Moreover, the responsibilities of school counselors extend well beyond the provision of career services, to encompass crisis response, mental health concerns, social-emotional development, and problem behavior (Walker, 2015). This responsibility, combined with the fact that school counselors in Canada often have high caseloads, means that the amount of time that school counselors can spend on promoting students' career development varies widely from school to school. The provision of career services within the K-12 school system in Canada has been enhanced by the development and implementation of numerous innovative strategies and tools, that are described in some detail by Shepard and Mani (2014). These include Canada's Take our Kids to Work Day, an event for ninth grade students from across the country in which 200,000 students and 75,000 employers take part annually. Haché, Redekopp, and Jarvis' (2000) Blueprint for Life/Work Designs provides career-related learning outcomes and classroom activities that can be used to develop school-based career education programs. A career development intervention that has been widely adopted by school districts across the country is “Career Cruising,” an online career development website that contains a wide range of tools grounded in a person-environment correspondence approach to career. Another online tool is “ChatterHigh” (chatterhigh.com), a Canadian online resource designed to engage high school students in exploring future career and education options, and labor market information. The Real Game series, also frames career development as a game. In this case, it is a series of facilitator-led workshops to promote participants' career development, with different versions designed for students from eight years old through to adulthood. Finally, two freely downloadable online resources designed to facilitate parents' involvement in their children's career development are The Decade After High School: A Parent's Guide (Campbell, Ungar, & Dutton, 2008), made available by the CERIC, and A Career Development Resource for Parents: Helping Parents Explore the Role of Parents as Coaches and Allies (Canada Career Information Partnership, 2006), made available by the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF). Finally, it must be noted that individual provinces and school districts in Canada also develop programs and resources that are relevant to their students' specific circumstances.

Career Services in Post-Secondary Settings With over 300 public and private post-secondary institutions across Canada (OECD, 2009), universities and colleges typically provide a wide range of career services to their students

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(Browne & Russell, 2014). Some of these services are offered in the form of intra-curricular (or co-curricular) learning experiences that are offered to students, while other services provided are through dedicated career services offices at the school. Intra-curricular learning experiences include focusing on industry-relevant education within academic coursework, offering co-op programs where students alternate between semesters on campus and placements in degreerelated work settings, and organizing practicum, internship or other degree-related volunteer experiences to prepare students for practice in their field of study (Elias & Drea, 2013). Some academic units may also include degree-specific career and employment assistance within their academic advising. There is considerable variation across provinces and individual universities, in terms of the degree to which career services are integrated into the curriculum. For example, many post-secondary institutions in that province have integrated a focus on careers into their educational programming (Cournoyer, 2014). In contrast, universities in English Canada tend to offer opportunities for career-related inter-curricular learning on a voluntary basis (Elias & Drea, 2013), meaning that students need to become aware of and seek out these opportunities. In addition to the services provided within academic units, post-secondary institutions in Canada also offer students a wide range of career services within their student services divisions, through campus career centers and student counseling offices. Although the precise array of services varies from institution to institution, Canadian universities and colleges typically provide vocational assessments, self and career exploration, information about occupations and the labor market, and advice about tasks required to obtain employment, such as job interviewing, job search, networking, and resume writing (Browne & Russell, 2014; Shea, 2010). Browne and Russell further report that many career centers on Canadian campuses provide similar services for alumni as for students, and provide some services to employers, such as maintaining a bank of job postings, facilitating student/employer networking events, and organizing career fairs. Furthermore, career centers at Canadian universities are increasingly adapting and tailoring their services to meet the specific career development needs of special student populations, including first generation students, indigenous students (i.e., students from First Nations, Inuit, and Métis backgrounds), international students, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities, (Browne & Russell, 2014; Caverley, Stewart, & Shepard, 2014). Another important consideration in understanding career services in post-secondary settings is the issue of professional affiliation. Possibly due to the wide range of educational backgrounds and credentials that staff members at career centers may hold, career service providers at Canadian universities and community colleges choose to affiliate with numerous different professional associations (Browne & Russell, 2014; Shea, 2010). Career counselors may be members of the Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA) or the counseling association or regulatory body for their province (e.g., British Columbia Association


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of Clinical Counselors; Nova Scotia Association of Counseling Therapists). In many provinces, there are also professional associations focused on career development practice that campusbased career service providers may choose to join (e.g., Career Development Association of Alberta, New Brunswick Career Development Action Group). In addition, service providers who identify primarily as career educators may hold membership in the Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers, or the Canadian Association for Co-operative Education. Finally, service providers may also choose to affiliate with the Canadian Association of College and University Services. These diverse professional associations provide career service professionals at Canadian universities with networking and professional development opportunities through newsletters, conferences, and other educational opportunities such as webinars. Some associations also provide opportunities for certification or credentialing. However, outside of the province of Quebec, it is possible to work as a career service provider at Canadian universities without affiliating with any of these professional associations.

Career Services for Employed and Unemployed Adults In Canada, there are many stakeholders involved in the provision of career services for employed and unemployed adults, including federal and provincial governments, municipalities, community agencies, and private organizations. The services that are available to any given adult in Canada vary according to his or her presenting issue, life circumstance, geographic location, and the mandate and theoretical framework of his or her service provider (Borgen, Becker, & Butterfield, 2016). Nonetheless, Borgen et al. (2016) have identified several common elements that Canadian career service professionals typically include in their work with adult clients: Developing an effective working relationship, setting goals, enhancing clients' self-knowledge; facilitating client access to relevant information and resources; developing clients' skills and competencies; addressing the specific barriers that a client is confronted with; and, motivating and assisting the client to take action to achieve their goals. Notwithstanding these common elements, the last 20 years have witnessed a devolution of career services away from federal programs and towards services delivered by provinces, municipalities, and community agencies (Bezanson, Hopkins, & Neault, 2016). Current federal services are mostly provided through “Service Canada” (www.servicecanada.gc.ca), and include maintaining a nation-wide job bank and Canada's national employment insurance program (i.e., funding for individuals who become unemployed), and processing requests for unemployment support and education funding. Recently, however, the Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM) has announced that they plan to renew their emphasis on improving the labor market information system in Canada, which may signal a renewed focus on more proactive labor market involvement across provincial and federal levels of government (Bezanson et al., 2016).

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The services provided by provincial employment centres vary from province to province, but usually focus on job placement, facilitating access to information and funding for education and retraining, and sometimes career assessment (Bezanson et al., 2016). In addition to traditional, face-to-face services, some provinces are moving to an online support model. For example, the province of Alberta maintains the Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS, 2016) website, which can be used to gain access to provincial-specific labor market information, education and training supports, and a guided online career exploration program. There is a section of the ALIS website also designed to support career service providers in their work with adult clients. Community groups, such as the YMCA and Goodwill, as well as other organizations, offer a variety of programs and services depending upon their location, mandate, and funding (Bezanson, Hopkins, & O’Reilly, 2014). They offer job search information workshops, one-onone support with resumes and cover letters, and some offer comprehensive career assessment packages for a fee. Community agencies with mandates to assist special populations such as First Nations, newcomers to Canada, or persons with disabilities typically offer more focused supports to meet the individual’s needs. Career services to unemployed and employed adults in Canada are also provided by forprofit organizations and individuals in private practice (Bezanson et al., 2014). These organizations often have staff who have a variety of education or training backgrounds, although Human Resources training is prevalent. These organizations tend to specialize in corporately contracted outplacement counselling, and helping executive level professionals make targeted career changes. Some master's-level counselors and psychologists in private practice offer career counseling support and testing as one-aspect of their services. Lastly in the private sector, the coaching movement has found a home in Canada with people offering career or life coaching services to the public.

Credentialing and Regulation Credentialing and regulation of career service providers in Canada varies widely, depending on the provider's discipline and the province in which they practice. For counseling psychologists, whose practice includes a focus on clients' career development, their profession is regulated by provincial colleges of psychology, which are responsible for establishing the credentialing requirements of these service providers (Borgen et al., 2016). It must be noted, however, that career service provision has historically been viewed as being at the fringes of the scope of practice of counseling psychologists in Canada (Bezanson et al., 2016).


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For master's-level counselors who focus on career and guidance work, the credentialing process depends on the province in which they are located. Career and guidance counseling is a regulated profession in Quebec, with conseillers et conseillères d’orientation [guidance counselors] needing to demonstrate numerous specific career counseling competencies as part of the credentialing process. General counseling and psychotherapy (which career counselors outside of Quebec may identify with as their home discipline) is regulated in Ontario and Nova Scotia. However, regulators in these two provinces include no statement about career counseling competencies in their credentialing requirements. Several other provinces are currently pursuing legislation to regulate general counseling practice, with varying degrees of progress. In addition to government regulation, there are professional associations at the provincial and national levels that provide opportunities for voluntary credentialing of master-level counselors. These credentials are not protected by law, but they are often recognized in the field and by potential employers. For example, career counselors can voluntarily acquire a Canadian Certified Counselor designation from the CCPA, although this credential includes coursework in career service provision as an option rather than a mandatory requirement of certification (Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, 2016). For service providers who identify as career development practitioners but not as counselors or psychologists, there is no government regulation of practice. However, voluntary credentialing exists in Alberta, British Columbia, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Ontario. These provinces are currently working with the Canadian Council for Career Development (CCCD) to establish a voluntary national certification for career development practitioners (Canadian Council for Career Development, 2015, 2016). The CCCD National Certification working group liaised with leaders of provincial career development associations that had provincial level certifications to identify common certification components to facilitate professional mobility between provinces. Key components of certification include education and training, work experience (current or recent practice in the field of career development), and, as outlined in the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners, demonstration of the core competencies, adherence to the code of ethics, and commitment to the use of the ethical decision making model (Canadian Council for Career Development, 2016). The exact criteria (number of training and practice hours) has yet to be ratified but the draft of the criteria that is to be submitted to stakeholders in 2017 is provided in Table 3.1. Table 3.1 Draft Criteria for the CCCD National Certification Standard Certification Category

Certification Criteria

Additional Information

Formal career development or related education at various levels combined with

*Nova Scotia has no mandatory requirement for formal educational

40 Formal Education and Experience

Demonstration of Core Competencies


years of experience in career development or a related field. Education Experience Master’s degree 1600 hours experience within the past 2 years Bachelor’s 3200 hours experience degree within the past 4 years Diploma 4800 hours experience within the past 6 years Certificate 6400 hours experience within the past 8 years OR Employment Experience Pathway Work 8000 hours experience experience in within the past 10 years career development or a related field In addition to the formal education and work experience requirements practitioners must be able to demonstrate their competency in each of the four core competency areas as outlined in the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners (http://career-devguidelines.org/career_dev/wpcontent/uploads/2015/06/CoreCompetencies.pdf). In Nova Scotia, the Canadian Standards and Guidelines have been operationalized into the “Nova Scotia Career Development Practitioners Core Competency Profile.” This document forms the basis of Nova Scotia’s certification program. Demonstrated competencies in Career Development Theories and Career Development (or related) Ethics are requirements for each of the education pathways and for the employment pathway.

credentials, but these are included in the weighting of a candidate’s experience against the competencies. Its Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL) competency-based model requires 3 years of full time employment in a career development role in the last 5 years (approximately 5400 hours).

*Nova Scotia has an 80 question multiple choice general CDP knowledge exam, an in-depth structured phone interview with a Nova Scotia Career Development Association (NSCDA) assessor, and a documented collection of applicable prior learning activities / credentials to support the application. Career Development Practitioners applying for certification in Nova Scotia will refer to the Nova Scotia Career Development Practitioners Core Competency Profile (http://www2.nscda.ca/images/pdf/0 5_Dec_2013_NS_Core_Competency _Profile_Final_for_distribution.pdf). *Some provinces may require competency demonstration in the Areas of Specialization, as outlined in the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners.


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Ethics training must include an ethical decision making model.

Ethical Practice

Employment in Career Development References / Resume

Core competencies can be developed and demonstrated through formal education or training (with an evaluative and facilitated learning component) or through an RPL competency-based model. Candidates must agree to abide by the “Code of Ethics” as outlined in the Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners. Currently or recently employed in the Career Development field. All provinces, with the exception of New Brunswick, require references; most provinces also require a resume.

*Each province defines its own terms for current or recent employment. *Ontario requires one reference to sign off on the application saying that they support the practitioner’s application and agree with the information presented

All provinces, with the exception of Nova Scotia, require membership in the provincial career development association in order to be eligible and apply for the CCDP designation. Note. Reproduced with permission from Canadian Counsel for Career Development. Membership in a Professional Association

The credentialing and regulation of career service providers in the k-12 school system is distinct from service providers in other settings, and must be considered separately. The minimum requirements vary from province to province, and ranges from completion of a bachelor's degree and additional professional education in Saskatchewan to a master's degree in orientation [guidance counseling] and professional licensure with l'ordre des conseillers et conseillères d’orientation du Québec [the Quebec Order of Guidance Counselors] (Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association, 2012a, 2012b). The remaining provinces all require a bachelor of education degree and either a master's degree in a counseling-related field or postbachelor's coursework. For example, in the province of New Brunswick, guidance counselors have bachelor of education degrees and counseling-related master's degrees, while guidance teachers have bachelor of education degrees and additional post-bachelor's counseling-related coursework (approximately half of the coursework required in a master's degree). Furthermore, outside of Quebec, there is no requirement for guidance personnel in the K-12 school system to be licensed or certified as counselors or career development practitioners (Shepard & Mani, 2014).

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Training Providers Canada was the first country to formally articulate and publish the competencies (knowledge, skills, and attitudes) that career development practitioners need to practice effectively and ethically (Bezanson et al., 2016). The Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners (S&Gs) were initiated in 1996, with an extensive consultative process with the Canadian career development community (Bezanson et al., 2014). The S&Gs were launched in 2001, and have been revised in 2004 and 2011 so as to reflect the current practice of career development in Canada (Canadian Career Development Foundation & Canadian Council for Career Development, 2011). They have become the basis for career development training programs in Canada (Bezanson et al., 2016), and are also the foundation for the international competency framework underpinning the training and certification process of the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (Van Norman et al., 2014). The province of Quebec has historically been Canada’s leader in career development. Their first educational and vocational counseling training programs were launched in 1941 at l’institut canadien d’orientation scholaire et professionnelle [Canadian Institute of Educational and Vocational Guidance] in Montreal (Mellouki & Beauchemin, 1994). Today, many Quebec universities offer degrees in orientation [guidance] and careerologie [career development] at the bachelor and graduate level, as well as graduate degrees in guidance counseling (Bezanson et al., 2014; Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association & Canadian Career Development Foundation, 2014). For career services professionals to call themselves a guidance counselor in Quebec, they must have a minimum of 12 credit hours of graduate level coursework in career development (e.g., educational and vocational information, professional ethics, psychometrics and assessment, vocational development) in addition to other course requirements and 2300 hours of supervised practicum and internship experience (Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association, 2012a). This training, along with the regulation of career development practice in the province, allows career counseling to remain a focal point of counselor education and counseling practice in Quebec. At the turn of the 21st century, specialized training at the certificate or diploma level began to be delivered English-language postsecondary institutions in some provinces to meet the demand for skilled career practitioners in community-based settings. The earliest programs were established in Ontario (at Sir Sanford Fleming College), Alberta (Centre for Career Development at Concordia University College), and British Columbia (Douglas College). However, it was not until 2004 that the launch of the fully online Career Management Professional Program by Life Strategies, originally partnering with ACCESS Employment Services and now in partnership with Yorkville University, made such training accessible to career practitioners nationwide (Bezanson et al., 2016). As of 2010, there were 27 post-secondary institutions in Canada that


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offer a diploma or certificate in career development (Burwell & Kalbfleisch, 2011). These institutions include both community colleges (e.g., Conestoga College) and universities (e.g., Simon Fraser University) from across English Canada. Their programs typically include coursework in areas such as assessment, career development theory, employment/workplace trends, ethics, as well as skills courses in coaching, group and individual career facilitations. In addition, some of these certificate and diploma programs include a practicum or internship component, while others do not. University-based, graduate degree counselor education programs in English Canada are predominantly housed within faculties of education and focus primarily on counseling for socialemotional problems. These programs are offered at the master's level and typically require a bachelor’s degree in psychology, social work or education to gain admission. They vary widely in length (e.g., 48 credit hours at Acadia University, 36 credit hours at Athabasca University) and include a supervised practicum or internship experience (although these also vary in length from program to program). Also, many programs allow, but do not require, their students to complete a master's thesis. However, in many cases, these programs only offer one course in career counseling, which is an elective rather than a requirement of the program. Furthermore, none of the programs require their students to complete their practicum in a career counseling setting. Thus, many graduates of master degree counseling programs in English Canada have little or no training in career development practice, unless they choose to focus on that in their degree, or seek additional, post-master's training (Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association & Canadian Career Development Foundation, 2014). In terms of training programs offered outside of academic institutions in English Canada, in 2007, the New Brunswick Department of Post-Secondary Education, Training, and Labour conducted a training needs assessment for service providers working in provincial government career centres, using the S&Gs framework. In collaboration with the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), they subsequently established a province-wide training strategy, offering training to their employees consisting of courses addressing career development theory, practice, common delivery challenges, ethics, assessment, labor market information, facilitating learning, and work search (Bezanson et al., 2014). By 2015, training in this non-degree program was opened to third party community-based providers and private practitioners. The program's curriculum has subsequently been adapted and tailored for training career and employment service providers by governments in the provinces of Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland and Labrador, Quebec, and Saskatchewan, as well as the territories of Nunavut, and the Yukon (Bezanson et al., 2014). It has also been customized and delivered to service providers working in First Nations and Inuit communities. Another non-degree training program for career development practitioners has been developed by the Life-Role Development Group.

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The Life-Role Development Group was contracted in 2013 by Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada to “customize and expand career practitioner training for First Nations’ Social Development departments within the province of Alberta” (Bezanson et al., 2016, p. 229). This training is being expanded to other First Nations communities across the country. The components of this training are tailored to the specific needs and requests of the agencies and communities seeking training (Life-Role Development Group, 2017) and, therefore, vary according to whom it is provided. Despite this variability in the nature of the training opportunities provided outside of academic institutions in English Canada, one commonality is that they typically consist of seminars and content-based courses; they do not include a formal practicum. Furthermore, given the total number of individuals who have completed this kind of training in career development practice is not known.

Future Directions and Conclusion The regulatory environment for career services in Canada is currently undergoing extensive growth, with various initiatives to standardize and professionalize. A major step in the standardization of career services was development of the S&Gs. Building on this work, one future direction for the profession in Canada is to continue promoting the adoption of the S&Gs across the country. Due to the voluntary nature of these standards, their uptake by the field has varied widely (Bezanson et al., 2014). One specific area in which the S&Gs could be used to provide additional direction and guidance is in standardizing the requirements for employment in the career services field: As Bezanson et al. (2014) point out, outside of Quebec, there is currently little consistency in the competencies, credentials, and job titles for career service providers in Canada. An additional way of increasing standardization of career practice is to promote common venues through which service providers can learn about new developments in the field and share ideas with each other. In Canada, existing venues for knowledge dissemination include (a) several practice-oriented conferences that are held on an annual basis at the national and provincial levels (e.g., Cannexus); (b) the Canadian Journal of Career Development, a bilingual publication venue for research on career development and career counseling; and (c) professional magazines for career service providers in Canada such as, Careering and l'orientation [guidance]. Although these venues exist, the degree to which the information presented in them is being taken up by practitioners is unclear. Therefore, a key future direction for the field is to promote service providers' engagement with innovations in research and practice that are emerging in Canada (Domene, Buchanan, Hiebert, & Buhr, 2015). Finally, there are important future directions to consider in relation to professional identity, scope of practice, and credentialing of career services in Canada. Historically,


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responsibility for the provision of career services in Canada has been shared by multiple, overlapping disciplines: Counseling psychology, career and guidance counseling, and career development practice (Van Norman et al., 2014). This overlap can create confusion in the minds of potential clients, government agencies, and even service providers themselves. As such, there is a pressing need to develop clearer professional identities while at the same time promoting a spirit of inter-professional collaboration so that scholars and practitioners who locate themselves in these various professions can continue to work together to serve the public. In conclusion, rooted in the unique geopolitical landscape of this country, there has been a long history of career service provision by Canadian governments, social service agencies, religious organizations and, more recently, individual practitioners (Cournoyer, 2014; Van Norman et al., 2014). In the 21st Century, Canadians may receive career services in a diverse range of different settings across their lifespan, provided by a variety of different service providers. Services also vary from province to province and between urban and rural areas of the country. Nonetheless, there have been substantial advancements in the professionalization of career services in Canada. These advancements include the establishment of national competency standards for practitioners, the existence of multiple venues for sharing knowledge and best practices in the field, the creation of innovative methods for generating evidence about the effectiveness of career services and for exploring career development processes, and ongoing work related to the training and credentialing of service providers who work in disciplines and/or jurisdictions were the profession is not regulated. Although there is room to improvement and advancement, overall, career services and career professionals are well positioned in Canada.

References Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS). (2016). E-products and training. Retrieved from https://alis.alberta.ca/ep/eproducts.html Bezanson, L. Hopkins, S., & Neault, R. A. (2016). Career guidance and counseling in Canada: Still changing after all these years. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 50, 219-239. Retrieved from: http://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/cjc/index.php/rcc Bezanson, L., Hopkins, S., & O’Reilly, E. (2014). The professionalism of career development in Canada in the 21st century. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 531–554). Toronto, ON: Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counseling. Browne, J., & Russell, L. (2014). The practice of postsecondary career development. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 361-382). Toronto, ON: Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counseling.

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Borgen, W. A., Becker, E. S., & Butterfield, L. D. (2016). Career counseling in Canada. In N. Gazzola, M. Buchanan, O. Sutherland, & S. Nuttgens (Eds.). Handbook of counselling and psychotherapy in Canada (pp. 203-226). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Burwell, R., & Kalbfleisch, S. (2011). Directory of career education programs in Canada. Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Retrieved from: http://ceric.ca/resource/directory-of-career-development-education-programs-in-canada/ Campbell, C., Ungar, M., & Dutton, P. (2008). The decade after high school: A parent's guide. Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Retrieved from: http://ceric.ca/resource/the-decade-after-high-school-a-parents-guide/# Canada Career Information Partnership. (2006). A career development resource for parents: Helping parents explore the role of parents as coaches and allies. Retrieved from http://www.ccdf.ca/ccdf/wpcontent/uploads/2010/12/a_career_development_resource_for_parents_e.pdf Canadian Career Development Foundation & Canadian Council for Career Development. (2011). The Canadian standards and guidelines for career development practitioners. Retrieved from http://career-dev-guidelines.org/career_dev Canadian Council for Career Development. (2015). Certification. Retrieved from http://cccda.org/cccda/index.php/certification Canadian Council for Career Development. (2016). Canadian Council for Career Development certification foundations sub-committee of the certification working group national certification standard draft. Manuscript in preparation. Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. (2012a). Quebec regulation. Retrieved from https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/quebec-regulation/ Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (2012b). Regulation for school counselors by province. Retrieved from: http://www.ccpa-accp.ca/wpcontent/uploads/2014/10/RegulationSchoolCounsellors_en.pdf Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. (2016). Certification guide. Retrieved from https://www.ccpa-accp.ca/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/CertificationGuide_EN.pdf Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association & Canadian Career Development Foundation. (2014). Report on Canadian career counseling programs. Unpublished manuscript. Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counseling. (2015). CERIC 2015 survey of career service professionals, highlights report. Retrieved from http://ceric.ca/2015-survey-ofcareer-service-professionals/


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Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners. (2016). The standards and guidelines. Retrieved from http://career-devguidelines.org/career_dev/index.php/the-standards-guidelines/understanding-the-sgs Counseling Foundation of Canada. (2002). A coming of age: Counselling Canadians for work in the twentieth century. Toronto, ON: Author. Caverley, N., Stewart, S., & Shepard, B. C. (2014). Through an Aboriginal lens: Exploring career development and planning in Canada. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 297-330). Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Cournoyer, L. (2014). Career counselling in Quebec: Its evolution and future outlook. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 333-359). Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Domene, J. F., Buchanan, M. J., Hiebert, B., & Buhr, E. (2015). Counseling and counseling psychology research practices in Canada: A call to action. In A. L. Sinacore & F. Ginsberg (Eds.). Canadian counselling and counselling psychology in the 21st century (pp. 15 – 41). Montreal, QC: McGill Queens University Press. Elias, K., & Drea, C. (2013). The co-curricular record: Enhancing a postsecondary education. College Quarterly, 16(1). Retrieved from http://collegequarterly.ca/2013-vol16-num01winter/elias-drea.html Gazzola, N. (2016). Is there a unique professional identity of counselling in Canada? In N. Gazzola, M. Buchanan, O. Sutherland, & S. Nuttgens (Eds.). Handbook of counseling and psychotherapy in Canada (pp. 1-12). Ottawa, ON: Canadian Counselling and Psychotherapy Association. Haché, L., Redekopp, D. E., & Jarvis, P. S. (2000) Blueprint for Life/Work Designs. New Brunswick, Canada: National Lifework Center. Life-Role Development Group. (2017). Career development practitioner training. Retrieved from http://www.life-role.com/careerDevelopment.htm#practitioner Mellouki, M., & Beauchemin, M. (1994). L’orientation scolaire et professionnelle au Québec. Émergence d’une profession, 1030-1960. Revue D’histoire de L’Amérique Française, 48, 213-240. Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development. (2009). OECD review of career guidance policies: Canada. Retrieved from http://www.oecd.org/canada/1963039.pdf Shea, R. (2010). Career and employment services. In D. Hardy-Cox & C. Strange (Eds.). Achieving student success: Effective student services in Canadian higher education (pp. 141-152). Montreal, QC: McGill-Queens University Press.

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Shepard, B. C., & Mani, P. S. (2014). Career development for students: Elementary to high school. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 35-51). Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Statistics Canada. (2016). Annual demographic estimates: Canada, provinces, and territories. Retrieved from http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/91-215-x/91-215-x2016000-eng.htm Van Norman, M., Sherpard, B. C., & Mani, P. (2014). Historical snapshots: The emergence of career development in Canada. In B. C. Shepard & P. S. Mani (Eds.). Career development practice in Canada: Perspectives, principles, and professionalism (pp. 1134). Toronto, ON: Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association. Walker, K. (2015). Improving the effectiveness of school counselling: Consensus, collaboration, and clinical supervision. Canadian Journal of Counselling and Psychotherapy, 49, 275295. Retrieved from http://cjc-rcc.ucalgary.ca/cjc/index.php/rcc/article/view/27

Author Bios Jessica Isenor, M.Ed., CCC, works as a university career counsellor and teaches sessional graduate courses in counseling. Jessica also sits on the executive of the Career Counsellors Chapter of the Canadian Counselling & Psychotherapy Association. Her research interests are in career counselling and professional identity development. Correspondence to [email protected] José F Domene, Ph.D., L.Psych., R.C.T., is a Professor and the Canada Research Chair in School to Work Transition at the University of New Brunswick in Canada. He teaches in the counselling program within the Faculty of Education. His areas of research interest include (a) relational contexts of career development, (b) the intersection of mental health and work, and (c) professional issues in counselling and counselling psychology in Canada. He is also a Fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association and serves on the Board of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association. Correspondence to [email protected]

Career Services and Professionals in Mainland China’s Educational Settings

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CHAPTER 4

Career Services and Professionals in Mainland China’s Educational Settings Leili Jin Tsinghua University

A country needs all kinds of career services to help citizens to adapt to political, economic and cultural changes and challenges and to serve the specific needs of specific groups (Pope, 2000). China is no exception. In 1916, Mr. Zhou Yichun, the then president of Tsinghua School (the predecessor of Tsinghua University), organized career development lectures and surveyed students’ preferences in choosing majors and universities overseas (Xie, 2009), marking the birth of China’s career guidance practice. From scholars’ reviews (Zhang, Hu, & Pope, 2002; Zhang, 2013; Zhou, Li, & Gao, 2016), it emerges that despite twists, turns and even interruptions (from 1966 to 1976), China’s career guidance practice still experienced unprecedented development fueled by rapid social progress. An orderly, efficient and sustained development of career guidance requires high-quality professional practitioners. To continuously improve the competence of practitioners, Chinese government agencies, institutions of higher education and commercial trainers have launched a variety of training and certification programs. This paper focuses on the current status of career services and practitioners in mainland China’s educational institutions. The elaboration consists of four aspects: the groups targeted for career services in Chinese educational institutions, the features of service providers, the current status of trainings and certifications for career practitioners, and an outlook on the future demand for such training.

Groups Targeted for Career Services in Chinese Educational Institutions

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In February 2017, the State Council issued the 13th Five-Year Plan (2016-2020) on Employment, an overarching guideline to promote employment. This plan requires strengthening the employment security of some specific groups, including college graduates, rural laborers, disadvantaged groups (older workers with employment difficulties, zero-employment families), re-employment workers due to overcapacity, demobilized army cadres, veterans, youth groups, disabled people, ethnic minority laborers, retired athletes and so on (State Council, 2017). The document attaches special importance to the employment of college graduates. College students are large in number and constitute an important source of new labor in cities and towns in China. In 2014, the number of Chinese college graduates exceeded 7 million (National Bureau of Statistics of China, 2015). According to the Ministry of Education (MOE), the number is expected to total 7.95 million in 2017. College students identified such salient stressors as competition in the labor market, the gap between expectations and realities, time constraints, and individual limitations, and reported a medium to high level of pressure (Li, Li, & Jin, 2011). It has been continuously observed that there is a high level of fearfulness about making the wrong career decisions among graduates. Effectively implementing career guidance, helping college students to achieve full and high-quality employment and career success is important not only to China’s economic development, but also to its social stability. In addition, Mainland China has been reforming its college entrance examination (also known as Gaokao) system. Providing career counseling services to high school students, especially on how to choose academic majors in the universities, has become a hot spot in the field (Zhou, Li, & Gao, 2016). In the current Gaokao system, at the end of the first year in senior high school, a student needs to choose one from the two sets of exam subjects: the arts (including Chinese, mathematics, English, history, geography and politics) and the sciences (including Chinese, mathematics, English, physics, chemistry and biology). After the Gaokao examination, students will apply to colleges and majors based on their scores. For a university application, the score matters disproportionately and personal choice based on personal characteristics is limited. Therefore, Chinese senior high schools place much emphasis on exam-oriented education and, in many schools, there is little, if any, career counseling. According to the State Council (2014), the new Gaokao system reform will be piloted in 2017 in two areas, Shanghai Municipality and Zhejiang Province, and then expanded by 2020 into other provinces and cities nationwide. The reform has two main points. First, the two-set examination system (the arts and sciences) will be terminated and the new exam set will include three compulsory subjects, namely, Chinese, mathematics and English, plus three other subjects, which will be decided according to the candidate’s will and the university’s admission requirements. For example, the candidates in Zhejiang Province will be able to choose any three subjects from history, geography, politics, physics, chemistry, biology and information


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technology. Second, the score of Gaokao will no longer be the only criteria for admission. Other factors, including the candidate’s usual academic performance, morality assessment, physical and mental health, hobbies and social practices will form a reference index of comprehensive quality assessment, which will be presented together with the score of Gaokao to the university for consideration. In terms of academic major choice, the new Gaokao system will be much more complicated, but will be an improvement over the current system. High school students will have more incentive to understand themselves, universities, majors and future careers. All of this will boost the development of career education and counseling in high schools.

Career Service Providers in Chinese Higher Educational Institutions Career education and guidance in high schools are still in an embryonic period and do not have well-defined professional staffing. In view of this, this paper focuses on the personnel composition, duties and qualification requirements of career practitioners in higher education institutions. The main body of career practitioners in colleges and universities consists of full-time staff working at career centers or entrepreneurship guidance centers. There are also morality and political guidance teachers on the team in charge of student affairs, which includes career guidance. According to the Ministry of Education (2012), the proportion of full-time career practitioners to fresh graduates should be at most 1:500. According to an estimated number of 7.95 million fresh graduates in 2017, at least 15,900 career practitioners will be needed (Ministry of Education, 2016). The demand would be even bigger if career services were extended to all students at universities. Currently, typical career services in higher education include: constructing and maintaining employment information websites, issuing recruitment information, organizing campus job fairs, coordinating internship and practice activities, conducting career and entrepreneurship seminars, workshops, courses, and providing individual and group counseling (Beijing Career Guidance Center for Graduates, 2015). Among these services, career and entrepreneurship courses hold a prominent position. In 2007, the Ministry of Education issued The Requirements on the Career Curriculum for College Students to promote all colleges and universities to set up career-related compulsory courses as public courses from 2008, and later the Requirements for Entrepreneurial Curriculum in Colleges and Universities as reference requirements for teaching relevant courses. In 2010, MOE emphasized in a document that colleges and universities should provide graduates with individual counseling and “gradually

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establish a career guidance service system based on the career courses and complemented with personalized career counseling” (Ministry of Education, 2010). Despite the absence of a uniform and necessary requirement for the qualification of career practitioners in Chinese colleges and universities, there are two national standards for reference. One is the National Standard on Professions: Career Guidance Professionals, which was launched in 1999 and revised in 2005 by the Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS), the predecessor of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) of the People’s Republic of China. According to the new standard (Ministry of Labor and Social Security, 2005), career guidance professionals are the people who advise job applicants on jobseeking, employment and career development and employers on recruitment and hiring. There are four ranks, namely, career practitioner (level IV), assistant career counselor (level III), career counselor (level II) and senior career counselor (level I). The new standard sets requirements in terms of three domains: work ethics, basic knowledge and professional skills. Work ethic and basic knowledge requirements are the same for all practitioners but their professional skill requirements vary from level to level (see Appendix A). The standard regards career planning and employment guidance as one of the nine professional competencies of college counselors. The standard grades college counselors into three levels. According to the standard, they shall know how to publish employment information, advise students on job-hunting skills, interpret employment policies, educate people on employment and career values, use and interpret professional career tests, provide individual and group counseling and guidance, analyze career development cases, guide start-ups, do career research and publish academic papers (Ministry of Education, 2014). The Certificate of Career Counselor (level II) is one of requirements to reach the highest level of professional evaluation (Ministry of Education, 2014). Although the above-mentioned references have been proposed for a decade, the educational backgrounds and qualities of existing practitioners are quite diversified. Only a few of them have received degrees in counseling and guidance. This is because in Chinese universities, career-counseling-related majors mainly belong to the departments of education, psychology or human resource. There are a small number of students and most them are master or doctoral students who are mainly engaged in academic research. Shadowing and internship as career counselors is not required as a part of their training programs. Because of this, an insufficient number of career service providers with relevant formal educational background are available. Those without sufficient training must rely on on-the-job training to acquire skills.

Credentials for Career Service Providers


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In China, there are numerous trainings and certifications related to career development, mainly covering career guidance and entrepreneurship guidance. According to different issuers, certificates can be divided into three categories: first, the occupational qualification certificate; second, professional training certificates issued by subordinate institutions of national ministries or commercial training entities; and third, professional competence certificates introduced from associations located abroad. Among the variety of certificates, this paper investigated 16 typical distinctive and popular programs whose information is available on the internet. Seven aspects of these certificates will be included: the certificate name, launch time, issuer, training provider, conditions of approval (application requirements, training hours, assessment and continuing education), training and skill acquisition, and the number of certificates issued.

The Occupational Qualification Certificate This program is stipulated by national laws, decrees and administrative regulations, promoted by the government and carried out by government-accredited institutions to qualify laborers. The certificates are accepted nationwide. The Occupational Qualification Certificate: Career Guidance Professionals. China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center (CETTIC) and the Occupational Skill Testing Authority (OSTA) of MOHRSS oversee related training and accreditation work and issue the certificates. To prepare qualified career guidance practitioners, the training and accreditation are planned according to the National Standards on Professions: Career Guidance Professionals (Ministry of Labor and Social Security, 2005) (e.g., Appendix B). The program was piloted in 1999 in Beijing and Dalian and extended nationwide in 2000 (Ministry of Labor and Social Security, 2005).

Professional Training Certificates Issued by Subordinate Institutions of National Ministries or Commercial Training Entities The Certificate for National College Teachers in Vocational Guidance and the Certificate for National College Teachers in Entrepreneurial Guidance. As an institution directed by the Ministry of Education, the National College Student Information Consultation and Vocational Guidance Center (NCSICVGC) has organized special training and certification work in the national colleges and universities since 2009. The NCSICVGC offers not only basic training to all practitioners but also advanced courses to core college counselors who then can play a guiding role in designing and teaching career or entrepreneurship courses, providing individual counseling, conducting career research. Appendix C introduces these two certificates. The Career Development Counselor Professional Competence Certificate. In 2013, the New Elite Development Program (NEDP) began to train career counselors and issue the

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vocational training certificate for career development counselor which was endorsed by CETTIC. In June 2016, the NEDP updated its training system, syllabus, and assessment standards, which have been reviewed and approved by the Institute of Labor Sciences of MOHRSS (e.g., Appendix D). The basic training focuses on the use of career theories and indigenous career tools. The intermediate and advanced trainings focus on career coaching and individual counseling skills. The NEDP now offers training and certification services and issues the career development counselor professional competence certificate nationwide (Li & Chen, 2016). Beisen Certificates for Career. Beisen Career Institute (BCI) is one of the earliest career development training institutions in mainland China and has made a great contribution to the industry. BCI has always been committed to not only developing and promoting its own training programs based on China’s conditions (e.g., Appendix E), but also introducing trainings and certifications from overseas professional institutions and associations (e.g., Appendix F). The majority of career service providers in China have benefited from BCI’s training services.

Professional Competence Certificates Introduced from Associations Located Abroad The GCDF Credential and the Board-Certified Coach for Career Credential. In 2005, BCI took the lead in collaborating with the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE) of the United States to promote in China the certification of Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF), which is based on The Career Development Facilitator (CDF) system of the National Career Development Association (NCDA) (see Appendix F). It was the first time for mainland China to introduce a professional training and certification system from the American Counseling Association, a big boost to the promotion of professional abilities of career counselors. In 2010, in order to promote the application of coaching-related techniques in career guidance, BCI further introduced BCC for Career (see Appendix F). Both projects were developed and localized under the leadership of foreign experts recommended by the CCE. The Professional Career Development Counselor (PCDC3) Certificate. In 2015, BCI collaborated with Taiwan Career Development and Counseling Association (TCDCA) to introduce the PCDC³ Certificate System (see Appendix F). It was the first collaboration with BCI and a Taiwanese career counseling association, and shared the common rights to training and credentialing with TCDCA. The Career Development Advisor Certificate. In 2011, the Psychological Assessment Company (PAC) in Taiwan contracted with NCDA to promote the CDF training programs of the NCDA in greater China. Based on the training framework of the CDF, the PAC localized the course contents and evaluation approaches and developed a career education system for the


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Chinese market. According to the system, trained practitioners can be divided into four levels, namely, Career Development Practitioner (CDP), Career Development Advisor (CDA), Career Development Instructor (CDI) and Career Development Master (CDM), and includes a new category, Career Development Leader (CDL) (see Appendix G). As its principle, trainers do not assess and assessors do not train. Therefore, PAC commissioned the Asian Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA) as the third party to assess independently the training process and results. The qualified trainees will receive a certificate jointly issued by NCDA and PAC. To meet the continuous learning needs of career services providers to keep themselves competitive, PAC provides continuing education for the certificated learners, by carrying out monthly, quarterly and annual personal supervision and introducing them to new theories and tools. KAB Facilitator Credential. In August 2005, the All China Youth Federation (ACYF) introduced the Know About Business (KAB) Entrepreneurship Education Program of the International Labor Organization (ILO). The program aims at improving college students' entrepreneurship and employability by teaching KAB entrepreneurship courses, founding KAB entrepreneurial clubs, and organizing entrepreneurship lectures. In 2006, the KAB (China) began to train the selected instructors and promoters of the entrepreneurship education program working in higher education. The KAB program (China) aimed to introduce the KAB as an elective or compulsory entrepreneurship course in over 2000 universities. Meanwhile, the program intended to train 80 key facilitators who can, in turn, prepare 5600 lecturer and assistant professors who will deliver the program to thousands of students every year. In 2008, the program commissioned China Youth Daily to establish the KAB National Promotion Office. The KAB certificates are issued by the ILO and the ACYF. Appendix H introduces this program.

A Projection of the Future Demand for Training Career Counselors in China With the development of China's economy, the improvement of people’s quality of life, and the increase of international exchanges, the Chinese people, especially senior human resource professionals represented by college graduates, are paying increasing attention to personal career planning and development. The demand for high quality and personalized career services is increasing, providing good opportunities for the development of the career counseling industry in China. Relevant departments of the central government have gradually standardized related competence requirements and professional qualifications. However, no certificates are currently required when career service providers are employed, particularly in educational settings. To acquire and improve professional competency, career service providers mainly rely on on-the-job

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training. The market is huge but the numerous training and certification programs vary greatly in quality. It is undeniable that for more than a decade many mainstream theories, tools and counseling models in the field of vocational psychology have been introduced into China from western countries represented by the United States and put into local practice. However, people in modern society are frequently updating their requirements for career development and career counselors are also demanding something new from career guidance training. The upgrades and changes consist in three aspects. First, career counselors in mainland China are more eager than ever to know the latest and most advanced theories and research achievements in vocational psychology. Theory-driven and evidence-based interventions are valued topics. Throughout the training content mentioned above, classic career theories such as Holland’s typology theory, developmental theory, the theory of work adjustment, cognitive information processing theory and social cognitive career theory are well known. However, the latest research progress of these theories, the development and revision of theory-based measurement tools, and the design and evaluation of relevant intervention programs are not widely taught. Post-modern career theories, tools and interventions, represented by career construction theory and career chaos theory, are seldom taught. Second, how can they provide precise services which cater to specific groups? In addition to learning career theories and counseling skills, practitioners need to understand the career development patterns, tasks, and challenges of specific groups and figure out indigenous intervention methods based on the Chinese culture. For example, they would like to know how to provide academic and career counseling to high school students in the context of the new Gaokao system; how to provide career counseling for students with entrepreneurial intentions; how to cater to specific groups, such as female students, disabled people, impoverished population and sexual minorities; and how to provide career counseling for international students in Chinese universities. In short, career service practitioners should not only meet the individual needs of diverse groups, but also consider how to better balance cross-cultural applicability and localization. Third, how can they use information technology and social media to provide career counseling? With the extensive use of information science and technology in daily life, career counselors also have begun to provide services through the Internet, mobile phones, social media. Big data collection and analysis plays an important role in career guidance. For example, some practitioners have uploaded massive open online courses (MOOC) in career planning and entrepreneurship guidance on the Internet and provide counseling services on social networking


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platforms such as WeChat and QQ. Kinds of ethical rules which need to be followed in social media-based career counseling and ways to handle the big data generated by learners’ behavior are among the very new topics. The career counseling training industry is becoming increasingly mature. Career service providers are more and more recognizing the importance of trainers on the training quality and thus care much about who trains them rather than whether they can get a certificate. Those professional trainers who have academic degrees in occupational psychology, understand Chinese culture, and boast rich practical experience are welcomed and sought after. Regarding certification, the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security should enhance its leadership and continue promoting and upgrading the qualification certificate for career counselors.

References Beijing Career Guidance Center for Graduates. (2015). First destinations of college graduates in Beijing. Unpublished manuscript. Li, H., & Chen, S. (2016). China launches its first career planner professional certificates. Occupation, 13, 51. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/zl0VTa Li, S., Li, H., & Jin, L. (2011). The analysis of college students’ employment stressors. Tsinghua Journal of Education, 32(2), 71-76. doi:10.14138/j.1001-4519.2011.02.013 Pope, M. (2000). A brief history of career counseling in the United States. The Career Development Quarterly, 48, 194-211. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2000.tb00286.x The Ministry of Education. (2007). Notice of the Ministry of Education on issuing the requirements on the career curriculum for college students. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/s78/A08/moe_745/tnull_11260.html The Ministry of Education. (2010). Notice of the Ministry of Education on doing a good job of the employment of college graduates in 2011. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/srcsite/A15/s3265/201011/t20101115_111911.html The Ministry of Education. (2012). Notice of the Ministry of Education on issuing the requirements for entrepreneurial curriculum in colleges and universities. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.moe.edu.cn/srcsite/A08/s5672/201208/t20120801_140455.html The Ministry of Education. (2014). Notice of the Ministry of Education on issuing the professional competency standards for college counselors. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/xinwen/2014-04/14/content_2658616.htm

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The Ministry of Education. (2016). A video conference on the employment and entrepreneurship work of national college graduates 2017. Retrieved from http://www.moe.gov.cn/jyb_xwfb/gzdt_gzdt/moe_1485/201611/t20161130_290526.html The Ministry of Labor and Social Security. (2005). The national standard on professions: Career guidance professionals. Beijing China: Labor and Social Security Press. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/2IzVwE The National Bureau of Statistics of China. (2015). China statistical yearbook (2015). Beijing, China: China Statistics Press. Retrieved from http://www.stats.gov.cn/tjsj/ndsj/2015/indexch.htm The State Council. (2014) Opinions of the state council on deepening the examination enrollment system reform. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/201409/04/content_9065.htm The State Council. (2017). Notice of the state council on printing and distributing the 13th fiveyear plan (2016-2020) on employment. Beijing, China. Retrieved from http://www.gov.cn/zhengce/content/2017-02/06/content_5165797.htm Xie, C. (2009). Zhuang Zexuan and modern vocational guidance movement. Vocational and Technical Education, 59(3), 73-77. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/8kn8Ke Zhang, W., Hu, X., & Pope, M. (2002). The evolution of career guidance and counseling in the People’s Republic of China. The Career Development Quarterly, 50, 226-235. doi: 10.1002/j.2161-0045.2002.tb00898.x Zhang, X. (2013). Direction and path of career guidance in China. China Employment, 1, 20-24. Retrieved from http://www.cnki.net/KCMS Zhou, X., Li, X., & Gao, Y. (2016). Career guidance and counseling in Shanghai, China: 1977 to 2015. The Career Development Quarterly, 64, 203-215. doi:10.1002/cdq.12055

Author Bio Leili Jin, Ph.D., is a vocational psychologist in the Career Development Center of Tsinghua University and teaches Career Planning and Vocational Psychology to undergraduates. She obtained her Ph.D. from the Faculty of Education, at the University of Hong Kong. She was a member of the National Career Development Association, USA. Her current interests include the contributions of university experiences to career-related outcomes among Chinese university students, career assessment, and professional identity among Chinese career practitioners. Correspondence to: [email protected]


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Appendices Appendix A Table 4.1. Domains and Dimensions of Requirements Described by the National Standards on Professions: Career Guidance Professionals Domains Work ethic Basic knowledge

Dimensions Employment and career development

Laws and regulations

Subdimensions Employment and employment policy Labor market and employment services Occupational guidance and providing career services for diverse populations Occupations and career development Job analysis and career competency Labor Law and the Law of Vocational Education Related knowledge, including labor market regulations, career guidance, labor relations and equity protection regulations, social insurance regulations and employment regulations

Career Practitioner

Assistant Career Counselor

The same requirements for all levels.

Career Counselor

Senior Career Counselor

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for persons with disabilities Career counseling

Career assessment

Career design

Knowledge and skills of psychological counseling Knowledge and skills of career counseling Principles, procedures and tools of career assessment Meaning and methods of career design

Counseling and Guidance

In-take Interview

Professional skills

Information Counseling

Identify the client's purpose, categorize the problem, introduce the service procedure, guide the client to do registration and establish an information archive Introduce services and contact information, job search and recruitment information and procedures to clients and provide them with labor and social security counseling

Be able to assist clients above certain volume and workload and be able to assist high-level professionals

Design in-take interview procedures for job seekers or employers, design career guidance work procedures and be able to solve problems and emergencies in reception tasks

Provide clients with employment policy counseling and job descriptions, sort consultation records and establish archives

Provide clients with recruitment information and demonstrate the whole process of consultation to junior career counselors and provide information to groups

Explain the attendance procedure and contents to junior career counselors and carry out business negotiations according to specific needs

Design training courses for junior career counselors and organize those trainings; organize and improve information consulting tasks


Diagnosis

Clarify the difficulties of job seekers (for example, undergraduates) and help them find solutions

Career decisionmaking guidance

Guide job seekers' career values, jobseeking paths and methods

Provide career courses, conducting training and counseling for further studies and entrepreneurship

Employment guidance

Recruiting guidance

Figure out how to approach the career counseling of different job seekers; set counseling stages and identify specific goals in each stage; provide group counseling; deal with counseling failures; study typical cases

Provide employers with daily recruitment and follow-up services; assist employers to choose the recruitment method; guide employers to finish procedures of recruitment registration, labor

Provide employers with recommendations on employment methods, regulations and labor relations; guide employers to carry out activities for employees.

61 Diagnose senior personnel's career development; design and organize training programs for junior career counselors; categorize special groups' problems and carry out diagnosis.

Mobilize teachers to do career guidance in school; do career guidance report for vocational college and vocational school graduates; analyze career development cases and organize trainings; write career guidance papers; guide entrepreneurs to develop business plans. Design employment and interview plans for employers; organize junior career counselors to carry out employment guidance training; survey employees'

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contracts preparation and social insurance payment; offer recommendations of remuneration. Information collection and processing

Collecting career information

Entering and sorting career information

Releasing career information and collecting feedbacks

Designing and implementing data collection

career guidance needs and assist employees accordingly.

Contact employers to get employment information; find channels and access to employment information and do screening tasks Enter, review, categorize and sort employment information Use Internet technology to provide employment information to employees and employers; collect feedbacks

Be able to understand statistics statements and collection programs of employment information; and do interviews, surveys and field studies accordingly

Be able to design information reports, implement questionnaires, use Internet and public media to collect employment information, maintain a stable customer relationship and guide junior career counselors to carry out above tasks

Design employment information index system; design and implement employment information collection plan; design and implement questionnaires and offer systematic training for other career counselors.


Screen and sort employment information and make statistics chart

Organizing and analyzing career information

Releasing information

Conducting standardized career tests and assessment

Learn to use professional competence evaluation system; enter and sort evaluation data

Aiding in conducting interviews and other assessments

Do ancillary works including interview preparation, recording, file sorting

Design overall plans to sort and analyze employment information; train junior career counselors in this regard

Publish employment information in accordance with prescribed procedures; establish archives accordingly

Guide others to do advertising planning; establish information dissemination system

Review advertising planning, design media programs and offer systematic training for others; evaluate the results of information dissemination

Use specific evaluation systems to measure individual professional competence; analyze relevant results; establish archives

Explain the principle, structure and operation of standardized test to junior career counselors; interpret occupational evaluation data and make recommendations for diagnosis; explain evaluation techniques to junior career counselors

Make and implement training plans for junior career counselors to improve their evaluation capabilities, implement better evaluation and reduce errors in scoring; design and implement trainings

Interview employees, sort interview results and create a report

Interview highcaliber employees; implement situational assessments; perform remote interviews

Career Assessment

Conducting interviews and other assessments

Design procedures to enter, review and sort employment information; analyze indicators of employment information and make qualitative analysis

63

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In accordance to job descriptions and evaluation goals, determine the dimensions, measures of career assessment; and design evaluation plans

Selecting career assessments

Analyzing career preferences

Identify career expectations and development needs of clients and explain the content and role of career design

Designing training programs

Provide information for training project design; recommend training programs for job seekers

Clarify the needs of job-seekers and determine their rationality; clarify the main factors affecting their career development; do literature review accordingly

Career Design

Provide advice on designing shortterm training courses; collect feedback on the effectiveness of training project design

Analyze career orientation, write an analysis report; explain to junior career counselors how to do analysis; help clients to explore the possibility of career development; help clients to make wise career choices; write a report on career development Determine the overall objectives of the training program; set the content and methods of training programs; conduct training project design evaluation; teach junior counselors how to design training projects; collect and analyze the sources of intermediate and high-level

Develop targeted evaluation methods and carry them out; design and implement interviews and situational assessment programs; compile evaluation manuals; evaluate and revise evaluation programs and monitor the implementation Introduce and teach the principles and methods of career preference analysis; evaluate the analytic approaches of career preference and provide suggestions and research

Introduce and teach the principles and methods of training project design and provide suggestions and supervise the training project design process


65

professionals and the results of training certification and employment and make recommendations on the optimization of training projects

Designing employment plans

Coordinating career fairs

Arrange interviews between job seekers and employers and do preparation work

Conducting training

Find and recommend vocational training for job seekers; collect training feedbacks

Implementation Assistance

Identify employment needs and collect feedback on the professional qualification design for a certain position

Analyze posted requirements, determine employment standards and do an employment plan; evaluate the whole process

Organize smallscale recruitment and negotiation activities; collect cross-regional labor mobility information to seek cooperation opportunities; collect and analyze the results of exchange of opinions between job seekers and employers.

Organize or help organize intermediate and high-level recruitment activities; manage and arrange largescale recruitment fairs; plan and implement online recruitment; organize followup services and return visits.

Analyze job posts, design employment plans and train junior career counselors; provide advice for improvement and supervise the employment design process Organize crossregional labor exchange and cooperation; collect and analyze supply and demand information and evaluate supply and demand exchange services; plan and carry out employer membership services; design plans to discover potential jobs.

66


One-Stop Services

Follow-up Services

Policy Advice

Employment Assistance

Assist the unemployed to apply for the Reemployment Preferential Certificate and provide annual review service; assist laidoff workers and their enterprises to apply for subsidies; assist them to apply for reemployment small loans. Provide clients with follow-up services and sort related results. Provide policy advice on labor dispatch, public welfare organization, targeted training, vocational skills certification and start-up training small loans; assist informal employment organizations to do registration In accordance with relevant policies, guide employers to employ vulnerable groups; guide employers and communities to provide protective settlement to employees with


67

special difficulties; deal with common labor disputes; promote schools and communities to carry out career guidance activities.

Career Guidance Promotion

Develop plans for employment assistance programs; develop plans to promote career guidance; organize community and school career guidance evaluation; carry out career research and write papers

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Appendix B Table 4.2. Overview of the Occupational Qualification Certificate: Career Guidance Professionals Level IV: Career Practitioner

Launch time Certificate issuers

1999 China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center (CETTIC) and the Occupational Skill Testing Authority (OSTA) of the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) The CETTIC, the OSTA of the MOHRSS and their subordinate occupational skill testing centers at provincial, municipal and regional levels. Having Having Having continuously Having continuously continuously continuously engaged in related work engaged in related work engaged in engaged in for more than 5 years for more than 7 years and related work for related work for and having at least one having at least two papers more than 1 more than 3 paper published; OR published in national years; OR having continuously journals; OR year；OR holding a engaged in related work having continuously holding a junior bachelor’s for more than 3 years, engaged in related work college degree degree (or an holding a bachelor’s for more than 2 years, (or an equivalent equivalent degree (or an equivalent holding a doctoral degree education level) education level); education level) and (or an equivalent OR having at least one education level) and one year after paper published; OR having at least two papers qualifying as a having continuously published in national practitioner engaged in related work journals; OR for more than 3 years, three years after holding a master’s qualifying as a counselor degree (or an equivalent and having at least two education level) and papers published in having at least two national journals; OR papers published; OR making special two years after contributions (provincial qualifying as an and ministerial level) to assistant counselor and the field of career having at least one guidance paper published 300 hours 300 hours 200 hours Teaching methods: inTeaching methods: inTeaching methods: in-person person learning and person learning and work learning and work practice work practice practice a. professional ethics and theoretical a. professional ethics and theoretical assessment assessment b. case study (plus thesis writing and defense for b. case study senior counselor candidates) c. comprehensive evaluation of usually work performance According to the National Standard on Professions: Career Guidance Professionals (MOLSS, 2005), the training includes the following three aspects: professional ethics, basic knowledge and professional skills. 43330 (Zhang, 2013)

Training organizers Conditions of approval

Application requirements

Training

Examination

Training Contents

Certificates issued (by 2012)

Level III: Assistant Career Counselor

Level II: Career Counselor

Level I: Senior Career Counselor

Qualification level


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Appendix C Table 4.3. Overview of Certificates of NCSICVGC Qualification level

Certificate for National College Teachers in Vocational Guidance Basic level

Launch time Training organizer and certificate issuer Condit Applica ions of tion approv require al ments

Trainin g Examin ation

Intermediate level

2009

Advanced level the specialty of career courses 2013

the specialty of career counseling

Certificate for National College Teachers in Entrepreneurial Guidance 2012

The National College Student Information Consultation and Vocational Guidance Center (NCSICVGC) Holding a junior college degree and having engaged in related work for more than 1 year; OR holding a bachelor’s degree or above and being ready to engage in related work.

Holding a bachelor’s degree and having engaged in related work for more than 3 years; OR holding a master’s degree or above and having engaged in related work for more than 2 years.

14 hours in-person learning Closed-book

28 hours in-person learning a. Two quizzes b. Choose one from case study report, course design and research paper

Holding a bachelor’s degree or above; AND having participated in the National College Teachers in Vocational Guidance Training Programs (or equivalents) and qualified at the intermediate level; AND having engaged in related work for more than 7 years, holding key positions in career development and employment guidance, having taught career guidance courses more than one semester; AND having at least one paper published in last three years. 32 hours in-person learning

Holding a bachelor’s degree or above; AND having participated in the National College Teachers in Vocational Guidance Training Programs (or equivalents) and qualified at the intermediate level; AND having engaged in related work for more than 7 years, holding key positions in career development and employment guidance, having taught career guidance courses more than one semester or offered career counseling more than 30 hours; AND having at least one paper published in last three years.

Training feedback report Course design report

Training feedback report Case study report

Career and entrepreneurship counselors, core teachers of entrepreneurship courses

28 hours in-person learning Open Q&A Group business plan defense

70


Training Contents

Basic theory on career development, career development case study and guidance activity design.

Certificates issued (September 2016)

9000

Career guidance system development, career development theory, career counseling, career assessment application, employment guidance, and career course teaching.

Career guidance curriculum design, development and evaluation; curriculum design based on Social Cognitive Career Theory and Cognitive Information Processing Theory, and decision-making theory; teaching simulation exercises, and career research.

Relationship, structure and ethics in career counseling, basic individual counseling skills, information collection and career assessment, career problem solving, complete counseling case simulation exercises, and career research.

Study of entrepreneurship education, entrepreneurial guidance activity design, entrepreneurial project selection, entrepreneurial team establishment and management, market positioning and promotion, entrepreneurial resources integration and utilization, and venture project planning and defense. 6000


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Appendix D Table 4.4. Overview of the Professional Certificates of NEDP Certificate level

Launch time

Career Development Counselors Professional Competence Certificate (the formerly Vocational training certificate of Career Development Counselor) Basic Intermediate Advanced Launched in 2013, updated in June 2016

Training organizer and certificate issuer

The New Elite Development Program（NEDP）

Conditions of approval


Holding a bachelor’s degree, having worked for more than 1 year; OR holding a junior college degree, having worked for more than 2 years; OR having worked for more than 4 years

Training

100 hours in total 1. In-person learning: 18 hours 2. Practice exercises: 82 hours

Examination

Peer review or expert review: 1. theoretical knowledge examination 2. introducing the concept of career to five people and introducing the utility of career tools 3. having a small sharing session about career development and career tools 4. submitting a counseling report

Holding a bachelor’s degree, having worked for more than 3 years and practiced career counseling over 200 hours; OR holding a junior college degree, having worked for more than 4 years and practiced career counseling over 200 hours; OR having worked for more than 7 years and practiced career counseling over 200 hours. 200 hours in total 1. In-person learning: 18 hours 2. Practice exercises: 182 hours

Holding a bachelor’s degree, having worked for more than 6 years and practiced career counseling over 200 hours; OR holding a junior college degree, having worked for more than 8 years and practiced career counseling over 200 hours; OR having worked for more than 10 years and practiced career counseling over 500 hours

Peer review or expert review: 1. theoretical knowledge examination 2. forming a group with another learner, coaching each other, submitting a counseling report, participating in online supervision 3. coaching a customer for 300 RMB, submitting a counseling report, and participating in online supervision

Peer review or expert review: 1. theoretical knowledge examination 2. sharing career related topics three times 3. completing 6-15 individual counseling sessions, submitting reports, and participating in online supervision 4. submitting a research report on career development and passing the defense

400 hours in total 1. In-person learning: 30 hours 2. Online learning: 18 hours 3. Practice exercises: 252 hours

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Training Contents

1. basic career-related concepts and theories 2. formal and informal assessment 3. career information collection and analysis 4. diagnosis and identification of common career problems, intervention

Certificates issued (by June, 2016)

8271 (for VTCCDC)

1. core coaching techniques 2. providing one-on-one coaching and coaching training for corporate clients

1. processes and ethics of oneon-one career coaching in corporations 2. core techniques and skills of individual career counseling 3. identifying problems of career decision making, career development and role balance, and using tools to conduct indepth intervention 4. forming one’s own counseling style


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Appendix E Table 4.5. Overview of the Certificates of Beisen Career Institute Certificate name

Career Assessment Training

Launch time

2004

Training the Trainer to Train: Career Planning Instruction in Higher Education 2007

Training the Group Trainer to Train: Counseling Job Searching Training Instruction in Higher Education

Entrepreneurship- Beisen Career Innovation Facilitator Education Training

2014

2012

2015

Experienced in or prepared for entrepreneurial education in colleges and universities

Experienced in or prepared for career counseling in colleges, universities or high schools. 30 hours inperson leaning

2011

Training organizer and Beisen Career Institute (BCI) certificate issuer Conditions Application Experienced in or prepared for career counseling in colleges of requirements and universities approval

Training

21hours in-person leaning

18 hours in-person leaning Examination Class Class Class evaluation Class evaluation evaluation Employment evaluation Evaluation Career guidance course Group report planning design counseling course design activities Training contents Basic Basic Employers' Career knowledge knowledge of requirements, development of career career core theory, group planning planning, competitiveness, counseling and career knowing job-hunting techniques and assessment, yourself, skills skills, case study exploring the design and based on world of implementation the word, of group application decisioncounseling. of career making and assessment planning, job search, career development.

21 hours inperson leaning

Certificates issued (October 2016)

3024

2382

22001

6627

1738

Class evaluation Entrepreneurship course design

Entrepreneurship and life development, entrepreneur and start-up team, entrepreneurial process, entrepreneurial planning, entrepreneurship course design

Class evaluation Theoretical examination Case report Career development theory; intake interview, communication and helping skills, career environment exploration, decisionmaking and action, legal and moral norms, case study 429 people trained, 40 certificates issued

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Appendix F Table 4.6. Overview of the Certificates Introduced by Beisen Career Institute Certificate name and level

Global Career Development Facilitator Credential

Board Certified Coach for Career

Professional Career Development Counselor³ Certificate

（BCC for Career）

Level I

Level II

Level III

Credential Launch time

2005

Certificate issuer

The Center for Credentialing and Education of the USA Beisen Career Institute

Trainer organizer Conditions of approval


No special requirements

Training

120 hours in-person learning

Examinations

class reviews, written examinations and individual case reports

2010

Hold a bachelor’s degree or above and have 1-2 years of experience in related fields 40 hours in-person learning

class reviews, written examinations and individual case reports

2015 Taiwan Career Development & Counseling Association（TCDCA） Beisen Career Institute Have initial Level-I career guidance certificate experience holders or practitioners with similar qualifications 49 hours 35 hours in-person in-person learning learning

Class evaluation, learning reports, case reports and interviews

Class evaluation, learning reports, supervision reports, case reports and interviews

Level-II certificate holders or practitioners with similar qualifications For a period of one year 100 hours of individual counseling about 73 hours of individual and group supervision To complete a supervised individual counseling To complete a supervised group counseling

Career Services and Professionals in Mainland China’s Educational Settings Training contents

Certificated issued (October 2016)

12 core skills: helping skills, labor market information and resources, assessment, diverse populations, ethical and legal issues, career development models, employability skills, training clients and peers, program management and implementation, promotion and public relations, technology, consultation 10 training modules: using your helping skill with diverse populations, the ethics of career development facilitators, career development theory and its application, developing helping relationships, the role of assessment in career planning, the role of information in career planning, computers and career planning, job-seeking and employability skills, working with groups, designing and implementing career guidance services, case study. 3854

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6 core competence modules: introduction of coaching, beliefs and guidelines of coaching, coaching relationships, coaching skills, goal setting and action techniques as well as ethics

Helping relationships and techniques, career theory and practical applications, application of psychological assessment in career guidance (qualitative and quantitative), local occupational environment, career counseling ethics, career decisionmaking process and daily practice of career counseling in campus and business.

1006

267 people trained, 29 certificates issued.

Basic and frontier career theories Career interventions

Individual and group counseling skills

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Appendix G Table 4.7. Introduction of the Career Development Advisor Certificate (China) Certificate Name

Career Development Practitioner, CDP

Launch time

2012

Certificate issuer

National Career Development Association of the USA and Psychological Assessment Company (PAC) PAC Asia-Pacific Career Development Association Hold a Hold a Hold a 1. Hold CDA 1. Hold CDA and bachelor’s bachelor’s bachelor’s certificate CDI certificates degree or degree or degree or 2. A written 2. A written above (or an above (or an above and a review review equivalent management equivalent a. Career a. Career education position, education development development level) and be level), have being ready to expertise: expertise: interested in do career experience or  hold a  hold a career counseling, knowledge in master’s or master or education. education or career doctoral doctoral research education degree in degree in related work counseling, counseling, have studies have studied in colleges or high schools career career development development theory and theory and career career assessment, assessment, have related have related internship; internship; OR OR  hold a  hold a master’s or master’s or doctoral doctoral degree in degree in psychology, psychology, education or education or human human resources, resources, have studied have studied career career development development theory, have theory, have related related internship; internship; b. Training b. Training expertise: expertise:  At least 7  At least 5 years of years of experience in experience in

Training organizer Supervisor Conditions Application of requirements approval

Career Development Advisor, CDA

Career Development Instructor, CDI

Career Development Master, CDM

Career Development Leadership, CDP






c.

providing career services (guiding individuals or teams in career planning and job application), OR At least 3 years of experience in teaching career counseling, career development or other related courses; OR At least 1 year of experience in providing teacher training services for schools, enterprises or governments Expert review, group interview (one-on-five)





c.

77 providing career services (guiding individuals or teams in career planning and job application), OR At least 5 years of experience in teaching career counseling, career development or other related courses; OR At least 3 years of experience in providing teacher training services for schools, enterprises or governments One-on-one interview (interviewees shall be able to list counselor's 12 functions and do a 30-minute trial training)

78


Training

18 hours In-person learning

Examination

1. An assessment interpretation report (interest, ability and values); OR 2. A teaching video; OR 3. A training experience report

120 hours in total in-person learning: 6080 hours； Counseling and supervision practice with written records, 3040 hours: 1. coach other learners and one group supervision 2. two real counseling and two individual supervision cases 3. one group supervision case 1. A complete counseling case and supervision record 2. A real counseling case report and reflection (6000 characters)




1. A training course design 2. A 40-minute teaching video 3. An expert review

1. Two records of supervising individual counselors and 1 record of coaching CDI to improve teaching quality 2. Three expert reviews

An overall plan of implementing the career education program


Training Contents

1. to understand the concept and importance of career planning; 2. to explore oneself based on the narrative paradigm; 3. to learn Holland’s theory, to understand and use career interest inventories; 4. to design and teach courses or activities on career interest exploration

Certificates issued (October 2016)

371

1. to learn related knowledge, such as helping relationship establishment and techniques, professional ethics, career theory, career evaluation, career information, computer aided system and career planning, job and employment skill development, career group counseling and career design; 2. to carry out career activities; 3. to teach career courses; 4. to use and interpret career tests; 5. to do oneon-one counseling 217

1. to review the CDA-related knowledge, such as the career theory, helping relationship, multiculturalism, ethical principles, assessment tools, group dynamics design and supervision; 2. to learn how to design career courses and counseling activities in universities or high schools; 3. to learn and master the CDA training standards; 4. to practice public speech and to make sure consistent quality in future training

1. to learn individual or group supervision practice; 2. to learn the CDI training standards and skills; 3. to learn how to prepare and review career development teaching materials

75

4

79 1. to understand career planning under the new Gaokao system; 2. to build a team of career service professionals; 3. to learn experiences and lessons of benchmarking schools in career guidance

80


Appendix H Table 4.8. Introduction of the KAB Facilitator Credentials Certificate name and level

KAB Facilitator Credentials Facilitator

Launch time Certificate issuer Training organizer Conditions of approval

The KAB National Promotion Office under China Youth Daily Teach KAB Entrepreneurship Education Courses

1. Hold the certificate of facilitator 2. Have practiced two times as internship for facilitator training

Training

35 hours, 5 days in-person learning


Examination

Trial assessment

Trial assessment

1. to know the background and development of the KAB program (China) 2. to learn the seven modules of KAB courses (how to become an entrepreneur, identify opportunities, set up new businesses, run new businesses, do mobile Internet business, start a social undertaking and make a business plan) 3. to learn principles and skills about training, such as adult learning principles, participatory teaching methods and sand play. About 9000

In addition to the requirements for facilitators, the candidates will be required to further improve their teaching skills in order to do demonstration courses for KAB College Students’ Entrepreneurship

Certificated issued (by 2016)

National Key Facilitator

Introduced in 2005, began in 2006. The Beijing Office of the International Labor Organization, the AllChina Youth Federation, the National Federation of Students


Training Content

Key Facilitator

About 20

1. Hold the certificate of key facilitator 2. Offer over 4 trainings to facilitators in one year 70 hours, 10 days in-person learning Trial assessment To learn how to train KAB facilitators and key facilitators nationwide

About 20

Regional Key Facilitator The International Labor Organization The International Labor Organization The founder of KAB Entrepreneurship Courses in a region


To learn how to train KAB facilitators, key facilitators and national key facilitators

3

Status of Career Services and Credentialing in Colombia from 2010 to 2016

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CHAPTER 5

The Status of Career Services and Credentialing in Colombia from 2010 to 2016 Amilkar A. Brunal Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas

In Colombia, the academic title of career counselor does not exist; however, these functions are within the general position of school counselor under the direction of the National Ministry of Education and assigned to educational institutions by regional education secretariats. The present study about the current situation of the process of certification and accreditation of the professional school counselors in the Republic of Colombia is framed by the current state of government in Columbia. Columbia is a country located in the northwestern region of South America and is a democratic state, presided over by a president. It is politically organized among 32 departments, with the capital district being Bogota (Columbia, n.d.). The centralist system of government of the country determines, to a large extent, the general socio-economic development and the prevalence of counselors, who are concentrated in large cities and mainly in the capital of the republic. Currently, in Bogota, there are approximately 1,200 school counselors governed under two educational charters, Charter 2277 of 1979 and Charter 1278 of 2002. In 2015, 1,015 counselors were appointed in the different regions of the country, reaching a staffing plan of approximately 2,200 school counselors. In private schools, the role of school counselor is mainly assumed by psychologists and educational psychologists, who do not necessarily frame their functions in the category of career services or vocational guidance. With provisional contracts that include administrative or mixed (nonteaching) duties in many cases, it is even more difficult to quantify these professionals accurately. The Political Constitution of Colombia of 1992 established the National Ministry of Education and entrusts it with the following objective, “formulate the national education policy and establish the qualitative criteria and technical parameters that contribute to the improvement

82


of quality” (Decree 88 of 2000, Article 3). In relation to the state of certification and accreditation of school counselors in Colombia, it is necessary to make a series of clarifications, including a general description of the education system in the country.

Educational System in Colombia Education in Colombia is structured in three different levels: pre-school education, primary education, which includes primary and secondary cycles, middle education, and higher education. 

Preschool: The preschool level comprises the grades of pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and transition, and serves children from three to five years of age.



Primary: Primary is composed of two cycles: the primary includes grades from first to fifth, and the secondary level includes grades sixth through ninth.



Middle: Middle education comprises the 10th and 11th grades. Some international schools offer 12th grade. (National Ministry of Education, n.d.a)

Within this organization, all the primary level grades are considered mandatory. Although each of the 32 departments has their own Secretary of Education, all of them are governed by the same legal parameters of national character framed in the General Education Act of 1994. In 1999 the number of students enrolled in pre-school, primary and secondary education increased to 11.2 million students; however, in 2010 the total enrollment decreased to 10.7 million, even though the total country population in 2013 was 47,121,000 (Barrera, 2014). Resolution No. 1084 of 1974 established the ratio of school counselors to students at 1:250. For this school population (10.7 million students), the number of counselors would be expected to be 42,800 school counselors. However, in reality the position does not exist in rural or urban schools. Until 2010, there were 877 professionals reported in territories other than the capital for a general population of 42,000,000 inhabitants. The legal requirement is not even met in Bogotá, because for a school population of approximately 900,000 students, there are only about 1,200 counselors, which is a ratio of 1:750.

Origins of Guidance Services in Colombia Mosquera (2013) reports that, in November 1954, six institutes of Psychology Studies and Professional Guidance were created, because students were failing in their chosen professions. Also, the emergence of modern techniques for full utilization of individual capacities and the demand for staffing to guide young people in the choice of their activities led to the creation of


83

these institutes. Ultimately, the National Ministry of Education created an office charged with organizing these six institutes. By 1956, Decree No. 2347 established positions to attend to the operation of the new office (Mosquera, 2013). However, Gonzalez (2013) relays that, school counseling is a fifteen-year-old lady, who according to her birth record was not born in 1974, as some heirs proclaim. Its origins occurred in 1954, and from then on passed through childhood and adolescence, arriving at the 22nd of January of 1974 when the state recognized the “Guidance and School Counseling Service.” (para. 1) Borja (2015) elaborates on the clinical character of the charge given to this body. The National Ministry of Education created the Guidance and School Counseling Service for the country's educational establishments, considering it to be the most appropriate means to carry out the primary prevention of mental illness, emotional disturbances and psychosomatic disturbances that, at that time, reached high rates. This characterization asserts that body was created more with clinical interests than educational, which caused the hiring of psychologist, among other professionals such as language and occupational therapists, who, until 1994, worked in Diagnostic and Treatment Centers. The Bogota council added functions of career services to the functions previously specified. Interdisciplinary school guidance teams are expected to support schools and communities in coexistence, peaceful solution of conflicts, and career services.

Job Functions In September 2010, the National Civil Service Commission was called upon to hold an open competition, based on merit, to fill vacancies for school counselors in public schools with people certified in education. The following functions of the counselor were defined:



School counselors are responsible for professional tasks that, within the framework of the Institutional Educational Project, include the diagnosis, planning, execution and evaluation of student guidance, leading to the full development of the student's personality;



Creating a culture in which scientific and technical knowledge can be achieved and ethical, aesthetic, moral, citizen values and respect for diversity and individual differences are formed in order to prepare students for useful activity which furthers the human and socioeconomic development of the country;



It is the responsibility of school counselors to fulfill functions aimed at promoting the balanced and harmonious development of the students' abilities, decision-making abilities, and the acquisition of knowledge;



Special activities include complementary non-teaching curricular work, based on the interests of the community, to assist parents and students in updating

84


teaching methods, research on educational matters, meetings with teachers, and other educational, formative, cultural and sports activities; and 

Within the framework of the Institutional Educational Project in public schools, engage in activities sponsored by agencies or institutions in related sectors that have a direct or indirect impact on the team, efficient time management, accountability, conflict and problem solving, communication, negotiation and participation skills. (National Commission of the Civil Service, 2010)

The call made in 2010 specified the preparation requirements for the position as people licensed in counseling, psychology and education, educational psychology or possessing postgraduate degrees in school counseling, educational counseling, educational psychology, or other related titles. Professionals with a degree in psychology, educational psychology, social work, occupational therapy or sociology or with postgraduate studies in school guidance were also eligible to apply. The 1,500 selected counselors were added to the 877 counselors who were currently developing guidance functions in 57 public schools, which meant a total of 1,892 guidance teachers throughout the country (National Ministry of Education, 2010). At the discretion of some school administrators, all kinds of administrative functions were also assigned, such as supervision of school feeding services and school routes, which literally suffocated the job and decreased the quality of the service. Also, in the bio-psychosocial care area, there are about 30 specific topics which must be monitored with different methodologies, instruments and emphases such as the Biopsychosocial Risk Map (Brunal, 2012). This monitoring requires a large part of the work time in these positions. Vocational guidance is only one of the many functions that school counselors working at the levels of preschool, primary and secondary levels assume in public and private schools.

Guidance Counselor Competencies The competencies of guidance or counselor teachers are to design methodological strategies that promote the integral conception of the human person. That includes the development of the personality, the complex process of the construction of knowledge, the formation of interests, motivations and expectations, decision-making, and the development of evaluation processes (National Commission of the Civil Service, 2010). In this sense, the guidance teacher is a fundamental part of the school, whose role is centered on the establishment of plans and programs articulated in the Institutional Educational Plan (IEP). The IEP guides strategies and activities aimed at developing behaviors, skills, values, and attitudes in the educational community. The IEP guides the design of explanatory models of human behavior that contribute to the complex training process. Types of competencies:




Disciplinary: Set of knowledge and skills related to the area of specific performance of the teacher or teacher-principal;



Educational: A set of knowledge and skills of the teacher or teacher-principal, to formulate, develop and evaluate teaching and learning processes in educational institutions; and



Behavioral: Set of personal characteristics that favor the performance of the functions of teaching and educational management.

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The State of School Guidance The Transitional Orientation in the Process of Curricular Reorganization by Cycles The concept of transition between levels of education related to career choice is not clearly established. Therefore, the tasks related to this process are not either. In transitions such as between primary and secondary education that establish radically different academic conditions, no specific or standardized guiding actions are identified. Based on the curricular reorganization, in which there are scheduled moments of academic transition, it would be expected that, for each cycle established in pre-school, primary and secondary schools, interdisciplinary school guidance teams will be appointed to facilitate such transitions (Secretary of Education, 2016). The transition from the fifth grade of elementary education to the sixth grade in secondary education deserves special attention because the concept of transitional guidance is directly anchored in career guidance. The same applies to the transition from ninth grade (where compulsory education is completed) to the 10th grade where elective middle education begins. At the level of higher education, (such as universities) there are Departments of Student Well-being made up mainly of psychologists who do not necessarily adhere to a career services approach. These professionals are mainly concerned with increasing retention in the institution, given the high dropout rate in the first five semesters. As seen in the Integral Program for Student Permanence (PIPE) of the Area Andina University Foundation (National Ministry of Education, 2011), these actions range from institutional orientation programs, to career finance systems, to recreational and cultural programs, which are unrelated to academic programs. In private schools, career services are even more dispersed. It is very difficult to identify activities common in private primary and secondary schools related to career services, given the administrative emphasis on supporting the process of selection, enrollment, and retention of students. In some cases, the school counselor or school psychologist is an assistant of the board with clear administrative duties. This is not unlike what happens in public schools. Depending

86


on the human and economic resources available to private schools, there is an increasing responsiveness to expectations from outside the primary and secondary schools, i.e. from the business sector. The same is true for institutions of higher education. It is precisely from the institutions of higher education that many of the promotional activities originate. Proliferation of so-called ‘university fairs’ have the purpose of assembling students in grades 10 and 11 to receive a recruitment talk, which may be oriented towards university careers or technical occupations. There is also some intervention by the Chamber of Commerce in the country through its organizational division called Entrepreneurs for Education (ExE) from its Da La Talla program in partnership with its Uniempresarial University (Brunal, 2012). Some of the time at these fairs promoting university programs may include conferences led by psychologists and professional counselors, and complemented by some updated programs by counselors. Despite this type of activity, the current situation for students leaving post-secondary education is still worrying because of the high dropout rate in the first semester, ranging from 32% in professional-technical education (presumably due to the low costs, the ease of entry to this level of education since only graduation from grade 9 is required, and its exploratory nature) to 9.3% for universities, with technological education in the middle at 18%. This dropout rate is alarming as it involves an expensive investment of human and economic resources. 35.00% 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% Rate of Desertion

15.00% 10.00% 5.00% 0.00% Technical Professional

Technology

TYT Aggregate

University

Figure 5.1. The rate of desertion per period in 2015 based on the level of education.


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In some cases, dropping out is due to the emotional exhaustion (implying voluntary or compulsory desertion). Usually, there is a relatively permanent abandonment of higher education and a forced entry to the labor force. Dropouts often increase the population internationally classified as Not in Employment, Education, or Training (NEET), which soon will reach a majority of youth who have no professional skills. Columbia is no stranger to the NEET phenomenon (El Pais, 2016). 42.4% of young people between 14 and 28 years old were in this situation, being inactive in the period between January and March of this year, during which the unemployment rate was 18% of the population (El Pais, 2016). This is a great opportunity for people skilled in career services working with the nonschool population. However, there is no staff with this designation, either from governmental organizations or from private institutions. There are cases where the government, such as ministries and education secretariats, has established intersectoral alliances with entities in the "Economic Development" sector, mechanically replacing the concept of vocational guidance with career guidance without directly addressing the problem of youth in the NEET population.

Unemployment Services Law 1636 of 2013 set up services for the unemployed in Colombia. Ultimately the goal was to create a mechanism that would protect the unemployed. The purpose of the mechanism will be the articulation and execution of a comprehensive system of active and passive policies to mitigate the effects of unemployment faced by workers; while facilitating the reintegration of the unemployed population into the labor market in conditions of dignity, improving of the quality of life, and finding permanent formal employment. (Law 1636 of 2013, Article 1) It created the Public Employment Service, as part of this mechanism, and efficient and effective job search tools. Recently state and mixed dependencies have been created and/or strengthened that provide some career guidance. According to the Ministry of Labor (2013), approximately six employment centers called COLABORA were established in the country. Previously, the Public Employment Agency of the National Apprenticeship Service (SENA) had been providing similar services. According to the Public Employment Agency (n.d.), the Public Employment Agency of SENA provides a free, non-discriminating public labor intermediation service so that Colombians can participate in employment opportunities and entrepreneurs can find the talent they need to fill their vacancies. Likewise, it supports the implementation of active employment policies, contributing to the achievement of the objectives set by the National Government for the benefit of the Colombian population. Therefore, the Public Employment Agency has optimized its job intermediation tool, through which it facilitates the organized contact between job seekers

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and entrepreneurs, supported by a personalized service to guide and advise users on the dynamics of the labor market through a nationwide network of offices. (para 1-3) On the other hand, this new service is partly intended to substitute for "unemployment insurance," which was administered by the employment agency of the family compensation funds (Compensar, 2016), and was not charged with career guidance. The unemployment insurance offered basic aspects of human resources management (training, job updating, relocation assistance, database management, short training courses to improve general skills, etc.) with participation by organizational psychologists, who did not necessarily have training in career services.

Academic Training of School Counselors The training of all professional counselors is at the university professional level and averages 10 semesters in duration. The undergraduate training for these professionals is very diverse, including psychology, social work, sociology, occupational therapy, and vocational education. These professionals obtain graduate degrees in diverse areas ranging from common training in the area of social sciences, humanities, and social research to specific therapeutic skills such as psychologists or occupational therapists, through training in educational psychology with a practicum in a school setting. Therefore, it is very difficult to establish common training for the different professionals in the field. The training of counselors in Columbia builds on their professional (undergraduate) training and is humanistic in nature, combining three major disciplinary areas: 1. Educational Sciences: Education and educational psychology, educational administration (in some cases); 2. Health Sciences: Psychology, occupational therapy, speech therapy; and 3. Social Sciences: Sociology and social work. This training is required to allow interdisciplinary school guidance teams to work together within preschool, primary and secondary schools, levels for which most of the actions related to career guidance are designed and implemented. In some cases, counselors have experience as a classroom teacher and moved into counseling through a process called relocation by specialty administered by the Secretary of Education after obtaining specific academic training recognized in the field of counseling (psychology or educational psychology mainly). This diversity of backgrounds in the field determines, to a great extent, the diversity of approaches to fulfilling, the duties of school counselors. Some professionals take an approach with asocial emphasis, others with an emphasis on academic and behavioral approach to students and teachers, and others with a clinical-therapeutic approach. Others, more by work experience and their theoretical preferences, focus on career guidance.


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This implies that not all professionals, working in the field of school guidance, are dedicated exclusively to career guidance. In fact, no school counselors in the country can dedicate themselves exclusively to this area, because they are immersed in a school environment that demands a multiplicity of actions not necessarily related to their official functions. In addition, by reviewing the curricula, it is possible to affirm that the only profession that includes the theme of school guidance as such is educational psychology, which delves into the area of counseling, including institutional practices in both public and private schools. This training can only be obtained at Tunja Pedagogical and Technological University (UPTC), which offers a bachelor's degree, and in the National Pedagogical University of Bogotá (UPN), which is eliminating this degree for the year 2017. At different times since 2001, postgraduate options have been offered that specialized in family guidance at Monserrate University and educational counseling and human development at the Universidad El Bosque. The specialization in vocational and occupational guidance at Universidad Francisco de Paula Santander Sede Cúcuta was also offered until 2013.

Challenges and Opportunities for Certification and Accreditation Government Efforts to Standardize Services. National Accreditation Council (NAC) It is pertinent to note that, The regulation of the exercise of professions in Colombia is based on the Political Constitution of 1991, Article 26 which establishes that every person is free to choose a profession or trade. The law may require certificates of competence. The competence authorities shall inspect and monitor the exercise of the professions. Occupations, arts, and crafts that do not require academic training are free of these requirements, except those involving a social risk. Legally recognized professions can be organized into colleges. (National Ministry of Education, n.d.b, para. 4) The Colombian government heads the National Accreditation Council, an academic body under the National Council of Higher Education that has undertaken certification, which involves a great deal of epistemological, methodological, and procedural work that have yet to be completed. The multidisciplinary conditions of the field call for a paradigm revolution to produce a basic model on which to propose common training and updated programs acceptable to the community. The National Accreditation Council, created as an academic body by Law 30 of 1992, is composed of seven academics. The National Accreditation Council reviews the

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accreditation process, organizes it, supervises it, certifies its quality and finally recommends to the Minister of National Education to accredit the programs and institutions that deserve it. In Colombia this credentialing in the field of school counseling is incipient, despite its long history. Some academic movements (national, departmental, and local networks of professional counselors) have been developing political and social action plans. They seek to build social and educational movements in several regions of the country, but without guiding bodies that unify these actions. Formation of guiding bodies is necessary to be able to propose a system of certification and accreditation, which could have great advantages in giving more credibility to professionals in the field and could enhance the understanding within the education community of the importance of guidance.

Continuing Education Informal continuing education for professional counselors in the country is sporadic, diversified based on the programmatic interests of the different secretariats of education in the country, and is not standardized. In some cases, it is carried out by intersectoral agreements (health sector, special protection or social welfare) and is not necessarily specific to career services. Once, the Javeriana University of Bogota offered a diploma in Professional Guidance, where the objective was to foster critical reflection and exchange around the question of career choice. The same university also offered a 130-hour virtual diploma in Psychology of School Counseling. At other times, guidance in the Teacher's to Teachers program recognized peer training sponsored by the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) and the Secretary of Education of Bogotá offered several short seminars (eight hours) on the subject under the Transitional Guidance approach, covering a population of approximately 100 people per year in the capital alone. In no case did these programs require supervised practice due to insufficient resource allocation. On the side of private entities, the Bogota Chamber of Commerce, through its Da la Talla program, run by the Entrepreneurs for Education division, offered sporadic short training programs (30 hours on average) with an Educational Coaching approach. Recently the Secretary of Education of Bogota, in agreement with Universidad del Rosario, created a career guidance project for public school counselors to be implemented in 2017.

Non-Academic Training There are no recognized non-academic programs, because the government only hires school counselors trained in an approved academic program. On the other hand, there are many informal programs (between eight and 100 hours) to update skills, based on the interests of each secretariat of education. These programs are extremely varied, although they are concentrated mainly in handling behavior problems, working with at-risk youth, and education about sexuality.


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Evaluation of the Accreditation Process Starting in 2009, all professionals entering the field must complete the Higher Education Quality (ECAES) status examination as a graduation requirement. In order to be hired as a teacher, they must pass the ECAES exam and hold a specific profession's card (although not all the primary teachers are required to hold such a card to start their work). For those with advance training (psychologists, sociologists, social workers, occupational therapists), a one-year course in teacher education is also required. It is also noteworthy that the same universities are involved in a joint process of peer accreditation coordinated by the Ministry of Education. Those who need a card in the profession of psychology apply through the Colombian College of Psychologists. Other professions such as adult educator, school psychologist, and social work are under review by the National Accreditation Council. Once they enter the teaching profession, they are subject to annual assessments of professional performance, and are subject to the process of promotion (salary adjustment) of all other teachers in the public sector. The annual evaluation of the performance of current school staff is divided into two phases: The first phase refers to the probationary period at the end of the first year of work and the subsequent annual performance evaluation that applies only to educators who are governed by Decree Law 1278 of 2002 (Ministry of Education, 2012). These evaluations fully occupy the attention of counselor teachers, which means that guidance professionals are not searching for other types of credentials, especially when it is understood from the Ministry of Education that this process is sufficient. According to the Ministry of Education (2012), the evaluation for teachers becomes a criterion of accreditation. Accreditation refers to specific aspects related to important learning issues raised in the plans and programs of study, and relates to improving outcomes. It is also clear that no specific accreditation is required to establish the level of experience necessary to begin your duties, or to pass the probationary period, nor for the salary adjustment process, which is another purpose of professional practice in socio-economic terms.

Conclusions and Recommendations The counseling community in Columbia has not been able to transcend the needs of labor, represented by unions of educators such as Colombian Federation of Educators (FECODE) at the national level, or the District Association of Educators (ADE) at the Bogota level, in order to clearly establish the common social purposes that give meaning to their role in the community. Although there is virtually no awareness of the standards for career counselors identified by National Career Development Association, it is also true that, given that there is no entity that leads training and certification of career counselors in this country, this situation will change. Based on the current dynamics of the different counselor movements in the country, the conditions are favorable for a College of Guidance Professionals, a project that is currently

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being disseminated in the country's social networks to professionals in the field through a survey on google drive. This College would be dedicated to the task of unifying and establishing a basic theoretical paradigm from which common standards, methodologies and actions of intervention for the various specialties in the field are defined (which, among other things, avoids the decentralized issuance of sector-type professional cards). It would play the role of peer-based academic self-regulation. However, there will need to be some specific criteria (possibly National Career Development Association -style benchmarks) related to certification to perform important social functions.

Opportunities One of the possible opportunities for the development of the field could be presented by with the aforementioned NEET population that is between 18 and 30 years old. This issue is virtually invisible to state entities and even non-governmental organizations. The need for general and specific training to attend to this population represents an opportunity to introduce the concept of career counseling. This initiative, backed by a college of professional counselors, could provide the impetus to define this new specialty, both for the general population and for training and certification.

Future Directions In order to develop a specialty called career counselor, the government of Columbia would need to pass legislation creating such a position. Columbia would need a College of Counselors, such as exists in Chile or Costa Rica. Then, Columbia would need to establish an accreditation and/or certification mechanism recognized by the National Ministry of Education and implemented by departmental secretariats. The value of career counselors could be articulated in different national and international academic events (congresses, symposia, conferences, etc.). If the importance of career counseling is publicized, and the qualifications of the programs offered are clear, it would be possible to define this new field. On the other hand, a direct link between the new occupation and the salary adjustment system is required so that this specialty represents added value for the person obtaining the skills.

References Barrera, M. D. (2014). La educación básica y media en Colombia: retos en equidad y calidad [The primary and secondary education in Columbia: challenges in equity and quality]. In The Challenges of Preschool, Basic, and Middle Education in Latin America (pp. 123– 146). Santiago, Chile: SOPLA. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/n2TWwZ


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Brunal, A. (2012). Da la talla [Web log post]. Retrieved from https://amilkarbrunal.wordpress.com/2012/04/05/da-la-talla/ Borja, C. (2015). Asociacion Colombiana de Orientacion Educativa [Legal framework of the counselor] [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://orientacioneducativacol.blogspot.com.co/2015/09/marco-legal-del-orientador.html Columbia. (n.d). Retrieved November 20, 2016 from Wikipedia: https://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colombia Compensar. (2016). Seguro de desempleo [Unemployment insurance]. Retrieved from http://www.compensar.com/subsidio/desempleo.aspx Decree 88 of 2000 [Decreto 88 de 2000]. (2000). Retrieved from http://www.suinjuriscol.gov.co/viewDocument.asp?id=1703529 El País. (2016). La generación Nini: ni lo uno, ni lo otro [The Nini generation: Neither one nor the other]. Retrieved from http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/entretenimiento/noticias/generacion-nini-ni-ni-otro González, J. (2013). La orientación escolar en Colombia [The school orientation in Columbia] [Web log post]. Retrieved from http://senderopedagogico.blogspot.com.co/2013/02/lsorientacion-escolar-en-colombia.html Law 1636 of 2013 [Ley 1636 de 2013]. (2013). Retrieved from http://unidad.serviciodeempleo.gov.co/norma/ley-1636-de-2013 Ministry of Labor. (2013). Cajas de Compensación y empresarios conformarán "Centros Locales de Empleo" [Compensation Office and entrepreneurs will open “Local employment centeres”]. Retrieved from http://www.mintrabajo.gov.co/marzo-2013/1633-cajas-decompensacion-y-empresarios-conformaran-qcentros-locales-de-empleoq.html National Commission of the Civil Service. (2010). Agreement 151. Retrieved from https://www.cnsc.gov.co/docs/ACUERDO151CONVORIENTADORES.pdf Mosquera, J. (2013) Re: The real history of orientation in Columbia [online forum comment]. Retrieved from https://groups.google.com/forum/#!msg/mesa-distrital-Orientadoresescolares-/BI6JIVMd64Q/G1ZreANQ56kJ National Ministry of Education. (2010). Convocatoria para seleccionar 1.015 docentes orientadores que fortalecerán la convivencia escolar [Call for the selection of 1,015 teachers who will strengthen the school life] Retrieved from http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/cvn/1665/article-249640.html National Ministry of Education. (2011). Llegó el Programa Integral de Permanencia Estudiantil (Pipe) a la Fundación Universitaria del Área Andina [The Integral Program of Student Permanence (Pipe) arrived to the University Foundation of the Andean Area]. Retrieved from http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/cvn/1665/w3-article-268051.html

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National Ministry of Education. (2012). Evaluación de competencias para el ascenso o reubicación de nivel salarial en el escalafón docente de los docentes y directivos docents regidos por el decreto ley 1278 de 2002 [Evaluation of competences for the promotion or relocation of the salary level in the teaching career of teachers and teaching counselors governed by Decree Law 1278 of 2002]. Retrieved from http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/proyectos/1737/articles310888_archivo_pdf_ingles.pdf National Ministry of Education. (n.d.a). Sistema educativo en Colombia [Educational system in Columbia]. Retrieved from http://www.colombiaaprende.edu.co/html/home/1592/article235863.html National Ministry of Education. (n.d.b). Ejercicio Profesional en Colombia [Professional practice in Columbia]. Retrieved from http://www.mineducacion.gov.co/CNA/1741/article187352.html Public Employment Agency (n.d.). Agencia Pública de Empleo [Public Employment Agency]. Retrieved from https://agenciapublicadeempleo.sena.edu.co/Paginas/APE.aspx Secretary of Education. (2016). Proceso de reorganización curricular por ciclos en los colegios oficiales de Bogotá [Reorganization curricular cycles]. Retrieved from http://www.redacademica.edu.co/archivos/redacademica/colegios/politicas_educativas/ci clos/Cartilla_Reorganizacion_Curricular%20por_ciclos_2da_Edicion.pdf

Author Bio Amilkar A. Brunal is a Magister in Interdisciplinary Social Research at the Universidad Distrital Francisco José de Caldas since 2008. Previously, he was the school counselor and Secretary of Education of Bogota. He is also the Director General of the Latin American Network of Guidance Professionals (Relapro) [2016-2018]. He can be found on the Internet at http://redorientadoresprofesionales.blogspot.com. He is a co-editor of the Latin American Journal of Human Orientation and Development: Orient Acción. Correspondence to: [email protected].

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CHAPTER 6

The European Status for Career Service Provider Credentialing: Professionalism in European Union (EU) Guidance Policies Raimo Vuorinen and Jaana Kettunen Finnish Institute for Educational Research

European Union (EU) member states have acknowledged the professionalization of career guidance services in different sectors as a priority within the guidance practice and policy development from 2000 to 2016. During the Irish EU presidency in 2004, the Council of Education Ministers adopted a first EU level resolution on lifelong guidance. The resolution defined guidance in the context of lifelong learning as a range of activities that enables citizens of any age and at any point in their lives to identify their capacities, competencies and interests, to make meaningful educational, training and occupational decisions and to manage their individual life paths in learning, work and other settings in which these capacities and competencies are learned and/or used. (European Council, 2004, p.2) The resolution also invited member states to improve the initial and continuing training of career practitioners as well as seek to ensure effective co-operation and co-ordination between providers of guidance at national, regional and local levels in the provision of guidance services and to build on and adapt existing structures and activities (networks, work groups, programs) related to the implementation of the resolution priorities. (European Commission, 2004, p. 9) European Council (2008) reiterated these key elements in a more recent resolution. Although citizens and the government both recognize the importance of lifelong guidance, a significant number of EU citizens do not have access to guidance. According to the Special Eurobarometer European Area of Skills and Qualifications, 45 % of respondents reported having had no access to guidance services (European Commission, 2014b). The EU established the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) in 2007 to assist EU member states

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in developing guidance policies and systems through European collaboration. Mutual policy learning among the ELGPN members revealed that several ministries at the national and regional levels share the development of guidance practices. However, differences exist in how individual EU member states construct their guidance provision and define professionalism in the field. Member states assign the responsibility of providing guidance not only to schools but also to external partners. These are mainly public guidance services, but also public employment services (PES), non-governmental organizations (NGOs), and private enterprises. The same country may invite several different service providers to cooperate in terms of education and guidance provision (European Commission, EACEA, Eurydice, & Cedefop, 2014). According to Ertelt and Kraatz (2011), organizational models or reforms play a significant role by shaping the setting of guidance activities and the description of job profiles. It makes a difference whether the career guidance is regarded as a specialized service to be operated in separate organization or whether it is combined with other roles in an organization. In 2009, the European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training conducted a comprehensive study on practitioner competencies and qualification routes in Europe and noted that career guidance exists in some countries as a specialist occupation requiring extensive and specific training, or guidance activities, are a subspecialism within another professional role (Cedefop, 2009). While career guidance is a subspecialism, the practitioners can define their role alongside that of a psychologist, teacher, or a labor-market administrator. The perspective of the prevailing delivery method illustrates a third distinction of the professionalism of career practitioners. Different models are in place, which include a psychological model, a pedagogical model, and a hybrid model (Zelloth, 2009). The psychological model largely relies on professional psychologists as key delivery agents (both in schools and in PES) and on psychological testing. The European Commission Mutual Learning Program for Public Employment Services (PES), the PES to PES Dialogue program, identified that the skills and competencies of employment counselors are critical for achieving the goals of the European employment strategies (European Commission, 2014a). However, the studies have revealed variations in the entry requirements, competence profiles, and job profiles, as well as in the degree of the flexibility and autonomy of services across the countries. The service models, in which counselors must deal with a broad scope of clients (with the two prevailing groups being jobseekers and employers), determine generic job profiles for employment counselors. Moreover, the diversification of the job profiles depends largely on the operational PES structure, priority tasks, and activation strategy used in the country. A significant gap exists in relation to the professionalization of employment counselors’ functions in the European Public Employment Services (Sienkiewicz, 2012).


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The pedagogical model relies on a variety of delivery agents. It stresses the pedagogical aspects of the guidance process, for example, by integrating career education as a mainstream strategy in national curricula. Career education refers to a range of structured programs and activities that help students to link their learning to the acquisition of lifelong career management skills and employability skills. Career management skills (CMS) refers to a set of competencies that enable citizens at any age or state of development to manage their learning and work life paths (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015c). Successful career education programs combine various working methods and a range of interventions in accordance with the needs and readiness of individual students and groups. To ensure success in this area, the entire school community (including the school head, teachers, and professional specialists) has the responsibility of providing guidance. In most countries, guidance provision is the task of a multidisciplinary team consisting of different specialists. The education and training of the staff responsible for guidance vary significantly among countries due to a wide range of university courses for teachers and guidance specialists. An examination of the types of staff involved shows that distinction should be made between those who teach guidance in class, and those who support students in school but are not classroom based (European Commission et al., 2014). The hybrid model is a combination of the psychological and pedagogical models. This model can be either a transitional pathway from the psychological model to the pedagogical model, or a relatively stable and traditional system. This implies that the competencies and qualifications of career practitioners need to be reflected in the light of the individual, organizational, and societal expectations associated with the national features of the guidance model. The previous examples indicate a clear variance in the range of the depth of career practitioners’ guidance practices and training in EU member states. In the process of developing the New Skills Agenda for Europe, the European Commission (2016) sought to gather statistical data on the credentialing of guidance practitioners at the member state level. However, the feedback was incomplete; member states were unable to provide feedback in a consistent way due to variation in structures and practices. Cedefop (2009) conducted the most recent overview of the different options for the training provision. Yet, there are some certain commonalities of coherent and consistent services and thus the training and qualifications of career practitioners were included as one key theme in the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network work programs from 2007 to 2015. The following sections summarize the main findings from that period.

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Evidence exists that the training and competence of career guidance staff make an essential contribution to the development of high-quality career guidance services, which are essential in meeting the needs of national populations and furthering EU strategic aims (Cedefop, 2011, 2009; European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2012; Hooley, 2014). Already in 2005, the EU member states agreed that the professionalism and qualifications of service providers constitute one of the five quality meta-criteria for national guidance systems. The recently emerged policy attention to career guidance has led to a significant increase in the interest in the development training programs for career practitioners. However, current training provision has been diverse and has reflected the nature of national guidance delivery systems. The diversity is partly a result of various initiatives that have been driven at the government level by policy and legislative changes instigated by individual higher education sectors or specific research and development projects. Norway and Scotland are concrete examples where national strategies have been a catalyst for specialized higher education training programs for career practitioners (Ertelt & Kraatz, 2011; European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b). The training may have been mandatory or optional, might have been systematic or ad hoc, and may have ranged at any level from short uncertified courses to master’s degree at any level. The attention placed on the professionalism of career professionals has raised the following question in the member states: What is sufficient training for career practitioners in terms of both the level and the extent of the specialized study of career guidance theory and methods? The current trend is toward more specialized training in the higher education sector and evidence suggests that the equivalent of one year of full-time higher education training would be an appropriate benchmark for the minimum level and extent of specialized study for professionalism (Cedefop, 2009). Although differences exist across the member states in promoting the professionalism of career practitioners, there are five different ways of identifying practitioner competencies as part of national guidance policies. These include features such as legislation, licensing arrangements, quality standards, accreditation, and the registers of practitioners. Table 6.1. National Approaches in Promoting Professionalism of Career Practitioners National approach in promoting professionalism Legislation

Description of the measures, country examples Qualification requirements for school guidance counselors and vocational psychologists (Finland) Certifications for career practitioner titles (Iceland) Qualification requirements of career practitioners in PES (Slovakia) Detailed minimum teacher-vocational counselor qualifications (Poland)

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Accreditation Professional registers of practitioners

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Licenses for vocational counselors in PES (Poland) Occupational standards for professionals (Latvia) Standards and professional requirements for diagnostic evaluation and guidance (Portugal) Use of international accreditation frameworks (such as in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania) Regulation by professional bodies linked to quality standards and license or professional register developments (in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom)

According to Ertelt and Kraatz (2011), legislation is the most powerful instrument to achieve a high level of professionalization, but there has been considerable resistance in many countries to take this route. Today, structured co-operation in lifelong guidance policy development has raised awareness on professionalism of career practitioners and put more emphasis on legally defined qualification requirements (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b, 2015c). In Finland, careers information, guidance and counselling services are provided mainly by two established publicly funded systems. In comprehensive and upper secondary level education, adequate career education and guidance is a legally defined student entitlement and a compulsory subject with specific time allocation in students’ timetables. In higher education institutes guidance and counselling services vary in quantity and quality. Schools have full-time school counsellors with legally defined competencies and qualifications. Either a Master’s degree in school counselling or a 60 ECTS postgraduate diploma is required. According to their work contract, the practitioners are annually obliged to attend continuous professional development events. The Finnish National Agency for Education draws up the national core curricula, which give guidelines for institutional plans on the delivery of career education and guidance in school settings. The working methods include individual discussions with focus on personal issues, small group guidance, whole classroom activities, project work and site visits. The student progress is monitored during the education and in the transition phases to further studies by means of cooperation between teachers and school counselors, and, if necessary by means of co-operation with other professionals. In the employment sector, the guidance and counseling services of the Employment and Economic Development Offices are based on three service lines and are mainly targeted at clients outside the education and training institutions. The qualifications of the vocational psychologists are defined in legislation. If the practitioner competencies are not explicitly included in national guidance policies, a common model of professionalism is the use of national competence frameworks. These can operate on a national level (as in Austria, Denmark, Estonia, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Ireland,

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Lithuania, Malta, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Slovakia, Slovenia, and the United Kingdom) or regionally (as in Belgium and Italy). In Germany, the National Guidance Forum has developed a bottom-up quality concept for educational and vocational guidance. This national concept comprises commonly accepted quality standards for service provision, a competence profile for career practitioners and a quality development framework for organizations to activate and integrate both the individual perspectives of staff members and the perspective of the organization in the development process. On this basis, the organizations and individual practitioners have autonomy to identify developmental goals and success factors, initiate activities for improvement, reflect and evaluate the results and learning experience (National Guidance Forum in Education, Career, and Employment, 2016). Some countries operate sectorally, with professional bodies or training organizations defining the competencies (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b). These kinds of national competence frameworks are softer ways to promote professionalism, presuming they find the support of decision-makers in institutions having responsibilities in the service provision (Ertelt & Kraatz, 2011).

Professionalizing Career Guidance through European Level Competence Frameworks The EU has funded several development projects that have defined practitioner competence frameworks. These can be applied in national contexts in accordance with national policies or accreditation mechanisms. The competence frameworks intend to offer a generic description that incorporates all the activities needed to deliver coherent career guidance services nationally or regionally. They provide a working tool to support guidance practitioners and policymakers in developing national and sectoral frameworks, quality-assurance tools and professional standards. Member states can pilot and validate the frameworks in cross-border or wider European networks, and they can enhance them through further cooperative projects.

Cedefop Competence Framework for Career Practitioners The Cedefop examined practitioner competencies and qualification routes and made a proposal for a European framework. The definition of competence takes into account both the ethical and reflective practice and includes: (i) cognitive competence involving the use of theory and concepts, as well as informal tacit knowledge gained experientially; (ii) functional competence (skills or know-how), those things a person should be able to do he or she is functioning in a given area of work, learning, or social activity; (iii) personal competence involving knowing how


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to conduct oneself in a specific situation; and (iv) ethical competence involving the possession of certain personal and professional values. It represents an integrative model of competence, which permits the identification of the aspects of self-direction and reflective practice, including the important capability for professional development from novice to expert over time (Cedefop, 2009). The Cedefop competence framework for career guidance practitioners (2009) comprises three sections: foundation competencies, client-interaction competencies, and supporting competencies. 

The foundation competencies describe the abilities, skills, and knowledge that should pervade all the professional activities of career guidance practitioners. These statements do not reflect stand-alone activities but rather are the essential foundation of personal skills, values, and ethical approaches. Practitioners should exhibit these in all the activities undertaken with or for the users of career guidance services. Foundation competencies are most closely related to ethical and personal competencies that involve the possession of certain and professional values as well as an awareness of how to conduct oneself in specific situations.



Client-interaction competencies cover those actions that are prominent and visible to service users. They cover activities where clients themselves are likely to be directly involved, through conversation or participation in groups, via communication technologies, or via supported access to other services and facilities. Client activities do not always occur in face-to-face situations, and the introduction to this section encourages attention to the differences that arise when services are provided at a distance through various media.



Supporting competencies describe a range of additional activities that are needed to support career guidance practitioners in their work with service users. They relate to the development of the service offered, to career guidance practitioners’ management of their own roles, and to how they reach out in geographical and professional communities.

Table 6.2. The Cedefop Competence Framework for Career Practitioners Section Practitioner Skills and Values

Working with Clients

1. 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 1.6 2.

Competencies Foundation Competencies Ethical practice Recognize and respond to clients’ diverse needs Integrate theory and research into practice Develop one’s own capabilities and understand any limitations Communication and facilitation skills Information and computer technologies Client-Interaction Competencies

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Systems


2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 2.6 3. 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 3.7

Undertake career development activities Enable access to information Conduct and enable assessment Develop and deliver career learning programs Make referrals and provide advocacy Facilitative entry into learning and work Supporting Competencies Manage opportunity information services Operate within networks and build partnerships Manage own caseload and maintain user records Design strategies for career development Engage with stakeholders Engage own caseload and maintain user records Update own skills and knowledge

European Reference Competence Profile for PES and EURES Counselors The PES to PES Dialogue program revealed that, in many countries, a shift has taken place in the roles of PES, which originally functioned as more passive and administrative authorities. The counseling and guidance elements of the job an employment counselors were recently strengthened, leading to a job profile that is now a combination of a broker, counselor, social worker, and administrator. This differentiation of tasks requires a broad range of interdisciplinary knowledge comprising both theoretical foundations (with psychological knowledge being more important in relation to career guidance counselors) and a profound knowledge of the labor market situation and trends, placement, integration and active labor market policies (Sienkiewicz, 2013). As the national structure of PES strongly influences the division work of PES employees, and as the job profiles of career practitioners influence the competency requirements for the practitioners’ positions, the PES to PES Dialogue program noted that the possibilities to standardize the competence profiles of career practitioners in PES are limited. However, the program concluded that it seems possible to define a certain minimum standard of services based on a set of core competencies with a distinction between general and country/service-specific competencies. This core competence profile should become a focal point of all skills-related activities for the practitioners, such as: the (i) recruitment of the practitioners; (ii) training and development of practitioners; (iii) career planning of practitioners; and (iv) assessment and competence gap analysis of practitioners based on their core competencies. A competency-based perspective in the work of practitioners could improve the development paths of the career practitioners themselves and allow for the better structuring of career paths and for creating possibilities for on-the-job training as well. In 2014, the European Commission Directorate-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion (DG EMPL)


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launched a European reference competence profile for PES and European Employment Services (EURES) counselors. This profile follows the three Cedefop (2009) competence areas defined earlier but has slightly different elements. 

Foundational competencies represent general practitioners’ characteristics and skills that are relevant to several different tasks and situations. Thus, they should be required from all employment counselors, disregarding possible differences in corresponding roles or performed tasks (for example the specific groups of clients that counselors usually deal with, such as the young unemployed or long-term unemployed).

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Client interaction competencies (working with jobseekers and employers) represent the broadest area of competencies, clearly linked to the major tasks that employment counselors perform daily.

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Supportive competencies (systems and technical) represent both competencies for dealing with the technological aspects of the work (information and communication technology, ICT) as well as service- and country-specific competencies.

The aim was to consider the scope and diversity of tasks that employment counselors deal with. These tasks require a comprehensive set of competencies to help public employment services to achieve the European PES 2020 mission and to transform them into activation- and client-oriented transition agencies working closely with employers and playing a leading role in partnerships (European Commission, 2014a).

NICE European Competence Standards for Career Professionals The network for innovation in career guidance and counseling in Europe (NICE) consortium members compiled one of the latest project-based competence frameworks was compiled by NICE consortium members from 2009 to 2015 (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe, 2016). This EU-funded network consisted of academics from 30 countries and 46 higher education institutions that specialize in career guidance and counseling training and research in Europe. Their mission was to “promote professionalism and excellence in career guidance and counseling” (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe, 2016). In 2012, the network published a handbook in which it identified common points of reference that could facilitate the establishing of degree programs in the field and inform curriculum design. These reference points were elaborated to a proposal for European Competence Standards as a shared agreement on the minimum level of competence needed to perform professional tasks in the field of career guidance and counseling. The aim was not to replace any national qualification standards or benchmarks and there are no formal obligations for their introduction on a national level. The standards act as a voluntary framework for participating members, which they can apply in developing training programs for career practitioners or in mutual recognition of qualifications and prior learning in the field.

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The NICE network proposed six professional roles that it believes constitute the professional identity of career practitioners (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe, 2016). The network acknowledged that, in providing services, the practitioners should be able to switch among these professional roles, sometimes combining them and sometimes focusing on an adequate role based on the unique needs of their clients, and they should combine the different roles in meaningful ways. The central role of the career guidance and counseling professional incorporates the following five professional roles: 

The career counselor supports people in making sense of the situations they are experiencing, working through issues toward solutions, making difficult career decisions, and realizing personal change.

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The career educator supports people in developing their career management skills/competencies, which they need for career-related learning and development.

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The career assessment and information expert supports people in attaining relevant information about themselves, the labor market, and educational or vocational options depending on their individual information needs.

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The social systems intervener supports people and organizations in designing and developing adequate pathways.

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The career service manager ensures the quality of the service provision.

As a basis for the definition of competence standards, the network defined a typology of tasks that describe the concrete activities of career practitioners in different settings (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe, 2016). This framework distinguishes careers advisors who offer immediate advice and basic career support next to their primary professions, career professionals who are fully dedicated to career guidance and counseling for individuals and groups focused on complex career challenges, and career specialists, who offer highly specialized services related to complex career challenges, leadership, research, and development in career guidance and counseling. The proposed competence standards offer a list of measurable competence descriptions that correspond both to the above mentioned six professional roles and to the tasks as defined for the three types of career practitioners. The competencies also provide a foundation for identifying the contents of a curriculum that can inform the development of career guidance and counseling degree programs, references to teaching and learning methods, and references to assessment methods (Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe, 2016.)

The European Career Guidance Certificate (ECGC) The European Career Guidance Certificate (ECGC) was developed from 2007 through 2009 with partners from seven EU member states. This project compiled outcomes of two previous similar


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projects into one standardized certification system to acknowledge the formally or non-formally acquired knowledge, skills, and competencies of career counselors. This certificate distinguished four superior competence categories: (i) education and career; (ii) counseling practice; and (iii) personality and (iv) ICT skills. The ECGC is certified with 60 European Credit Transfer and Accumulation System (ECTS) points and is compatible with existing training offers. The ECTS is a tool of the European Higher Education Area (EHEA) for making studies and courses more transparent. ECTS credits express the volume of learning based on the defined learning outcomes and their associated workload. 60 ECTS credits are allocated to the learning outcomes and associated workload of a full-time academic year or its equivalent (European Commission, 2015) Course attendance is not compulsory for obtaining the certificate, as it is based on practical experience and completed specific continuing training (Cedefop, 2011).

The Competence Frameworks and National Guidance Policy Development The previously introduced competence frameworks have been developed at the European level, and they encapsulate the main tasks that career practitioners need to provide in each country. As countries have autonomy in the design of the services the frameworks need to be reflected and customized in accordance with available resources, cultural and sectoral conditions, and applicable standards and codes. The Cedefop study (2009) suggests that the frameworks can play an important role in shaping the training provision or national qualification systems, but they also offer a common ground for dialogue among policy-makers, training providers, service providers, and other key stakeholders as professional associations. The organizations delivering guidance services could use frameworks in defining their scope of services and how standards are set for staff performance in their different roles and functions. The professional associations can create an assessment framework to underpin a system of membership entitlement or to align qualification requirements to facilitate the mobility of career practitioners across sectors. Policymakers can use the framework to plan and review existing career guidance services to determine if they meet existing needs or national policy goals. At all levels, the framework provides tools for assessing the quality and overall effectiveness of the services (Cedefop, 2009). The ELGPN Quality Assurance Framework (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b) includes examples of criteria and indicators that can inform national quality assurance as well as evidence-based lifelong guidance practice and policy development in different sectors. The criteria include evidence underpinning recognized qualifications, recruitment practices according to recognized competence profiles, engagement in continuing

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professional development, and membership in professional associations. Indicators refer to qualification levels and sector requirements, participation in continuing professional development, a percentage of practitioners signed to a professional code of ethics, and memberships of professional associations. A recent example of the national level adaptation of the outcomes of European cooperation is the Program Recognition Framework for Guidance and Counseling (PRFGC) in Ireland (Department of Education and Skills, 2016). This is a new measure for promoting professionalism, and the framework sets out criteria and guidelines for an initial training program that intends for its program graduates to work in guidance services under the remit of national governmental authorities across the educational and labor market sectors. The intention is that the framework will enable the training providers of initial counselor training programs to design and deliver career education curricula and sets of learning experiences to equip graduates with the necessary skills and competencies to design and provide quality services in diverse contexts for diverse client groups. The programs leading to qualifications should meet the minimum level of 60 ECTS in guidance and should normally be delivered over one year full-time or two years part-time. The eight areas of competence that should be addressed by program providers seeking recognition from the Department of Education and Skills for their program in guidance counseling are: 

Guidance theory and professional practice;

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Counseling skills in a guidance context;

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Labor market, learning and career-related information;

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Teaching and learning: design, delivery, and evaluation of programs/learning experiences;

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Psychometric testing: Graduates should be eligible to join the Psychological Society of Ireland (PSI) register for guidance counselors;

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Communicating, collaborating and networking;

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Research and evidence-informed practice; and

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Leading and managing the guidance service.

Future Perspectives In the EU member states career practitioners are working alongside with several other intermediaries in public, private and voluntary sectors. Many parallel competence frameworks exist to draw upon for shared professional development. Yet, the ELGPN has identified competence areas that need to be developed in response to the emerging policy and practice challenges (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b).


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Taking in the relevance of career management skills as an explicit key competence in lifelong learning to better cope with continuous restructuring of the labor market, the practitioner competencies linked to the development of CMS for citizens is one of the areas which has remained under-developed in the national frameworks (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b). The ELGPN suggests, that the all initial training of guidance practitioners should include the theoretical background and methodologies of CMS development and how to integrate the CMS teaching in their practice. The practitioners should also develop their own career plans and assess their own CMS during their own training, to avoid the risk they do something they do not understand or do not believe in themselves (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015a). In PES setting a related competence is needed among practitioners who are working their clients in developing an individual action plan to promote employability or transition back to labor market. Guidance provision is changing due to a wide range of political and practical goals whose implementation is a responsibility of dynamic cross-administrative and multi-professional networks. In these networks, guidance work must be performed at their multi-professional interfaces, in a learning space. No service provider or organization can alone meet the needs of diverse client groups, and new forms of dynamics and relationships emerge on different levels of guidance, in working with clients, as a process between organizations, and in public policies in guidance (Nykänen, Saukkonen, & Vuorinen, 2012). Another emerging form of service delivery is the concept of the one-stop-shop, which unites under a single roof multi-professional, low-threshold services for various client groups (Moreno da Fonseca, 2015). A further challenge for networking is connected to increasing demand for transnational mobility, because labor shortages in certain sectors have triggered international recruitment and need for more comprehensive career guidance services for integration including family members (Ertelt & Kraatz, 2011). This transformation towards collective and group-based activities is a process engaging many actors, various interests, and multiple layers, and it requires a stronger emphasis on strategic competencies that enable practitioners to define their new role and tasks within multiprofessional networks both inside organizations and in the interfaces of these service providers. Career practitioners in PES settings or in a specialized integration services should be able to cope with more complex situations and to adequately operate in contradictory roles for support and potential sanctions related to active labor market measures (Ertelt & Kraatz, 2011). Further work is also needed on evaluating outcomes from different forms of guidance and counseling interventions to inform consistent evidence-based practice and policy development (European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, 2015b).

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A key future challenge is the extent to which the practitioner competence frameworks consider the use of new technology and skill intelligence and information for making better career choices. Recent research indicates how European countries are positioned along a continuum ranging from unexploited to strategic in exploiting the potential of ICT for career services (Kettunen, Vuorinen, & Ruusuvirta, 2016). The exponentially increasing use of ICT across the career services sector has placed an increasing demand upon career practitioners’ ability to be innovative and to take advantage of and fashion novel career service delivery formats with online technologies. The use of social media has increased dramatically in recent years, resulting in the urgent need to modernize services and to expand the understanding of practitioners of the potential of new technologies (Kettunen, Sampson, & Vuorinen, 2015). To consider the usefulness and potential of existing and emerging technologies, it is essential that career practitioners be appropriately trained in this area (Osborn, Dikel, & Sampson, 2011) and for both the pre-service and in-service training curricula to be updated to include this knowledge. It is also very likely that practitioners working in this area need to be trained differently than for the traditional face-to-face service mode (Niles & Harris-Bowlsbey, 2013). Success in developing competency for ICT in career services requires a dynamic combination of interwoven cognitive, social, emotional, and ethical factors (Kettunen et al., 2015). The provision of career services is a public interest that transcends education, training, employment and social inclusion at the national and EU level. However, in the lack of binding legislation or national quality frameworks in most of the countries, it is difficult for individual practitioners to orient oneself to existing parallel competence frameworks and make one’s own decision about pursuing further training or education. The European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (2015c) has agreed that the professionalization of services and tools remains one of the key operational principles for lifelong guidance provision in the future. Cedefop (2011) suggested, that in the future, guidance practitioner qualifications should be placed in national qualification frameworks and be based on learning outcomes to improve the transparency of qualifications across countries. Citizens need to have confidence that the services are offered by staff who have the required professional knowledge, competence and qualifications. Certification and credentialing become even more crucial in countries that are increasing their market-based service providers in accordance with liberal regimes (Ertelt & Kraatz, 2011; Moreno da Fonseca, 2015). Qualifications in lifelong guidance ensure that the minimum standards of learning can be achieved.


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References Cefefop. (2009). Professionalizing career guidance. Practitioner competencies and qualification routes in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Cedefop. (2011). Lifelong guidance across Europe: Reviewing policy progress and future prospects. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Department of Education and Skills. (2016). Programme recognition framework: Guidance and counselling. Criteria and guidelines for programme providers. Dublin: Stationery Office. European Commission, EACEA, Eurydice, & Cedefop. (2014). Tackling early leaving from education and training in Europe: Stategies, policies and measures. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. European Commission. (2014a). European reference competence profile for PES and EURES counselors. Brussels, EU. European Commission. (2014b). Special eurobarometer 417 “European area of skills and qualifications”. Brussels, EU. European Commission. (2015). ECTS users’ guide. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. European Commission. (2016). A new skills agenda for Europe. Communication from the commission to the European Parliament, the Council, the European Economic and Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions. Brussels, EU. European Council. (2004). Draft resolution of the council and of the representatives of the member states meeting within the council on strengthening policies, systems and practices in the field of guidance throughout life in Europe. Brussels, EU: Council of the European Union. Retrieved from ncge.ie/uploads/EU_Guidance_Resolution_2004.pdf European Council. (2008). Draft resolution of the council and of the representatives of the government of the member states, meeting within the council, on better integrating lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies. Brussels: EU: Council of the European Union. Retrieved from www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/educ/104236.pdf European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. (2012). Lifelong guidance policy development: A European resource kit. Saarijärvi, Finland. European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. (2015a). Designing and implementing policies related to Career Management Skills (CMS). Saarijärvi, Finland. European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. (2015b). Strengthening the quality assurance and evidence base for lifelong guidance. Saarijärvi, Finland. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/jX9kuC

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European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. (2015c). The guidelines for policies and systems development for lifelong guidance: A reference framework for the EU and for the commission. Saarijärvi, Finland. Ertelt, B., & Kraatz, S. (2011). Introduction: Professionalisation of career guidance – changes, chances and challenges. In S. Kraatz & B. Ertelt (Eds.), Professionalisation of career guidance in Europe (pp. 11–43). Tübingen, Germany: Dgvt Verlag. Hooley, T. (2014). The evidence base on lifelong guidance: A guide to key findings for effective policy and practice. Saarijärvi, Finland: European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. Kettunen, J., Sampson, J. P., & Vuorinen, R. (2015). Career practitioners´ conceptions of competency for social media in career services. British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 43, 43–56. doi:10.1080/03069885.2014.939945 Kettunen, J., Vuorinen, R., & Ruusuvirta, O. (2016). European lifelong guidance policy network representatives´ conceptions of the role of information and communication technologies related to national guidance policies. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 16, 327–342. doi:10.1007/s10775-015-9313-7 Moreno da Fonseca, P. (2015). Guidance systems across Europe: heritage, change and the art of becoming, British Journal of Guidance & Counselling, 43, 351–366. doi:10.1080/03069885.2015.1028887 National Guidance Forum for Education, Career, and Employment. (2016). The BeQu quality standards and the competence profile for guidance practitioners. Berlin, Germany. Niles, S. G., & Harris-Bowlsbey, J. (2013). Career development interventions in the 21st century (4th ed.). Boston, MA: Pearson. Nykänen, S., Saukkonen, S., & Vuorinen, R. (2012). Transformations in lifelong guidance provision. In P. Tynjälä, M.-L. Stenström, & M. Saarnivaara (Eds.), Transitions and transformations in learning and education (pp. 187–202). Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer. Network for Innovation in Career Guidance & Counseling in Europe. (2016). European competence standards for the academic training of career practitioners. NICE handbook Volume II. Opladen, Germany: Barbara Budrich Publishers. Osborn, D. S., Dikel, M. R., & Sampson, J. P. (2011). The internet: A tool for career planning (3rd ed.). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Sienkiewicz, L. (2012). Job profiles and training for employment counsellors. Brussels, EU: European Commission. Sienkiewicz, L. (2013). Core competencies in PES, entrance requirements and on-going professional development: the current position. Brussels, EU: European Commission.


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Watts, A. G., Sultana, R., & McCarthy, J. (2010). The involvement of the European Union in career guidance policy: A brief history. International Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance, 10, 89–107. doi: 10.1007/s10775-010-9177-9 Zelloth, H. (2009). In demand: Career guidance in EU neighboring countries. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

Author Bios Raimo Vuorinen, PhD., works as a Project Manager in the Finnish Institute for Educational Research at the University of Jyväskylä Finland. He was the Co-ordinator of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, ELGPN during its five phases 2007-15. The Network assisted the European Union Member States and the Commission in developing lifelong guidance policies in both the education and the employment sectors. He has been a Member of the European Commission Lifelong Guidance Expert Group, an Executive Board Member and Vice-President of the International Association for Vocational and Educational Guidance, and a Board member of the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy. During the last two decades, he has given over 250 presentations in 43 countries. Correspondence to: [email protected] Jaana Kettunen is a Researcher at the Finnish Institute for Educational Research of the University of Jyväskylä, Finland. In her work, she has been focusing on the design and pedagogical use of information and communications technology (ICT) in learning and working environments. Her current research focuses on the career practitioners´ ways of experiencing and conceptualizing social media in career services, and aspects that are seen as critical in the successful use of these new technologies in career services. Recently her research has also looked into the ethical practice in social networking and in the role of ICT in relation to national lifelong guidance policies. She has been a member of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network focusing on the position of guidance within educational and employment policies. Correspondence to: [email protected]

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CHAPTER 7

The State of Career Services and Career Professionals in India Narender K. Chadha, Vandana Gambhir, and Chopra Mahavidyalya Department of Psychology, University of Delhi

India is one of the oldest civilizations in the world with a kaleidoscopic variety of people and rich cultural heritage. It has achieved all-around socio-economic progress during the last 70 years of its independence. As the seventh largest country in the world, India stands apart from the rest of Asia, marked off as it is by mountains and the sea, which define a distinct geographical entity for the country. It covers an area of 32,872, 63 sq. km (1,269,346 sq mi), and has a population (as on 1 March 2011) of 1,210,193,422 with 623.7 million males and 586.4 million females (National Portal of India, 2005). India is poised to become the world’s youngest country by 2020, with an average age of 29 years, and includes around 28% of the world’s workforce (UN Habitat, 2013). The working age population of India is expected to increase from 761 million to 869 million during 20112020. Consequently, India will be experiencing a period of “demographic bonus,” in which the growth rate of the working age population will exceed that of the total population. Not only this, India is expected to enjoy its demographic dividend until 2040 (Planning Commission Government of India, 2013). The Institute of Applied Manpower Research (IAMR), a government think tank, has forecasted the requirement of skilled manpower over the coming next decade. According to IAMR’s analysis, the total number of people who need to be trained in varying kinds of skills by 2022 ranges between 249 and 290 million (Dhoot, 2013). To train such a large pool of manpower is a considerable challenge that the country is currently facing. Many initiatives, policies and plans have been formulated to meet the challenge and impart “employable skills” to the country’s growing workforce. One such initiative is enhancing entrepreneurship and planning the career development landscape for the country’s massive youth population. Guidance and

The State of Career Services and Career Professionals in India

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counseling services that can effectively facilitate career decision-making in the young assume a special urgency in the Indian situation.

Background of Career Services in India The National Employment Service (NES) is the public employment service maintained by the Government of India (GoI), which meets the requirements of the International Labor Organization (ILO), Convention 88. The NES is comprised of a network of 978 employment exchanges managed by the state government based on the policies laid down by the Ministry of Labor and Employment. The Employment Exchanges work under the ambit of the Employment Exchanges (Compulsory Notification of Vacancies) Act (1951) and the procedures laid down in the National Employment Service Manual for delivery of services. The major bottlenecks in delivery of services in NES include geographical jurisdiction for registration, seniority in registration of job seekers, and low usage of Information and Communication Technology (ICT), thus, creating islands of detached and unconnected information. Consequently, both jobseekers and employers remained unsatisfied both in terms of type of jobs offered by employers and type of candidates provided for jobs posted, leading to information asymmetry. The NES has undergone a series of changes over the years, the most recent being transformation to the National Career Service by leveraging technology for enhancing the quality and quantity of employment services.

Transformed System: National Career Services On July 2015, the Government of India unveiled the government’s job board, called National Career Service (NCS), portal to meet the growing demand of comprehensive career services for its aspiring population. The NCS was conceived in collaboration with the states, leveraging their experience in employment services and the experience of private job portals. A National ICTbased portal (www.ncs.gov.in) is designed to overcome the inadequacies in the existing NES to connect the employment opportunities with the aspirations of youth and facilitate registration of job seekers, job providers, skill providers, and career counselors. The portal provides job matching services in a highly transparent and user-friendly manner. The NCS has a variety of services like job matching, information about skill development courses, apprenticeship, and career counseling, along with all employment and career related services. The NCS project implementation has resulted in increasing effectiveness of the existing employment exchange network through information symmetry among stakeholders. Currently, there is an increased usage of IT systems for job vacancy postings. A database of candidates and employers for job matching and searching candidates is accessible by stakeholders. A repository of career content

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mapped to international standards for comparability exists for usage. There is widespread access to services through multiple access channels such as a web portal, mobile devices, Common Services Centers (CSCs) and career centers. Multi-lingual call centers are designed to enhance the on-going capacity building of stakeholders of the GoI envisions around 100 fully operational model career centers becoming operational during 2016-17 for candidate registration and tracking. The NCS portal was launched and dedicated to the nation by the Honorable Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi on July 20, 2015. Since its launch, the Ministry has written to all the states and central government ministries to popularize the use of NCS. Discussions have been held with industry associations like the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII), the Associated Chambers of Commerce of India (ASSOCHAM), Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce & Industry (FICCI), The National Association of Software & Services Companies (NASSCOM) and the Indian Staffing Federation for garnering vacancies on the NCS platform. Capacity building of employment exchange officers has also been initiated and over 1000 officers have already been trained. The feedback received from the states and industry associations indicates that there is a need to further increase the awareness of NCS among stakeholders through targeted Information, Education & Communication (IEC) campaigns and encourage more job fairs so that job seekers and employers can converge for job-skill matching and placements. Memorandum of Understandings (MOUs) with strategic partners have been signed with leading job portals and placement/staffing agencies to enrich the bouquet of employment services. The NCS has over a million employers and 35 million jobseekers registered on the portal along with over 27,000 skill providers. The aim is to enhance focus on career counseling as a key activity of NCS to enable the aspiring youth to pursue the right career choice according to their aptitude so that they join the workforce with better skills for promoting growth and development.

Main Stakeholders of NCS The NCS is accessible to all stakeholders, based on partnerships, and provides large numbers of services supported by call centers or helpdesks and through a network of new nodes like CSC (common service centers). The main stakeholders of NCS include unemployed candidates seeking jobs. This includes students seeking career counseling services and candidates looking for vocational and occupational guidance. Illiterate, under-privileged sections of society, and blue-collar workers seeking placements and guidance and major stakeholders are offered help through NCS, along with persons with different abilities, ex-servicemen, veterans, and senior citizens. Employers seeking suitable candidates for specific roles can select and screen the profiles. Thus, the National Career Services is the one-stop destination for all information and services related to careers and career service providers.


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The NCS is conceptualized as a comprehensive, multi-pronged, transformational project. Key aspects of this project include: 

Establishment of career centers which would be enabled by making the right infrastructure and linkages available to perform counseling functions;

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Implementation of a comprehensive capacity-building initiative for augmenting the skills of career center professionals and other ecosystem counseling partners;

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Setting up a national portal which will act as a platform to bridge the gap between government and the private job providing ecosystem, job seekers and the skill development ecosystem;

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Providing access to tools to analyze skill-wise the demands of industry and supply of jobseekers, as well as access to a rich knowledge repository of career counseling content in multiple languages so that candidates are counseled appropriately;

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Collaboration with various stakeholders like state governments, schools, colleges, jobseekers, skill development institutions, employers, non-governmental organizations, volunteer agencies, technology partners, and verification agencies; and

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Establishing institutional/governance structures and revenue models for securing sustainability and relevance of the services being offered through these centers. (Directorate General of Training Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, 2014)

The National Career Service is comprised of three broad divisions: (a) career counseling and guidance, (b) skill development; and (c) placement. The structural architecture of NCS includes tripartite bodies, i.e., state governments, examination bodies, and manufacturing & industry associations, which share institutional bi-directional linkages with the three service divisions. It is a one stop platform for various stakeholders like employers, recruiting agencies (both public and private), students, and job seekers. Vacancies, apprenticeship training programs, and on-the-job training initiatives are taken by industries for students, apprentices and young professionals. In addition, specific agencies are working with NCS to provide industry-specific skill development courses to allow the workforce to enhance and excel in their careers. The NCS portal integrates a five-dimensional operational framework coordinated in one platform to facilitate the purpose of comprehensive career services. These five dimensions areportal users, institutional linkages, other significant inputs, delivery channels, and outcomes. Job seekers, employers, recruiting agencies, and students seeking career guidance are the main portal users of NCS. The primary roles and functions of fresh and experienced job seekers is to create

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and update a standardized profile. Job seekers are provided with job search and matching services along with employment market information. Employers and recruiting agencies perform their roles by posting vacancy notifications and indexing the candidate database with verified credentials. Both private and public recruiting agencies share the employee database through collaboration to ease the recruitment process of employers.

Figure 7.1. Architecture of National Career Services from the Government of India Students seeking career guidance are helped through a single window for career counseling and guidance. Skill building and placement services are offered by defining career paths and orienting them to proper channels.

Institutional Linkages A tripartite institutional linkage is built among state governments, examination bodies and manufacturing and industry associations. The state governments help in arranging advocacy campaigns like job fairs. They act as additional service delivery points who play a major role in linking the NCS with existing state portals. They also do the work of data digitization.


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The major examination bodies like the Central Board of Secondary Education, State Boards and Universities are also linked to NCS as a part of the institutional linkage program. Their role is to do candidate credential verification from databases and other periodical pushand-pull mechanisms for the system. Another important linkage is with industry and manufacturing units to increase notification of vacancies and to fulfil skilled manpower recruitment. The NCS along with industry associations standardise the National Classification of Occupation (NCO) codes and run train-the-trainer programs for staff.

Other Inputs to NCS Many other institutes and agencies are also linked to NCS to provide skill development, apprenticeship, and on-the-job training to young professionals. Affiliation with industry is necessary to report vacancies, apprenticeship programs, and on-the-job training for potential candidates. Academic institutions are associated to offer internships and skill-based training to young candidates. Specific agencies related to skill development and information management systems are also connected to the main portal. These include organizations like the Labor Market Information System (LMIS), National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), National Skills Registry (NSR), and Aadhar Unique Identification.

Delivery Channels There is a tie-up with delivery platforms, call centers and value added service interfaces to offer streamlined delivery of career services. Common service centers and portals like e-kiosks are linked to the NCS. Multi-lingual call center based services are allied to handle diversity issues. Value added services are offered through mobile apps, a tablet friendly interface and Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) based services.

Outcomes The outcomes of the NCS endeavor are satisfied job seekers, employers and students in terms of more vacancies, low turnaround time, and transmission of symmetrical information across all stakeholders. The presence of a large verified and filtered candidate database helps employers to reach the desired candidates. The services help students to make a career choice based on accurate information and contemporary industry trends. The Management Information System (MIS) is strengthened due to e-filing of reports and returns downloadable in multiple formats.

NCS Career Centers The NCS is focused on establishing career centers in a phased approach ensuring that a standardized set of services is offered across the system. There is a proposal to implement nationwide Model Career Centers in industrial clusters, education and training institutions, tertiary sector clusters, rural and semi-urban centers, corporate setups, and employment

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exchanges. States and institutions keen to set up such centers are expected to replicate services offered in these model centers to other career centers. The career centers will connect local youth and other job-seekers with all possible job opportunities in a transparent and effective manner through the use of technology as well as through counseling and training. While the state-of-the-art technology-driven National Career Service Portal provides information about available job opportunities and resources for career centers to function effectively, the career centers will be pivotal to outreach and offer counseling interface for many millions of aspiring youth from rural, semi urban areas as well as from disadvantaged sections of the society. These centers will be staffed by motivated and competent personnel enabled with the necessary tools and infrastructure for effectively and continuously assessing demand for skills in the labor market. They will guide youth visiting the centers and outreach to the schools, colleges, and training institutions about the training, apprenticeship, and job opportunities in the market. They will be responsible for connecting youth and other job seekers with jobs through the portal, job fairs, and other possible interface with employees such as campus placements. The function of mobilizing employers and other placement agencies to connect to NCS for meeting their human resource requirements will also be under the purview of these centers. The Model Career Centers will be the role model for replication of career related services. For supporting the professional assistance requirement, the ministry will be launching a scheme for young professionals to be assigned to these model career centers to facilitate the integration and institutionalization of new processes. The Directorate General of Training (DGE&T) has proposed to enlist competent young professionals through a centralized scheme for a period of three years across these model career centers. These professionals will prepare regular reports on success parameters, to be shared with all stakeholders and will identify best practices and pain areas or bottlenecks in model career center implementation. They will also coordinate outreach activities to schools and colleges and conduct job-fairs including interaction with academia, local industry, manufacturing associations, training providers and other stakeholders. In case, a center requires the services of a counselor instead of a young professional for better operationalization of the model career center, the same may be requested in the proposal.

NCS Action Plan The NCS action plan and key activities involved with the roll-out of the National Career Service initiative are laid down in the policy document. As per the action plan, there will be a two-way interaction with stakeholders to take inputs for portal design and offer services to them. The central ministries and state governments will be directly involved in the revision of forms and


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processes. The educational institutions will serve their roles for providing candidate databases on a regular basis. Training providers will keep on updating and consolidating training calendars & databases of skilled people. Industries and employers will display their vacancy notifications. There will be an inter linking of state systems with the national portal. Advocacy and awareness campaigns will be launched for capacity building for NCS. Training programs, at national and regional levels for training of GoI and state personnel, will be conducted at regular locations. Ongoing activities will be held for developing resources for career guidance, counseling and train-the-trainers programs. Value added services like SMSs, emails, and mobile apps will disseminate information to all potential stakeholders. There will be a continuous monitoring and evaluation of the overall activities and services of the NCS by regulatory authority. Overall, the National Career Services (NCS) initiative aims to address the gaps in the employment market by strategic interventions like improving decent employment, enhancing quality of workforce, enhancing female labor force participation, entrepreneurial endeavors, increasing informal to formal transitions, engaging with the rural workforce for higher productivity, re-employment (second life) opportunities etc. It is a path-breaking initiative meant to streamline the career development services in the country for a better future.

Career Services for Major Populations in India India is a diverse nation comprising of in-school youth, university students, employed adults, unemployed adults, and other specialized groups within its population. Specialized schemes, policies, and programs are formulated and implemented by state and central level ministries and departments to fulfil educational, counseling, vocational and career-related needs. A panoramic view of these is documented below.

K-12 (In-school youth) Guidance and counseling in the country is offered at k -12 elementary, middle and high school level using different approaches depending upon the kind of program organized (in schools) and the personnel engaged in imparting guidance and counseling services. Depending on the services offered, these approaches may be grouped as the Specialist Approach, Career Teacher Approach, and Teacher Counselor Approach. The Government of India initiated and implemented the scheme of Rashtriya Madhyamaik Shiksha Abhiyan (RMSA) under the Ministry of Human Resource Development to fulfill the vision of offering education and career services to the potential youth of the country. Under the specialist approach, special full-time counselors are hired in the schools to offer guidance and counseling to the students. Keeping in view the needs and specific concerns

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of students, guidance and counseling activities are organized for the students. In addition, group discussions, role-plays, drama and counseling are offered by organizing orientation programs and sensitization workshops. Career teachers serve special roles in school settings. They are responsible for collection of career information and its dissemination to students. They also organize group activities and make students aware of various career paths and future roles. They are trained to do psychological assessment and testing with students and make them aware of their aptitude, personality and subject interests. They also apply innovative techniques like play therapy, art, drama, counseling, referral etc. to guide students to the right career pathway. Teacher counselors also play an integral role at k-12 level for enlightening students. They serve the function of integration of guidance philosophy and principles in day-to-day teaching work and other school activities and during interaction with students, parents, and principals. They are also responsible for dissemination of career information to students by discussions, display, films and one-to-one counseling.

Higher Education India is shaping its younger workforce through skill development and entrepreneurship. The institutional framework for skill development and entrepreneurship is created in the country through government and private sector initiatives. There are 23 central & state ministries engaged to train 350 million people by 2022. Besides, National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC), a scheme under Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, has a target of skilling up millions of people by 2022 by fostering private sector initiatives. In higher education at the university and college level, skill-based vocational institutes have been opened to make youth industry-ready for professional roles. Quality trainers have been hired to offer career-oriented skills training in several fields. The trainers are certified by the Quality Assessors who ensure consistent outcomes of the assessment and certification process for these trainers. Retired employees, ex-servicemen and defense personnel are hired to impart industry-specific training for skilled careers. The Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship has also launched an Entrepreneurship Policy Framework that fosters the development of government-led entrepreneurship organizations and corporate trainers. Specialized business trainers and experienced existing faculties are hired to offer training programs and guidance to budding entrepreneurs. The aim of training and counseling is to educate and equip potential and early stage entrepreneurs across India and to connect them to peers, mentors and incubators. Entrepreneurship Hubs (E-Hubs) are designed to support new ideas and convert them into workable strategies. There is a focus on under-represented groups and women to encourage and


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catalyze a culture shift to entrepreneurship. Guidance is offered to improve ease of doing business and access to finance. The overall agenda of inculcating these steps into higher education is to foster social entrepreneurship and grassroots innovations for economic growth and development.

Employed and Unemployed Adults The NCS portal provides a nation-wide online platform for employed and unemployed jobseekers and employers for job matching in a dynamic, efficient, and responsive manner. The NCS is a rich repository of career content on over 3000 occupations across 53 sectors. For employment of adults, the NCS is connected to major recruiting agencies of the country like Union Public Service Commission (UPSC), Staff Selection Commissions (SSC), Institute of Banking Personnel Selection (IBPS), State Public Services Commissions (SPSC), Public Sector Units (PSUs) and Directorates of Education (DE). Information about skill development courses, apprenticeship, internship, career counseling is regularly updated on the portal for the unemployed adult population of the country. They are encouraged to enroll, register and look through the databases themselves from anywhere using the online forms without visiting employment exchanges.

Other Special Groups The Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment ensures the education, employment and career growth opportunities for the minority groups of the Indian population. The state and central channelizing agencies hire special trainers for empowerment of Schedule Casts, Schedule Tribes, Other Backward Classes, Denotified Tribes, Disabled, Senior Citizens, and other vulnerable groups. There is also a provision for education and employment for socially and educationally backward classes.

Credentials and Empanelment of Career Professionals The National Career Service (NCS) has created a Network of Career Counselors on the NCS platform where career centers are the hub of counseling services. The services include administration of psychometric tests to assess the student’s or job seeker’s personality, aptitude, and interest. These tests are available via both online and offline modes. The NCS Portal provides an opportunity to browse through the list of the approved counselors and book an appointment with them. Counseling services are available on a face-to-face basis or via online platforms depending upon the chosen medium. The main aim of career counseling is to assist the job seekers in choosing a field that is in tune with their skills and their career expectations. The NCS Project also envisages offering vocational guidance services through empaneled Counselors and Vocational Guidance (VG) Experts, having requisite experience and expertise.

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The NCS project has empaneled counselors and vocational guidance (VG) experts that are engaged in career development and employment related activities. The eligibility criteria for counselors/VG experts applying for such empanelment are detailed below.

Eligibility for Counselors The counselors empaneling with the NCS need to meet the standard eligibility criteria. The counselor should be working in one or more of the given three areas: (a) career development and its coordination, (b) employment services like staffing, placement, recruitment; or (c) offering specialized counseling in a relevant counseling setting. The counselor needs to have the requisite qualifications and experience from one of the three categories mentioned below to be eligible for empanelment with NCS. 

Category A: the requisite qualification needed is a M.A. in Psychology, Social Work, Education, Counseling, Child Development, or Special Education. A minimum of one year experience in counseling in the area of specialization is required.

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Category B: the requisite qualification needed is a graduate degree in any discipline from a recognized university with a diploma in Guidance and Counseling from a recognized institution. A minimum of one year experience in counseling in the area of specialization is required.

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Category C: the requisite qualification needed is a post graduate degree from any recognized University with Diploma in Guidance and Counseling from a recognized institution like NCERT.

Further, counselors working with institutions like the network of Employment Exchanges, Career Centers, Model Career Centers, University Employment Information and Guidance Bureaus (UEI&GB) are directly eligible for empanelment with NCS. However, these officers are not entitled to receive remuneration. The counselor must not have a history of being disqualified from employment or affiliation due to disciplinary reasons or otherwise and nor have been convicted by a court.

Responsibilities of Counselor The counselor has the responsibility for the successful discharge of services to the candidates seeking them. They must regularly update information on their profile section on the NCS portal. Timely update of calendar and schedule on the NCS portal is also mandatory for them. They are to adhere to guidelines to maintain uniformity in services being offered through the NCS. Providing appropriate counseling to jobseekers or students including administering and interpreting the results of the standardized test also come under their domain of work. It is advisable for counselors to use NCO codes for better interpretation of results. Refreshing and


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updating the technical knowledge using the IT based provisions made on the portal is also essential for their role.

Eligibility for Vocal Guidance Experts The Vocational Guidance (VG) experts empaneling with the NCS need to meet the standard eligibility criteria. A person may apply as a VG expert if he or she is a retired Government or Public Sector Unit (PSU) officer (Group B gazette officers of central government and above) dealing with HR, recruitment, selection, public relations, finance, marketing, or administration. Private sector specialists working in HR, recruitment, selection, public relations, finance, marketing, administration and NGOs are also eligible for the role of a VG expert. Existing employment officers in employment exchanges, vocational rehabilitation centers and coaching cum guidance center can also serve the position of a VG expert. Self-employed like entrepreneurs, chartered accountants, doctors, architects and individuals dealing with overseas placement, employment and studies abroad are of great help as an expert to offer guidance and counseling. The essential qualifications and experience for a VG expert for empanelment with NCS is denoted below: 

Category 1: A post graduate degree from any recognized university is required along with a minimum five years of experience in counseling/vocational guidance in the area of specialization.

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Category 2: A graduate degree from any recognized university is required with a minimum ten years of experience in counseling and vocational guidance in the area of specialization.

Responsibilities of a VG Expert A VG expert is obliged to perform various roles and responsibilities. Like counselors, they must regularly update information on their profile section on the NCS portal and provide timely update of their calendar and schedule. Adhering to guidelines to maintain uniformity in services being offered through the NCS is compulsory for them. They also must refresh and update their knowledge using the IT based provisions made on the portal. They must provide suitable guidance services to jobseekers and students in their areas of expertise. Their job is to help jobseekers and students in administration of the tests, if necessary, and referring him or her to a counselor for interpretation of the same. The administration of tests may be done in local languages in case required by the counselee. Thus, under the NCS initiative, the NCS Portal will be the platform where various stakeholders will be interacting for exchange of career and employment related opportunities. The counselors empaneled by the Directorate General of Employment (DGE), Ministry of Labor and Employment, will offer the various services through

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this platform and leverage the network of career centers (employment exchanges) in the delivery of these services.

The NCS- Partnership Project The NCS Portal provides an open architecture for partnering of institutions and organizations for delivery of career and employment related services. The National Career Service (NCS) portal envisages stakeholders’ partnership in the career development space. These stakeholders arestate governments, various departments of the central government and private organizations including corporate, aggregators, placement agencies, private job portals etc.

Eligibility Criteria for Partnering Institutions under NCS The organizations and institutions partnering with the NCS need to meet the specified eligibility criteria. The organization or institution should be working in the areas of career development and its coordination. Such organizations should be involved in employment services like staffing, placement and recruitment promoting commerce, industry and entrepreneurship for direct and indirect employment. The organization or institution should be registered in India under one or more of the acts, such as the Societies Registration Act, Indian Trusts Act, Companies Act, Shops and Establishments Act, and the central or state government authority statues. The organization and institution must have been in operation for a minimum of two years from the date of submission of application. In case of organizations providing highly skilled employment or career services, the criteria may be relaxed. The applicant must have a minimum of 50 employees on its payroll as of 1st April of the financial year of submission of application. In case of organizations providing highly skilled employment or career services, the criteria may be relaxed. The organization must not have been blacklisted by any central or state government department in the last three years of the date of submission of proposal. Thus, NCS also provides a scope of partnering with allied institutions, industry and organizations to take maximum benefit of all the stakeholders in offering the holistic career development services to the people.

Future Directions India has a significant advantage with a young population and a declining dependency ratio, offering huge potential for a demographic dividend. There are, however, challenges which need to be addressed for fully procuring this unique dividend in the present scenario. Vocational guidance, career counseling, career development, and credentialing of career development practitioners are currently at a very young stage of development in India. Most


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young people have either limited or no availability for career development services. Typically, the young career aspirant in India makes choices based on hearsay, prevailing career beliefs and prestige variables pertaining to specific careers. The existing education system does not equip them for making a career choice based on their interests, aptitudes, personality traits, and market needs. The avenues of well-defined career plans and career paths for the young people are few and remain localized to the accessibility of only a small segment of the society. The flow of information on the availability of diverse kinds of careers and job opportunities is tardy. As a result, young people in India face an environment in which they find themselves confused regarding the right kind of career to choose. In the last decade, the economy grew at an annual rate of around 8%, but job growth was below 1% (Ministry of Labor and Employment, 2016). The proportion of persons in the labor force declined from 43% in 2004-05 to 39.5% in 2011-12, with a sharp drop in female participation rate from 29% to 21.9% (Ministry of Labor and Employment, 2016). Although the overall unemployment rate is at 2.2%, the unemployment rate for youth in the age group 15 to 29 years, and particularly those possessing secondary level of education and above, are higher. More than 52% of the workers are engaged in self-employment and a significant proportion of women workers are primarily home based (Ministry of Labor and Employment, 2016). Another challenge faced by the country is a dearth of qualified and trained career service providers and trainers. India is facing an acute shortage of professionals who can impart employable skills and career paths to its growing workforce over the next few decades. A pool of trained, accredited and certified career counselors is needed to cater to career/employment needs of youth and adults. There is a scarcity of well qualified, trained career practitioners working in all levels of education, colleges, universities, business, industry and workforce. The formal training, certification, and accreditation of professionals who provide career services have just begun to standardize in the country. Presently, the undergraduates and postgraduates with a major in psychology are playing the role of career practitioners and counselors in schools and universities. A handful of these are have a doctorate in psychology with counseling or educational psychology as the subject of their research and practice. The National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT) provides a one-year diploma course for training of professionals in guidance and counseling. The course aims at enhancing the skills and competencies of teachers to promote holistic development of pupils and handle their academic, socio-emotional, and ethical problems. The course is open to teachers, teacher educators, school administrators and untrained guidance personnel from India, other SAARC, and Afro-Asian countries. India needs a large pool of career professionals to help people of all ages to investigate employment, work-related resources and training options. High quality guidance and counseling

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services are required to meet the needs of the national population and to support lifelong learning, career management and continuous professional development. Certified and accredited career professionals in terms of knowledge and technological skills are essential to assist candidates to find jobs, apprenticeships and trainings. In addition, career professionals are also required at school level to advise students about various career options and facilitate smooth transition from school to work. With such a high need and demand for career professionals to serve the youth, adults, and especially the female population of the country, the opportunity to be a part of this endeavor of NCDA will provide a platform to meet the growing needs of the Indian workforce. It will be beneficial to partner with national and international organizations engaged in career development and enhancement practices to reap the benefits of professional practices in the country. The magnitude of the population currently in need of career guidance and counseling coupled with the growing demand for a skilled workforce are challenges that can be met with such accredited programs.

References Directorate General of Training Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship. (2014). National career service. Retrieved from http://dget.nic.in/content/students/nationalcareer-service.php Dhoot, Vikas. (2013, June 7). Training 500 mn people by 2022 unrealistic: Gov’t think-tank IAMR. Economic Times. Retrieved from http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/jobs/training-500-mn-people-by-2022-unrealisticgovt-think-tank-iamr/articleshow/20469875.cms Ministry of Labor and Employment. (2016). National career service project: Partnership policy. Retrieved from https://www.ncs.gov.in/NCSPolicyDocuments/NCS%20Onboarding%20Policy_07Jan20 16.pdf National Portal of India. (2005). India at a glance. Retrieved from http://www.archive.india.gov.in/knowindia/profile.php?id=2 Planning Commission Government of India. (2013). Social inclusion [PowerPoint slides]. Retrieved from https://www.slideshare.net/PlanComIndia/social-inclusion-in-the-12thplan-2012-2017 UN Habitat. (2012). State of urban youth report 2012-2013: Youth in the prosperity of cities. Nairobi, Kenya. Retrieved from https://unhabitat.org/the-state-of-urban-youth-20122013youth-in-the-prosperity-of-cities


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Author Bios N.K. Chadha, Ph.D., President of APCDA and Dean (Faculty of Behavioral and Social Sciences) & Chairperson (Research & Doctoral Programs) – Manav Rachna International University, is a stalwart in the field of Psychology with 40 years of experience across academia and corporate settings. He received the Global Practitioner of the Year Award from the National Career Development Association, USA in 2015 and the Life Time Achievement Award in Psychology from the International Conference on Multidisciplinary Healthcare in 2014. He has authored 25 books many of which are used for MA (Psychology and Applied Psychology) and MBA programs across various universities in India. Further, he is the chief Psychometrician for Mindler’s assessment tool which is widely used in India for career decision making by private sector and government sectors senior school level. Correspondence at [email protected] Vandana Gambhir, Ph.D., Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology, Keshav Mahavidyalaya, University of Delhi and the India Country Director for APCDA, is an alumnus of Nehru Homoeopathic Medical College and Hospital, one of the premier and reputed homoeopathic colleges of India. A gold medalist of the University of Delhi, she started her professional career as a medical physician and later excelled and received her doctorate in the discipline of psychology. Her field of involvement in psychology research work spans psychometric testing, organizational behavior, career competencies, personality psychology, social psychology, competency mapping, positive psychology, consumer behavior, and geriatrics mental health. Correspondence to [email protected]

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CHAPTER 8

Career Services and Professionals in Japan Shujiro Mizuno and Yasuji Ozawa Rissho University

Keiki Matsumoto Japan EAP Systems

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare (MHLW) and the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MECSST) are jointly responsible for career services in Japan. MHLW actively works to establish a base line for career consultant competencies and to standardize the quality of career services for adults, whereas MECSST is responsible for career development education in schools (from elementary to high school) and higher education.

Career Consultant Certification Under the Revised Promotion of Human Resources Act (2016), various career service qualifications became subsumed under a single government “career consultant.” Originally, a variety of providers of career services responded to the practical needs of the private sector. As their services differed in range and quality, the government decided to set a baseline for career consultant competencies. Candidates wishing to qualify to take the exam to become a career consultant must complete a basic educational curriculum of 140 hours, divided as follows (Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare, n.d.): ● 10 hours on the social meaning of career consulting (the necessity of career information support, the role of career consultant, and career consulting activities); ● 30 hours acquiring knowledge (career development theory, self-knowledge, work knowledge, vocational identity development; personnel management and labor management, labor market knowledge, school education system and career education, mental health knowledge, life stages and developmental tasks, transitions, personal characteristics); ● 70 hours on the skills (basic skills including counseling, group facilitation, record

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management, and managing the progress of the entire consultation process; skills necessary in the consultation process including setting of consultation scene, support for self-understanding, support for understanding of work, support for self-development, support for implementation strategies, and support for adaptation to new work); ● 20 hours on professional behaviors and ethical conduct (education and dissemination activities on career development and career consulting, networking, referral to specialized agencies, importance on receiving consultation on professional conduct and career consulting and attitude as a career consultant); and ● 10 hours of other career-related subjects. Candidates must then pass a written exam, a skills demonstration exercise, and a screening interview. Every five years, career consultants must be re-certified; this involves an additional 38 hours of training (eight hours on subject-area knowledge and 30 hours on skill related areas). For the 2016 exam, the first taken by candidates for government certification, the written exam pass rate was 74.2%, whereas skill testing was 51.5%. In 2011, it was reported that the pass rate for the 2nd grade skill exam was 42%, while 1st grade was as low as 25% (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2011). The government career consultant certificate arose out of necessity. Given this need for national certification, as of November 1st 2016, only government certified career consultants are allowed to use the title of ‘career consultant’. Many private training organizations had already been offering certification programs. It is estimated that they had already certified about 48,000 people as career consultants. So, as a transitional measure, those who have already been certified by private sector organizations, and who meet the standards set by the government, are eligible to register as a government approved career consultant if they apply for the registration process and pay the fee for that procedure. According to the Revised Promotion of Human Resources Act (2016) those already registered, as career consultants, need to be properly certified to continue to use the title of “career consultant.” In addition to this base line license, the title of 2nd grade skilled career trainer will continue to be offered. 2nd grade holders are regarded as master practitioners, whereas 1st grade holders are regarded as trainer or leader level practitioners. Around 7,000 have been certified as 1st and 2nd grade skilled career trainers. Ten training institutions for educating career consultants are licensed by the government. The Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (2015) revealed that: ● 22.1 % of career consultants were working at government related vocational agencies; ● 21.6% at various companies; ● 18.2% in a university setting; ● 16.4% private at vocational agencies;

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● 7.5% at Non-Profit Organizations (NPO); ● 5.3% in a private educational setting; and ● 2.9% at junior and senior high schools.

Career Services in a Work Setting Hello Work and Dual Training System The Hello Work centers were created by Article 23 of the Act for Establishment of Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (1999). There are 15,697 career consultants currently working at the 544 Hello Work centers in Japan. Their main job of the center is to offer career consulting for every visitor, including assistance with job searches, employment insurance, and the provision of work-related information. They are all trained to use the job card, which is a tool to help jobseekers design a lifetime career path and make a list of skills to demonstrate their employability. Jobseekers can download the job card application form from the Internet. It requires applicants to fill out a career plan, their employment records, qualifications and licenses, education, and training. Jobseekers may also create their job card with the help of a career consultant. While job card has enabled some jobseekers to be re-employed, others need practical vocational training to gain employment. In 2004, the Japanese dual training system was implemented to enhance jobseekers’ employability. The dual training system combines formal education with on-site training at private enterprises.

Self-Career Dock System Under the Revised Promotion of Human Resources Act (2016), any existing employee can use job card periodically for a career consultation with a career consultant. Career consultants are now able to actively engage in providing counseling for employees of small or middle-sized companies, which has been made possible by a 500,000 yen grant from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. The self-career dock system was enacted to assist life-long career design and to help job seekers become autonomous in this uncertain world of employment in accordance with the Japan Revitalization Strategy Revision 2015 proposed by the current Prime Minister, Abe Shinzo, and his Cabinet (Prime Minister and His Cabinet, 2015).

Stress Check Examination According the Stress Check Policy on Industrial Safety and Health Law (2015), companies with over 50 employees are obliged to offer their staff the option of a “stress check” exam every year. Though employees can choose whether to take up the offer or not, it is recommended that all of them accept. It is stipulated that the exam and the follow-up individual counseling sessions must


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be conducted by a medical doctor or related professional. Career consultants may work alongside such professionals to offer counseling and consultation on stress related issues.

Company Career Consultation Room According to the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training (2015), career consultations within companies have the following three objectives: ● the retention of employees; ● promoting dialogue among employees; and ● the creation of meaning in life and work. Career consultants are therefore expected to function as professionals to promote meaningful relationships and facilitate better communication within companies.

Private Job Placement Agencies The collapse of the “Bubble Economy” in 1991 created unemployment and changed the trend of a single career path in one company. Many jobseekers registered at private online job placement agencies in search of new careers or jobs. These agencies match jobseekers’ qualifications and wishes with companies’ employment needs. Such agencies have a large database of employment options, so many jobseekers use them. In addition, this service comes without any cost to the jobseeker, because advertisement fees fund private job placement agencies.

Career Services in the School Setting Kindergarten and Elementary Schools In kindergartens and elementary schools, it is the responsibility of the teacher to provide career education, in order to promote initiative and autonomy in children. Each school is also required to appoint a career education supervisor. According to the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (2011), 83.9% of schools have teachers who act as career education supervisors. Nevertheless, 76.9 % of homeroom teachers reported that although they were aware of children’s need for career education, most have not received training in career education and/or career guidance.

Middle and High Schools The goal of career education in middle and high schools is to develop independence in students that will enable them to plan their own lives, build relationships and act responsibly. Emphasis is placed on experiential learning through activities such as volunteering and on the job training. A report showed that 98% of middle schools had appointed career education supervisors (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2011). However, although

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most of these were licensed teachers, they had received no training as career consultants. The main responsibility of career education supervisors in these schools is to create a career guidance education program to enhance the career related capabilities of students in four areas: ● building human relationships; ● gathering information; ● life planning; and ● decision making. Homeroom and guidance teachers provide career counseling for individual students. Many schools have linked up with career consultants, NPO’s, and other organizations to develop the career-related capabilities of students.

Higher Education Chapter 6 of the Standards for Establishing Universities (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology, 2016) requires all such institutions to set up ‘career centers’ that provide job coaching, vocational training, career counseling, career coaching and career coordination. Six or seven career consultants and career related staff are employed at each center. These centers provide training for career consultants, although the education and qualifications of staff are not necessarily defined. According to the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (2011), a survey showed the percentage of career related classes offered by universities was as follows: ● education on attitudes toward career and vocation, 65%; ● life design and life career classes, 63.2%; and ● internship classes, 57.3%. Besides career related classes, 67.7% of the universities offer internship programs. Vocational schools and junior colleges basically follow the same guidelines laid down by Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (2011a) in terms of career education and vocational guidance.

Career Consulting for the General Population Job Café (One Stop Service Center) A Job Café is a ‘support station’, which has been set up in 46 prefectures and employs 6 to 10 staff, including career consultants and clinical psychologists. It is a free, one-stop service center for people between the ages of 15 and 39 who are unemployed and are in search of work. It


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therefore aims to promote youth independence and career development, and also to support women with small children. A program called ‘Job Café Mothers’ has been established at some Job Cafés.

Job Coaches Employment and life support centers for people with disabilities have been established in each of the 47 healthcare and welfare zones for people with disabilities in Japan. Around 1,200 job coaches have been assigned to them permanently, and an additional 750 visit from time to time. A further 200 job coaches are dispatched by the government to private companies who hire the disabled.

Future Directions As the average age increases and the birth rate continues to fall, the Japanese population is expected to decline rapidly. Therefore, shortages in the labor force will accelerate and artificial intelligence will become increasing important in the workplace. Collaboration between Nomura Research Institute (2015) and Frey and Osborne (2013) has estimated that in 10 to 20 years, 49% of jobs will be replaced by artificial intelligence and robots. This is viewed as a fourth Industrial Revolution that will change the outlook of the job market, and the need for career services and professionals in Japan will increase ever more.

Educating Career Consultant Professionals As noted above, formal education for career consultants arose largely out of practical need. The Japanese higher education sector has not developed professional career training courses at either undergraduate or graduate level, though in 2016 the University of the Air did start to set up courses that meet the requirements for career consultant recertification. Although some universities offer courses on subjects like vocational guidance, career counseling, and life design, none offer a systematic training program for those wishing to become professional career consultants. Japan definitely needs a professional school that offers a doctorate in career consultancy, not only for the purpose of training professionals, but also to build the knowledge that can help employees develop their capabilities and sense of well-being. There are a few universities that teach graduate level counseling courses. Most of these are now shifting into clinical psychology courses. By 2019, the title of clinical psychologist will become a national license, so that most universities will offer clinical psychology as a graduate degree.

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The Human Resources Development Policy There are two targets specified in the draft of the 10th Human Resources Development Plan created by the Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare (2016): (a) to promote support stations; (b) to encourage the use of Job Cards for career consultation. About 87,000 people have already completed the 140 hours of training necessary to qualify as an accredited career consultant. The Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare plans to increase the number of career consultants to 100,000 in 10 years. Also, by 2020, through the use of the job card, three million employees will have had individual career consultations. A July 2016 estimate suggests that 1,150,000 have already had such a consultation.

References Act for Establishment of Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare [厚生労働省設置法]. (1999). Retrieved from http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/cyuo-syocho/990427honbu/kourou-h.html Frey, C. B., & Osborne, M. A. (2013). The future of employment: How susceptible are jobs to computerization? Retrieved from http://www.oxfordmartin.ox.ac.uk/downloads/academic/The_Future_of_Employment.pdf Japan Institute for Labor and Policy. (2015). Kigyō-nai kyaria konsarutingu to sono Nihon-teki tokushitsu [In-house career counseling and its characteristics in Japan]. (JILPT Research Report No.171). Retrieved from http://www.jil.go.jp/english/reports/jilpt_research/2015/no.171.html Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. (2011). Chūō kyōiku shingikai tōshin`kongo no gakkō ni okeru kyaria kyōiku shokugyō kyōiku no arikata ni tsuite. [Report on the Central Education Council about career education and vocational education in future schools]. Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chukyo/chukyo3/004/siryo/attach/1303768.htm Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. (2015). Bun bukagakushō `sangyō kyōsō-ryoku kaigi koyō jinzai WG [First meeting of industry competitiveness: employment and human resources]. Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/en/about/pablication/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2016/07/13/1374478_00 1.pdf Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology. (2016). Daigaku setchi kijun [Standard for establishing universities]. Retrieved from http://www.mext.go.jp/b_menu/shingi/chousa/koutou/053/gijiroku/__icsFiles/afieldfile/2 012/10/30/1325943_02_3_1.pdf


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Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (2011). Heisei 23-nendo `kyaria konsarutei~ingu kenkyūkai ― daigakunado kyaria kyōiku bukai' hōkoku-sho [Heisei era 23 "Career consulting study group” report]. Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/2r98520000026lgi.html Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (2016). Dai 10-ji shokugyō nōryoku kaihatsu kihon keikaku [The 10th vocational capacity development basic plan]. Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/stf/houdou/0000122803.html Ministry of Health, Labor, and Welfare. (n.d.). Beppyō (karikyuramu) [Appendix (Curriculum)]. Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/file/06-Seisakujouhou-11800000Shokugyounouryokukaihatsukyoku/0000105089_3.pdf Normura Research Institute. (2015). Nihon no rōdō jinkō no 49-pāsento ga jinkō chinō ya robotto-tō de daitai kanō ni [49% of the Japanese working population can be replaced by artificial intelligence and robots] [Press release]. Retrieved from http://www.nri.com/Home/jp/news/2015/151202_1.aspx Prime Minister of Japan and His Cabinet. (2015). Nihon saikō senryaku kaitei 2015 [Japan revitalization strategy revision 2015]. Retrieved from http://www.kantei.go.jp/jp/singi/keizaisaisei/pdf/dai1jp.pdf Revised Promotion of Human Resources Act [職業能力開発促進法]. (2016). Retrieved from http://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/law/detail_mainvm=02&id=1854 Stress Check Policy based on Industrial Safety and Health Law [改訂労働安全衛生法に基づくストレスチェック制度について]. (2014). Retrieved from http://www.mhlw.go.jp/bunya/roudoukijun/anzeneisei12/pdf/150422-1.pdf

Author Bios Shujiro Mizuno, Ed.D, is a certified clinical psychologist, professor in the Psychology Department at Rissho University, and former President of Certified Counselors in Japan. His major fields are ethics, moral education, and counseling psychology. He coauthored Happiness and Virtue beyond East and West, Charles Tuttle, 2012. He is the executive director of Japan Industrial Counseling Association. Correspondence to: [email protected] Yasuji Ozawa is a professor in the Psychology Department, Rissho University. He is the President of Japan Industrial Association and the NPO Institute of Career Counseling. He is the executive director of the Japanese Institute of Career Development. His major fields are career counseling psychology and victims’ support. He co-authored an article titled, “The Relationship between Children’s Bereavement Experiences due to Disasters and Behavior Problems,” featured in Health

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Care in 2014. Correspondence to: [email protected] Keiki Matsumoto, M.A., is the President of Japan EAP Systems and the Vice President of the Japanese Association of Industrial Counseling. He is a certified clinical psychologist and the1st grade certified skilled professional career consultant. He is one the pioneers of developing EAP in Japan. His major field of work areas include management, consultation, depression, alcohol abuse related issues, and maladjustment. Correspondence to: [email protected]

Career Development in South Korea: Qualifications for Career Professionals

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CHAPTER 9

The Status of Career Development in South Korea: Qualifications for Career Professionals Hyung Joon Yoon The Pennsylvania State University

Chong-Hyun Pyun Korea Employment Information Service

The population of South Korea is 50,617,045 (World Bank, 2015a). South Korea is in a unique geopolitical situation, faced with North Korea and surrounded by China, Japan, and Russia. During the Korean War (1950-1953), 2.2 million Koreans—including soldiers and civilians— died or went missing (CNN, 2013), and 40% of the South Korean manufacturing industry was destroyed along with numerous roads, railroads, bridges, ports, and industrial facilities (National Archives of Korea, n.d.). In 1962, the Gross National Income (GNI) per capita of South Korea was about 110 USD, which was the 16th poorest country in the world. In 2015, the nation’s per capita GNI reached 27,450 USD ranking it the 30th highest in the world. It became one of OECD countries in 1996 (OECD, 1996) accelerating its transition from a recipient country to a donor of official development assistance (Marx & Soares, 2013). The role of government in every section of South Korea (hereafter, Korea) has been crucial in its rapid growth in all area of the nation from 1960s to 1980s (Economy of South Korea, 2017) coupled with the diligence of South Korean (hereafter, Korean) people (Numan, 2014). Career development did not gain attention in Korea until the late 1990s. Most Korean students had little guidance for their future careers because a high-stake test-driven educational culture dominated the country. It is a prevailing belief that entering a highly regarded university will guarantee the success, regardless of one’s interests. In order to support individual career development offering career assessments and occupational information, the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labor launched CareerNet (www.career.go.kr) through the Korea

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Research Institute for Vocational Education and Training (KRIVET) and WorkNet (www.work.go.kr) in 1999 and 1998, respectively. In 2000, the Korean government began offering the Vocational Counseling license (see the Credentials section for more information). In 2006, the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) was formed to modernize employment support services by collecting and providing employment information, developing and offering career assessments, publishing an occupational dictionary and guides, and supporting and evaluating employment services, and managing WorkNet, among other responsibilities. The role of KEIS has been critical over the last 10 years, advancing employment services throughout the county and managing Worknet effectively by integrating with the National Employment Insurance. Korea has begun implementing the National Competency Standards (NCS) which resulted from the Framework Act on Qualifications of 2007 (Ahn, 2013). More recently, the Career Education Act (2015) was enacted and came into effect in 2016. The Act defines career education, career counseling, career experience, and career information. Importantly, it mandates that primary and secondary schools must have Career Education Teachers.

Career Development by Settings Elementary, Middle, and High Schools Completing elementary school education and middle school education is compulsory for Korean citizens like many other countries. Elementary school consists of six grades; middle school consists of three grades; and high school consists of three grades (Education in South Korea, 2017). There are about 6,000 elementary schools and 5,500 middle and high schools. Addressing career development in a school setting in an organized manner is a recent phenomenon in Korea. For example, over the three years from 2012 to 2015, the percentages of schools that allocated funds for career education increased from 38.5% to 73.3% (elementary schools), 65.3% to 97% (middle schools), and 73.3% to 97% (high schools). As of 2015, 80.4% of middle schools and 53.8% of high schools are offering a course called Career and Occupation, which were 50.8% and 48.3%, respectively in 2012. The percentage of schools that have a dedicated space for career education accounted for 4% for elementary schools, 47% for middle schools, and 45.7% for high schools. (Ministry of Education & KRIVET, 2015). The Korean government has an aggressive plan to facilitate career development in the K12 setting. According to the Enforcement Decree of Career Education Act (2015), all elementary, middle, and high schools must have at least one teacher who is dedicated to teach and facilitate


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career development of students. Figure 9.1 depicts a planned career education system throughout different levels of education in Korea (Ministry of Education, 2016). Elementary School (Career Recognition)

Middle School (Career Exploration)

High School (Career Planning)

University (Career Choice)

• Relating career education to existing subjects • Experiences through field trips, speeches, and discussions • Prepare students for a "free semester"

• Focus on career exploration • Relating career education to existing subjects • Provide effective career experience programs • Implement a "free semester" • Education on career and education planning (general high schools) • Career experiences related to college programs of choice (general high schools) • Career and vocational education (specialized high schools) • Internship / field training / supporting employment (specilaized high schools)

• Encourage universities to adopt career education as a regular class • Provide student‐centered one‐stop career services • Strengthen internship and field training

Figure 9.1. Career education system by school level. Adapted from “The 2nd Edition Career Education 5-Year Plan,” by the Ministry of Education (2016). The Ministry of Education provided revised guidelines to elementary, middle, and high school curricular with two categories: subjects and creative experiential activities with specifically allocated hours for each subject (Ministry of Education Notice No. 2015-74, 2015). Creative experiential activities, accounting for approximately 10% or more of the total lesson hours, include free, community, voluntary, and career activities. Career activities include selfunderstanding, career exploration, and career planning among others. The goals for career activities within the creative experiential activities framework are listed in Table 9.1. (Ministry of Education Notice No. 2015-74, 2015). Activities related to career should be performed in collaboration among the homeroom teacher, subject teacher, club teacher, counseling teacher, and career and guidance teacher with a possibility of collaborating with parents and specialist in the community who have expertise. Table 9.1. Goals for Career Activities School Level Elementary School

   

Goals Develop a positive self-concept Understand the importance of work Explore the world of occupations Develop basic qualities related to career

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Middle School High School

    

Strengthen positive self-concept Explore career paths Connect one’s dream and vision to career and education options Establish a healthy work ethic Plan and prepare for career

Elementary schools. Traditionally, homeroom teachers have been responsible for career guidance for elementary school students relating school subjects to career development. At the same time, over the last 10 years, the KRIVET and the Ministry of Education have pilot-tested and distributed guidelines on integrating career education materials into the K-12 curriculum (CareerNet, n.d.). The counselor’s role in career and guidance has been nearly non-existent in Korea. As of 2015, only 5.2% of elementary schools (97 out of 5978 elementary schools) have counselors, whose primary mission is to prevent violence at schools, which is far from career guidance and education. However, starting in 2016, senior level teachers have begun to be appointed to be Dedicated Career Teachers [진로전담교사] after completing a 60-hour training program via face-to-face (30 hours) and online (30 hours). They learn about career education policy, the “free semester” at the middle school level, curriculum development and implementation for the career focus semester (year), career assessment and career counseling, and operation of creative experiential activities related to careers (Chungnam Office of Education, 2016). It is not clear how effectively Dedicated Career Teachers work in an elementary school setting considering this is a new initiative combined with the newly revised curricular of 2015. However, it is certain that 60 hours of training is not enough; and repurposing the use of senior level teachers for career-related activities is a short-term solution. Middle and high schools. Having a “free semester” in middle schools is a new practice that has begun in all 3186 middle schools in Korea starting in Fall 2016. During the free semester, students are not given mid-term or final examinations but engaged in career exploration, club activities, art, and physical education for more than 170 hours (Kim, Y. L., 2016). The principal of a middle school decides which of the semesters will be used as a “free semester,” through consultation with teachers and parents. All middle school students need to choose a free semester between their first year and the first semester in the second year. Records for each of the students are kept, not in scores. but descriptions regarding the types of activities involved and the students’ potential (Lee, 2016). The Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education decided to extend the free semester by one more semester; therefore, middle school students in Seoul will have year-long free semesters (Kim, Y. L., 2016). However, due to the intense testoriented culture focused on the national college entrance exam, some parents and the private education industry feel that it is a good time to dedicate more time to cover contents as students do not take exams (Kim, Y. L., 2016). It is imperative for schools to actively inform all


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stakeholders about the purpose of the free semester and regulate the private education market, if necessary, while assisting students with systematic career interventions. Career development of middle and high school students is guided by teachers who have completed Career and Guidance Counseling Teacher [진로진학상담교사] training (Ministry of Education, 2013). In 2011, the Korean government started selecting existing teachers who had been teaching various subjects and provided 570-hour training to be qualified to work as a Career Guidance Counseling Teacher, which is also referred to as Dedicated Career Teacher [진로전담교사]. During the training, they learned about such topics as career assessments, career experiences, career development program development, career portfolios, methods of career and guidance counseling, occupational and world of work information, and teaching careers and occupations (Ministry of Education, 2013). As of December 2015, 95% of middle and high schools have at least one Career and Guidance Counseling Teacher (Ministry of Education & KRIVET, 2016). The duties of Dedicated Career Teachers are as follows (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, 2016): 1. Oversee the school’s career education 2. Establish the operation plan for career education and operate the program 3. Teach Careers and Occupations, and facilitate career activities that are part of creative experiential activities (10 hours or less per week) 4. Provide career counseling related to career and education paths (eight hours or more per week) 5. Plan for and implement career activities that are part of creative experiential activities 6. Provide personalized career and education guidance for the school level 7. Facilitate a career planning process of students who will enter college after gaining employment 8. Support for career and learning plans 9. Instruct the development of career portfolios 10. Use psychological assessments related to careers by using such a system as CareerNet 11. Plan for and implement career exploration activities in and out of school 12. Plan for and implement career education training for teachers within the school 13. Provide career education training and consulting for parents 14. Maintain a network with the local community and related organizations through such activities as providing career education 15. Perform other assigned tasks related to career education by the principal

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According to the 2015 School Career Education Survey Results (Ministry of Education & KRIVET, 2015), 84.3% of middle school students and 87.7% of high school students took the Career and Occupation subject, 78.1% of middle school students and 80.7% of high school students took career assessments. The study also indicated that the percentages of students who responded that they have a career goal increased by 9.9% for elementary schools, 10.2% for middle schools, and 14.8% for high schools comparing 2013 to 2015. In addition, the level of satisfaction of students with career activities has increased as well by 2.8% (elementary and middle schools) and 4.6% (high schools) comparing 2014 to 2015. Moreover, students are more satisfied with their school life by 4.4% (elementary schools), 6.4% (middle schools), and 7.8% (high schools) comparing 2014 to 2015 (Ministry of Education & KRIVET, 2016). Despite of the positive results, challenges exist. For many career teachers, the workload is very high, and some are considering early retirement due to mental and physical challenges (Kim, S. I., 2016). It seems to be unrealistic to have only one teacher responsible for career development of all students in a given school. Although there are supporting staff who are retired teachers, volunteers, and parents who assist Dedicated Career Teachers, only 654 supporting staff had been hired as of 2015, accounting for 11.8% of middle and high schools (Ministry of Education, 2016). Due to the limited staff resources, career assessment and career experiential activities are performed in a classroom setting; thus, individual attention is scarce (Ministry of Education, 2016). A lack of cooperation from subject teachers is also a bottleneck for integrating career education into all possible subjects. This is especially true in schools that are highly oriented towards college entrance (Kim, S. I., 2016). In addition to these challenges, the competencies of Dedicated Career Teachers vary from one school to another, and there is a limited pool of highly trained career professionals (Ministry of Education, 2016). To address this skills gap, the Ministry of Education selected 10 graduate schools that will offer a graduate program in career guidance and counseling for current primary and secondary teachers. They are Kunkuk University, Kookmin University, Catholic Kwandong University, Chungnam University, Korea National University of Education, Soonchunhyang University, Kongju University, Inha University, Keimyung University, and Jeonbuk University (Kim, M. J., 2016). Some universities such as Catholic Kwandong University and Konkuk University started recruiting students for the Spring 2017 semester. Students need to complete 30 credit hours (equivalent to 15 courses) to graduate. In the case of Catholic Kwandong University (2016), the following courses are available (* indicates mandatory courses):



Principles of Career Education*



Theories and Practices of Career Guidance*



Career Experiences and Community*



Practice of Assessment on Career Traits for Adolescents*




Exploration of World of Work and Occupational Information*



Development and Management of Career Guidance Program*



Career Counseling and Guidance for Parents*



Career Guidance for Students with Special Education Needs*



Occupational Psychology and Ethics



Special Topics in Career Counseling



Exploration of Information for Choosing a School*



Case Studies in Career Counseling



Theories in Career and Occupation Teaching*



Methods of Career and Occupation Teaching*



Teaching and Learning for Career Teachers*

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Aside from the Dedicated Career Teacher system at middle and high schools, each of all 17 provincial Office of Education has an Employment Assistance Center that aims to help high school students attending vocational high schools gain employment upon graduation. Multiple Job Consultants [취업지원관] funded by the Ministry of Employment and Labor are placed in the centers and they provide employment assistance; manage business/industry relationships; and offer employment training programs for students, parents, and teachers (Seoul Metropolitan Office of Education, n.d.).

College/University Students Compared to primary and secondary settings, the Ministry of Education has little or no influence over career development. There is neither a mandate nor a specific guideline for career education in the higher education setting set by the Career Education Act (2015). Article X IV of the Career Education Act (2015) noted that the head of higher education institutions can provide career education, and the Minister of Education can provide necessary assistance for career education of higher education institutions. As of 2016, there are 432 higher education institutions in South Korea, consisting of 189 universities, 138 2- to 3-year colleges, and 46 graduate schools (Korea Educational Statistics Service, 2016). The youth employment rate (ages 15-29) is half that of older generations (ages 30-64); and the youth unemployment rate is three times higher than the older generations (Joint Ministry, 2016). The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has been actively trying to address this youth employment issue. As of 2016, a career/employment centers exists in 140 universities (Joint Ministry, 2016). Among them, 41 are a Career Development Center for the Creative Economy (CDCCE; 대학창조일자리센터), and 24 are a University Youth Employment Center, both of which are directed by the MOEL (Ministry of Strategy and Finance, 2016). There

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are 15 universities that are not directed by MOEL but receive subsidies from MOEL for hiring Job Consultants [취업지원관] through the Job Consultant Initiative (MOEL, 2017a). The rest of them are operated independently by the institution. Job Consultants have been the primary providers of career and employment services for the Youth Employment Centers and universities that participate in the Job Consultants Initiative. According to MOEL (2010), Job Consultants are responsible for assisting students with career counseling and career planning, offering employment assistant programs, developing and managing databases for job seekers, assisting job placement, and collaborating with local employment support centers. MOEL first created a pool of 463 Job Consultants (HanKyung Recruit, 2010) in 2010, one or more of the following qualifications need to be met in order to be listed in the pool of Job Consultants (MOEL, 2010): 

Hold the Vocational Counselor License with at least one year of relevant work experience



Hold the Youth Counselor License (Level 1 or Level 2) with at least two years of relevant work experience



Three or more years of experience in Human Resources or Labor Relations in the business/industry setting



Three or more years of experience at management organizations, labor union organizations, and employment related research institutes



Three or more years of experience of job placement and provision of occupational information



Other professionals who are deemed by the head of a local employment support center to have relevant insights and experiences necessary for career and employment assistance

The governmental support for institutions that hire Job Consultants is diminishing. The Youth Employment Centers (YECs), where many Job Consultants are employed, have been transitioning into the CDCCE that aims to offer one-stop career and employment services. For example, in 2015, there were 44 institutions that had YECs, which became 24 a year later due to the transition (Jeon & Ko, 2016). Only six universities will be selected for the Job Consultant Initiative in 2017 (MOEL, 2017b), compared to 15 in 2016. The operation of the University YECs will further diminish to 14 institutions in 2017, utilizing consultants from private employment agencies that have contracted with the institutions (MOEL, 2017b). Instead, the CDCCE will be increased to 60 institutions in 2017 (Ministry of Strategy and Finance, 2016). However, this does not mean that the government will not control the qualifications of


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professionals working at CDCCEs. According to MOEL (2015), consultants working for CDCCE should meet the qualifications that apply to Job Consultants. The CDCCE appears to be the future of government supported career centers at the higher education level due to legal support, with a potential name change in the future, as “Creative Economy” is perceived as a trademark of the immediate past President Park GeunHye. The establishment and operation of the CDCCE are grounded in Article 6 and Article 12 of the Framework Act on Employment Policy (2015), Article 3 of the Special Act on the Promotion of Youth Employment (2010), Article 25 and Article 26 of the Employment Insurance Act, and Article 35 and Article 36 of the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Insurance Act (MOEL, 2015). According to MOEL (2015), the CDCCE is framed to collaborate with MOEL, local employment centers, the local government, the hosting higher education institution, the Creative Economy Innovation Center, the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS), and the Human Resource Development Service of Korea. The Korean Government funds 50% of the operation cost, while the hosting institution and the local governments funds 25%, respectively. There are four main areas of the CDCCE initiatives (MOEL, 2015): 

providing career development programs and services through career assessment and encouraging institutions to designate Career Development as a mandatory course;



strengthening employment support services by providing opportunities to develop job search and basic employment competencies;



developing the internal infrastructure for employment support by utilizing relevant internal entities such as small business development centers and establishing an academic policy that is supportive of student career development; and



establishing and operating the governance of local youth employment through collaboration with various entities aforementioned.

Public and Private Employment Service According to a study conducted by the KRIVET (Ko, Oh, & Lee, 2011), as of 2009, the total number of vocational counselors and employment service workers was 32,000, and among them, 4,800 (14.9%) and 27,600 (85.1%) were working in the public sector and private sector, respectively. As of 2014, there were approximately 25,913 employment service workers in the private sector (Keum, Rho, & Kang, 2016), which is a slight decrease compared to 2009. Of the 2009 data, men accounted for 65.5% of the population; and women accounted for 31.5%. The average age was 41.3. In terms of educational level, 95.6% of workers in the public sector had at least four-year university degrees, while only 65.4% had college or university education in the

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private sector. The average years of work experience in the career and employment service field was 7.01 years in the public sector and 4.97 years in the private sector. Most of them neither have a degree relevant to career counseling or employment service nor are equipped with the necessary competencies (Ko et al., 2011). Public employment service. Public employment services began by the Employment Security Act (2015) that was enacted in 1961, and initially, 44 public job security centers [공공직업안정소] were established in different local governments (Kim, Rho, & Finn, 2015). According to Yoo (2016), 1,378 public employment service centers exist and they are governed by either the central government or local government as of March 2016. There are 94 centrally governed Employment (& Welfare+) Centers across the nation. A number of ministries have career and employment related centers. The Ministry of Employment and Labor (MOEL) has 342 centers with different names targeting youth (94), seniors (81), women (149), and people with disability (18); the Ministry of Gender Equality and Family has 164 centers addressing the needs of stay-at-home moms (147; in collaboration with MOEL) and female college students (17); the Ministry of Health and Welfare has 440 centers for basic livelihood security recipients (250) for their vocational rehabilitation and for senior employment (190); the Ministry of National Unification has 26 centers providing career and life adjustment services for North Korean Defectors; the Ministry of Justice has 14 centers for inmates and ex-offenders; the Ministry of Patriots and Veterans Affairs has 7 centers for veterans; the Ministry of National Defense has one center for career transitions of officers and non-commissioned officers into the civilian world. In addition, local governments have 298 employment centers in different regions in Korea (Yoo, 2016). Career centers in the public sector hire civil officers specialized in career development who have the Vocational Counselor License or hire Vocational Counselor License holders on a contract basis. For example, the New Work Center (147 centers), the Mid-Life Employment Hope Center (28 centers) that are under MOEL require the Vocational Counselor License for career related positions. The Vocational Counselor License (especially, Level 2) has become a required qualification in the public sector. A significant trend in the public career development service arena in Korea is the enhanced collaboration and integration among different aforementioned centers such as the Employment Center, the New Work Center, the center for veterans, and welfare service centers directed by different ministries. The integration has been taking place through the Employment and Welfare + (EW+) Centers that aim to provide true one-stop services without the need for users to visit multiple facilities in order to receive different services since 2014. EW+ centers provide three different types of services as follows (Yang & Lee, 2015):


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

Employment service: provision of unemployment compensation, career counseling, vocational training, support for stay-at-home moms, and support for foreign workers



Welfare service: administrative support for different welfare services including intake interviews and integrated case management



Financial service: administration of the financial support policy, collecting cases for unlawful private financial services, credit recovery, and others For example, a single mom who has two children can visit the EW+ center and start a process for career counseling and vocational training using a government set program called the Employment Success Package. After a while, she can also participate in family counseling, also receiving services for the development of at-risk children and collecting food stamps at the same center. Career counselors working at the EW+ center need to have the Vocational Counselor License along with an understanding of the National Basic Living Security Act (2014) because of the EW+ center’s emphasis on integration with welfare services. In addition, an understanding of the Employment Insurance Act (2015) and related policies and systems is crucial. Private employment service. As of 2014, there were 12,071 agencies providing placement services (90.8%) and career and occupational information (9.2%), respectively (Keum, Rho, & Kang, 2016). The Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) started providing an accreditation program for employment agencies that provide superior services while managing the agency effectively in 2008, following Article 4 of the Employment Security Act (2015). However, as of 2016, only 56 out of the 12,071 (0.4%) were awarded the accredited agency status that is currently in effect (KEIS, 2016). According to KEIS (n.d.), the purpose of the accreditation system is to increase the quality of employment services and assist in informed decision-making of job seekers and employers. Although the existence of the accreditation practice is desirable, the low accreditation rate seems to indicate the lack of quality control of 99.6% of private employment service agencies. A more proactive approach to the quality control is warranted. The Employment Security Act (2015) defines who can provide employment services as follows: “A person who conducts fee-charging job placement services upon completing registration under Article 19 (1) shall hire one or more vocational counselors having qualifications prescribed by Ordinance of the Ministry of Employment and Labor” (Article 22). According to the Enforcement Decree of the Employment Security Act (2014), two or more executives of an employment agency need to meet one of the following requirements (Article 21):

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1. A person qualified as a Vocational Counselor of Level 1 or Level 2 under the National Technical Qualifications Act; 2. A person with experience in counseling, for not less than two years, regarding job consultation, job guidance, job training, and other matters related to job placement at a job placement service office, vocational ability development training facilities under the Act on the Development of Workplace Skills of Workers, schools under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and the Higher Education Act, and youth groups under the Framework Act on Juveniles; 3. A person qualified as a certified labor affairs consultant under the provisions of Article 3 of the Certified Public Labor Attorney Act; 4. A person who has been exclusively engaged in union affairs for not less than two years in a unit labor union with one hundred members or more, a labor union of industrial associated organizations, or a labor union or confederation of associated organizations; 5. A person who has been exclusively engaged in labor relations for not less than two years in a business or in a place of business with three hundred full-time workers or more; 6. A person who has worked as a national or a local public official for not less than two years; 7. A person certified as a teacher under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and who has two or more years of teaching experience as a teacher; or 8. A person certified as a qualified social welfare worker under the Social Welfare Services Act. This broadly applicable qualification criteria indicate qualifications are loosely applied in the private sector (Ko et al., 2011). Ko, Oh, & Lee (2011) did a research survey with a sample of 400 private agencies. The results reveal the types of services offered as follows (multiple answers were permitted): job placement (53.75%), career counseling (45.5%), provision of career information (44.5%), group counseling (20.25%), job matching (15%), accompanied interviews (9.5%), training (8.75%), and follow-up (5.50%). Table 9.2 indicates a) the number of agencies that have employees with different types of credentials and b) the average number of workers who possess each of the credentials within the agencies (Ko et al., 2011). The most utilized credential was the Social Worker License (Level 1-3), accounting for 94.25%, and the Vocational Counselor License (Level 1&2), accounting for 85% of the agencies. Considering levels of the licenses, Vocational Counselor – Level 2 was the most popular one. However, the dominance of Social Worker License holders can be problematic from a competency standpoint, unless they possess the Vocational Counselor License at the same time.


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Table 9.2. The Status of Credentials of Employment Service Workers Type of credentials Vocational Counselor – Level 1

Number of cases (N = 400 agencies) 35 (8.75%)

Average number of workers per agency 6.43

Vocational Counselor – Level 2

305 (76.25%)

5.23

Social Worker – Level 1

143 (35.75%)

2.43


230 (57.5%)

2.82


4 (1%)

1.5

Youth Counselor – Level 1

7 (1.75%)

1


35 (8.75%)

1.94


9 (2.25%)

1.89

Career Coach*

54

6.28

Note. *Career Coach is a certification issued by private institutions. All others are licenses awarded by the government.

Credentials for Career Services Providers Governmental Credentials Traditionally, the Vocational Counselor License was the only government issued credential in the field of career development. However, with a transition to employ the National Competency Standards (NCS) nationwide for all potential jobs, at least three relevant jobs that will be regulated with licenses were identified. In this section, an overview of the Vocational Counselor license and the NCS-based licenses is provided. Vocational Counselor License. Korea began offering the Vocational Counselor (Level 2) and Senior Vocational Counselor (Level 1) Licenses, by revising the Enforcement Decree of the National Technical Qualifications Act in 1999 (Presidential Decree, 1999). The Level 2 qualification examinations started in 2000. As of 2016, 30,520 individuals have obtained the license with a passing rate of 15.6% taking both written and practical test results into consideration (Human Resources Development Service of Korea, 2017a). The Level 1 qualification started in 2003, and only 300 individuals have obtained the license with a passing rate of 17% (Human Resources Development Service of Korea, 2017b). Holders of the license may work for such agencies as Employment Security Centers, Ministry of Labor Local Labor Office, national employment stabilization centers, and private employment agencies. Qualification exams for both licenses require candidates to pass a written test and a practical examination, respectively. Written examinations have 100 multiple choice questions addressing vocational counseling, occupational psychology, occupational information,

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labor market theory, laws and regulations related to labor issues, taking 150 minutes. Practical examinations also take 150 minutes (Human Resource Development Service of Korea, 2017a). There is no eligibility requirement to take examinations to obtain the 2nd Grade Vocational Counselor License. In order to obtain the Level 1 license, the applicant needs to meet one of the following four criteria (Presidential Decree, 1999): 

Practiced vocational counseling for at least three years after obtaining the Level 2 license;



Practiced vocational counseling for at least five years;



Practiced vocational counseling for at least three years after obtaining a bachelor’s degree; or



Practiced vocational counseling for at least four years after obtaining an associate degree.

NCS-based licenses. The Framework Act on Qualifications (2013) is a central law in Korea when it comes to credentialing. The Korean government has been extremely active in building the National Competency Standards (NCSs) for the last five years or so. NCS, which is within the National Qualification Framework (NQF), defines necessary competencies required by specific jobs in industry while also identifying eight proficiency levels of each job. NCSbased governmental licenses in different levels are scheduled to be developed selectively considering the demand. As of December 15, 2016, 615 different licenses in different levels in 24 different job categories have been defined following the NCS (National Competency Standards, 2016). NCS-based recruitment and selection have begun involving 130 public institutions in 2015 (Han, 2015). The potential impact of this is significant because the job applicants will be screened based on their job-related competency levels, with lesser emphasis on other elements including GPA, schools graduated, age, gender, etc. With regard to career services, four licenses are defined within the NCS system: Career Guidance [경력지도] (L5), Career Transition Service [전직지원] (L5), Vocational Counseling [직업상담] (L5), and Job Placement [취업알선] (L4) licenses (National Competency Standards, 2016). Career Guidance, Career Transition Service, and Job Placement licenses are new while the previous Vocational Counseling License will transition to the NCS system in the near future. The implementation of these licenses has not begun yet as of March 2017, but it would be helpful to review the required competencies of each of the licenses to understand what competencies are valued in different spaces of career services (see Tables 9.3-9.6). “L” after the name of each license indicates the level of proficiency out of eight levels (1 being lowest; 8 being highest). It appears that the required competencies for levels in high demand are identified first with a possibility that competencies for the other levels will be identified later on.


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Table 9.3. Required and Optional Competencies for the Career Guidance (L5) License License

Required Competencies

Optional Competencies

Career Guidance (L5)

1. Designing career guidance 2. Assessing the competency of individuals 3. Assessing the required competencies for occupations 4. Developing action plans for career guidance 5. Career counseling 6. Career coaching 7. Leadership development 8. Reporting the results of career guidance 9. Developing career development policy 10. Implementing career development policy 11. Conducting job analysis

1. Managing career guidance manuals 2. Developing training programs 3. Evaluating training performance 4. Instructing others 5. Developing human resource development strategies 6. Designing a job classification system 7. Adjusting job analysis results 8. Utilizing the results of job analysis 9. Managing key talents 10. Needs assessment for life design 11. Providing life design consulting

Table 9.4. Required and Optional Competencies for the Career Transition Service (L5) License License

Career Transition Service (L5)

Required Competencies 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.

Planning for career transition consulting Awareness of transition Assessment for career goal setting Consulting on career goal setting Career transition needs assessment Developing competencies for career transition Competency development consulting Implementing career transition programs Evaluating career transition programs Follow-up management of career transition services

Optional Competencies 1. Pre-consultation for career transition programs 2. Developing adaptability to career transition environments 3. Pre-consultation for start-up competencies 4. Consulting for start-up support 5. Needs assessment for life design 6. Preparing for career assessment 7. Administering career assessments

Table 9.5. Required and Optional Competencies for the Vocational Counseling (L5) License License Vocational Counseling (L5)

Required Competencies 1. Identifying career assessments 2. Administering career assessments 3. Understanding and debriefing the results of career assessment 4. Analyzing job seeking competencies 5. Job search counseling

Optional Competencies 1. Assessing problems of career adjustment 2. Career adjustment counseling 3. Start-up preparation counseling 4. Support for start-up implementation

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6. Assessing the competencies to re-enter the workforce 7. Re-entry counseling 8. Implementing group counseling 9. Transition counseling 10. Supporting the transition process 11. Managing occupational information

5. Analyzing characteristics of retirees 6. Retirement counseling 7. Analyzing competencies for occupational rehabilitation 8. Occupational rehabilitation counseling 9. Analyzing career competencies for multicultural individuals 10. Multicultural career counseling 11. Analyzing the status of a potential career counseling business 12. Starting and managing career counseling business 13. Cyber career counseling 14. Developing a network of career counselors

Table 9.6. Required and Optional Competencies for the Job Placement (L4) License License

Job Placement (L4)

Required Competencies 1. Planning for matching the needs between recruitment and job search 2. Attracting recruiters and job seekers 3. Initial counseling for job seekers 4. General counseling for job seekers 5. Initial counseling for recruiters 6. General counseling for recruiters 7. Preparing for job search counseling 8. Providing job search skills clinic 9. Preparing for matching between job posts and job seekers 10. Follow up management

Optional Competencies 1. Counseling for vocational training 2. Preparing for career assessment 3. Administering career assessments 4. Planning a job placement business 5. Operating a job placement business 6. Planning job search competency development training programs 7. Implementing job search competency training programs

Traditionally, applicants for skills-based licenses had to take a written test followed by a practice test. However, the Korean government started to implement an additional option to allow training providers that are accredited by the Ministry of Employment and Labor to manage the first part of the evaluation process. In that option, applicants need to take a training program based on the NCS and take a test given by the training institution following guidelines for each competency. The second part is for the government to administer the test, so called “external evaluation.” Once an applicant successfully passes both parts he/she can be awarded the license.


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(Human Resources Development Service in Korea, n.d.). This second option has not been applied to any of the career development related licenses yet. There seems to be a need to reconsider the plan to offer four different licenses before they are implemented. Researchers including Cho (2015) have noted that the classification system of the NCS does not meet the MECE—mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive—criteria. This is evident in the case of career development related licenses as well. The Career Guidance License seems to address the need in the workplace, while the other three licenses to not seem to be context specific. For example, both the Career Transition Service License and the Vocational Counseling License address transition counseling. It seems also plausible that competencies required for L5 of the Job Placement License, which is to be developed, would look very similar to Vocational Counseling and Career Transition Service Licenses.

Private Credentials There are a number of certifications offered by private agencies and professional organizations. However, as noted in Ko et al. (2011), the utilization of non-governmental credentials is very low. In Korea, KRIVET has been monitoring the status of certifications by allowing different organizations that offer private certifications to register theirs on Private Credentials Information Service (www.qui.or.kr) since 2008. Using the keyword, [상담], indicating “counseling,” the search revealed 3,579 certifications that have the name counseling in the certifications. With keywords, [진로] and [경력],indicating “career,” 395 and 2 entries were found, respectively. This is a chaotic situation because many offering organizations present a false hope to potential certification seekers while the utilization rate of such certifications is extremely low. Due to these concerns, the Korean Government, along with KRIVET, developed a policy to certify private certifications with an aim to increase the credibility and utilization of them (KRIVET, n.d.). However, no government certified private certifications related to career development was found as of March 2017.

Summary & Future Directions Korea has made enormous progress with regard to career development in the last 10 years to set the structure of a nation-wide career development system tailored to different settings including K-12, higher education, and employment services in the public and private sectors. Korea has actively benchmarked services, programs, and policies of leading countries in the world and customized them to a Korean context in a creative way. Korea seems to have a good structure thanks to the strong, government-driven approach.

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Challenges exist, however. First, the career development industry in Korea has grown exponentially over recent years by number, perhaps not in quality. This probably is a natural process as Korea has been expanding its capacity by, for example, employing Dedicated Career Teachers in most schools, hiring Job Consultants at the higher education level, increasing the number of one-stop career centers, and establishing relevant laws and policies. The improvement of career service quality comes with the development of career professionals. Korea will soon be providing graduate degrees in career development and implement four different career licenses following the NCS to resolve the quality issue. A thorough review of this potential integration needs to be in place before implementing the nationwide licenses. In addition, quality control of the 10 graduate career programs needs to take place in order for career education at the K-12 settings to be successful from a long-term perspective. Second, the role of the government in career development settings needs to be reconsidered to empower private industry. For example, the government has been doing the majority of the work, while not empowering private industry. Dedicated Career Teachers have experienced work overload, as well as public sector career services employees. Also, a shortage of qualified career professionals and increasing administrative tasks dealing with employment insurance, managing the government fund and service and fund recipients have been causes for ineffectiveness (Kim, Rho, & Finn, 2016). The government has been monitoring private agencies by allowing them to register their certifications; however, as noted before, there are nearly 400 career-related certifications but none of them is certified by the government, which could indicate the lack of quality of the program and management of the agencies. Also, the fact that only 0.4% of the private employment services agencies are accredited by the government warranties more capacity building in the private sector.

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Author Bios Hyung Joon Yoon, Ph.D., CCSP, SPHR, is an Assistant Professor of Workforce Education and Development at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the National Career Development Association (NCDA) as Trustee-at-Large. He has trained career practitioners in South Korea, the United States, Morocco, and Canada. He has developed the Human Agency Based Individual Transformation (HABIT) model, and the Assessment of Human Agency (AHA) and co-developed the Hope-Action Theory (HAT) and Hope-Action Inventory (HAI). His career development research projects involved diverse populations such as North Korean defectors, unemployed individuals, immigrants, college students, and Syrian refugees in different countries. Correspondence to: [email protected] Chong-Hyun Pyun, Ph.D. is a Research Fellow of the Korea Employment Information Service (KEIS) Employment Service Strategy Division. She has developed a number of employment support service programs for job seekers and trained government employees at one-stop career centers and private career consultants. Dr. Pyun has contributed to developing various programs including the Career Development Program for middle and high school students, the Career Assistance Program (CAP) for youth job seekers, the Happy My Job program for vulnerable job seekers, and the Compass project for older workers. Her interests include youth employment, career development support, program development, and employment service. She serves as an advisor for the Ministry of Employment and Labor, Ministry of Education, Ministry of Gender Equality and Family, National Institute for Lifelong Education, and Korea Labor Foundation. She holds a Ph.D. in Education from Korea University. Correspondence to: [email protected]

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CHAPTER 10

The Practice of Career Counseling in Taiwan Hsiu-Lan Shelley Tien, Yu-Chen Wang, and Shu-Chen Jean Wu National Taiwan Normal University

Taiwan is an island in the northwest of the Pacific Ocean, located in the eastern part of Asia and close to Japan and the Philippines. The total area of Taiwan is about 36,000 km2. The population of Taiwan is about 23 million people (Ministry of Interior, 2017). In Taiwan, the implementation of career counseling started at the middle school level in 1968, when the “Nine-year Compulsory Education System” began. Many students tried to find a job after they graduated if they did not plan to go to high school. However, in school, career counseling was not so important because teachers and students put more effort into academic competition. On the other hand, in technical high school, vocational education was the focus of the students’ learning. Now, due to the implementation of the “12-year compulsory education,” all students are encouraged to take career planning courses to think about their future. At university, both career counseling and job placement are important areas of career practice. Both counseling psychologists and counselors at the University Student Personnel Services and Job Placement Center provide testing services, career information, and career counseling. The students have many opportunities to do career exploration and learn more about the world of work. The least important part seems to be in elementary school. Children are always thought of as playing, studying, and do not need any career counseling. However, after the “12-YearCompulsory Education” policy was implemented, we added comprehensive courses which include career exploration to assist children with interest development and knowledge of the world of work. We will introduce career practices at each level in the following paragraphs.

Career Counseling Practice in K-12 School System

The Practice of Career Counseling in Taiwan

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Taiwan has been experiencing a series of reforms to guidance counseling in schools in the past ten years. The government amended the Civil Education Act in 2011 and a new Student Guidance and Counseling Act will be implemented on August 1st, 2017. According to the Act, elementary schools with 24 or fewer classes shall employ one full-time guidance counselor; junior high schools with 20 or fewer classes shall employ one full-time guidance counselor and those with 21 or more classes shall employ two guidance counselors. Schools at both levels shall try to meet the requirement of the guidance counselor staffing provision by August 1st, 2017, when the new Student Guidance and Counseling Act is implemented. After that, elementary schools with 24 or fewer classes shall employ one full-time guidance counselor. Junior high schools with 15 or fewer classes shall employ one full-time guidance counselor and those with 16 or more classes shall employ one full-time guidance counselor for every additional 15 classes. Over the past five years, the number of guidance counselors has increased and the number will be substantially increased after August 1st, 2017. Now, the total number of full-time guidance counselors in elementary schools and junior high schools is around 3,650 and it is estimated that the number will increase to 7,650 full-time guidance counselors in the future. The number indicates that currently, a guidance counselor provides guidance and counseling service to every 755 students and the ratio shall be reduced to be one guidance counselor to every 305 students in the future.

Career Counseling in Elementary Schools In Taiwan, career education in elementary school is integrated into all subjects. Integrative activities in elementary school include some career education content. Homeroom teachers or integrative activity teachers are the primary career education providers. Career education is not a compulsory subject for elementary school teachers when they receive education training in school. Designing career education programs and combining them with integrative activity learning is a new field for most elementary teachers (Ministry of Education, 2011). While a number of career courses and activities have been specifically designed for the junior and senior high school levels, career practice at the elementary school level has not been easy to implement. There have been three main challenges in implementing career practice at that level. The first challenge, which elementary schools have had in introducing career practice, is getting enough teachers to buy into the method completely. One of the reasons for their hesitancy is that they have not received enough training in career practice when they were trained to be elementary school teachers. Career practice is an elective, not a required course. As a result, few teachers in training to be elementary school teachers have elected to take it. The second challenge that schools have had is the long-standing views of teachers, administrative staff, and parents, that it is not necessary to implement career practice in elementary school. The reason for this is that students in elementary school do not have to face choices related to their

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careers yet. In addition, since all students will eventually go to junior high school, many people think it is too early, at this stage, to think about what jobs they will enter in the future. As a result, they don’t think it is important for elementary school students to take it. The third challenge, that schools have had, is getting enough data to evaluate the effects of career practice. One reason for this is that the government has merged career practice into every subject at the elementary school level, so career education is not a specific subject. While there are general goals for students at the elementary school level, there are no clearly defined goals or standards at each level of elementary school. As a result, there are no textbooks or specifically-designed materials, and teachers do not have enough motivation or sufficient background to create materials. Fortunately, there are three solutions to the challenges facing the adoption of career practice in elementary schools. The first solution is to make career-training required in teachertraining programs for elementary teachers. It will help teachers to learn about the importance of career practice and how to implement it. Then, they may be less resistant to trying it. The second solution is to add career exploration classes into the curriculum at the elementary school level. The content of these specific classes should enable students to explore professions, give them personal, hands-on experiences, and enable them to discuss which careers they like or dislike. This will help students further understand themselves and their interests. The third solution is to get parents to buy in. Some school activities such as volunteering to go on field trips or describing their work experience, are designed to get parents involved in career education. The benefits of getting parents to buy in are that parents will learn the value of career education and students will be able to get more resources from parents, who can provide knowledge about jobs. In brief, putting career practice programs into elementary schools in Taiwan has been met with three challenges. These challenges include inadequate skills on the part of teachers, causing some teachers and parents to be unwilling to implement career practice and not able to collect enough information to assess the effectiveness of career practice. As a result of not learning about careers in elementary schools, many students are at a disadvantage. However, if we make career-training required in teacher-training program, add career exploration classes into the curriculum at elementary school level, and get parents to buy in, we can remove the barriers to career practice and ensure that students get the exposure to acquire knowledge about themselves and jobs that they need for the future.

Career Education and Counseling Practices in Junior High School Career education and counseling practices in junior high school, in Taiwan, are implemented into career education and counseling courses and career counseling strategies. The former is provided in integrative activity courses, including self-exploration, occupational and career information


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exploration, and decision-making skills. The implementation of the latter is diverse, including administering assessments, providing technical arts education, and building a career portfolio. The Teacher Education Program Integrative Activity Learning Program includes 48 credits of required courses. The number of integrative field teachers varies according to the school size. Taiwanese government has been promoting a Twelve-Year Public Education Program in recent years, which advocates aptitude guidance implementation in school and hopes to offer students more diverse opportunities to fully participate in career exploration. For career education, the Ministry of Education developed several plans to guide students to explore their own futures. The following is a brief summary of career development education in Taiwan.

Technical Education Technical Education is a mature and well-developed education policy that has been implemented in Taiwan for junior high school students for a long time. The purpose of this policy is to develop students’ skills in self-exploration, career exploration, simulation observation, practical skills development, and career preparation. Technical Education Program establishes a vocational group plan that includes 13 vocational groups—Electrical Engineering and Electronic Engineering Group, Mechanical Engineering Group, Power Mechanical Engineering Group, Chemical Engineering Group, Civil Engineering and Architecture Group, Design Group, Hospitality Group, Commerce and Management Group, Home Economics Group, Agriculture Group, Food Science Group, Fishery Management Group, and Marine Technology Group. Schools may establish one to four vocational groups according to students’ interests and needs. The ninth graders who possess greater abilities, aptitudes, or interests in learning technical skills or who have poor academic performance may take courses respectively from one to two vocational groups in the first and second semesters in the ninth grader year. Some courses are provided within the students’ junior high schools and some courses are provided through school cooperation with other junior high schools, senior high schools, technical institutes, vocational training centers or nongovernmental organizations nearby. Students who take technical courses start with practical skill development, and the lessons of the technical courses are very different from common junior high school education. The technical education program is very important and meaningful to junior high school students. The students who take technical courses may learn some practical skills in their areas of interest, and the courses also satisfy students’ needs for learning academic skills. Those who have taken the relevant vocational courses are encouraged to enter five-year junior colleges before the entrance exams, and the courses the students have taken in high school are viewed as a bridge to vocational school courses. Therefore, the technical courses are very helpful for the students’ future education. In addition, the learning process in the technical courses may arouse

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students’ interest in learning, and further develop self-identity as well as confidence about their future.

Career Navigator Dashboard (Digital Student Career Counseling System) The Career Navigator Dashboard (CND) is a digital career counseling system that was developed by the Taipei City Government. The CND is used to integrate students’ school performance in learning and in daily life, and it provides “a Take-Away Gift for the graduates” when the students graduate from junior high school. Junior high students develop an e-book as a reference for future advanced studies and career counseling. The CND integrates students’ performance in daily life, including My Growth Story, Learning Achievements and Special Performances, Service Learning, with the Results of Psychological Tests, Career Integration and Future Plans, Feedback from Homeroom Teachers, Feedback from Parents, etc. For junior high school students in Taiwan, schoolteachers and parents are key roles for their future career development; therefore, homeroom teachers and parents also have access to operate this digital student career counseling system. Homeroom teachers and school guidance counselors regularly provide information related to their observations and feedback on students’ characteristics, and parents can discuss and make plans related to their children’s future development with their children based on the information provided by teachers. The value of CND is that the CND focuses students’ attention to their career during their high school years. The process of filling in the data and making their personal record helps students integrate all kinds of information about themselves. They are able to think about themselves based on the questions such as, “What kind of person I am? What do I want to do? What strengths and advantages do I have?” After launching the CND, relevant data are collected continuously whether students choose advanced studies or enter the workplace. All the data on the CND will be useful to students either for self-understanding or writing résumés when students seek employment in the future. Most important of all, these activities help students develop meaningful goals and abilities to make plans for the future and they may better understand how to systematically approach their goals. However, it takes efforts for junior high school counselors to effectively implement the CND, including the system management and data completion. It may also take time to widely promote and effectively utilize the CND to have homeroom teachers and parents involved with this digital career counseling system. Junior high school is an appropriate time for students to begin to explore their interests, passions and purposes. The central government agrees with and supports this idea, so for the past forty years, schools have provided students with career guidance. However, it is time to evaluate this program because it does not seem to be as effective as it once was. There appear to be three


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weaknesses in the implementation of career guidance, and those weaknesses are making it difficult to reach young people today. The first weakness in the implementation of career guidance is that Taiwan’s test-based system promotes dependency in both students and teachers. First, the implementation of career guidance in junior high school has been top-down, meaning materials and courses are designed for students, and these materials are the same for all students. The courses include selfexploration, job knowledge, self-evaluation, and making a career choice. Students are taught to enhance their knowledge through tests and inventories, such as interest inventories, aptitude scales, and values inventories. Students evaluate themselves and make decisions based on the tests results. Although the system enables students to receive fast and specific feedback, it may also cause them to become passive about exploring their personal interests. Moreover, it ignores context factors, like parents, peer pressure and their academic performance. In addition, teachers are expected to use tests to assess the students’ interests, aptitudes, values, strengths and weaknesses, and make recommendations based on those tests results. The weaknesses of this method are that teachers ignore differences in motivation and needs and that they don’t have enough time to explain test results to their students one-to-one, an approach which would help teachers to understand the students’ needs. They also didn’t have time to explain how the test results can be used by students. The second weakness of career guidance involves the implementation of career portfolios. The government requires all junior high students to complete portfolios, which record their exploration of careers and their assessment results. The content of the portfolios includes students’ career goals, academic achievements, favorite subjects, test and inventory results, and evidence of parental inspections. The purpose of implementing career portfolios is to enable students to understand their strengths and weaknesses, and then use the information to shape a picture of their futures. However, the effectiveness of the program is dependent upon how it is implemented. Instead of receiving enough guidance and coaching during class, students are usually assigned the work as homework and the relevance of the questions is rarely explained. The students put little effort into completing it, and don’t answer questions from the heart. Finally, portfolios are unreliable, for they don’t show students’ real experiences and interests. The process does not enable students to expand their interests or make decisions about their futures. The third weakness of career guidance is that it is too time-consuming. Career counselors are too busy dealing with and finishing required actions, such as administering career tests and inventories, completing students’ portfolios, and integrating all of the data from career inspections, which are government-mandated reviews of career planning methods/procedures.

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This results in their having no freedom to develop a career program that would cultivate students’ motivation to explore their interests. It prevents career counselors from designing activities that would encourage students to have new experiences and prevents them from considering ways to integrate career themes into academic subjects to enable students to connect career practice and academic learning. Ideally, implementation of career guidance would not only be top-down, but also bottom-up. Bottom-up career guidance would be school-centered, as well as student-centered, and that would better fit both the students’ and the schools’ needs. In conclusion, junior high school is the appropriate time for students to add different experiences to explore their interests, passions and purposes. To enhance the effectiveness of career guidance, understanding the weaknesses of its implementation is important. There appear to be three weaknesses in the implementation of career guidance: students may become dependent upon tests, may not understand how to use their portfolios, and may not have their needs addressed by the materials used in career practice programs. For junior high schools in Taiwan, the purpose of implementing career guidance is not to frustrate students, but to enable them to have the confidence to listen to their inner voice. It is not doing this presently.

Career Counseling in Senior High School The development of career counseling practice is the most complete at the senior high level. Senior high school students participate in a one-year-long career planning course, at school, for the selection of further education or occupations. The course can be provided in any grade of senior high school. Course teachers are required to have a senior high school teacher certificate for teaching career planning. To qualify for this certificate, course teachers must have obtained credits related to being a high school teacher and credits related to career education, including the implementation of career counseling and career planning courses, and vocational and career information analysis courses. In addition to career planning courses, counseling and guidance rooms in senior high school also provide various activities and programs to assist students in gaining self-awareness or further understanding all kinds of college majors and the path for advancing their education. There are 779 career planning program teachers in senior high and vocational school (Department of Statistics, 2013). The percentage of program enrollment is 100%. The Teacher Education Integrative Activity Learning Program includes 48 credits of required courses and a senior high school career planning course teacher certificate (Student Guidance and Counseling Act, 2014). The counseling centers in high schools provide services to students regarding the following aspects: Career guidance program. The program contains three parts: a. self-exploration; b. college major choice or occupational exploration; and


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c. assisting students in evaluating the impact of family and social environment on their career choices. Counseling centers design and implement career courses lasting one semester or one academic year. Weekly guidance classes help students enhance self-awareness by discovering their own personality traits, interests, aptitudes and values.

Type of career counseling. The most common types are individual career counseling, group career counseling, and career assessment administration. Career counselors of the counseling centers help students who are motivated to understand themselves explore their interests and abilities via group or individual psychological assessments, card sorts, career exploration groups, etc. Through these activities, students can gradually develop an awareness of themselves. Career guidance activities. The counseling centers also help students obtain information about college major choices and occupation choices by: 

Developing reports for the 18 college majors;

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College department visits;

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University department seminars;

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Multiple pathways to college seminars;

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Professional introduction seminars;

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University camps;

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Mock interviews for college entrance exam preparation; and

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Establishing career information websites, etc.

Based on these activities, students can obtain the knowledge that they need to help them make decisions about the future. Students can understand and differentiate their favorite majors during the process if they actively participate in it. The development of career guidance in Taiwan has been expanding and improving for nearly 30 years. After the Multiple Pathways to College Admission Program was initiated for high school students in 2002, career guidance began drawing increasing attention within senior high schools. However, two challenges face career guidance services in senior high school in Taiwan. Firstly, students’ career choices tend to be influenced by their family and the social context; students are not able to select the choices that they really want. Secondly, because Taiwan is an exam-driven society, students’ interests and potentials are not greatly valued and appropriately explored. One solution is to encourage parents to join the activities of career education from schools, which allows families to expand their thinking about career decisions.

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Career counselors could maintain the efforts to assist students in exploring or clarifying what they want to do and to reduce the differences between parents and youth in senior high school.

Career Services in Higher Education in Taiwan Overview of Major Programs and Services According to the National Development Council (2017), the number of employed people in Taiwan averaged 11,260,000 in 2016. The statistical data showed that those employed people with higher education were approximately 8,670,000 people, where 5,060,000 were college graduates. The labor force participation rate was 58.75 %, and the unemployment rate was 3.92%. However, the unemployment rate for 20-to-24-year-olds was 13 %. In Taiwan, the dominant industries include the service industry and the high-tech manufacturing industry. In 2016, the service industry represented 63.15% of Taiwan’s GDP and manufacturing accounted for 30.16 % of the GDP. The key position of the Information and Computing Technology (ICT) industry is illustrated but noting that Taiwan’s foundry capacity and IC packaging and testing have topped the global market, accounting for 73.7 % and 51.8% of global market share. There were 158 universities and 1,035,248 undergraduates in 2016, which means that there were 4.4 undergraduates among every 100 people in average (Ministry of Education, 2016). In Taiwan, most of the undergraduates earn diplomas for four-year programs, though a few of those may extend their study time to five or seven years. After careful examination, the following career difficulties are what university students in Taiwan commonly faced: 

They do not understand themselves, nor the operation methods and requirements in the real world;

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They are not clear about the relationship between the professional knowledge they have learned and their future development;

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They have no idea how to handle the conflicts between what is ideal and what is real;

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They don’t know how to make adequate decisions and lack information about the career world; and/or

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They lack motivation and the initiative for exploration.

These factors result in young university students being uncertain about their own future during their school years (Zhong, 2008). A significant gap between what students have learned and what can be applied appears when they enter the workplace. Facing this situation, higher education authorities are eager to provide various career services, including:

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Personal and career development such as personal exploration and career planning

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Academic development such as developing soft skills and professional expertise


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Career preparation such as career transition, campus recruitment, employment matching and starting a business

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Feedback on gifted qualification training such as surveys on the whereabouts of the graduates and an employers’ satisfaction survey (Wu & Tien, 2016).

The Career Development Center or the Employment Counseling Center is mainly responsible for the promotion and implementation of the above-mentioned services. By cooperating with other counseling units and teaching units within universities and by adopting different methods of teaching and activities, they hope to assist students to complete the eight major career tasks including exploration of aspirations, interests and passion, building of talent assets, mastery of networking, outlining of career vision, fulfillment of an ideal life style, selfmarketing, adapting to the workplace, and continuous adjustment (Liu, Chen, & Wu, 2014). Estimated number of career services provider or level of coverage in this setting. Since each school has different characteristics and resources, the level and staffing of the unit responsible for career services are also different. Some schools combine career units with psychological counseling units or career units with alumni services and promote the career services together. Some schools set up a career development center separately, which is mainly responsible for the promotion of career services. According to the Student Guidance and Counseling Act, a counselor is assigned for every 1200 students, providing them with psychological or career consultation. Based on the 2016 statistics, 54.9% of career development centers at each university have between one to three staff, among which 61.0% are full time staff and 19.5% are part-time staff. In addition, 72.3% are female and 27.7% are male. The majority have obtained a master's degree (41.0%) and 39.4% have obtained a bachelor’s degree (Wang & Chiao, 2015). Apart from the fulltime staff, each university also recruits staff for their tutorial system, lecturers working in industry, career counselors, career facilitators, mentors in the industry, alumni and student peers to help promote career services. To illustrate career professional growth, for example from 2011 to 2013, the career service personnel who joined the profession or continued their educational training had an average of 28.79 hours/per person (Wang & Chiao, 2015).

Type of Training Preferred for the Service Providers Here, we introduce common practices of university career services (Wu, 2015): Investigate employment and career requirements. Each university traces its graduates' employment condition every year. In 2014, the government adopted two policies for higher education: graduate insurance and graduate tracking. The first policy established graduate insurance based on their employment situation (note: in Taiwan, insurance is provided to all

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employees, such as labor insurance, farming insurance, public employment insurance, military personnel insurance, and other insurance in accordance with their job attributes). The second one provided a common version of questionnaire for each university to use in investigating its graduates' employment status in the first, third, and fifth years after their graduation. Each university must upload collected data to the education department of the government within the stipulated schedule, so that the data can be shared between government and universities. Moreover, each university conducts an employer satisfaction survey on a regular basis to understand employers' satisfactions with the graduates of its university. In addition, each university conducts a career requirement survey for its undergraduates, faculty, and staff. This means the university must collect career and employment data from its graduates, employers, undergraduates, faculties, and staff. The results are a valuable resource for career guidance service planning. Provide free test platform to assist undergraduates' self-exploration. The financial tsunami in 2009 had a significant impact on increasing the unemployment rate of graduates in Taiwan. The government then invited experts and scholars to establish the Career & Competency Assessments Network (UCAN, https://ucan.moe.edu.tw/index.asp). It adopted the career interest survey, competency assessment, and competency development plan to enhance undergraduates' employability. Soon afterwards, many universities established online platforms that included quantitative assessments, qualitative exploration, department introductions, and industrial information, such as the Chinese Career Net (CCN, http://testcareer.ncue.edu.tw/), Career & Vocational Helping System (CVHS, http://www.cvhs.fju.edu.tw/), KIP Regional Resource Center for Teaching and Learning (http://youngeagle.kkp.nsysu.edu.tw/), and so on. These online platforms are free from each university to assist undergraduates in their exploration of career planning and preparation. Develop career educational materials and prompt each university to offer career courses. To promote undergraduates’ career explorations and to reduce the gap of mismatch between education and work, the government invited experts and scholars to develop career educational materials for undergraduates and create career curriculum with local characteristics. These curriculums consisted of 7 topics: career concepts, personal and career development, academic development, career preparation, and educational outcomes. Each topic consists of a number of course units. Each university can offer these curricula as general courses or required or optional courses in every department.


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Moreover, all universities are allowed to adjust and modify the educational materials in accordance with their students' characteristics and requirements, and they also can invite enterprise managers for collaborative education. According to these educational materials, since 2013, the government has conducted a series of teacher training workshops to enhance the course experience, and assist professors' and assistants' course preparations. Today, more and more departments of universities use these educational materials to offer career courses, and to improve undergraduates' career literacy, competency, and employability. In addition, some scholars take the Book of Changes as a core concept, and develop a career curriculum with local characteristics (Liu, 2016). Promote diverse career guidance activities in order to meet different requirements. In addition to offering formal courses, Taiwan’s higher education also plans many kinds of career guidance activities in tutor time and free time to serve students who have different career service needs. Besides individual career counseling which is available to students, there are other common career guidance activities, including: 

Arranging exploration tests, career consulting, seminars, or workshops in the tutor time or weekly assembly;

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Organizing continuous activities related to career topics and turning them into serial thematic activities, such as youth leadership camps, small business start-up classes, career thematic contests, and career dream plans;

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Organizing career developmental access and providing customized career guidance in accordance with students' requirements, such as business start-up consulting and training courses for students who want to start a business; and, industrial lectures provided for students who want to understand work life;

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Encouraging students to take certificate examinations, or offering certificate guidance courses to assist students to obtain the requirements for their future work;

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Providing orientation training to assist students' transfer from school to work, such as last mile programs, resume advice, dynamic interview simulation, and so on; and

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Arranging service-learning courses so can students compare their career direction and life meaning based on community participation; for instance, the dropouts service courses can provide chances for undergraduates to identify influences on their own lives and think about the importance of their social contributions.

Establish an information platform of practice and employment, and provide students with opportunities of practice and employment. The government and each university conducts orientation to recruitment and job and advanced study expositions to provide opportunities for graduates. The government also sets up many free websites for the employment and business start-ups, such as RICH (https://rich.yda.gov.tw/), Taiwan Jobs

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(http://www.taiwanjobs.gov.tw/), Youth Dreams (http://young.ejob.gov.tw/), and Employment Guidance (http://cla.webfuture.com.tw/). In addition, each university has established an employment website where students can find employment news and competency requirements information.

Career Services Provided in Government and Community Since the government noticed the importance of career education and counseling for students, the Youth Guidance Office also set up some policies for university students’ career development. In addition, the Ministry of Education also has “Curriculum Standards” for Comprehensive Courses, which includes career exploration and career education for first through ninth grades. For high school, they have standards for career planning courses. These are all part of the educational policy set by the Ministry of Education. To meet the various career consultation needs of young university students, a considerable number of universities and colleges incorporated career services in their key planning according to the attributes of the schools and regard career services as school policy. They combined the “Program for encouraging universities with excellent teaching” announced in 2006 by the Ministry of Education and the Technical and Vocational Education Act (2015) to promote career services through courses or activities. Currently the related regulations and key policies also include the following items:

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Key points for reviewing the funding for the service plan of Youth Development Administration of the Ministry of Education to subsidize college graduates when starting their own businesses: The main purpose is to narrow the gap between graduation and employment of university and college students by establishing a mechanism for co-operation between industry and education to assist young university students to start a business.

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Key points for the planning of subsidies of universities and colleges for promoting career counseling work: The purpose is to help university and college students to develop their career blueprint and to plan properly for their career, to encourage the universities and colleges to combine their internal and external resources to develop and promote a strategy for career counseling work to increase the efficiency of career counseling. The subsidy mainly covers the development of university and college career course materials, the assistance for training the seed teachers for various universities and to offer career courses at the schools. In addition, the “Campus Career Ambassador Training Program/Propaganda Ambassador Program,” the “Experimental Program on the Whole Process of Transition from School to Work,” the “Career Problem Solving Program in the Information Era,” the “Career Development and Meaning of Life Program,” and career services and activities


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applied according to the schools’ characteristics are subsidized by means of cross-unit co-operation. 

The Youth’s Dream Come True Program launched by the Executive Yuan includes the two plans, namely “The Youth Employment Promotion Plan” and “The Youth’s Starting a Business Project,” which are managed by the Ministry of Labor and the Ministry of Economic Affairs respectively; aiming to increase youth’s employment rate and support youth in setting up their own businesses (cultural creative, new farmers, social enterprise, etc.). The Dream Come True Program combined the various related ministries and strengthened the involvement of different parties so that the resources and services can meet the actual requirements of youth, promote young labor’s development, and assist youth to build their dreams bravely and realize their dreams practically.

Training, Certification, and Supervision for Career Practitioners Training of Career Guidance Teachers and Career Counseling Psychologists For elementary, middle, and high school, guidance workers are trained in college or university schools of education together with prospective teachers in other subjects such as English, Math, and Science. Counseling psychologists who will work in university and private practice are trained by counseling psychology programs in universities. Training curriculums for career counseling workers in the K-12 school system include counseling theories, interview skills, career counseling, group counseling, psychological testing applied in career counseling, career activity design and curriculum development, and teaching practicum. University counseling psychologists are trained to be able to do counseling at the same time. The training is at Master’s level, which includes the following courses: counseling theories, counseling practice/specific topics, group counseling, psychologists testing and diagnosis, mental health and abnormal psychology, law and ethics, plus part-time practicum and one year fulltime internship. During the learning process, supervision is important to further their learning process.

Typical Credentials, Certifications, and Supervision

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All the teachers in school systems must pass national testing to obtain teaching certification. It’s the same for counseling psychologists. The former is for trained quasi-teachers with a Bachelor’s degree and the latter for those who with a Master’s degree. After they earn certification, they must attend the organization (university or school) selection process to get a teaching job or work as a psychologist. In addition, there are also some certification systems for community or private workers doing career counseling. Sometimes university career practitioners also earned school certification. The career services of various universities and colleges in Taiwan not only solve employment problems but also emphasize the students’ self-development and career management services. To satisfy a variety of students’ career requirements, various types of career service personnel are recruited. As mentioned previously, there are eight major categories, including professional psychological counseling personnel, employment service personnel, career consultant, teacher and academic advisor of the faculty, career advisor, industry advisor, peer service personnel and alumni. The three common and main categories of professional license are: (1) Consulting Psychologist refers to a person who graduated from a graduate school with a Master's degree in consulting and counseling or psychology and has passed the national examination for specialized occupation and technical personnel; (2) Employment Service Class B Technician refers to a person who has passed subject and practical examinations on the related regulations of occupation introduction and employment agency, recruitment, career consultation, and counseling and employment services; (3) Career Consultant includes a person who has obtained the qualification of “Career Development Facilitator” (CDF) as trained and certified by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) of the USA; the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) trained by the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE) of the USA; or a “Career Consultant” who has completed the “Career Consultant Training Course” organized by the Career College and has passed the two phases of written examination and oral examination. Besides, the Workforce Development Agency has also promoted the personnel training on the “iCAP Competence-Oriented Course Quality Certification” since 2013.

Supervision and Continuing Education During the training process, supervision is part of the requirement. The part-time practicum teachers need to be under supervision for at least half a year. This is also true during the internship process. Most of the teachers in the K-12 system will do peer supervision and discuss issues in curriculum development and practice. Psychologists need to have at least 50 hours supervision during the internship before they take the certification test. Usually students have more than 50 hours. When they have more than


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three or five years of experience, many of them will attend the supervision training and learn to be a supervisor. All guidance/counseling teachers and counseling psychologists must take specified hours of continuing training courses to renew their certification.

Summary and Future Directions The career services for higher education in Taiwan is student oriented and values the importance of “appropriate praising of talent.” To meet the service requirement of the students as much as possible, schools encourage and even subsidize career service personnel to participate in the professional career trainings of CDA, GCDF, and ICAP. Schools also encourage the cross-field co-operation between different units in schools or inter-school co-operation to fully utilize resources. A national career counseling supervisors meeting for the universities and colleges is held annually for exchange of experience on professional studies and career work. As for the future, advanced information science and technology has changed people’s way of living. Career services for the university students not only assist them in choosing an occupation, but also guide them in developing themselves, facing changes realistically, and find their own meaning in life. Therefore, more efforts need to be spent in the aspects of professionalizing career services, regularizing staffing, enhancing career courses continuously and integrating resources.

References Department of Statistics. (2013). Number of full-time teachers at all levels of schools. Retrieved from https://stats.moe.gov.tw. Liu, S. H. (2016). The power of change-e era of career planning. Taipei, Taiwan: Teacher Zhang published. Liu, S. H., Chen, F. C., & Wu, S. C. (2014). Learning objectives and developmental task of college students in knowledge economy. Changhua, Taiwan: National Changhua Normal University. Ministry of Education. (2011). General guidelines of grade 1-9 curriculum of elementary and junior high school education. Retrieved from http://english.moe.gov.tw/ct.asp?xItem=391&ctNode=784&mp=1 Ministry of Education. (2016). Number of college schools and number of students. Retrieved from http://depart.moe.edu.tw/ed4500/cp.aspx?n=002F646AFF7F5492&s=1EA96E4785E683 8F Ministry of Interior. (2017). Statistical yearbook of interior. Retrieved from

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http://sowf.moi.gov.tw/stat/year/elist.htm National Development Council. (2017). Statistics. Retrieved from http://www.ndc.gov.tw/en/Content_List.aspx?n=8B1CBD7CC339BD0B Student Guidance and Counseling Act. (2014). Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education. Retrieved from http://edu.law.moe.gov.tw/EngLawContent.aspx?Type=E&id=209 Technical and Vocational Education Act [技術及職業教育法]. (2015). Retrieved from www.rootlaw.com.tw/en/LawArticle.aspx?LawID=A040080050002900-1040114 Wu, S. C., & Tien, H. L. (2016). Reference manual for career counseling work in college. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education. Wang, L., & Chiao, H. (2015). The status and needs of university career centers in Taiwan. Taipei, Taiwan: Ministry of Education. Wu, S. C. (2015, May). Current career guidance of higher education in Taiwan. Asia Pacific Career Developments. Retrieved from http://asiapacificcda.org/Resources/Documents/Newsletters/Newsletter_May2015.pdf Zhong, S. J. (2008). Career counseling manual for college students. Taipei, Taiwan: Psychological Publishing.

Author Bios Hsiu-Lan (Shelley) Tien, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Counselor Education from the University of Iowa in 1993. She is a professor and Department Chair at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at the National Taiwan Normal University. She was a Fulbright visiting scholar at the Department of Psychology at the University of Maryland (20056). Her current areas of interest are career counseling and studies of vocational behavior, training of counseling skills, working with dreams, and qualitative research. She is Director of the Counseling Center and Vice Director of Student Personnel Services at the National Taiwan Normal University. She has served as the president of Taiwan Career Development and Consultation Association (TCDCA), the Taipei Counseling Psychologist Association (TCPA), and the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA). She earned the 2016 International Practitioner of the Year Award from the National Career Development Association. Correspondence to: [email protected] Yu-Chen Wang, Ph. D., received her doctorate in Counselor Psychology from National Taiwan Normal University in 2008. She is an associate professor at the Department of Educational Psychology and Counseling at the National Taiwan Normal University. She has been a counselor in junior and senior high school and a director in a Career Development Center at the Chinese Culture University. Her current areas of interest include career counseling and studies of the


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effectiveness in strength-centered therapy, career calling and purpose. She is also a licensed counseling psychologist in Taipei, Taiwan. Correspondence to: [email protected] Shu-Chen (Jean) Wu, Ph.D., is an associate professor at National Taiwan Normal University. She is a licensed counseling psychologist in Taiwan (ROC), working in the career field for more than 15 years. She also has provided pre-service teacher's career education and in-service teacher career literacy training. Correspondence to: [email protected]

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CHAPTER 11

Career Counseling in the United Arab Emirates Dana Downey and Hazel Raja New York University Abu Dhabi

Historically, people in the United Arab Emirates (UAE) apprenticed into fields through their relational networks. The primary industries of employment in the Arab Gulf region included trade, pearl diving, fishing, and agriculture in the oasis areas. The UAE is a young country, established in 1971, with a trailblazing track record of economic growth and infrastructure development since then. For the local nationals (i.e. UAE citizens) and the foreign workers that drive this economy forward, the UAE presents opportunity, potential, and promise. Against this dynamic backdrop, career services and education have become a recognized need and welcomed skillset. Today career services exist in some capacity within private and public companies, universities, as well as primary and secondary schools. The career services landscape also includes private service providers and practitioners that may consult with these organizations or work independently.

Career Development in Different Settings K-12 In the UAE’s short history, they have progressed from only a few formal schools in the 1950s to universal primary and secondary education with more than 900,000 students enrolled (Embassy of the United Arab Emirates, n.d.). Education reform focuses on better career preparation, greater accountability, and adherence to international standards. In fact, the UAE Ministry of Education Strategy for 2010-2020 includes introducing a formal in-school career counseling structure and program as well as developing professional criteria for selecting career counselors. These reforms are being implemented by the Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), the Dubai Education Council (DEC), and the Sharjah Education Council in collaboration with the UAE Ministry of Education, while still preserving the local cultural identity.

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Universities At both the secondary school and university levels, the education to employment gap has been a topic of conversation and concern, which naturally invites the question of career services. Between the three federal universities in the UAE and more than 100 private university campuses, the portfolio of career services ranges dramatically depending on the program size and scope, institutional priorities, and available resources. Dedicated career services staff range from zero to 12 people, which expectedly influences both services available and delivery. Since the 2002 adoption of internships into the academic curriculum by the federal universities, significant attention has been placed on curating internship opportunities and managing internship programs in the university setting. Internships in this context often adhere to a placement model and may be supervised by academic faculty or by career services staff, depending on the institution. Today, UAE university students engage in a variety of work-related learning experiences, including non-credit bearing internships, job shadow programs, and mentoring relationships. Over time, career services provisions have grown around the internship intention to include assistance with applications (CVs and cover letters), interview preparation, professionalism orientation, job search strategy, industry awareness, and career exploration, among other things. Career service delivery occurs in the context of one-on-one advising, workshops, and large-scale events. Career fairs or expos are regularly employed on university campuses to expose students to recruiting organizations, though sometimes these are orchestrated by events professionals rather than career services staff. Most universities additionally make extensive use of online resources to augment their in-person service delivery, including contact management systems for employers, career assessments, and career exploration software. Case example 1: Zayed University. As a federal university with two prominent campuses in Abu Dhabi and Dubai, Zayed University serves primarily UAE national students, who make up most of their student population. Career guidance is delivered in two primary formats in support of a for-credit internship model. Firstly, students are enrolled in a career development course with the Department of Advising and Academic Development, in which they cover basic resume/CV writing, industry overviews, and interviewing. Throughout the rest of the university experience, students can upgrade their skills and build career readiness through the Student Careers Office, staffed with three career advisors between two campuses, serving more than 9000 total students. Additionally, they have a dedicated team of two staff for employer relationships and internship placement, which manages the placement of more than 1000 students per year in mandatory credit-bearing internships, many of which lead to full-time employment. These internships largely occur in the final year of study.

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Case example 2: New York University Abu Dhabi. As a private university connected to New York University (NYU) in New York, NYU Abu Dhabi serves a more international student population. With UAE nationals making up 13% of the student population, and more than 100 countries represented, they utilize a competition-based recruitment model. This involves encouraging internships early and often, beginning in the first year, but never making them compulsory. Organizations post their roles in an online career portal, and students apply based on the job description. This is followed by interviews and selection of candidates, modeled on a typical post-graduate hiring process. Throughout the university experience, students engage in individual career advising to explore their current skills and skill gaps, understand the employment market in their region of reference, and develop their marketability. Additionally, they build relationships with employers through regular on-campus events and sessions. With seven career advisors for just over 1000 students, they rely heavily on high touch, tailored career advising to accommodate for different career development paradigms, a myriad of relevant search strategies, and a broad range of industries and regions. Case example 3: Khalifa University of Science, Technology and Research. As a private university with a specialization in the STEM disciplines and research, they serve over 1300 students, more than three quarters of whom are UAE nationals. While all their students engage in a mandatory internship in their final two years of study, students can choose to find an internship on their own or to be placed by the university’s career and internship supervisor. They employ an online career portal to house available opportunities, and consistent with most regional schools, host a career fair that draws a robust number of organizations each year. This event and placement driven career education model is augmented by faculty providing oversight to credit-bearing internships, thus forging regular and new connections with industry. Faculty facilitate site visits and other industry involvement in coursework, thus further solidifying the connection between industry needs and student learning.

Training and Professional Development There is no established career services credential in the UAE at this time; however, the National Qualifications Authority (NQA) is actively working on one. Expatriate career services staff often carry foreign credentials in career guidance or counseling. Alternatively, they enter the profession with a background in employer services and program management, which often draws on a business background. Currently, there is no in-country higher education training program specifically for career guidance and counseling.

Middle East Career Development Conference

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Since 2013, a Middle East Career Development Conference (MECDC) has begun to bring together a broad range of stakeholders for information sharing, skill building, and dialogue. The annual conference has expanded to include secondary school career development staff, university career development professionals, company representatives, and government stakeholders. Previous conferences to date have been hosted by Hult Business School, Canadian University of Dubai, and INSEAD Abu Dhabi.

Middle East Graduate Recruiters Association (MEGRA) In summer 2015, a large multi-national IT company initiated the gathering of select university careers representatives and university recruiters to meet to network, learn from best practice, share stories, and hear from the experts and industry thought-leaders. To date, this association has met on an annual basis but has plans to increase meetings and gatherings.

Relevant Regulations or Policies Emiratization With an estimated 80 percent of UAE residents being foreign nationals, an understandable concern is ensuring that UAE citizens (Emiratis) are not overlooked for employment in favor of their expatriate counterparts. Nationalization policies are prevalent in other parts of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) as well, including Saudi Arabia, Qatar, and Oman. Emiratization initiatives are reflected in various government policies, as highlighted below, and enforced by the Ministry of Labor.  Ministerial Orders No. 41, No. 42 and No. 43 of 2005 imposed a “quota” system in the private sector, requiring every company to hire enough UAE nationals in proportion to their overall staff. Quotas varied by industry and are subject to year on year increases within banking and insurance;  Ministerial Resolution No. (635) of 2008 on Public Relations Officers (PRO) states that any company which employs over 100 workers must employ an UAE national PRO, who brokers government-related contracts, immigration, and business for the company; and  In 2010, Council of Ministers Order No. 26 and Ministerial Order No. 1187 implemented a system of classification as an incentive to those adhering to their Emiratization obligations.

Compulsory Military Service In 2014, the UAE initiated compulsory military service for males between the age of 18 and 30. It stipulates that those with a high school diploma must serve nine months and those without a high school diploma must serve two years. Military service for female Emiratis is voluntary.

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Military service expands the exposure to career development concepts by ensuring that all male nationals receive feedback on their skillset and engage in an assessment process to determine their placement within the military service.

University Accreditation The Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA), which accredits UAE universities, requires that an institution incorporating internships, practicums, cooperative placements, and similar experiential learning experiences into some, or all, of its curricula must:  Have a designated office or an individual who is specifically given responsibility for internships and other forms of experiential learning. The office may be central for the entire institution or it may be departmentally or programmatically centered;  Publish an Internship Manual that brings together institutional policies and procedures relating to internships and other experiential learning;  Ensure that prospective internship or experiential education sites: a. are safe and reputable environments for students; b. provide pertinent work experiences; c. provide work experiences suitable to fulfill the institution’s expectations for learning outcomes;  Ensure that official agreements are in place for all internships and other forms of experiential education and that agreements are signed by both parties, kept current and are on file. Such agreements should define the responsibilities of the institution and the employer or placement site;  Ensure that employers or non-institutional supervisors commit to enabling students to meet their learning outcomes, through provision of a job description and suitable assignments throughout the duration of the internship;  Ensure that students enrolling in internships or other forms of experiential education have access to a syllabus which provides clear guidance as to the expectations for student learning, student assignments, student evaluation and faculty/employer supervision;  Ensure that the learning outcomes are articulated and in writing;  Provide an opportunity for students to reflect, in writing and/or through an oral presentation, on their achievement of the learning outcomes;  Provide for an orientation for students as to the skills, behaviors and knowledge which they need to succeed in the work environment;  Have an effective mechanism for matching students with potential employers;  Have effective means for monitoring the employment site and gathering feedback from students and the employer;  Ensure that there is faculty or academic supervision from the department or program offering the internship;

Career Counseling in the United Arab Emirates  



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Delineate the responsibilities of the faculty or academic supervisor, the employer and the student; Delineate the academic credit, if any, to be earned, the placement of the internship in the curriculum or program of the student, the methods used to evaluate the internship, and whether a grade will be assigned or a ―pass/failǁ grading mechanism used; and Ensure that the internship or experiential learning program is regularly evaluated, in terms of both student experiences and employer satisfaction, and that the results of these evaluations are used to improve the program. (Ministry of Education, 2011)

Other Service Providers While most large firms have a career development offering within their human resources function, a significant number of private companies provide career services in the UAE, including document reviews, career coaching or counseling, and recruitment or placement services. These organizations may work with individuals or provide outsourced services to larger companies or educational institutions. At this point, there are no specific regulations for these organizations beyond the trade license to establish a company in the UAE.

Summary and Future Directions The future is bright for career services in the UAE. As the country looks ahead to the Dubai 2020 Expo, students and other stakeholders are investing in the skills and mindsets, that will set them up for success in this new economy. With a 2013 release of Occupations and Careers Handbook for UAE Nationals by the National Qualifications Authority, the industry knowledge gap continues to be addressed. This handbook reviews economic diversification and highlights 12 industries for local job seekers to consider. It provides an overview of strategic roles and occupational profiles within these industries based on criteria including projected job growth and security. Career education has also developed a breadth of resources, with new regionally-normed career assessments produced by the Talent Enterprise, a 'think' and 'do' tank based in Dubai, are used along with long-established assessments (e.g. Myers Briggs Type Indicator and Strong Interest Indicator), which are readily accessible to licensed professionals through training providers in Dubai. Importantly, training and licensure to use the aforementioned assessments is also available.

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References Embassy of the United Arab Emirates. (n.d.). About the UAE. Retrieved from http://www.uaeembassy.org/about-uae/education-uae Government of Dubai. (2015). Education Strategy 2020. Retrieved from http://www.dubai.ae/SiteCollectionDocuments/UAE_Education_Strategy_2020_En.pdf Ministry of Education. (2011). Standards to Licensure and Accreditation. Retrieved from https://www.caa.ae/caa/images/standards2011.pdf

Author Bios Dana Downey, M.A. is the Associate Director of the Career Development Center at New York University Abu Dhabi, where she oversees the universities relationships with organizations and career advising. She has presented at local, regional, and international conferences about contextualized career counseling methods, regionally relevant recruitment models, and the advantage of global mobility. Within the UAE, she has collaborated with the UAE National Qualifications Authority on a national qualification for career advising and the UAE Ministry of Education on infrastructure for internships. Previously at the University of Texas at Austin and University of Florida in the United States, she has worked in career development for more than 10 years. Correspondence to: [email protected]. Hazel Raja, M.A. serves as the Assistant Dean of Students and Director of New York University Abu Dhabi’s Career Development Center. Hazel has a MA in Counseling and Guidance from New York University and has worked in career development since 2001. She served at NYU New York and the University of Southampton (UK) before joining the university’s first portal campus in March 2010 where she established the Career Development Center. Correspondence to: [email protected]

The State of Career Services in Uganda

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CHAPTER 12

The State of Career Services in Uganda Henry Nsubuga Makerere University

Julia Kronholz Florida State University

Uganda is a country located in East Africa with a population of 40 million people. Uganda is an agricultural country with 80% of the population working in agriculture and living in the rural areas. The country boasts bountiful supplies of natural resources such as fertile soil, coffee, and minerals, as well as untapped oil reserves. It is well known for its mountain gorilla population, mild weather, and is the host of the source of the River Nile. Uganda is one of the world’s youngest countries in terms of age of population, with 55% of the population below the age of 15 and 78% of the population below 30 years old. The overall unemployment rate is 9.4% as of 2013 (Uganda Bureau of Statistics, 2016). The status quo indicates an urgent need for career services: the country is rich in resources but lacks available jobs for post-secondary graduates (International Youth Foundation, 2011). While career guidance services have been established in the USA for over 100 years, there is no formalized training of service providers and no system of providing services at different stages of an individual’s growth or level of study in Uganda and many other African countries. There is demand among stakeholders regarding the need for career services, from the country President to the entire population, but there have not yet been significant steps taken in establishing systems to educate service providers and ensure that the population receives effective career services.

Settings In 2008, the Uganda Ministry of Education established the Department of Guidance and Counseling (Ministry of Education and Sports, 2017). The department mandate is to provide

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strategic and technical leadership, guidance, advice and strategies in all matters of guidance and counseling, which includes HIV/AIDS mitigation, psychosocial concerns, and support services within the entire education and training sector, in collaboration with the relevant stakeholders (Ministry of Education and Sports, 2017). According to Ministry of Education and Sports (2017), the objectives of the department are to: 

Promote, support, and ensure the provision of quality guidance and counseling including psychosocial services in the entire education sector;



Sensitize all stakeholders and advocate for policies and strategies to effectively address issues of guidance and counseling, HIV/AIDS and other psychosocial concerns in the entire education sector;



Develop and maintain an up-to-date National Data Bank and information system on the issues/status of career guidance, counseling, placement of school leavers, HIV/AIDS and other psychosocial trends and services in schools/institutions so as to guide decision making and advice to stakeholders; and



Initiate and coordinate the provision of guidance and counseling in schools/institutions. (“Objectives,” para. 1) The department has a number of key functions namely (Ministry of Education and Sports,

2017):



Develop policies, strategies, plans and guidelines for the implementation and provision of guidance and counseling services;



Carry out advocacy, sensitization and information dissemination programs to raise awareness of the needs and magnitude of issues regarding career guidance services and counseling/psychosocial services in educational institutions;



Ensure training and retraining/refresher programs for teachers, counselors, and other stakeholders in both government and private educational institutions to develop their capacity to ensure that guidance and counseling is effectively provided in schools in collaboration with teacher education, National Curriculum Development Centre, training institutions, district, and Ministry of Gender, Labor, and Social Development;



Advise on and ensure provision of appropriate materials in respect to guidance and counseling service provision;



Initiate and conduct workshops, seminars for in-service teachers/tutors and other practicing personnel;



Guide and support any initiative for promoting guidance and counseling services;



Provide linkages with organizations and other bodies in the region and internationally;



Establish an information/data bank on psychosocial and career information;



Conduct research and studies on career guidance, counseling services, psychosocial


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difficulties/challenges, and deviant behaviors to establish the extent of the problems and propose how to manage them; 

Coordinate placement of students with various levels of education;



Organize national annual career fairs and expos to ensure schools and regional organizations hold career days/events;



Initiate programs and coordinate strategies for HIV prevention, care and support within the sector;



Initiate and ensure implementation of programs and interventions to address deviant behavior, trauma and stress management in school and the entire sector;



Initiative programs to address concerns that cut across programs, such as Safe Schools Initiatives, Peace -initiatives/Education, Gender, Environment, Human Rights and Culture, etc.;



Monitor, evaluate and offer supportive supervision on policies and implementation of programs;



Provide guidelines on referral services for the entire sector; and



Develop job-shadow program and other initiatives to strengthen career explorations and monitor their implementation. (“Key functions,” para. 1)

Despite the mandates of the Uganda Ministry of Education and Sports, the department provides little direction or oversight on the provision of career services in general, with some confusion regarding which staff provides counseling services (Maserejje, 2016). As such, this article is somewhat limited in information given that the concept of career services in Uganda is relatively new.

K-12 (In-School Youth) Career services in Uganda generally start in high school, with a few services in some higher education institutions. The focus of this manuscript is on these two levels. There are some informal career services provided by teachers, parents, and family. Generally, students are only exposed to certain jobs, so youth do not fully know their occupational options. Family obligations impact the ability to go to college and many do not go far with education, instead staying at home to work on the family property. In addition, many young people in rural areas lack access to higher education. Each school picks a teacher or two to be in charge of career guidance; however, the teacher is not provided any form of training (Odyek, 2009). This means that any teacher could be charged with responsibility for career services in a school. As a result of the lack of standardization of services and oversight from the Ministry of Education, there are also many “self-styled” career coaches. These career coaches serve as career experts without any formal

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training in providing career services. Much of what such people provide are “talks.” The majority of career services provided in Ugandan schools are speaker-based, where a school invites someone, perhaps a professional in a given field, to speak to the students about a particular career. In this sense, career services are provided as an event and not a process.

College and University Students The Counseling and Guidance Centre at Makerere University was established in 1989. The center’s main objective is to provide general counseling and career services as one of the services to the 40,000 undergraduate and graduate students (Makerere University Counseling and Guidance Centre, 2017). There is not yet much that has been done to develop career services in the higher education sector. Makerere University is the only university that has set up career services, but even then, the services are lacking due to budget constraints and shortage of trained professionals. To overcome these challenges, the Counseling and Guidance Center has established partnerships with other universities and organizations outside Uganda. There is still much that could be done. For example, academic majors are mostly chosen based on academic performance and not interests or skills, leaving many college students doing something they are good at but are not interested in. Partnerships are critical in the work of the Counseling and Guidance Center. When university and country resources are lacking, partnerships have helped the Counseling and Guidance Center continue its services and grow in some areas. The Counseling and Guidance Center has built several partnerships with other organizations, including the National Career Development Association (NCDA), the Florida State University Career Center, and the International Research and Exchange Board (IREX). The first author joined NCDA in 2015 and has sought active collaboration with various committees and other members. Between January – March 2015, the first author was a scholar-in-residence at the Florida State University Career Center in order to learn about career services in the United States with the intention of adopting or adapting those services in Uganda. This opportunity was a scholarship by IREX-UASP through funding from the Carnegie Foundation. Faculty from the FSU Career Center continue to be very supportive in providing consultation regarding skills, materials, advice on building career services and in jointly applying for grants. In July 2016, FSU PhD student Julia Kronholz worked with the Counseling and Guidance Center where she helped the center in training 30 Makerere University faculty and staff in providing career guidance. She also conducted an employer survey that produced outstanding results that have been shared with staff, university administration, and employers. This exchange was made possible through a grant from the Florida State University College of Education. In addition, the Counseling and Guidance Centre has received grants to initiate career services. For example, in May 2015, the Centre won a competitive $5,000 USD IREX grant to


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initiate career services to prospective Makerere University students. Then, in October 2016, the Centre established a partnership with IREX and the Education Design Lab based in Washington, D.C. The Counseling and Guidance Centre is leading in developing the oral communications digital badge. This content will be free to any university across the world that wants to build oral communication skills among its students, with the goal of enhancing transferable skills of the global higher education graduates. Finally, the Counseling and Guidance Centre has also partnered with other local organizations aiming at improving chances of employment and creating enterprises, for example, the Readytowork campaign sponsored by Barclays Bank. As evidenced, partnerships are a critical ingredient in developing career services in Uganda.

Employed Adults, Unemployed Adults, and Other Groups In Uganda, career services are believed to be services needed by youth and college students, particularly those in secondary schools and institutions of higher education. However, when considering Uganda’s unemployment rates, this service is critical for the entire population. Career services would benefit adults who are working, retiring, or unemployed. Career services would also benefit veterans, people with disabilities, people with little formal education, and so on. Uganda’s national president, Yoweri Museveni, continually talks about the need for career services, but even acknowledging the need for services, there is no formalized system to provide career services. The government has not taken serious steps to ensure there are trained people to provide career services in schools or set up structures to provide and monitor the services. Thus, even for those schools or organizations that offer career services, each school does so in its own format with no formal system. There is also no follow up to determine the effectiveness of the service by the service providers. Nsubuga (2011) wrote an article in one of Uganda’s leading daily news outlets, The Daily Monitor, posing a question on whether the current mode of career services in Uganda are relevant to the service recipients and country as a whole. This same question can still be asked and there is no current indication that current career services are effective. There is almost no research done in the career services field within a Ugandan context. In 2005, when the first author completed a study on career indecision, self-efficacy, and sex among senior secondary school students, there was hardly any relevant, country-specific research to reference. The literature that exists is focused on secondary schools with a few studies on higher education, but there is a lack of literature on other populations within the Ugandan or East African context. This greatly limits the ability to develop well-informed service-delivery models in Uganda.

Challenges in Providing Career Services in Uganda Lack of career information is an immense barrier to the youth and college population. A 2012 report found that among high school graduates joining institutions of higher education, the major

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cause of career indecision was lack of career information (Action Aid, 2012). As a country, Uganda still does not have easy access to information due to a lack of infrastructure and technological advances (e.g., internet access). For some students, access to information is made more difficult because of where they live. In most of the rural areas there is no access to computers and electricity; therefore, online materials cannot be easily accessed. Additionally, there is an absence of any printed materials to distribute to the general population. The Uganda Ministry of Education’s Department of Guidance and Counseling developed one guiding material, the Career Guidance Handbook, but it is not comprehensive enough. Moreover, each high school received too few copies and as a result, are often traced to head teachers’ offices gathering dust. Many of those books have not been utilized and there is no follow up on the reasons the books are not being used. Currently, it is the only standardized written material available for Ugandans. The Uganda National Council of Higher Education (NCHE) is mandated by law to ensure that career services are provided to students in higher institutions of learning. However, these laws and mandates are not enforced, especially in regards to providing career services. Problems with the career development process begin, for many students, during high school. The focus of most high schools is academics, specifically, grades and performances on standardized tests. If a student pursues university admission, most universities focus solely on students’ academic scores and subjects from high school. As a result, students are assigned to academic majors that do not consider interests, values, or skills. There is no career counseling or assessment across different levels of schooling. This makes it difficult for young people to be prepared for the world of work as many students find themselves involved in subjects in which they have no interest.

Laws, Regulations, or Policies Governing Qualifications Needed to Provide Career Services The Uganda Ministry of Education requires that each secondary school provides career services. However, there is nothing done to facilitate or monitor the process of providing the service, leaving each secondary school to do what the administration believes will work. Each school picks a teacher to be in charge of career guidance, but this teacher is not provided any form of training (H. Nsuguba, personal communication, November 2, 2016). Although the Ministry of Education lacks oversight regarding career services, there is an indication that the Ugandan government is committed to improving the standards of service providers. In 2010, the government secured a loan from the African Development Bank to provide a pilot training for career masters from 70 schools within Uganda in career counseling skills. The training of career masters was a short training and participants received certificates. The president of Uganda has expressed his interest in ensuring that career services are provided in an effective and efficient manner. Despite the challenges, the Ugandan population and


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government recognize the urgency of providing career services. Hopefully this will lead to additional training for services providers and establishing standards for the delivery of career services.

Credentials of Career Services Providers In Uganda, there are no credentialing institutions or associations of career service providers. The few professionals with credentials have credentials from other countries such as the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) certification provided through the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE). There are no established figures regarding the number of people who have credentials in providing career services in Uganda. Personal anecdotes seem to be the only way to determine if there are other career professionals in Uganda. The first author has not found any other professionals in Uganda with a career service provider qualification apart from himself.

Training Providers There have been scattered training opportunities for people intending to gain expertise in providing career services. There are two short-term career services training opportunities that are known. The first was the 2010 training of career masters – a one-week course by the consultants hired by the Uganda Ministry of Education (2017). The second was the “Innovative Approaches to Career Development and Planning” course which ran from July to August 2015. This course was organized for career masters by the Counseling and Guidance Centre at Makerere University. Both trainings were short term and certificate courses. In total, there were 30 career masters trained during the two short-term career service training opportunities. There are also many counselors who provide career counseling services since career counseling is included in the counselor training curriculum as a course unit. Two career-related courses are included in the training curriculum for the bachelor’s degree in Industrial and Organizational Psychology at Makerere University: Occupational Counseling and Career Development, and Employment and Career Counseling and Development. The first course gives the student the basic foundations in career counseling, which enables students to understand and assess issues related to personal and career growth and development. The course is taught lecture-style, with specific topics covered, including theories of career development, career life planning, career guidance programs, career barriers, challenges in career management, job searching, and functional and transferable skills. The second course is taught in a seminar style and focuses on the organizational impact of career development. This includes worker characteristics, work/life balance, consultation, assessment in

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career counseling, employee counseling, global issues in career development, and ethical issues in workplace counseling.

Future Direction for Career Services in Uganda With challenge comes opportunity. One opportunity for career services in Uganda is the formal development of career services established at Makerere University, the oldest and largest university in the East African community. Due to the need for career services in Uganda, the director of Makerere Career Services has taken an interest in training as a Career Development Facilitator through the National Career Development Association. Makerere University students now can access career services before joining the university, through matriculation, and upon graduation. The hope is that the creation of this office will bring about a multiplier effect in other universities. Staff from the Counseling and Guidance Center have visited and consulted with other universities in Uganda. In addition, efforts have been made to popularize career services across the country through writing articles, appearing on TV and radio talk shows and visiting schools to interest school administrators in the need for increased investment in providing career services. The world is a global village and Uganda is part of the village. Career services - as provided in other countries and by professionally trained people - are needed now in Uganda. A needs assessment should be completed to understand what resources are available in Uganda, to assess the best modes of accessible service-delivery, understand the skills gaps of service providers, and assess the effectiveness of the career services that are being provided. There is need for credentialing to protect the population from being harmed by “quacks” who come on board as experts because they identify a need.

Conclusion Career services in Uganda are greatly needed but there have not been serious efforts to develop the services. People across the lifespan struggle with career related issues without services whatsoever. Unfortunately, the limited services currently provided are not well streamlined. There is also very little research in career services within the Ugandan context. There are many opportunities for the growth of the service because there is a great need. The main challenge in forming well-established career services in Uganda is that many of the people at the decisionmaking levels do not have a comprehensive understanding of career services. The country has no qualified career services providers and there have not been serious steps taken to train people at a national level and set guidelines for providing career services at different educational levels.


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These challenges indicate there is much opportunity for growth. With continued partnership with NCDA, we believe this is possible. The whole country realizes there is need to provide career services. Every indicator shows the time is ripe to initiate career services in the country.

References Action Aid. (2012). Lost Opportunity? Gaps in youth policy and programming in Uganda. Retrieved from http://www.actionaid.org/sites/files/actionaid/youthrepot-final_0.pdf International Youth Foundation. (2011). Youthmap Uganda. Retrieved from http://www.youthpolicy.org/national/Uganda_2011_Youth_Mapping_Volume_1.pdf Maserejje, J. (2016, February 22). Uganda: What's the schools' role in career guidance? All Africa, The Observer (Kampala). Retrieved from http://allafrica.com/stories/201602230528.html Ministry of Education and Sports. (2017). Guidance and counselling. Retrieved from http://www.education.go.ug/data/smenu/18/Guidance%20and%20Counselling.html Nsubuga, H. (2011, December 12). Does career guidance support Uganda’s economy? Daily Monitor. Retrieved from http://mobile.monitor.co.ug/-/691260/1290032/-/format/xhtml//7jkja5z/-/index.html Odyek, J. (2009). Career guidance still lacking in Uganda's secondary schools. Uganda Radio Network. Retrieved from https://ugandaradionetwork.com/story/career-guidancestill-lacking-in-ugandas-secondary-schools Makerere University Counseling and Guidance Center. (2017). Counseling and Guidance. Retrieved from https://www.mak.ac.ug/university-services/counseling-and-guidance Online Career Guidance Center. (2016). Career guidance eBook for learners, educators and parents. Retrieved from https://learnwithgrandmaug.blogspot.com/2016/02/careerguidance-ebook-for-learners.html Uganda Bureau of Statistics. (2016). National population and housing census 2014. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/yitv2d

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Author Bios Henry Nsubuga, GCDF. holds two Masters degrees in Counselling and International Primary Health care from Makerere and University of London respectively. Henry is the Director, Makerere University Counselling and Guidance Centre. He is the past president Uganda Counselling Association. Henry has made significant progress in promoting career services in Uganda, where there were previously few professional career services. Henry is a member of several national and international counselling related organizations including National Career Development Association (NCDA), Association of University and College Counseling Center Directors (AUCCCD), American Group Psychotherapy Association (AGPA) and Uganda Counselling Association (UCA). Correspondence to [email protected] Julia Kronholz is a doctoral candidate in the Counseling Psychology and School Psychology Combined PhD program at Florida State University. She is currently a psychology intern at the Georgia Tech Counseling Center in Atlanta, Georgia. Previously, she served as a career advisor at the FSU Career Center and has 10 years of experience in career services in the areas of counseling and employer relations. Julia is a member of the National Career Development Association and is the recipient of the 2016 Mentor Research Grant. Her research interests include the intersection of career and mental health, diversity considerations in counseling and psychology, and the use of assessments in counseling services. Correspondence to [email protected]

History of Career Services Provider Credentialing in the USA

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CHAPTER 13

History of Career Services Provider Credentialing in the USA Mark Pope University of Missouri – Saint Louis


Credentialing for career counselors and other career services providers in the US arose as a direct response to initiatives by the American Counseling Association to support and encourage the recognition and professionalization of counseling nationally (Bradley, 1991; Sweeney, 1995) and by the National Career Development Association to support and encourage the recognition and professionalization of career counseling and other career services providers nationally (Bradley, 1991; Engels, Minor, Sampson, & Splete, 1995; Forrest & Stone, 1991; Pope, 2000, 2001; Pope & Russell, 2002; Smith & Karpati, 1985; Sweeney, 1995). This chapter provides an overview of credentialing, background on the history and context of career services provider credentialing in the USA, the types of credentials that are currently available through various professional bodies including the education and training requirements of each, and an analysis of future directions for career services provider credentialing. This chapter is important to the success of the new international credentialing system proposed by NCDA as it provides the baseline information on how such a system was developed in the first country to have such a system – the United States of America.

Overview of Credentialing: Registration, Licensing, and Certification Sweeney (1991) wrote that “credentialing is a method of identifying individuals by occupational group. It involves at least three methods with variations on each: registry, certification, and

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licensure” (p. 120). In the USA, career services providers have been credentialed using all three of these methods. A registry is a “voluntary listing of individuals who use a title and/or provide a service that a government or occupational group believes is of benefit” (Sweeney, 1991, p. 120). The criteria for inclusion on a registry are the simplest of the three credentialing methods so generally cost is low, there is no regulation of the registrants, and renewal only requires payment of the fee (with no continuing education requirements). In the late 1980s in California, leaders of the California Career Development Association devised a strategy to achieve licensing for professional counselors in that state, including career counselors (Pope, 1994; Porter, 2004). In order to provide evidence to the California state legislature that there were sufficient number of counselors who were available for and requesting such licensing, the California Registry of Professional Counselors and Paraprofessionals was initiated by the California Association for Counseling and Development and the California Career Development Association (CCDA) under the leadership of Dean Porter (a past CCDA president) with designations including Registered Professional Counselor and Registered Professional Career Counselor available for registrants. In California, this was always conceived of, by the founders of that group, as a transitional organization, that is, an organization that would provide a bridge developmentally to the licensing of all professional counselors in the state, including career counselors. When such licensing was achieved in 2011, that registry was closed. Licensing is the most restrictive credential and is established via state legislatures in the USA, as licensing has historically been seen as a responsibility of the states, not the federal government. “It tends to be the most desirable with respect to asserting the uniqueness of an occupation because it may delimit both the title and practice of an occupation” (Sweeney, 1991, p. 121). In the USA, only the state of New Jersey has a license specialty specifically designated for “career counselors.” The State of New Jersey Division of Consumer Affairs Professional Counselor Examiners Committee recognizes specialty certifications that are granted through the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC), such as career counseling, and it may add such specialty designations to the state credential for licensed professional counselors. Professional counselors are not allowed to advertise themselves as specialists or use the specialty credentials in their titles unless the State Professional Counselor Examiners Committee determines they have indeed met the requirements (e.g., Counselor-License, 2017). Certification is a credentialing method that is “ broadly conceived as a process of verifying the truth of one's assertion of qualification . . . This type of certification commonly promotes continuing education of participants and requires adherence to a professional code of conduct” (Sweeney, 1991, p. 121). Although state governments sometimes use the term “certification” for school counselors or addictions counselors, nationally this is what is


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considered a non-legislative certification, as it is initiated and maintained by a non-governmental professional group. The National Certified Career Counselor (NCCC) credential was a program originally developed by NCDA but administered by NBCC. When that certification was retired by NBCC in 1998, the National Career Development Association developed the Master Career Counselor and Master Career Development Professional credentials as “membership categories” to be a replacement for the NCCC (Brueske, 1999; Clawson, 1999; Pope, 2001).

History and Context of Career Services Provider Credentialing In the USA at the national level, career services provider credentialing arose from different sources depending on the type of credential (Engels, Minor, Sampson, & Splete, 1995). Careerrelated professional credentials have been developed to meet specialized career development needs in the USA including career counselors, career development facilitators, workforce development professionals, career coaches, rehabilitation counselors, and vocational assessment professionals. Some of these credentials are allied with a specific professional association and some are allied with independent profit-making businesses. In the USA the leader in this area has been undoubtedly the National Career Development Association (NCDA). Founded in 1913 as the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA), NCDA was one of the four founding professional associations of the American Counseling Association in 1952, providing the administrative staff, leadership, and journal for this new professional association. The roots for credentialing of career services providers in the USA began with a state court case in 1972. John Weldon was in private practice as a career counselor in Virginia when the Virginia State Board of Psychologist Examiners obtained a court order to restrain his practice. This Board believed that Weldon was practicing psychology without a license, but Weldon responded that “guidance and counseling were separate fields from psychology and, therefore, he should not be under the jurisdiction of that Board” (Hosie, 1991, p. 37). The court ruled in October 1972 that “ . . . the profession of personnel and guidance counseling is a separate profession (from psychology) and should be so recognized . . . However, this profession does utilize the tools of the psychologist . . . therefore it appears that there must be a regulatory body to govern the profession . . .” (Swanson, 1988, p. 1). Although this was a win in theory for Weldon and career counseling, Weldon was restrained from further practice because there was no state licensing body in Virginia that regulated the practice of either career counseling or guidance and counseling. Not until 1975

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with the leadership of the Virginia Personnel and Guidance Association did the Virginia state legislature pass the first counselor regulation law with licensing following in 1976, including career counseling in the training and education requirements for all licensees. Then in 1982, as the first step toward the development of a career counselor credential, the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA, as NCDA was then known) adopted a document titled “Vocational and Career Counseling Competencies” that defined six major categories, i.e. general counseling skills, information, individual and group assessment, management and administration, implementation, and consultation, with over 60 total competencies (NVGA, 1985). Following that document in 1983, NVGA established the National Council for Credentialing Career Counselors (NCCCC), chaired by Lee Richmond and Frank Karpati, that developed the first career counselor credential – the National Certified Career Counselor credential (Smith & Karpati, 1985), based on those original competencies. Both NVGA and NCCCC believed that the evaluation of competence in career counseling should be multifaceted and should include “professional educational background, supervised practicums, work supervision, recommendations, and a measure of one’s knowledge base in regard to relevant aspects of the profession” (Smith & Karpati, 1985, p. 611). NCCCC set out to develop such a knowledge measure using the previously identified competencies as a guide. Items were requested through the APGA Guidepost and the National Vocational Guidance Association Newsletter with over 500 items being submitted. A panel of career counseling experts led by Dale Prediger and Esther Diamond chose the items that were included in the first draft used in the norming process. The resulting National Career Counseling Credentialing Examination was initially administered to over 60 career counselors attending the 1984 American Association for Counseling and Development (AACD, now known as the American Counseling Association) annual convention held in Houston, Texas. From 1984 to 1985, over 300 career counselors participated in this norming process and were credentialed at national sites around the USA (Smith & Karpati, 1985). In 1982 the National Board for Certified Counselors (NBCC) came into existence. NBCC was the culmination of several years of discussion within AACD of developing a national certification in professional counseling. In 1985 the NCCCC affiliated with NBCC, making the NCCC NBCC’s first counseling specialty credential (Engels et al., 1995). In 1997 at the request of NCDA leadership, NBCC created a new career-related credential – the Career Development Facilitator (CDF) credential (as of 2000, the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) credential). This credential was based on the Facilitating Career Development (FCD, often called as the CDF curriculum) curriculum developed by


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Howard Splete and Judith Hoppin of Oakland University through a grant from the National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC), an agency of the federal government (Hoppin & Splete, 2013). Through NCDA contacts with NOICC, Hoppin and Splete (2013) (both now former NCDA presidents) were informed of this grant opportunity, encouraged to apply, and received this grant. Throughout the development of the CDF curriculum, it was always the intent of NCDA and NOICC to establish a national certification to recognize the training and background of CDFs. Representatives of NCDA met with NBCC to request such a certification. NBCC established a separate entity, the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE), for this purpose. After approval of the CDF curriculum, the CCE in July of 1997 finalized a formal application and criteria for the national credentialing of CDFs. In 2000, CCE expanded the CDF certification to global status (GCDF), and at this time (2013) there are close to 20,000 certified GCDFs worldwide. (p. 80) Core competency areas include: helping skills, labor market information and resources, assessment, diverse populations, ethical and legal issues, career development models, employability skills, training clients and peers, program management/implementation, promotion and public relations, and technology. In 1999, NBCC formally retired the NCCC credential. According to NBCC, the retirement of the NCCC credential was based on the plateauing of new applicants for this credential at 40 per year with a total of 862 NCCCs as of 1998. At that time, NBCC had 13,000 certified counselors (Clawson, 1999). After protracted discussions between NCDA and NBCC, NBCC was still determined to retire the NCCC, but allowed all current holders of the NCCC to maintain this earned credential as long as they were members of NBCC. Further, the CDF certification was growing substantially and was seen as a more lucrative place to invest NBCC resources. Unfortunately for career counseling, in the end, the NCCC did not fit the business model of NBCC Executive Director Tom Clawson (Clawson, 1999). To his credit, Clawson has ensured the economic continuation of NBCC, sometimes, however, at the expense of the values and traditions on which NBCC was founded (Pope, 2000, 2001). NCDA immediately began the development of two special professional credentials (called “membership categories”) to replace the NCCC credential. NCDA Past President Mark Pope who had developed the Fellows program for both ACA and NCDA drafted the qualifications for these two new membership categories – the Master Career Counselor and the Master Career Development Professional (now Master Career Specialist), with requirements paralleling the NCCC and CDF respectively (Pope, 2000, 2001). These two new replacement categories were announced in 2001 with a grandparenting period for all holders of the NCCC to convert their NCCCs to MCCs.

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In 2007, NCDA established a Credentialing Commission composed of Barbara Suddarth (Chair), Janet Lenz, Mark Pope, Martha Russell, and Michael Shahnasarian with Y. Barry Chung as the NCDA Board of Directors liaison. This commission studied the creation of a new master’s degree level career counselor credential and even received two proposals for the creation of such a credential – one from the Center for Credentialing & Education (CCE, an NBCC affiliate) and the other from the NCDA Executive Director Deneen Pennington and her management group. The Credentialing Commission report also identified some additional operational questions that remained to be answered, recommending that the NCDA management group provide these data before commencing the project: 

Costs, including staffing, exam and/or portfolio review, job analysis (required if an examdriven process is chosen), marketing, and operational overhead;

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Timelines for both the creation of the credential and the ongoing process;



Process; whether portfolio-based, exam-based, or blended;

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Governance structure and by-laws;

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Evaluation of process and product; and

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Marketing strategies, including efforts to establish value for the credential through state licensing boards, college and university career centers, and related entities. (Suddarth, Lenz, Pope, Russell, & Shahnasarian, 2008)

The NCDA Board of Directors decided to not move forward on the recommendations of the Credentialing Commission at that time as the costs to do this through NBCC were too large and it was feared that history might repeat itself. The Board did decide to move forward with the revision of the MCC and MCDP as “Membership Designations,” with the change of the MCDP title to Master Career Specialist, and with the addition of two additional Designations – Career Counselor and Career Specialist (D. Pennington, personal communication, December 4, 2016). A more detailed description of the requirements for each of these four membership designations is included in the next section. These recommendations and analyses provided by the original Credentialing Commission are, however, relevant today as the second iteration of the NCDA Credentialing Commission is preparing to introduce NCDA’s new, global credentialing body and its processes at the time of this publication.

Types of Credentials that are Currently Available This section provides information on current credentials that are available to career services providers in the USA, including information on the sponsoring organization and requirements for


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formal education, supervised educational practica, relevant work experience, work supervision, professional recommendations, relevant knowledge assessment, and others. Along with the foundational career services provider credentials included here, both career coaching and rehabilitation counseling certifications are also included in order to allow readers to compare and contrast these different but related providers’ credentialing processes.

Master Career Counselor 

Sponsoring organization: National Career Development Association

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Membership in sponsoring organization required: Yes

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Fees: Only annual membership fee in sponsoring organization (extra fee for listing in online directory)

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Education and training: Master’s degree or higher in counseling

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Supervised practica: Completed supervised career practicum during master’s program

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Work experience: Five years post master’s experience in career development

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Work supervision: None required

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Professional recommendations: None required

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Knowledge assessment: None required

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Continuing education: 30 hours every five years

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Website: http://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/membership_categories#designations

Career Counselor 


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Fees: Only annual membership fee in sponsoring organization

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Supervised practica: None required

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Work experience: None required

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SIDEBAR: Academic Training Standards for Career Counselors The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) “accredits master’s and doctoral degree programs in counseling and its specialties that are

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offered by colleges and universities in the United States and throughout the world” (CACREP, 2017a). While all counseling specialty areas require core curriculum in career development and counseling, CACREP accredits master’s degree programs in career counseling in addition to addictions; clinical mental health; clinical rehabilitation; marriage, couples, and family; school; and student affairs and college counseling. According to CACREP (2017b), Career Counseling programs prepare graduates to help persons wanting to make career decisions. Sometimes known as vocational counselors, career counselors help clients explore the intersection of their education, skills, interests, and personality to determine and plan for possible career paths. Career counselors often make use of inventories and other assessment tools to assist persons in making decisions. In addition, career counselors understand and maintain resource information on employment and labor market trends. Career counselors may work in a variety of settings from private practice, to career resource centers or employee assistance programs associated with specific industries or organizations. (“career counseling”)

Master Career Specialist (formerly Master Career Development Professional) 


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Fees: Only annual membership fee in sponsoring organization (extra fee for listing in online directory)

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Education and training: Master’s degree or higher in fields other than counseling; Completion of the NCDA Career Development Facilitator Training Program OR one year of supervised career development experience

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Supervised practica: None required.

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Work experience: Five years post-masters experience in career development

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Work supervision: (See “Education and training” above)

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Career Specialist

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Fees: Only annual membership fee in sponsoring organization


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

Education and training: Bachelor’s degree or higher in fields other than counseling; Completion of the NCDA Career Development Facilitator Training Program OR one year of supervised career development experience

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Work experience: (See “Education and training” above)

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Work supervision: (See “Education and training” above)

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Global Career Development Facilitator (formerly Career Development Facilitator)

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Sponsoring organization: Center for Credentialing and Education/National Career Development Association/National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee

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Membership in sponsoring organization required: No

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Fees: Application fee US$100; Annual maintenance fee US$40

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Education and training: Completion of the NCDA Career Development Facilitator Training Program (120 hours); Graduated scale of education and experience including: 1) Graduate degree (masters or doctorate) + 1,400 hours of verified work experience related to career development and the GCDF competency areas; 2) Bachelor’s degree + 2,800 hours of verified work experience related to career development and the GCDF competency areas; 3) Associate degree + 4,200 hours of verified work experience related to career development and the GCDF competency areas; 4) High school diploma or GED + 5,600 hours of verified work experience related to career development and the GCDF competency areas;

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Work experience: (See “Education and training” above)

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Knowledge assessment: None required, except an examination is part of the required GCDF training

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Website: http://www.cce-global.org/credentialing/GCDF/US

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SIDEBAR: Training Standards for Career Specialists and Global Career Development Facilitators Since 1997, the National Career Development Association (NCDA) has prepared more than 18,000 (Global) Career Development Facilitators (G/CDF) for inter/national certification. A Career Development Facilitator is a person who has completed the Career Development Facilitator Training Program and works in any career development setting or who incorporates career development information or skills in their work with students, adults, clients, employees, or the public. A Career Development Facilitator has received in-depth training in the areas of career development in the form of up to 120+ class/instructional hours, provided by a nationally trained and qualified instructor. This title designates individuals working in a variety of career development settings. A Career Development Facilitator may serve as a career group facilitator, job search trainer, career resource center coordinator, career coach, career development case manager, intake interviewer, occupational and labor market information resource person, human resource career development coordinator, employment/placement specialist, or workforce development staff person. (NCDA, 2017, “What is a Career Development Facilitator,” para. 2-3)

Certified Workforce Development Professional

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Sponsoring organization: National Association of Workforce Development Professionals

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Membership in sponsoring organization required: “No, but you do need to show proof of your ongoing commitment to your professional development by belonging to at least one workforce development-related professional organization. Such an organization must be an individual membership organization (i.e. not one your employer belongs to) and it must sponsor regular professional development opportunities such as a conference, workshops and/or a journal.”

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Fees: Application fee US$75 for NAWDP members, US$175 for non-members.

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Education and training: At least a high school diploma or GED

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Work experience: There are two basic experience requirements: full time and recent experience: 1) full time experience: must have the required amount of full time experience based on education: a) graduate degree + 12 months full time experience; b) bachelor’s degree + 24 months full time experience; c) associate’s degree + 48 months of full time experience; d) high school diploma or GED + 72 months of full time experience. 2) In addition, all applicants (regardless of education level) must have at least 12 months of


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relevant workforce development experience within the past 24 months (part time experience can be counted here). 


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Professional recommendations: Yes, two are required.

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Continuing education: Yes

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Other: Specialty endorsements are also available to CWDPs in: 1) business services, 2) job seeker solutions, 3) management services, and 4) youth services. Separate application and US$50 fee required.

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Website: http://www.nawdp.org/Certification.aspx

Master Certified Coach (but title varies) 

Sponsoring organization: Various organizations, including for profit, e.g. International Coach Federation (ICF, information presented below), World Coach Institute, The Academies, Career Planning & Adult Development Network, Professional Association of Resume Writers & Career Coaches, etc.

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Membership in sponsoring organization required: No, but generally higher fees for certification if not a member.

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Fees: US$575 for ICF members, US$775 for non-members (must purchase the application for certification); US$175 for credential renewal for ICF members, US$275 for credential renewal for non-members (must purchase renewal application)

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Education and training: 200 hours of coach-specific training

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Supervised practica: None specified

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Work experience: 2,500 (2,250 paid) of coaching experience with at least 35 clients; Two audio recordings and written transcripts of coaching sessions

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Work supervision: 10 hours with ICF certified MCC (called “Mentor Coaching”)

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Professional recommendations: None specified

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Knowledge assessment: Coach Knowledge Assessment

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Continuing education: 40 hours of Continuing Coach Education over three years (24 hours in Core Competencies, 3 in Coaching Ethics);

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Website: Various, but for a short list see http://thecareerexperts.com/career-coachingcertifications/

Certified Rehabilitation Counselor 

Sponsoring organization: Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification/American Rehabilitation Counselor Association

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Fees: Application and examination fee US$395 (US$200 is exam fee)

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Education and training: All requirements vary by educational degree: minimum of either Masters in Rehabilitation Counseling or Masters in Counseling

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Supervised practica: Generally 600 clock hours supervised by a CRC

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Work experience: 24-60 months of acceptable employment experience as a rehabilitation counselor (12 months supervised by CRC)

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Work supervision: 12 months supervision by CRC

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Knowledge assessment: Yes, CRC Certification Examination (included in “Fees”)

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Continuing education: 100 hours every five years (includes 10 hours in ethics)

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Website: https://www.crccertification.com/about-crcc

Certified Professional School Counselor 

Sponsoring organization: American School Counselor Association

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Fees: Varies state-to-state

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Supervised practica: Required

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Work experience: Varies by state; None required or up to 2 years teaching experience

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Knowledge assessment: Required; varies by state

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Continuing education: Varies by state

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Website: https://www.schoolcounselor.org/

SIDEBAR: Academic Training Standards for School Counselors The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) “accredits master’s and doctoral degree programs in counseling and its specialties that are offered by colleges and universities in the United States and throughout the world” (CACREP, 2017a). While all counseling specialty areas require core curriculum in career development and counseling, CACREP accredits master’s degree programs in school counseling in addition to addictions; clinical mental health; clinical rehabilitation; marriage, couples, and family; career; and student affairs and college counseling. Students who are preparing to specialize as school counselors will demonstrate the professional knowledge and skills necessary to promote the academic, career, and


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personal/social development of all P–12 students through data-informed school counseling programs. (CACREP, 2017b, “School Counseling”)

Certified Vocational Evaluation Specialist (CVE), Certified Work Adjustment Specialist (CWA), and Certified Career Assessment Associate (CCAA) 

Sponsoring organization: Commission on Rehabilitation Counselor Certification

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Fees: US$295 for renewal of certification

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Education and training: None specified

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Supervised practica: None specified

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Work experience: None specified

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Work supervision: None specified

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Professional recommendations: None specified

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Knowledge assessment: None specified

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

Website: https://www.crccertification.com/cve-cwa-ccaa-designations

Professional Career Practice Settings Schools (Kindergarten through 12th Grade) Locally governed, funded at the local and state government level, and greatly influenced by federal policy; education in the United States is a complex system whereby the lived experience of local communities and students varies greatly depending on community socioeconomic status (i.e., community property values; Ravitch, 2011). While all public schools in a given state have the same expectations and models for delivering career development interventions, the disparity in resources (e.g., budget, ratio of trained professionals to student) determine both the level of existence of career services and the quality of those services. Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program (CGCP) models are the driving force behind career development and intervention work in schools. Originally conceptualized by Gysbers and Henderson (2001), provides an organizational framework that directs school counselors towards the developmental needs of children and adolescents in school systems. The primary domains of these programs are academic, personal/ social, and career development; the latter which places the primary responsibility for career services in school settings on elementary (grades K-6), middle (grades 7-8), and high school (grades 9-12) counselors.

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The American School Counselor Association (ASCA) National Model is the predominant CGCP in the United States although several states (most notably Missouri) maintain their own unique program requirements. The ASCA National Model is designed to: 

Ensure access equity to a rigorous education for all students regardless of personal attributes;



Identify learning and developmental objectives that will be attained by students because of the comprehensive school counseling program;



Apply the model systematically to all students and the total school system; and



Require data-driven decision making (ASCA, 2012).

These primary criteria suggest the types of skills and training a school counselor must acquire to be effective. Specific to the career domain of the model, the ASCA standards are cross-walked (or compared to) the National Career Development Guidelines maintained and published by the National Career Development Association (NCDA) to ensure comprehensive attention to student development and learning. Included in this metric are three broad goals for all students: 1) Students acquire the skills to investigate careers; 2) Students learn strategies to achieve career goals, success, and satisfaction; and 3) Students understand the personal qualities, decisions, and education/training to be successful in the world-of-work (ASCA, 2012, p. 33). Credentials most often found in K-12 school settings are: Certified School Counselor, Global Career Development Facilitator, Career Counselor, and Career Specialist.

Colleges/Universities The Council for the Advancement Standards (CAS) was created by a consortium of professional organizations in higher education to standardize student services provided by student affairs departments and practitioners (CAS, 2012). The CAS Standards for Career Services provides specific details on (a) mission, (b) program components, (c) leadership and management, (d) organization and administration, (e) human resources, (f) funding, (g) facilities, (h) legal responsibilities, (i) equal opportunity/access/affirmative action, (j) campus and community relations, (k) multicultural programs and services, (l) ethics, and (m) evaluation. Germane to this chapter are the program components of the CAS Standards for Career Services which recommend the provision of (1) career counseling, (2) career information resources, (3) experiential learning for career exploration, (4) job search services, (5) employer services, primarily for recruitment of students, and (6) career assessment at all university career services centers (CAS, 2012). According to the National Association of Colleges and Employers (NACE) 2013-2014 Career Services Benchmark Survey, centralized career services, where there is an identified career services office for all university students, is present in 84.2% of universities surveyed


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while 15.8% were decentralized. Decentralized centers, typically found in “very high research” universities house career services within colleges and departments where career services personnel are considered specialized in that professional area. Centralized career services are more likely to employ certified career counselors whereas decentralized units might employ a wider array of professional credentials including persons credentialed in that particular field (e.g., accounting). Human resource professionals (often credentialed by the Society for Human Resource Management) are often employed in career services in both centralized and decentralized settings. Dey and Cruzvergara (2014) identify the following emerging trends that illuminate current and future career services practice in university settings: 

Elevation of Career Services: University senior administrators are beginning to recognize the relationship between effective career services and recruitment, retention, and revenue for the institution. Within the current economic climate surrounding higher education, this will bring renewed prominence to career services providers in this setting.



Customized Connections and Communities: “new levels of expectations have emerged requiring career services professionals to redefine their value proposition for a larger group of stakeholders.” (Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014, p. 10). Driven by the ease of access (i.e., online) of career information, expectations of career services providers including ongoing relationships with internal and external constituents including employers, ongoing and consistent contact such as networking events, and more personalized services such as counseling and coaching.



Outcomes and Accountability: Due to the current prominence and economic environment, administrations are creating expectations of career services with a return on investment perspective. Outcomes must be linked to institution strategic plans and measurable.



Branding: Social media presence, brand recognition within the university community and with external constituents, and coherent marketing and communications plans are necessary to operate in the current university environment. These emerging trends impact the “new breed of college career services staff” (Dey & Cruzvergara, 2014, p. 13). The authors suggest an identity shift is required from that of “counselor to group facilitator and expert consultant” (p.13) who employs the social and technical skills required to facilitate the emerging trends listed above. Credentials most often found in higher education settings are: Career Counselor; Global Career Development Facilitator; and Career Specialist.

Employed Adults

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The array of services available to employed adults in the United States is quite extensive. Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2013) identify the following settings in which employed adults might access services in a community-based setting: 

Private practice;



The World Wide Web: Cybercounseling;



Mental health centers;



Substance abuse centers;



Rehabilitation settings (for a complete description see Vocational Rehabilitation Services below);



Corrections and probation;



Military settings;



Job service offices and one-stop centers (for a complete description see Unemployed Adults below);



Faith-based organizations; and



Corporations and other organizations.

Due to the extensive array of settings in which counseling for both employed and unemployed adults occurs, it is easiest to delineate how career development services for adults in community settings differs from that of educational settings. Again, Niles and Harris-Bowlsbey (2013) provide a comprehensive list: 

Adult clients typically juggle multiple life role responsibilities such as spouse, parent, and citizen in addition to that of worker;



Transitions are often the focus of adult career services including workforce reentry (e.g., after child rearing), considering career change in search of greater satisfaction, or dissatisfaction with prior career choices that necessitate retraining or additional education to attain reformulated career goals;



The scope of career possibilities is often more circumscribed by community location and resources; and



Competencies beyond that of career services and counseling might be required of the career services professional due to the intersection of concerns in their client population (e.g., providing career services in a drug and alcohol abuse center may require competency in career and substance abuse domains; Niles & HarrisBowlsbey, 2013, p. 452).

Credentials most often found in these school settings are: Certified Career Counselor; Global Career Development Facilitator; Master Career Specialist; Career Specialist; and Master Certified Coach.


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Unemployed Adults There are more than 2500 Career One Stop centers, called American Job Centers, located regionally throughout the United States. Funded by the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration, they provide free services to job seekers (i.e., unemployed adults). While unemployed adults with financial means would likely access the services of career counsellors or coaches (see Employed Adults above for a review of these service offerings), unemployed adults with limited or no financial cushion will likely rely on American Job Centers for career services support as well as financial support such as special government programs. At American Job Centers, career and employment services include: 

local labor market and employer information;



employment workshops;



resource rooms with free internet, telephones, and resume writing tools;



job search assistance;



employment skills training including practice interviewing, skills testing, employment workshops, and resume writing;



hiring events and fairs; and



career counseling (CareerOneStop, 2017).

The services provided vary somewhat from center-to-center as does the quality of services. Credentials most often found in these settings are: Certified Workforce Development Professional.

Vocational Rehabilitation Services The Americans with Disabilities Act (1990) guarantees equal access to employment and forbids employment discrimination in the workplace while providing public accommodations, transportation, state and local government resources, and communication services to persons with disability. The enforcement of these provisions is mandated by law and monitored by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC); a body with investigative powers to respond to allegations of employment discrimination based on disability. Vocational rehabilitation services are continuous and coordinated supports that are designed to ensure every person with a disability is able to secure and retain suitable employment. These vocational services are important because, and despite the legal mandate of Americans with Disabilites Act (ADA), persons with disabilities experience very high rates of unemployment compared to Americans without disabilities. The U.S. Congress concluded that reasons for this employment disparity continue to be discrimination, limited access to transportation services, and lack of education/training due to discrimination (Gervey, Ni, Tillman, Dickel, & Kneubuehl, 2009).

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Rehabilitation services began for military veterans with the passage of the Soldiers Rehabilitation Act of 1918 and then for civilians in 1920 with passage of the Smith-Fess Act. The Social Security Act of 1935 provided the model for fully funding rehabilitation services and the Barden-LaFollette Act of 1943 expanded services to those with mental illness, mental retardation, and blindness (Stauffer, Capuzzi, & Olsheski, 2012). Vocational rehabilitation services consist of six primary services (Stauffer, Capuzzi, & Olsheski, 2012): Work adjustment training. A combination of psychoeducational and behavioral training with the purpose of teaching people appropriate work behaviors. Work evaluation. A process of vocational assessment that combines psychometric testing and performance-based assessment to provide reliable and valid data on a person’s ability to work, training requirements, work preferences, and global capacity to perform work tasks with and without assistance (Caston & Watson, 1990). Supported employment. Services provided to individuals with severe disabilities who are unable to obtain or maintain employment in a competitive environment because of their disability. In this model, the employee is provided services in the work environment (versus the model of providing services only as a precursor to employment) via coordination between the employer and the vocational services agency. Job-seeking skills training. Typically offered in a group format, job-seeking skills training assists individuals with disabilities to learn these skills with a specific focus on common skill deficits experienced by the population including explaining skills to employers, dealing with issues related to gaps in periods of employment and employment difficulties due to discrimination, disclosing disability, and requesting accommodations (Roessler, Hinman, & Lewis, 1987). Assistive technology and rehabilitation engineering. Prompted by the TechnologyRelated Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act (1988), financial assistance is available to provide assistive technology that allows for a “consumer-responsive assistive technology service delivery system for individuals with disabilities” (Stauffer et al., 2012, p. 457). Physical restoration services. Provided by medical and allied health professionals; physical, occupational, auditory, mental health, and speech therapists assist clients to enhance physical capabilities to better fit the demands of the workplace. Credentials most often found in vocational rehabilitation settings are: Certified Rehabilitation Counselor; Certified Vocational Evaluation Specialist; Certified Work Adjustment Specialist, and Certified Career Assessment Associate.


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Future Directions for Career Services Provider Credentialing With the growth of the GCDF (20,000 worldwide; Hoppin & Splete, 2013) and career coaching (20,000 worldwide credentials nationally and internationally; International Coach Federation, n.d.), this numeric expansion of career development professionals has provided impetus for another review of career services provider credentialing in the USA and globally. This initiative began in 2016 with the formation of the Credentialing Organizing Committee by NCDA and was continued by NCDA with the International Credentialing Taskforce with a one year scope for the study of international issues in training and credentialing of career services providers at all levels, in all countries. NCDA has ignored career coaching, but now with the continued expansion of career coaching in the marketplace it can no longer be discounted as a force in the delivery of career services to the public. Chung and Gfroerer (2003) reviewed the career coaching field and found substantive problems in the delivery of career services by career coaches to a ill-informed public including: (a) there is no nationally recognized professional organization that stipulates required guidelines for the training and practice of career coaches, (b) training of career coaches is not standardized or required, (c) no license or certificate is needed to practice, (d) there is no unified code of ethics by which career coaches are required to abide, (e) there is a lack of empirical evidence to substantiate the effectiveness of career coaching, and (f) career coaches face a challenge to service multicultural populations. (pp. 146-147) Even with movement toward addressing these challenges in this field, career coaching is like the “Wild West” of career services providers where anything goes and little is forbidden. There does seem to be a place for ethical career coaches in the pantheon of career services providers, but at this time there is little movement toward a unified field of practice, as there is simply too much money involved and too many unscrupulous providers of such training to reign in the practice of career coaching so that it might become a legitimate professional field. It would take just one consumer-filed judicial complaint and win for this entire field to collapse. It is hoped that NCDA’s new credentialing initiative will produce the desired result – an international body that will provide a unified professional system for the credentialing of career services providers around the world. This would be a strong step forward for all people in both industrialized and developing nations who are seeking help in the rapidly changing career frontier of their country and world.

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References Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990, Pub. L. No. 101-336, 42 U.S.C. §12101 (1990). American School Counselor Association. (2012). ASCA national model: A framework for school counseling programs (3rd ed.). Alexandria, VA: American School Counselor Association. Bradley, F. O. (Ed.). (1991). Credentialing in counseling. Alexandria, VA: Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Brueske, L. E. (1999, Summer). Specialties & academies update – NCCC retired. The National Certified Counselor, 16(1), 3. Retrieved from http://www.nbcc.org/Assets/Newsletter/Issues/fall99.pdf CareerOneStop. (2017). Find an American job center. Retrieved from https://www.careeronestop.org/LocalHelp/AmericanJobCenters/american-jobcenters.aspx Caston, H. L., & Watson, A. L. (1990). Vocational assessment and rehabilitation outcomes. Rehabilitation Counseling Bulletin, 34, 61-66. Retrieved from https://eric.ed.gov/?id=EJ420944 Chung, Y. B., & Gfroerer, M. C. A. (2003). Career coaching: Practice, training, professional, and ethical issues. The Career Development Quarterly, 52, 141-152. doi: 10.1002/j.21610045.2003.tb00634.x Clawson, T. (1999, Fall). NBCC agrees to talks with NBCC. The National Certified Counselor, 16(2), 1-3. Retrieved from http://www.nbcc.org/Assets/Newsletter/Issues/fall99.pdf Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs. (2017a). Welcome to CACREP. Retrieved from http://www.cacrep.org/ Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs. (2017b). Choosing a graduate program. Retrieved from http://www.cacrep.org/for-students Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education, & Mitstifer, D. I. (2012). CAS professional standards for higher education (8th ed.). Washington, D. C.: Council for the Advancement of Standards in Higher Education. Counselor-License. (2017). What are the counselor licensure requirements in New Jersey? Retrieved from http://www.counselor-license.com/states/new-jersey-counselorlicense.html#context/api/listings/prefilter Dey, F., & Cruzvergara, C. Y. (2014). Evolution of career services in higher education. New Directions for Student Services, 2014(148), 5-18. doi:10.1002/ss.20105 Engels, D. W., Minor, C. W., Sampson, J. P., & Splete, H. H. (1995). Career counseling specialty: History, development, and prospect. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74, 117-125. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1995.tb01837.x


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Forrest, D. V., & Stone, L. A. (1991). Counselor certification. In F. O. Bradley (Ed.), Credentialing in counseling (pp. 13-21). Alexandria, VA: Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. Gervey, R., Gao, N., Tillman, D., Dickel, K., & Kneubuehl, J. (2009). Person-centered employment planning teams: A demonstration project to enhance employment and training outcomes for persons with disabilities accessing the one-stop career center system. Journal of Rehabilitation, 75(2), 43-49. Retrieved from https://www.questia.com/library/journal/1G1-200717518/ Gysbers, N. C., & Henderson, P. (2001). Comprehensive guidance and counseling programs: A rich history and a bright future. Professional School Counseling, 4, 246-256. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/42732263 Hoppin, J. M., & Splete, H. H. (2013). The career development facilitator project: Then and now. The Career Development Quarterly, 61, 77-82. doi:10.1002/j.2161-0045.2013.00038.x Hosie, T. W. (1991). Historical antecedents and current status of counselor licensure. In F. O. Bradley (Ed.), Credentialing in counseling (pp. 23-51). Alexandria, VA: Association for Counselor Education and Supervision. International Coach Federation. (n.d.). History. Retrieved from http://coachfederation.org/about National Career Development Assocation. (2017). NCDA career development facilitator training. Retrieved from https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/pt/sp/facilitator_overview#1 National Vocational Guidance Association. (1985).Vocational and career counseling competencies. Vocational Guidance Quarterly, 34, 131-134. (Published originally in the National Vocational Guidance Association Newsletter (1982, June). doi: 10.1002/j.2164585X.1985.tb01113.x Pope, M. (1994, November). Publics' awareness of professional and ethical career counseling. CCDA News, 10(4), 1 & 6. Retrieved from https://ccda.ca.gov/ Pope, M. (2000, Summer). Report of the survey on recognition of career providers. Career Developments, pp. 4, 11. Pope, M. (2001, Fall). NCDA establishes new credential to replace NCCC. Career Developments, pp. 1, 10. Pope, M., & Russell, M. (2002). A practitioner's view of career development policy in the United States. In L. Bezanson & E. O’Reilly (Eds.), Making waves: Volume 2. Connecting career development with public policy (pp. 182-188). Ottawa, Canada: Canadian Career Development Foundation. Porter, D. (2004, Winter). Counselor licensing update - California. The National Certified Counselor, 20(2), 5. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/AXRgVt Ravitch, D. (2011). The death and life of the great American school system: how testing and choice are undermining education. New York, NY: Basic Books.

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Roessler, R. T., Hinman, S., & Lewis, F. D. (1987). Job interview deficiencies of “job ready” rehabilitation clients. Journal of Rehabilitation, 53(1), 33-36. Smith, R. L., & Karpati, F. S. (1985). Credentialing career counselors. Journal of Counseling & Development, 63, 611. doi: 10.1002/j.1556-6676.1985.tb00642.x Stauffer, M. D., Capuzzi, D., & Olsheski, J. A. (2012). Career and lifestyle planning in vocational rehabilitation settings. Career counseling: Foundations, perspectives, and application (2nd ed., pp. 430-466). New York: NY: Routledge. Suddarth, B., Lenz, J., Pope, M., Russell, M., & Shahnasarian, M. (2008, July 11). NCDA Credentialing Commission recommendations to the board. Broken Arrow, OK: NCDA. Swanson, C. (1988). Historical perspective on licensure for counselors. In R. L. Dingman (Ed.), Licensure for mental health counselors (pp. 1-3). Alexandria, VA: American Mental Health Counselors Association. Sweeney, T. J. (1995). Accreditation, credentialing, professionalization: The role of specialties. Journal of Counseling & Development, 74, 134-138. doi: 10.1002/j.15566676.1995.tb01834.x

Author Bios Mark Pope, Curators’ Distinguished Professor at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis, was one of the first National Certified Career Counselors (NCCC) in the US, as he was part of the norming group for that new credential in 1985. Further, Dr. Pope initiated (as National Career Development Association (NCDA) President at that time) and was instrumental in developing the designations formerly available through NCDA as well as the state career credential used in California (Registered Professional Career Counselor). As a former president of NCDA and the California Career Development Association, recipient of the NCDA Eminent Career Award, and editor of The Career Development Quarterly, Dr. Pope has experience, expertise, and historical context that he brings to this issue. Correspondence to: [email protected] Brian Hutchison, Ph.D., is an Associate Professor at New Jersey City University. Dr. Hutchison is the President of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA), Treasurer of the National Career Development Association (NCDA), Past President of the Missouri Career Development Association (MoCDA), and Editor of the Asia Pacific Career Development Journal. His scholarship can be broadly described as focused within two primary counseling domains, school counseling and career coaching/counseling. These broad themes are infused into three primary scholarship areas: international issues in career/ school counseling, career theory and practice integration, and counselor training/education broadly defined. Correspondence to: [email protected]

Syntheses and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials, and Training

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CHAPTER 14

Syntheses and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials, and Training Hyung Joon Yoon The Pennsylvania State University


The purpose of this chapter is to provide syntheses and future directions for career services, credentials, and training based on the review of the contributed chapters from different parts of the world. We hope that career practitioners, policymakers at professional organizations in the field of career development, national/regional governments, and training providers around the world will use this resource to enhance career practice, policy, and legislation in their respective settings. We kept in mind the following questions while completing this chapter: 1. How could career services and career education be provided effectively in different settings? 2. How could competencies for career practitioners be identified and regulated for effective service provision in the form of credentials? 3. How could training and educational opportunities be offered to career development practitioners?

Career Practices in Different Settings In this section, we review career practices in primary and secondary education, higher education, public employment services, and the private sector.

Primary and Secondary Education In primary and secondary education settings, the main agent for career service and education provisions differs from one country to another. We adopted Chadha, Gambhir, and

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Mahavidyalya’s (2018) classification – counselor, career teacher, and teacher-counselor, which is aligned with Zelloth’s (2009) observation of “a psychological model, pedagogical model, and a hybrid model.” (Vuorinen & Kettunen, 2018, p. XX). We added one more category, career practitioner, for this classification system to identify those providing career services within school systems who do not have a graduate degree in counseling, psychology, or a closely related field. Our definitions are: 

Counselor: a person holding a graduate degree in counseling, psychology, or closely related field specializing in career, school, or guidance counseling.



Career teacher: a teacher in a school who provides career education through instructions and various experiential activities.



Teacher-counselor: a teacher who is trained to offer educational activities as well as career counseling sessions.



Career practitioner: a person providing career services who does not hold a graduate degree in counseling, psychology, or a closely related field.

The following table identifies the countries described in this book that use each type of career services provider. Table 14.1. Career Service Providers in Primary and Secondary Schools Provider Type

Counselor

Career Teacher

Teacher-counselor

Career Practitioner

Country                    

Canada Columbia European Union India Taiwan United States Australia Canada Columbia European Union India Japan Taiwan Uganda European Union India South Korea (transitioning from the career teacher model) European Union India United States (only in some states, e.g., South Carolina)


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Recognition of best practices serves a two-fold purpose. One, it identities optimal interventions that may inform career practices in other countries. Second, recognition for work done well motivates career practitioners and leaders to continue to strive for excellence in their work. The table below identifies best practice(s) from each country included in this book. Table 14.2. Best Career Services Practices in Primary and Secondary Schools Country Australia



Canada

 

China



Columbia

 

European Union



India



 Japan

 

South Korea

 

Taiwan

 

Best Practices Identified by the Authors Work studies course is an option for ninth and tenth-grade students. The course includes topics such as managing change and transition, selecting learning strategies, and entrepreneurial skills. National Take our Kids to Work Day for ninth grade students in which more than 200,000 participate. “ChatterHigh” online resource designed to engage high school students in career planning. Beginning implementation of career education and guidance in high schools. In 2010, the National Civil Service Commission increased the number of school counselors nationwide from 877 to 1892. Career development is integrated within a larger bio-psycho-social framework as monitored by highly trained school counselors. Cedefop Competence Framework for Career Practitioners provides an empirically based set of practitioner competencies that assure high training standards across diverse nations. The integration of trained counselors, career teachers, and teachercounselors to provide a comprehensive approach to service provision at a large scale. Use of role plays, drama, and career sensitization perspectives in interventions. An emphasis in high school is placed on developing student independence by using experiential and service learning activities. Building human relationships and autonomy are key foci in career services interventions throughout school years. Career teacher-counselors are required to complete a 570-hour program to be qualified as a Dedicated Guidance Counseling Teacher. Ministry of Education has selected 10 graduate schools to offer graduate programs in career guidance and counseling for primary and secondary teachers. Student Guidance and Counseling Act requiring guidance counselor staffing levels for elementary and junior high schools. Career Navigator Dashboard digital career counseling system to integrate school performance with daily life.

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United Arab Emirates



The recent Ministry of Education Strategy for 2010-2020 introduces a formal school-based career counseling program and a call to develop training requirements. Uganda  Ministry of Education guidelines address contextual concerns such as HIV/AIDS mitigation, psychosocial concerns, and support services as necessary elements of guidance.  Informal community networks utilized to provide career talks in schools until more formal programs and processes can be developed. United States of  American School Counseling Association National Model provides a America national standard for school counseling interventions and student developmental expectations. Note. Citations are omitted as the content of the table is found in the contributed chapters. Readers are encouraged to review chapters of interest to learn more.

Future directions of professional career services in primary and secondary school settings become clear as one reads each chapter. While different countries/ regions may be at different stages, there is a common developmental thread exposed by reviewing the entirety of this book. We see the following stages unfolding across all chapters: 1. Awareness of the need for systematic career education and counseling interventions in school systems. 2. Legislative action to define standards for the provision of services and qualifications of service providers. 3. Establishment of programs that fit within the political system of influence (e.g., federal guidelines and systems, state/ prominence level guidelines and systems, or local level guidelines and systems). 4. The scientific study of intervention effectiveness and delivery. 5. Continual refinement of policies, standards, requirements, interventions, and systems. Future trends, therefore, are contextual in that they must adhere to the culture of the country and the developmental stage in which career work is being done. Globalization and technology have overlaid this developmental process with the knowledge that career development in primary and secondary schools must expand to prepare students for a more chaotic world-of-work and the autonomous ability to engage with career development over the entire life-course.

Higher Education Higher education settings, when compared to the other three settings summarized in this chapter, is the environment with the most uniform system of career services practices across the countries and regions in this book. The general uniformity of these services is grounded in two societal concerns: 1) filling gaps between education and employment needs; 2) being responsive to the growing demands of the 21st Century global economy. In the following paragraph, we will “paint


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a picture” of career services in higher education using aggregated information gleaned from the chapters of this book. Colleges and universities have a centralized or decentralized career services unit with the mandate to serve students in their career exploration, choices, preparation, and first job selection. Professional career services providers are required to have some level of training, qualification, and certification to perform this role. The career services unit provides an array of services most often including: 1) assessment (exploration); 2) employment information (exploration); 3) coaching/ counseling (exploration and choices); 4) career fairs (career exploration, choices, preparation, and first job selection); 5) career workshops/trainings (preparation); 6) internships (preparation); 7) employer engagement (first job selection); and 8) application assistance including resume, cover letter, job interview, and selection training (first job selection). Please review Table 14.3 below to identify the professional titles found in higher education settings in each country as well as specific points of focus highlighted by each country author team. Table 14.3. Unique Career Services Attributes in High Education Country Australia

Canada

China

Columbia European Union

Career Services Professional Titles Various but are most often members of the National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services (NAGCAS) Career counselors (many whom hold various professional identities)

Assistant Career Counselor (Level IV) Career Counselor (Level II) Career Practitioner (Level III) Morality and political guidance teachers Senior Career Counselor (Level I) Psychologists (not necessary focused on career guidance) Career assessment and information expert Career counselor Career educator

Specific Foci Mentioned Work studies curriculum in K-12 is the foundation of career exploration in higher education settings. Alumni career services programs. Career services for special population needs (e.g., students with disabilities, immigrant students). Co-op programs. Entrepreneurship centers in addition to career centers.

Recruitment and retention of students through university graduation. Competency-based model for supporting professional development and standards.

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India

Japan South Korea

Taiwan

United Arab Emirates Uganda United States of America

Career service manager Social systems intervener Quality trainers Specialized business trainers Career consultant Job consultant

Career consultant Career counselor Consulting psychologist Employment Service Class B Technician Academic faculty Career services staff None currently Career counselor Career specialist Global Career Development Facilitator

Scalability of career development services sponsored by the government designed to train 350 million people by 2022. Highly integrated career education and vocational guidance system required by law. Career Development Center for the Creative Economy (CDCCE), a government sponsored integrative model between universities and the world-of-work. Counseling Act requires one counselor for every 1200 students. Mentor programs with industry.

Very focused internship experiences. Makerere University is the only one that has formal career services at this time. Accountability for measurable outcomes. Personal branding and marketing.

Public Employment Service Public employment services are public goods and therefore are sponsored and managed by governmental entities. Nowhere does one see the importance of public policy (and thus public advocacy) in the delivery of consistent, quality career services to all citizens than in this sector. We think it is most useful to summarize this information by noting primary government policies and agencies as well as the specific public services sponsored by each. Table 14.4. Best Career Services Practices in Public Employment Service Country

Sponsoring Institution or Law Commonwealth Employment Services (CES) Jobactive

Specific Services Disestablished causing services to be outsourced to non-government entities. Privately funded, government sponsored program that funds more than 1700 job active providers to connect workers to employers.

National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS; 2017)

Provides economic safety net for persons with disabilities.

Australia


Canada

Devolution of services from federal to regional and local municipalities. Forum of Labour Market Ministers (FLMM) Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security

China

Law 1636 (2013) Columbia Ministry of Labor (2016)

European Union

India

Japan

South Korea

European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (2015)

National Career Service Recruiting Agencies  Union Public Service Commissions  Staff Selection Commissions  Institute of Banking Personnel Selection  State Public Services Commissions  Public Sector Units  Directorates of Education Prefecture sponsorships (46 in total) Federal government

Employment Security Act of 2015 through 8 federal Ministries coordinating for specific needs/populations. Employment and Welfare + (EW+)

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E.g., Alberta Learning Information Service

Renewing emphasis on improving labor market information. Oversees training and accreditation to issue certificates for many areas of occupation including career guidance practitioners (i.e., National Standard on Professions: Career Guidance Professions; 2005). Created the Public Employment Service to protect the unemployed and reintegrate into the labor market. Created COLABORA which are six job counseling centers. ELGPN Quality Assurance Framework provides criteria and indicators that can be used to evaluate the quality of practice and policy. A case example in Ireland is provided in the chapter. Nation-wide online platform for job matching. Nation-wide recruiting agencies.

Job Café’, a free, one-stop support station for people ages 15-39 who are unemployed. Job Café’ Mothers to support women with small children. Job coaches through employment and life support centers for persons with disabilities. 1,378 public job security centers established through local governments.

Aiming for a true one-stop shop services instead of needing to visit multiple facilities.

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Taiwan

United Arab Emirates

Workforce Development Agency (2013) Ministerial Orders No. 41, 42, and 43 (2005) President Yoweri Museveni

Uganda

United States of America

Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration American with Disabilities Act (1990)

Promotes personal training on the iCAP Competence-Oriented Course Quality Certification Imposes a quota system to ensure that UAE nationals are proportionately represented in private sector companies. Speaks to the ongoing need for career services in a country that believes these services are needed only for youth and college students despite high unemployment rates. Supports more than 2500 regionally located career one-stop centers called American Job Centers. Guarantees equal access to employment and forbids employment discrimination. Also funds accommodations for disabilities so that persons have full access to employment.

Private Sector Global capitalism, and its speedy proliferation in the recent decade, suggests that the private sector will continue to grow in opportunity and relevance for professional career services. A review of the chapter submissions for this book suggests that we are seeing a complete continuum of the presence of private sector career services within. Below, we note a compelling unique aspect of each chapter as presented within this work. This review reveals countries (e.g., Columbia, Uganda, European Union, and Taiwan) where the private sector is either absent or did not merit reporting through countries (e.g., China and South Korea) where the private sector is driving paradigm shifts in the delivery of services to scales never before seen in history. Table 14.5. Best Career Services Practices in the Private Sector Country Australia

Canada

China

Unique Aspect of Private Sector Services It is illegal for private sector professionals to charge a fee to client-jobseekers; therefore, most private sector work is in recruitment for client-employers whom are seeking employees. While community groups such as YMCA and Goodwill provide much of the nongovernmental career services support, private sector specialists, counselors, and psychologists have found a niche in areas such as outplacement counseling and executive coaching and counseling. Private sector companies and organizations are leading the charge in training China’s first generation of career services professionals. The New Elite Development Program (NEDP), Beisen Career Institute (BCI), and All China Youth Federation (ACYF) among many others are training and credentialing Chinese career services professionals every day.

Syntheses and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials, and Training Columbia

European Union

India

Japan South Korea

Taiwan United Arab Emirates Uganda

United States of America

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“It is also true that, given that there is no entity that leads training and certification of career counselors in this country, this situation will change.” Such a definitive statement of need portends a cultural shift around career development services in Columbia. More so than other country reports, the European Union treats career services as a public good that needs to be centralized in administration and collaborative in delivery. As the authors stated, “No service provider or organization can alone meet the needs of diverse client groups, and new forms of dynamics and relationships…” emerging in the complex European environment. An interesting observation from this book is the difference in content and focus between this single regional contribution versus the national contributions of all other chapters. The level of collaboration between government entities, training institutions, and business/ industry is reported to be exceptionally high. One might think that it is this integration that might cause a lack of private sector reporting in this chapter. Private job search agencies are reported to be proliferating since 1991 and largely providing services on-line. South Korea has a large population (27,600) and proportion (85.1%) of vocational counselors and employment services workers in the private sector (KRIVET, 2011). This population is spread over 12,071 registered agencies. Taiwan has a well-developed, collaborative system of career education and services in place that was not reported to rely upon private sector services. An emerging, and therefore unregulated, sector of career services, the private sector is growing by providing services such as document reviews, career coaching/ counseling, and placement services. The chapter author wrote a 2011 article in The Daily Monitor, the nation’s leading newspaper, questioning the current approach to career services in Uganda. Nsubuga reminds us all of the difficulty in making cultural change occur in the name of career development, something each of our countries has done or attempted to do. Compared to most other country reports in this book, the United States of America seems to have a proliferation of career credentials and a lot of portability of credentials across settings and sectors of career services.

Credentials and Competencies for Career Professionals Mechanisms Affect Standards for Career Professionals The current status. Reviewing contributed chapters revealed different types of quality control mechanisms for establishing and controlling standards related to qualifications of career educators and practitioners, thus in turn, controlling the quality of career education and career services. According to Vuorinen and Kettunen (2018), those mechanisms are legislation, licensing, quality standards, accreditation, and professional registers of career practitioners. Borrowing from their framework with slight modifications, we classified the practices reported in the chapters in Table 14.6 leaving their original contents in quotes.

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The impact of legislation is powerful. Some countries such as South Korea made bold progress requiring all primary and secondary schools to have at least one full-time career dedicated teacher (Yoon and Pyun, 2018). National credentialing in the forms of licensing and certifications is occurring as well. As these are defined and sometimes mandated by the law, the implementation is almost guaranteed, although the quality of training and the level of competencies of career practitioners are still uncertain. Qualifications standards, developed either by the government or a professional organization well respected in the field, can be effective because they set the level of achievement for all wishing to participate in providing professional career services. Qualifications standards vary including national competency standards, national qualifications framework, occupational standards, and competency models. It is remarkable that different Australian career development associations voluntarily formed the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) in 2006 to establish and implement the professional standards for career practitioners. While NCDA has been assuming the similar role in setting United States standards for the last century, it is not common to see the formation of such an organization at the national level involving all relevant organizations. These are certainly good precedents for other countries striving for ensuring the quality of career services and professionalization of the field. Similarly, in case of the United States, CACREP was founded in 1981 to promote the professional competence practitioners in the counseling and related fields through the development of standards and accreditation of master’s and doctoral programs (CACREP, 2017a). As noted by Pope and Hutchison (2018), one of the specialty areas of CACREP is career counseling. As of November 2017, there are eight CACREP currently accredited graduate programs in the Unites States, with the first ones— California State University-Northridge (still active) and the University of Maryland (expired)—being accredited in 1994 (CACREP, 2017b). When national qualifications or credentialing is not available or in conjunction with existing credentials, the government can empanel career practitioners for specific purposes. For example, India empanels career counselors and vocational guidance experts for the National Career Service (Chadha, Gambhir, & Mahavidyalya, 2018), as an alternative to credentialing career practitioners. The empanelment criteria include degree and experience requirements. In the case of South Korea, empanelment criteria for job consultants included government licenses such as Vocational Counselor License and Youth Counselor License in addition to work experiences (Yoon & Pyun, 2018).


Table 14.6. Approaches in Promoting Professionalism of Career Practitioners Approaches in promoting professionalism Legislation

Examples





     National credentialing by the government Qualification standards

         

Accreditation

      

Technical and Vocational Education Act (2015) requires senior high schools or below to offer vocational guidance courses (Taiwan) The Career Education Act (2015) mandates schools to have at least one teacher dedicated to career education and counseling (South Korea) Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency (TEQSA) Act 2011 (Australia) “Qualification requirements for school guidance counselors and vocational psychologists (Finland)” “Certifications for career practitioner titles (Iceland)” “Qualification requirements of career practitioners in PES (Slovakia)” “Detailed minimum teacher-vocational counselor qualifications (Poland)” Vocational Counselor License with two levels (South Korea) Career Guidance Professionals with four levels (China) Career Consultant certification with two levels (Japan) “Licenses for vocational counselors in PES (Poland)” Professional standards for career professionals through a formation of the Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA) (Australia) The Australian Qualification Framework (AQF) (Australia) National Competency Standards for four types of career-related practitioners (South Korea) National Standards on Professions for career guidance practitioners (China) “Occupational standards for professionals (Latvia)” “Standards and professional requirements for diagnostic evaluation and guidance (Portugal)” Many EU countries adopted national competence framework National Accreditation Council* (Columbia) Accreditation of degree programs governed by the TEQSA Act* (Australia) The Commission for Academic Accreditation* (UAE) The Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs (CACREP) (USA) Accreditation of private employment service agencies (South Korea) “Use of international accreditation frameworks (such as in Bulgaria, Greece, Romania)”

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228


Professional registry of practitioners



Empaneling career counselors and vocational guidance experts with the National Career Service (India)  Using a pool of job consultants that meet certain qualifications for Youth Employment Centers and universities (South Korea)  “Regulation by professional bodies linked to quality standards and license or professional register developments (in Germany, the Netherlands, and the United Kingdom)” Note. The table format with elements in quotes and descriptions concerning EU countries in quotes are obtained from Vuorinen & Kettunen (2018, pp. 98-99). *Applies broadly, not specific to career development practice.

Directions. Researchers in the field of career development and legislators are urged to understand international practices and devise ways to apply best practices with modifications by considering the unique context of their countries. Developing legislation in the area of career develop is not a simple task; settings range from K-12 education to higher education to public and private employment settings and beyond. Understanding each setting is crucial and often requires the inter-functional collaboration between, for example, an education-related ministry and a labor-related ministry in a given nation. Career practitioners should think about forming, protecting, and upholding their own profession. While governments may act on behalf of career professionals, it is sometimes risky to wait until the government will protect the profession. As seen in the case of Australia, it seems to be crucial for career practitioners in different organizations and associations to get together and form universal professional standards to protect and advance the profession for the country. With a collective exercise of influence, a nationwide coalition of career development organizations may affect legislative efforts in the way to benefit students, clients and the career development profession. In the United States, while CACREP has been the main driving force as for academic standards for graduate programs in counselor education specializing in career counseling, the number of accredited career counseling programs (n = 8) is marginal, compared to accredited school counseling programs (n = 259) (CACREP, 2017c). Taking one course in career development and counseling is a requirement for all CACREP accredited master’s programs (Pope & Hutchison, 2018). However, one course in career counseling may not prepare a counselor who did not specialize in career counseling to address career development needs of students and clients adequately. Although CACREP’s approach helps ensure quality in career counseling, providing supplemental training seems to be imperative considering the disparity between the supply—the number of graduates from CACREP accredited career counseling programs—and demand for career counseling in K-12, higher education, and employment settings. NCDA’s new initiative in credentialing career counselors could fill the gap at least in


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the United States. Another idea is for NCDA to develop an accreditation program, nationally and internationally, for undergraduate and graduate level degree programs that emphasize on career development.

Different Titles of Career Practitioners and Credentialing Requirements Different countries use different titles indicating certified or licensed career professionals, such as career counselor (USA), vocational counselor (South Korea), career consultant (Japan), vocational guidance expert (India), counselor (India), and career dedicated teacher (South Korea). Some other countries do not have specific professionals who exclusively provide career services or education. For example, In Columbia, school (or guidance) counselors provide career guidance while addressing other student-related issues (Brunal, 2018). Other countries such as the United States generally are in the same situation as Columbia, but some regions have dedicated career practitioners at schools. The 2015 NCDA Code of Ethics defines career counselor and career professionals as follows: Career Counselor – a professional (or a student who is a career counselor-in-training) with an advanced degree (master’s or doctoral level) in counselor education, counseling psychology or closely related counseling degree [italics added], engaged in a career counseling practice or other career counseling-related services. Career counselors fulfill many roles and responsibilities such as career counselor educators, researchers, supervisors, practitioners, and consultants. Career Professionals – as this term includes career counselors, career coaches, career consultants, career development facilitators, and anyone else who is a member of NCDA and provides career counseling, career advice/advising, career coaching, career planning, job search assistance, and/or related services. (NCDA, 2015, p. 26) The terms indicating career professionals, however, vary across different countries including the term, career counselor. For example, the Japanese government unified all existing career-practitioner-related credentials to the career consultant license issued by the government (Mizuno, Ozawa, & Matsumoto, 2018), however the Japanese words for “career counselor” are commonly used interchangeably with “career consultant.” In the case of South Korea, the governmental license—vocational counselor—is awarded to those ones who pass written and practice exams (Yoon & Pyun, 2018). The term, however, might be confusing or seen as misleading to those who are accustomed to the North American model of career counseling because there are no degree or training requirements for the vocational counselor license in Korea. India is more aligned with NCDA’s categorization as counselors need to have a (post)

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graduate degree in psychology, (guidance) counseling, child development, or special education, whereas vocational guidance experts are required to have a (post) graduate degree in any field but with a minimum of 5 to 10 years of experience in vocational guidance and counseling (Chadha, Gambhir, & Mahavidyalya, 2018).

Understanding Desired Competencies for Career Practitioners Syntheses. Competencies are the basis for superior performance in a given job (Spencer & Spencer, 1993). In other words, if it is confirmed that one possesses a desired level of competencies identified, it is highly likely that he/she will perform effectively in the given job. A set of competencies is used to serve as criteria for licensure and certification and guide training and development activities based on the need using a competency assessment. Thus, establishing the right set of competencies is critical for the quality of services that career practitioners offer. As seen above, respective governments and professional organizations are main players that develop and apply competency standards. In some contexts, such as Finland, Japan, South Korea, the government takes an active role in setting the competency standards and factor them into licensing and certification. In other contexts, professional organizations such as Council for Career Development (CCCD), Career Industry Council of Australia (CICA), Canadian Career Development Association (CCDA), and National Career Development Association (NCDA) of the United States take an active role in developing competency models with a list of competencies for professionals. In Table 14.7, we have summarized a list of competencies that appear in the chapters. We did not list task-related items, as they are not competencies. Additionally, to offer a more comprehensive comparison of the competencies, we used original sources when necessary to acquire additional information. For example, we identified an additional six areas of specialized competencies from the Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners (CSGCDP, n.d.). On a special note, we included competencies defined by the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG, 2003), which were not included in the chapters contributed, as it is a valuable resource validated with a pool of 700 practitioners in 38 countries (IAEVG, n.d.). It appears that competencies that were represented in different countries and sources could be grouped into three different categories—core, special, and professional practice. To help review the summary more effectives, we have provided potential categories in the table. Core competencies may be relevant to all career practitioners, special competencies may be required to certain practitioners in certain settings, and professional practice competencies may be applied to other professional but are also critical to career partitions to be effective. For example, the labor market information competency is relevant to all career practitioners


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including career coaches, job developers, and career counselors. However, the career counseling competency would be only relevant to practitioners with a counseling degree in most contexts. Table 14.7. List of Competencies for Career Practitioners Potential Category

Competency

Core

Helping skills

Core

Labor market, learning, and career related information and resources

Core

(Career) Assessment

Core

Diverse populations

Core

Ethical and legal issues

Core

Career development models and theories

Core

Employability skills

Core or Specialized

Training clients and peers

Core or Specialized

Program (and service) management

Core or Specialized

Promotion and public relations

Appears in CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CSGCDP (Canada), Cedefop (EU) CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), CGL5 (Korea), VC-L5 (Korea), IAEVG – Core, PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Basic, Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Specialist, CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialized, CG-L5 (Korea), VC-L5 (Korea), IAEVG – Specialized, Cedefop (EU), PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Basic & Professional, Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), IAEVG – Core, NSP (China) – Basic CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), IAEVG – Core, Cedefop (EU), Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), IAEVG – Core, Cedefop (EU), PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Basic, Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialist, VC-L5 (Korea), JP-L5 (Korea), Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialized, Cedefop (EU), PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Professional, Japan CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CICA (Australia) – Specialist, CSGCDP (Canada), CG-L5 (Korea), IAEVG – Core, IAEVG – Specialized, PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Professional CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA),

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Core

Technology

Core

Consultation (and coordination) Make referrals (and provide advocacy) Facilitate entry into learning and work Laws and regulations** School education system and career education Mental health knowledge (Career) Counseling

Core Core Core Core Core Specialized

Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Specialized Professional Practice

Re-entry counseling Group counseling Career transition support Career coaching Leadership development Educational guidance Competency development consulting (for clients) Placement Employer liaison Working with people with disabilities Implementing career development policy Conducting job analysis Community capacity building Policy advice Professional practice

Professional Practice

Information (and resource) management

Professional Practice

Effective communication

CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), CSGCDP (Canada), Cedefop (EU) CDF/GCDF/CCSP* (USA), IAEVG – Specialized, Japan CSGCDP (Canada), Cedefop (EU), Japan Cedefop (EU) NSP (China) – Basic Japan Japan CICA (Australia) – Specialist, CG-L5 (Korea), CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialized, IAEVG – Specialized, PRFGC (Ireland), NSP (China) – Basic & Professional, Japan VC-L5 (Korea) VC-L5 (Korea) VC-L5 (Korea), CTS-L5 (Korea), Japan CG-L5 (Korea) CG-L5 (Korea) IAEVG – Specialized CTS-L5 (Korea), Japan IAEVG – Specialized CICA (Australia) – Specialist, JP-L5 (Korea) CICA (Australia) – Specialist CG-L5 (Korea) CG-L5 (Korea), NSP (China) – Basic CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialized, IAEVG – Specialized NSP (China) – Professional CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), IAEVG – Core CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada) – Specialized, VC-L5 (Korea), IAEVG – Specialized, Cedefop (EU), NSP (China) – Professional CICA (Australia) – Core, CSGCDP (Canada), IAEVG – Core, Cedefop (EU), PRFGC (Ireland)

Syntheses and Future Directions for Career Services, Credentials, and Training Professional Practice Professional Practice Professional Practice Professional Practice Professional Practice Professional Practice Professional Practice

Self-awareness, capacity and limitations Social and cultural sensitiveness Effective collaboration Professional development Project management

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IAEVG – Core, Cedefop (EU) IAEVG – Core IAEVG – Core CSGCDP (Canada) , Cedefop (EU), Japan CICA (Australia) – Specialist, CSGCDP (Canada), Japan IAEVG – Specialized, PRFGC (Ireland) Cedefop (EU), Japan

Research and evaluation Operate within networks and build partnerships Professional Practice Engage with stakeholders Cedefop (EU) Note. Cedefop: European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training; CICA: Career Industry Council of Australia; CSGCDP: Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners; IAEVG: International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance; NSP: National Standards for Professionals; PRFGC: Program Recognition Framework for Guidance and Counseling; VC: Vocational Counselor; CG: Career Guidance; *Certified Career Service Provider (CCSP) is NCDA’s one of the five new certifications for career practitioners. See https://goo.gl/HghHtz to learn more about CCSP. **Laws and regulations is addressed within the labor market, learning, and career related information and resources in some countries.

Directions. This list of competencies should be used with caution, as some of these competencies are country and context specific. For example, implementing career development policy would be only relevant to practitioners working in a setting where mandates are imposed by governmental policies and laws related to career development. In addition, some competencies are not mutually exclusive. In other words, they overlap with other competencies. For example, employer liaison could be understood within the umbrella of placement. However, this list could be useful to identify relevant competencies in one’s setting when developing a competency model for the respective country, region, and/or setting. The competency title, (career) counseling, is in accordance with the respective country’s understanding of it. To apply the Western standards about counseling, countries including China, Japan, and Korea may need to be placed in the helping skills competency. It is important to know, however, that helping skills in the NCDA’s facilitating career development (FCD) curriculum is based on basic counseling skills but with a significantly less, incomparable amount of time allocation compared to a counseling master’s program. The categories of a set of competencies—core, specialized, and professional practice— should be carefully chosen considering the needs in the context. For example, Cedefop (2009) uses these three categories: foundational, client interaction, and supportive. South Korea classifies competencies into core and optional, whereas Canada, Australia, and IAEVG use core

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and specialized or specialist. In the case of China, the national standards classify the skills sets into work ethics, basic knowledge, and professional skills. It is worthwhile to note that China mapped the competencies according to different levels of proficiency indicated by ranks, such as career practitioner, assistant career counselor, career counselor, and senior career counselor. China also identified behavioral indicators for each level in a given competency. It is not clear whether and how they actually implement the framework. It, however, would be meaningful to understand how the training is offered and certification is administered as this type of practice provides a career path for professionals.

Training and Education Providers for Career Professionals Training and educational opportunities for current and future career professionals are provided by different entities such as colleges and universities, professional organizations, private companies, and governments. The target participant differs according to the purpose of the program. Degree and certification-related training programs are, in general, for future or entrylevel career practitioners. Exceptions are doctoral-level career counseling programs and programs for clinical supervisors and instructors. Other training programs, which include workshops and conference sessions, are geared toward the current practitioners for their continuing education, in many cases, to fulfill continuing education unit (CEU) hours. Countries with a long tradition of professionalizing the career development field tend to have all types of training providers stated above with varying degrees of maturity, while some other countries rely on one type of provider if exists. Training programs offered by private entities are often aligned with qualifications set by certifying organizations. Jin (2018) highlighted different certificate and certification programs available in China along with training contents and the number of hours required. The reviewed programs are mostly offered by private companies. In the United States, school counseling and career counseling master’s programs are main players in the formal education realm. For practitioners who are non-counselors, the Facilitating Career Development (FCD) curriculum provided by NCDA’s trained instructors—not by NCDA directly—has been the most widely popular one. The FCD curriculum feeds into the Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) of the Center for Credentialing and Education (CCE) and the Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP) certification of NCDA. These certifications have CEU requirements for the maintenance of the certification status. In offering degree programs for career practitioners, there are mainly two types of regulating bodies—the government and a non-governmental organization. Norway and South


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Korea are good examples of government-led degree programs. In the European Union, the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) plays a critical role in guiding policies and lifelong guidance activities in their member countries. Norway adopted the ELGPN’s Quality Assurance and Evidence-base (QAE) framework when developing a new master’s degree program in guidance and counseling (ELGPN, 2015). In South Korea, the role of the government is evident. The South Korean government is in the process of starting master’s level career counseling degree programs in 10 different universities to secure skilled career practitioners (Yoon & Pyun, 2018). In the cases of Australia and the United States, the influence of a non-governmental regulating body is evident while it is not required for universities to follow the directions of professional organizations. In Australia, universities make efforts to follow the CICA’s criteria (McIlveen & Alchin, 2018). In the United States, many career-related counseling programs follow CACREP’s requirements (Pope & Hutchison, 2018).

Directions It appears to be important to understand the local context before planning to offer training and education programs. One must consider the role of the government, the existence of a professional organization or certifying body in the field of career development, and training and education providers. Points to consider for each country include, but are not limited to: 

What is the role of the government in setting and controlling the professional standards in the career development field in the country/region?



What are well-respected credentials among career professionals in the country/region?



Who are the main training and education provider in the country/region and what are the contents of the programs?



What competencies does each of the training programs address and how are they aligned with the local and international standards (e.g., Jin, 2018)?



How can a potential program comply with the professional standards in the country/region (e.g., Jin, 2018)?



What are the ways to introduce new career development professional certifications in the country/region and what program(s) can be offered (if there is little to no standards)? Answering to the above questions is desired before developing a concrete plan to provide training or educational programs in a certain country and region.

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Conclusion It is our hope that this book provides ideas that will enhance the professionalization of the career development field across the globe. Each country and region has its own unique culture, history, norms, regulations, and practices. While certifications targeting a global market exist (e.g., GCDF), authors in this book maintained the importance of establishing and following country- or region-specific guidelines (Brunal, 2018; Vuorinen & Kettunen, 2018). In East Asian countries such as China. Japan, South Korea, and Taiwan, the government takes an active role. While there are government-led certifications and training programs for career practitioners, many decide to take advantage of the “global” standards. When a certification or training provider attempts to penetrate a specific market, again, it is imperative to consider how the competencies align or complement with the local standards. Consistent with ELGPN (2015), an evidence-based practice must follow at different levels—training provider, certification provider, policy maker, organizations that hire career practitioners—in order to make an informed decision regarding whether the chosen approach works in the context.

References Brunal, A. A. (2018). Status of career services and credentialing in Colombia from 2010 to 2016. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 81-94). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Career Education Act [진로교육법]. (2015). Retrieved from https://elaw.klri.re.kr/kor_service/lawView.do?hseq=38018&lang=ENG Cefefop. (2009) Professionalizing career guidance. Practitioner competencies and qualification routes in Europe. Luxembourg: Publications Office of the European Union. Chadha, N. K., Gambhir, V., & Mahavidyalya, C. (2018). The state of career services and career professionals in India. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 112-127). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs. (2017a). About CACREP. Retrieved from http://www.cacrep.org/about-cacrep/ Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs. (2017b). Directory. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/Yj6ZxK Council for the Accreditation of Counseling & Related Educational Programs. (2017c). Directory. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/JLbJCV


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European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network. (2015). Strengthening the quality assurance and evidence base for lifelong guidance. Saarijärvi, Finland. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/jX9kuC International Association for Education and Vocational Guidance [IAEVG]. (2003). International competencies for educational and vocational guidance practitioners. Retrieved from http://iaevg.net/wp-content/uploads/Competencies-English1.pdf International Association for Education and Vocational Guidance [IAEVG]. (n.d.). Credentials. Retrieved from https://goo.gl/yS25fc Jin, L. (2018). The current status of career services and professionals in mainland China’s educational settings. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 49-80). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. McIlveen, P., & Alchin, C. (2018). Qualifications for Australian career development practitioners. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 12-31). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Mizuno, S., Ozawa, Y., & Matsumoto, K. (2018). Career services and professionals in Japan. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 128-136). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. National Career Development Association. (2015). 2015 NCDA code of ethics. National Career Development Association. Retrieved from https://www.ncda.org/aws/NCDA/asset_manager/get_file/3395 Pope, M., & Hutchison, B. (2018). History of career services provider credentialing in the USA. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 195-216). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Spencer, L. M., & Spencer, S. M. (1993). Competence at work: Models for superior performance. New York: John Wiley and Sons. Technical and Vocational Education Act [技術及職業教育法]. (2015). [Taiwan] Retrieved from www.rootlaw.com.tw/en/LawArticle.aspx?LawID=A040080050002900-1040114 The Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners (n.d.). Areas of specialization. Retrieved from http://career-dev-guidelines.org/career_dev/index.php/thestandards-guidelines/areas-of-specialization Vuorinen, R., & Kettunen, J. (2018). The European status for career service provider credentialing: Professionalism in European Union (EU) guidance policies. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career

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services, credentials, and training (pp. 95-111). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Yoon, H. J., & Pyun, C.-H. (2018). The status of career development in South Korea: Qualifications for career practitioners. In H. J. Yoon, B. Hutchison, M. Maze, C. Pritchard, & A. Reiss (Eds.), International practices of career services, credentials, and training (pp. 137-159). Broken Arrow, OK: National Career Development Association. Zelloth, H. (2009). In demand: Career guidance in EU neighboring countries. Luxembourg: Office for Official Publications of the European Communities.

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Index A Abu Dhabi Education Council (ADEC), 178 ACARA (Australian Curriculum, Assessment, and Reporting Authority), 24–25 accreditation, 16–17, 20, 53, 81–82, 89–92, 98–99, 125, 184, 216, 223, 225–27 ACYF (All China Youth Federation), 55, 224 Alberta Learning Information Service (ALIS), 38, 45, 223 ALIS (Alberta Learning Information Service), 38, 45, 223 All China Youth Federation (ACYF), 55, 224 American Counseling Association, 54, 195, 197–98 American School Counselor Association. See ASCA aptitudes, 114, 120–21, 125, 163, 165, 167 AQF (Australian Qualification Framework), 15–17, 227 ASCA (American School Counselor Association), 206, 208, 214 Australian Qualification Framework. See AQF Australian Qualifications Framework Council, 15, 17–19, 30 B BCI (Beisen Career Institute), 54, 73–74, 224 C CACREP, 201–2, 206–7, 214, 226–28, 236 California Career Development Association (CCDA), 196, 216, 230 Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), 35, 43, 215 Canadian Council for Career Development (CCCD), 39, 42, 46, 230

Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association (CCPA), 36, 39, 42–43, 46–48 Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counseling, 45–46 Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling (CERIC), 33, 35, 46 Canadian standards and guidelines for career development practitioners, 39–42, 46– 47 career activities, 79, 139, 141–42 career advisors, 174, 179–80, 194 career assessment, 38, 58, 60, 63–64, 70, 73, 76, 104, 140–42, 145, 151–52, 179, 208 career centers, 7, 36, 51, 114–15, 118, 121– 22, 124, 132, 146 career choices, 85, 90, 108, 117, 125, 139, 165, 167 career coaches, 5, 149, 187, 197, 204, 213, 229, 231 career coaching, 3, 54, 132, 151, 183, 201, 213–14, 225, 229 career coaching/counseling, 2, 216 career competencies, 59, 127 career consultants, 5, 128–34, 174, 229 career consultation, 130–31, 134, 169, 172, 174 career counseling, 25, 42–44, 50, 56–57, 60–61, 69–70, 73, 75–76, 92, 113–16, 121, 124, 132–33, 135, 138, 140–41, 143–44, 146–48, 151, 160, 164, 166– 67, 172–74, 176, 178–79, 181, 183, 190–92, 195–99, 202, 208, 211, 214– 16, 228–29, 231 individual, 72, 167, 171 career counseling competencies, 39, 198 career counseling practice, 160, 166, 229 career counseling services, 114, 191 career counseling skills, 60, 190 career counseling work, 172, 176 career counselors, 5, 36, 39, 52, 54, 56–57, 62, 81, 91–92, 104–5, 113, 147, 165–

240


69, 195–98, 201–2, 208–9, 221–22, 229, 231 career courses, 52, 61, 69, 161, 170–72 career decisions, 50, 72, 104, 127, 167, 202 career design, 60, 64, 79 career development, 3, 5–6, 12–15, 18, 21– 24, 27–30, 35–36, 38–48, 52–53, 56, 59, 64, 69–73, 76–77, 102, 111, 122, 124, 126, 129, 133, 135, 137–40, 142– 43, 145–46, 149, 153–54, 164, 168, 170, 172, 178–79, 183–84, 191–92, 201–4, 206–7, 215, 217, 219–20, 225, 228–30, 233, 235, 238 Career Development Advisor. See CDA Career Development Advisor Certificate, 54, 76 Career Development Center, 58, 143, 169, 176, 184, 222 career development counselor, 54, 71 career development education, 128, 163 Career Development Facilitator (CDFs), 54, 75, 174, 192, 197–99, 203–4, 229 career development field, 14, 41, 234–36 career development practice, 1, 5–6, 9, 13, 15, 19, 26, 28, 30, 37, 42–45, 228 Career Development Practitioner (CDP), 5– 6, 12–13, 15, 17, 19, 21–25, 27–31, 39– 43, 46–47, 55, 76, 124, 217, 230, 233, 237 career development practitioners, 5–6, 12– 13, 22, 24–25, 27–28, 39–43, 46–47, 55, 124, 217, 230, 233, 237 career development services, 14, 26, 29, 31, 119, 125, 210, 222, 225 career development theory, 20, 43, 70, 75– 76, 128 career education, 12, 25, 29–30, 34, 51, 76, 97, 99, 128, 131–32, 134, 138–39, 141– 43, 154, 157, 161–62, 166–67, 172, 183, 217–19, 225, 227, 232 Career Education Act, 138, 143, 154–55, 227, 236 Career education and counseling practices, 162 career education materials, 140, 154 career education programs, 24, 46, 78, 97

career education supervisors, 131–32 career exploration, 34, 36, 139–40, 160, 163, 165, 170, 172, 179, 208, 221 career guidance, 33, 49, 51, 53–54, 56, 58– 59, 61–62, 67–68, 70, 75, 79, 85, 87– 89, 96, 98, 103–4, 110–11, 115–16, 119, 131, 140, 142–43, 150–51, 164– 67, 179–80, 186–87, 190, 193, 221, 229, 233, 238 implementing, 50, 166 professionalizing, 100, 109, 236 weakness of, 165 career guidance activities, 67, 167, 171 career guidance and counseling, 58, 103–4, 126, 142, 180, 219 career guidance courses, 69 career guidance policies, 30–31, 47, 111 career guidance practitioners, 101, 223, 227 Career Guidance Professionals, 52–53, 58– 59, 68, 227 Career Guidance Program, 143, 166, 191 career guidance services, 95, 101, 167, 185– 86 career indecision, 189–90 career information, 24–25, 62–63, 79, 120, 138, 148, 160, 162, 186, 189–90, 209 career management skills, 23, 97, 107, 109 career paths, 102, 120, 125, 140, 202, 234 career planning, 6, 8–9, 52, 56, 75, 77, 79, 102, 110, 139, 144, 166, 168, 170, 175, 219, 229 career planning courses, 160, 166, 172 career planning services, 6–8 career portfolios, 141, 163, 165 career practice, 44, 160–62, 166, 217 career practitioners, 5–6, 11, 18, 28–30, 49, 51–52, 95, 97–98, 100–105, 108, 110– 11, 125, 173, 217–19, 221, 225–31, 233–34, 236, 238 professionalism of, 96, 98–99 career practitioner titles, 98, 227, 229 career professionals, 5, 45, 98, 103–4, 121, 125–26, 137, 139, 141, 143, 145, 147, 149, 151, 153–55, 157, 159, 191, 225, 227–29, 234–36 career research, 52–53, 67, 70

Index

career service personnel, 169, 174, 209 career service professionals, 33, 37, 42, 46, 79, 209, 224 career service provision, 32, 38–39, 45 career services, 2, 4, 6–12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24–26, 28, 30, 32–38, 40, 42, 44– 46, 48–52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76–78, 80–94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110–12, 114, 116–20, 122, 124–26, 128, 130–34, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, 166, 168–72, 174–76, 178–80, 182–94, 196, 198, 200, 202, 204, 206–10, 212–14, 216–38 Career Services and Professionals in Mainland China’s Educational Settings, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79 career services field, 34, 44, 189 career services practices, 9, 209, 220 Career Services Provider Credentialing, 33– 34, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 195, 197, 199, 201, 203, 205, 207, 209, 211, 213, 215, 237 career services providers, 33, 36–37, 44, 52, 54–55, 57, 114, 128, 149, 169, 191, 195–97, 200, 209, 213, 218 career services staff, 179, 222 Career Specialist, 104, 200, 202, 204, 208– 10, 222 career teachers, 120, 142–43, 156, 218–19 career theories, 2, 9, 54, 75, 79, 216 career transition, 146, 151, 169 Career Transition Service, 150–51 CCAA (Certified Career Assessment Associate), 207, 212 CCCD. See Canadian Council for Career Development CCDA (California Career Development Association), 196, 216, 230 CCDF (Canadian Career Development Foundation), 35, 43, 215 CCE (Center for Credentialing and Education), 54, 74, 174, 191, 199–200, 234

241

CCPA. See Canadian Counseling and Psychotherapy Association CDA (Career Development Advisor), 55, 76, 175 CDAA (Career Development Association of Australia), 14, 25, 27, 31 CDCCE, 143–45, 222 Cedefop, 96–98, 100–101, 103, 105, 108–9, 231–33 Cedefop Competence Framework for Career Practitioners, 100–101, 219 Center for Credentialing and Education. See CCE CERIC (Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counselling), 33, 35, 46 certificate issuer, 69, 71, 73–74, 80 certificates, 17, 40, 42–43, 53–55, 57, 68, 70, 72–76, 79–80, 89, 105, 166, 213, 223, 234 certifications, 37, 39–40, 46, 49, 53–54, 57, 81–82, 89–92, 108, 125, 149, 153–54, 173–75, 191, 195–97, 199, 205, 207, 221, 225–26, 230, 234, 236 Certified Career Assessment Associate (CCAA), 207, 212 Certified Career Counselor, 125, 209–10 CETTIC (China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center), 53–54, 68 CGCP (Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program), 207, 215 China Employment Training Technical Instruction Center (CETTIC), 53–54, 68 CICA (Career Industry Council of Australia), 13–14, 18–22, 25–31, 226– 27, 230–33 CND (Career Navigator Dashboard), 164, 219 Commission for Academic Accreditation (CAA), 182, 227 competencies, 6, 11, 20, 22, 37, 40, 42, 44, 84, 95–97, 100–106, 110, 125, 142, 146, 150–53, 171, 198, 210, 215, 217, 225, 230–31, 233–36 career consultant, 128

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career management, 24 client-interaction, 101 foundation, 101 list of, 230, 233 specialist, 21 Comprehensive Guidance and Counseling Program (CGCP), 207, 215 consultants, 144–45, 191, 229 consultation, 60, 75, 129, 131, 134, 136, 140, 191, 198, 232 continuing education, 53, 55, 90, 174, 196, 201–3, 205–7, 234 core competencies, 21, 39–41, 102, 205, 230 Core Skills, 23, 30, 75 counseling, 20–22, 28, 43, 45–48, 51–52, 58, 60–61, 71, 76, 79, 84, 88–89, 102– 4, 118–20, 122–23, 125–26, 128, 131, 142, 148, 152–53, 166, 172–74, 176, 180, 183–86, 190, 193–98, 201–3, 206, 209–10, 214–16, 218–19, 221, 224–28, 230, 233, 235–36 Counseling Act, 161, 166, 169, 176, 219, 222 Counseling and Guidance Center, 188, 192 Counseling and Guidance Centre, 188–89, 191 counseling psychologists, 28, 38, 160, 173– 75 counseling services, 56, 99, 113, 119, 121, 161, 186–87, 194 counselors, 32, 39, 41, 59, 68, 81–84, 86, 88, 92–93, 96, 102–3, 118, 121–23, 125, 140, 160, 169, 176, 186, 191, 196, 207, 209, 215–16, 218–19, 222, 224– 25, 228–29, 233–34 CPD (Continuous professional development), 22–23, 99, 126 credentialing, 1, 37–38, 41, 44–45, 54, 81, 83, 85, 87, 89–91, 93, 97, 108, 124, 150, 191–92, 195, 203, 214–16, 226– 27, 236 history and context of career services provider, 195, 197 voluntary, 39 credentialing career counselors, 198, 216, 228

Credentialing Commission, 200, 216 credentialing methods, 196 credentialing processes, 39, 201 credentialing requirements, 38–39, 229 credentials, 2, 4–6, 8, 10–12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38–40, 42, 44, 46, 48, 50, 52, 54, 56, 58, 60, 62, 64, 66, 68, 70, 72, 74, 76, 78, 80, 82, 84, 86, 88, 90–92, 94, 96, 98, 100, 102, 104, 106, 108, 110, 112, 114, 116, 118, 120–22, 124, 126, 128, 130, 132, 134, 136, 138, 140, 142, 144, 146, 148– 50, 152, 154, 156, 158, 160, 162, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172–74, 176, 178, 180, 182, 184, 186, 188, 190–92, 194–200, 202, 204, 206, 208–12, 214, 216–38 new, 5, 215–16 curriculum, 20, 36, 104, 135, 154, 162, 170, 175, 183, 198, 221, 233–34 D Dedicated Career Teachers, 140–42, 154, 158 diagnosis, 61, 63, 72, 83, 173 Diverse Practices, 32–33, 35, 37, 39, 41, 43, 45, 47 E education, 2, 12–19, 21, 23, 28–31, 33–34, 38–40, 43, 48, 51–52, 54, 57–58, 76, 81–86, 88–94, 96–97, 99–100, 105–6, 108–11, 117, 121–22, 125, 128–32, 134, 137, 139–43, 154–55, 157–60, 163, 166, 170, 172–73, 175–76, 178– 79, 184–88, 190–91, 193, 195, 201–8, 210, 215, 220, 223, 229 counselor, 42, 176, 214–15, 228–29 formal, 17, 40–41, 130, 133, 189, 201, 234 Educational and Vocational Guidance, 20, 31, 42, 110–11, 230, 233 educational institutions, 32, 49, 81, 85, 119, 183, 186 Educational Programs, 201, 206, 214, 227, 235–36 educational psychology, 33, 84, 88–89, 125, 176

Index

Educational Research, 95, 111 education providers, 234–35 elementary schools, 131, 138–40, 142, 160– 62 ELGPN. See European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network empanelment, 121–23 employees, 43, 61–62, 66, 118, 124, 130– 31, 134, 148, 170, 204, 212, 224 employers, 23–26, 35–37, 52, 60–62, 65, 73, 96, 103, 113–17, 119, 121, 147, 169– 70, 179–80, 182–83, 188, 204, 209, 212, 222 employment, 12, 30–32, 36, 40–41, 44, 50, 52, 57–59, 61, 65, 99–100, 102, 108, 110, 113, 117, 121–26, 130–31, 133– 34, 139, 141, 143–44, 146, 152, 156– 58, 164, 169, 171–72, 178, 181, 189, 191, 202, 211–12, 215, 220, 223–24, 228 Employment Center, 87, 146 employment counselors, 22, 96, 102–3 employment exchanges, 113, 121–24 employment guidance, 52, 61, 69–70, 73, 172 employment information, 52, 62–63, 221 Employment Insurance Act, 145, 147, 155 employment policies, 52, 59, 111, 145, 155 Employment Security Act, 146–47, 155, 223 employment services, 12, 47, 59, 113–14, 122, 124, 138, 144, 146–47, 153, 156, 159, 174, 211 employment service workers, 145, 149, 225 ethics, 14, 20, 39–40, 43, 70, 72, 75, 106, 135, 143, 173, 206, 208, 213, 229, 237 professional, 42, 68, 79 European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN), 95, 97–100, 105– 11, 235–37 European status for career service provider credentialing, 95, 97, 99, 101, 103, 105, 107, 109, 111, 237 European Union, 5, 95, 109, 218–19, 223– 25, 235–37 evaluation, 26, 56, 63, 70, 73–74, 83, 91, 94, 106, 119, 183, 198, 200, 208

243

F facilitating career development. See FCD facilitators, 73, 80 FCD (facilitating career development), 198, 233–34 G GCDF (Global Career Development Facilitator), 54, 174–75, 191, 194, 198– 99, 203–4, 208–10, 213, 222, 234, 236 Global Career Development Facilitator. See GCDF government, 6, 8, 11, 13–14, 16–17, 26, 28, 37, 43, 53, 77, 81, 87, 90, 92, 95, 109, 112, 115, 120, 128–29, 133, 137, 144– 45, 149, 152–54, 161–62, 165, 169–72, 186, 189–91, 196, 222, 226–30, 234–36 local, 11, 145–46, 223 government agencies, 6–7, 45 graduate certificate, 18–22 graduate degree, 42, 88, 122–23, 133, 203– 4, 218, 230 group counseling, 51–52, 61, 73, 148, 173 group supervision, 74, 78–79 guidance, 12, 22, 28, 42, 44, 51–52, 59–60, 83–84, 90, 95, 97, 99, 106–7, 109, 111– 12, 114–16, 119–22, 137, 140, 143, 150, 161, 165, 184–86, 190, 193, 219– 20, 227, 229–30 guidance and counseling, 119, 123, 125, 186, 197, 235 Guidance Center, 123, 188, 192–93 Guidance Centre, 188–89, 191, 194 guidance counseling, 21, 39, 41–42, 45, 106, 141, 161, 197, 218 guidance counselors, 39, 41–42, 106, 161, 219 full-time, 161 guidance services, 34, 95, 105–6, 123 guidance teachers, 41, 84, 132, 139 H higher education institutions, 30, 51, 103, 143, 145, 187

244


high schools, 10, 15, 23, 34–35, 46, 48, 50– 51, 73, 76, 79, 128, 130–31, 138–43, 160–68, 172–73, 176, 187, 190, 207, 219 high school students, 35, 50–51, 56, 141–43, 159, 163–64, 166–67, 219 human resources, 22, 27, 52, 68, 76, 134, 144, 156, 208 Human Resources Development Service of Korea, 145, 149–50, 155–56 I IAEVG, 230–33, 237 ICT (Information and Communication Technology), 103, 108, 111, 113, 168 ILO (International Labor Organization), 55, 80, 113 Institutional Educational Plan (IEP), 84 Institutional Educational Project, 83–84 J Job Café, 132–33, 223 Job Consultants, 143–45, 226 job placement, 38, 144, 148, 150, 152, 160 job seekers, 26, 60–61, 64–65, 87, 114–16, 118, 121, 144, 147, 152, 159, 211 junior career counselors, 60–61, 63–64 K K-12 school system, 33, 41, 160, 173 KEIS (Korea Employment Information Service), 137–38, 145, 147, 157, 159 knowledge assessment, 201–3, 205–7 KRIVET, 138, 140, 145, 153, 157, 225 L labor market, 7, 20, 36, 50, 59, 87–88, 104, 106–7, 118, 223, 231, 233 Labor Market Information System (LMIS), 37, 117 learning, 9–10, 18–19, 24, 31, 34, 36, 43, 95, 97, 100, 102, 106, 108, 110–11, 143, 160, 162–64, 170, 190, 208, 231– 33 experiential, 131, 182, 208 student, 180, 182

learning outcomes, 17, 105, 108, 182 legislation, 16, 39, 98–99, 217, 225–27 lifelong guidance, 95, 108–10, 237 M Mainland China’s Educational Settings, 49, 51, 53, 55, 57, 59, 61, 63, 65, 67, 69, 71, 73, 75, 77, 79 Ministry of Education (MOE), 50–53, 57– 58, 91, 128–29, 131–32, 134, 138–43, 157, 159, 161, 163, 168, 172, 175–76, 183–84, 187, 190, 219 Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology (MECSST), 128 Ministry of Education and Korea Research Institution, 157 Ministry of Education and Sports, 185–87, 193 Ministry of Employment and Labor. See MOEL Ministry of Health, 128, 130, 132, 134–35 Labor and Welfare (MHLW), 128, 130 Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security. See MOHRSS Ministry of Labor and Employment, 113, 123, 125–26 Ministry of Labor and Social Security (MOLSS), 52–53, 58, 68 Missouri Career Development Association (MoCDA), 2, 216 MoCDA (Missouri Career Development Association), 2, 216 MOE. See Ministry of Education MOEL (Ministry of Employment and Labor), 143–47, 152, 157–59 MOHRSS (Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security), 52, 54, 57, 68, 223 MOLSS. See Ministry of Labor and Social Security N NAGCAS (National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services), 25, 31, 221

Index

National Accreditation Council (NAC), 89, 91, 227 National Association of Graduate Careers Advisory Services. See NAGCAS National Career Development Association. See NCDA National Career Service. See NCS National Career Services, 113–16, 119, 121, 124, 126, 223, 228 National College Student Information Consultation, 53, 69 National College Student Information Consultation and Vocational Guidance Center. See NCSICVGC National College Teachers, 53, 69 National College Teachers in Vocational Guidance Training Programs, 69 National Competency Standards, 45, 138, 149–50, 154–55, 158, 226–27 National Council of Education, Research and Training (NCERT), 122, 125 National Council of Higher Education (NCHE), 89, 190 National Disability Insurance Scheme. See NDIS National Employment Service (NES), 113 national guidance policies, 97–99, 110 National Occupational Information Coordinating Committee (NOICC), 199 National Qualification Framework. See NQF National Qualifications Authority (NQA), 180, 183 National Skill Qualification Framework (NSQF), 117 National Vocational Guidance Association. See NVGA NCCC (National Certified Career Counselor), 197–99, 214–16 NCDA (National Career Development Association), 1–2, 5, 54–55, 58, 91–92, 110, 126–27, 159, 174, 176, 188, 192– 95, 197–202, 204, 208, 213, 215–16, 226, 228–30, 233–34, 236–38 NCHE (National Council of Higher Education), 89, 190

245

NCS (National Career Service), 113–19, 121–24, 126, 138, 149–50, 152–55, 223, 228 NCSICVGC (National College Student Information Consultation and Vocational Guidance Center), 53, 69 NCS Portal, 114–15, 121–24 NDIS (National Disability Insurance Scheme), 26, 222 NEDP (New Elite Development Program), 53–54, 71, 224 New Elite Development Program. See NEDP NQF (National Qualification Framework), 108, 150, 155 NVGA (National Vocational Guidance Association), 197–98, 215 O Occupational Qualification Certificate, 53, 68 Occupational Skill Testing Authority (OSTA), 53, 68 occupations, 24, 36, 57, 59, 89, 121, 138– 39, 141, 151, 166, 175, 196, 223 OEDC (Organization for Economic Development and Cooperation), 12–14 P PAC (Psychological Assessment Company), 54–55, 76 PES (public employment services), 87, 96, 98–99, 102–3, 107, 109–10, 113, 146, 217, 222–23, 227 PRFGC (Program Recognition Framework for Guidance and Counseling), 106, 231–33 professional associations, 8, 13–14, 21–22, 25, 27–28, 36–37, 39, 41, 105–6, 197 professional counselors, 86, 88, 90, 92, 196 professionalism, 45, 47–48, 96, 98–100, 103, 106, 227 Psychological Assessment Company. See PAC

246


psychologists, 13–14, 19, 22, 25, 28, 30–31, 38–39, 81, 83, 85–86, 88, 91, 96, 173– 74, 197, 224 licensed counseling, 177 psychology, 22, 28, 31, 38, 43, 52, 76, 84, 88, 90–91, 112, 122, 125, 127, 174, 176, 194, 197, 218, 230 psychotherapy, 39, 45–48 Public Employment Agency, 87, 94 public employment services. See PES Q Qualification requirements of career practitioners in PES, 98, 227 qualifications, 13–15, 17–22, 27–28, 30, 34, 52, 69, 74, 92, 95, 97–99, 103, 106, 108–9, 130–32, 137–39, 141, 143–45, 147–51, 153, 155–57, 159, 174, 196, 199, 220–21, 225, 227–28 requisite, 122 Qualifications for Australian career development practitioners, 12–13, 15, 17, 19, 21, 23, 25, 27, 29, 31, 237 Qualifications for career practitioners, 238 qualifications standards, 226 quality assurance, 109, 235, 237 R Recognized Prior Learning. See RPL recruitment, 52, 86, 102, 122–24, 152, 157– 58, 171, 174, 183, 208–9, 221, 224 Registered Professional Career Counselor, 196, 216 registered training organizations (RTOs), 16 rehabilitation counseling, 21–22, 206 RPL (Recognized Prior Learning), 21, 40– 41 S school counseling, 2, 83–84, 90, 206–7, 216, 234 school counseling programs, 214, 228 School Counseling Service, 83 school counselling, 48, 99 school counselors, 33–35, 46, 81–85, 88–90, 94, 99, 196, 206, 208

school guidance, 84–85, 89 school guidance counselors, 13, 98, 164, 227 schools middle and high, 131, 138, 140–43 private, 81, 84–86, 89 public, 83–85, 207 school systems, 12, 174, 207, 218, 220 secondary schools, 85–86, 88, 138, 158, 178–79, 189–90, 193, 219–20, 226 service providers, 7–8, 34, 37–39, 41, 43– 45, 49, 96, 98, 105, 107, 169, 183, 185, 189–92, 220, 225 skill development, 115, 117, 120, 126 SPSC (State Public Services Commissions), 121, 223 stakeholders, 25, 37, 39, 102, 113–15, 117– 18, 123–24, 141, 181, 183, 185–86, 209 standards, 8, 14, 16, 44, 47, 91, 99, 105, 132, 162, 172, 184, 190, 208, 214, 220– 21, 225–28, 235 state council, 50, 58 state governments, 12, 16, 20, 113, 115–16, 118, 196 T Taiwan Career Development and Counseling Association (TCDCA), 54, 74, 176 TCDCA (Taiwan Career Development and Counseling Association), 54, 74, 176 Technical and Further Education (TAFE), 16 technology, 19–20, 51, 56, 62, 75, 118, 129, 131–32, 134, 175, 180, 199, 220, 232 TEQSA (Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency), 15–16, 20–21, 29, 31, 227 TEQSA Act, 15–16, 227 Tertiary Education Quality and Standards Agency. See TEQSA trainers, 55, 57, 73, 120, 125, 129 training, 1–6, 8, 10–16, 18, 20–22, 24, 26, 28, 30, 32, 34, 36, 38–46, 48–50, 52– 54, 56, 58, 60–62, 64–66, 68–74, 76, 78–80, 82, 84, 86, 88–92, 94–98, 100, 102, 104, 106–10, 112, 114, 116, 118–

Index

20, 122, 124–26, 128–32, 134, 136, 138, 140–42, 144, 146, 148, 150, 152, 154, 156–58, 160–62, 164, 166, 168, 170, 172–74, 176, 178, 180, 182–84, 186–88, 190–92, 194, 196, 198–208, 210, 212–38 on-the-job, 52, 102, 117 professional, 54, 133 Training feedback, 65, 69 training institutions, 99, 117–18, 129, 152, 186, 225 Training organizer, 68, 71, 73, 80 training process, 55, 174 training programs, 15, 17, 43, 52, 54, 61, 64, 119–20, 140, 152, 234, 236 developing, 103, 151 training providers, 14, 42, 53, 105–6, 118– 19, 152, 183, 191, 217, 234, 236 training provision, 97, 105 training requirements, 195, 212, 220, 229 training system, 13–14, 16–17, 54 U unemployed adults, 7, 37, 119, 121, 189, 210–11 unemployment rate, 87, 125, 168, 170, 185 universities, 2, 6, 8, 10, 12–14, 16, 18–19, 25, 27, 31–32, 35–36, 43, 50–53, 55, 57–58, 73, 79, 85–86, 88, 90–91, 111– 12, 117, 120, 125, 127, 132–33, 137, 139, 142–44, 160, 168–76, 178–79, 184, 188–89, 192, 194–95, 202, 206, 208, 216, 221–22, 226, 228, 234–35 Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD), 117 UPSC (Union Public Service Commission), 121, 223 V VG. See Vocational Guidance Vocational Counseling, 138, 150–51, 153 Vocational Counseling License, 150, 153 Vocational Counselor, 99, 145, 147–49, 202, 227, 229 Vocational Counselor License, 144, 146–49, 227, 229

247

vocational education, 15, 22, 59, 88, 134, 138–39, 157, 160 vocational guidance, 12, 20, 31–32, 42, 53, 69, 81, 84, 87, 100, 110–11, 121–24, 132–33, 230, 233, 237 Vocational Guidance (VG), 12, 20, 26, 31– 32, 42, 53, 58, 69, 81, 84, 87, 100, 110– 11, 121–24, 132–33, 197–98, 215, 222, 226–30, 233, 237 vocational guidance experts, 226, 228–30 Vocational Rehabilitation Services, 210–12 vocational training, 65, 96, 132, 147, 233 Y YECs. See Youth Employment Centers Youth Employment Centers (YECs), 144, 158, 228

Hyung Joon Yoon, Ph.D., CCSP, SPHR, is an Assistant Professor of Workforce Education and Development at the Pennsylvania State University. He also serves the National Career Development Association (NCDA) as Trustee-at-Large. He has trained career practitioners in South Korea, the United States, Morocco, and Canada. He has developed the Human Agency Based Individual Transformation (HABIT) model, and the Assessment of Human Agency (AHA) and co-developed the Hope-Action Theory (HAT) and Hope-Action Inventory (HAI). His career development research projects involved diverse populations such as North Korean defectors, unemployed individuals, immigrants, college students, and Syrian refugees in different countries. Brian Hutchison, Ph.D., LPC is an Associate Professor at New Jersey City University, and was formerly at the University of Missouri – Saint Louis. Dr. Hutchison is the President of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA), Treasurer of the National Career Development Association (NCDA), Past President of the Missouri Career Development Association (MoCDA), Editor of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association journal, and Associate Editor of the Journal of Humanistic Counseling. His scholarship can be broadly described as focused within two primary counseling domains, school counseling and career coaching/counseling. These broad themes are infused into three primary scholarship areas: international issues in career/ school counseling, career theory and practice integration, and counselor training/ education broadly defined. Marilyn Maze, Ph.D., is the Executive Director of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association and a Principal with PsyCoun Consultants. She formerly worked for ACT where she was responsible for the development of the ACT Profile, DISCOVER and other computerized career planning tools. She is the 2016 recipient of NCDA’s President’s Award and chaired the Organizing Committee for NCDA’s credentialing initiative.

Constance Pritchard, EdD, NCDA Fellow and Master Trainer, is the principal and owner of The Pritchard Group, an international organizational development and career management training firm. Constance has also worked in higher education in faculty and managerial roles where programs under her direction (orientation, career services, and advisement) have received national awards. Her dissertation research on small business hiring practices gained national accolades.

Angelika D. Reiss, MBA is the principal owner of StayConnected Careers and has national and international work experience in human resource management, career management, and training and development. She provided employee development services and career coaching to Fortune 500 companies and U.S. government employees working in state, federal, or Native American organizations. Her graduate studies included concentration areas in International Management, IndustrialOrganizational Psychology, and Career Development.

ISBN: 978-1-885333-58-2

International Practices of Career Services

International Practices of Career Services

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