As I understand it the revised Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners will be reviewed and discussed at the upcoming conference [wishing I could be there!]. The three key areas that were revised were technology, diversity, and the Career Counselling area of specialization. Check out http://career-dev-guidelines.org/career_dev to see these changes. My focus for this blog post is on technology. It is certainly an area that has been changing rapidly over the past few years and there are ongoing discussions about best practices for Career Practitioners.
One of those discussions was recently hosted by the Career Counselor Technology Forum. They held a two-part international webinar series on “How the Internet Changed Career”.
The first webinar was presented by Tristram Hooley, whom I have often referenced in these blog posts in the past. He is a Reader in Career Development and Head of International Centre for Guidance Studies at the University of Derby. You can listen to his webinar here – http://careercounselortechnology.com/resources/past-webinars/
A brief summary of his presentation: He says the internet changes the context in which career is enacted. By that he means, the internet has changed the way in which we find out about work, find work, apply for work, communicate, build networks and learn. Which means new skills are required for effective career management. What are those skills? Hooley calls these skills “digital career literacy” and he lists seven C’s: changing, collecting, critiquing, connecting, communicating, creating and curating. You can find a more detailed description of the seven C’s in the article listed below. [1] According to Hooley, career practitioners need technical skills and we need to have “digital career literacy”. I would agree.
The second webinar was comprised of a panel of U.S. career services professionals who shared their responses to the first webinar and also shared their experience in using technology in their career services. The first question they answered was – How has technology changed your work in the last two to three years? As I paused to think about that for myself I can see a myriad of ways in which my work both in general and career counselling has changed. Not the least of which is the sheer volume of information that is available. Learning how to filter that information for both myself and my clients has required me to really develop one of the seven C’s – critiquing.
Another message that came through loud and clear from the panel was the necessity of incorporating social networking into our teaching/training around job search. It’s now become an essential career tool. Knowing how to manage our online presence and how to navigate the social networking waters is crucial.
The last item I want to mention is this – the panelists all agreed that no matter how much technology we use we still need to find a balance between using the technology and maintaining a personal connection with our clients. So true!
I found the webinars to be informative, thought-provoking and inspiring. And, it became clear to me that I still have work to do to improve my own digital career literacy. Anyone else feel the same?
Dawn M. Schell, MA, CCC, CCDP is an affiliate with Worldwide Therapy Online Inc. http:///www.therapyonline.ca
*The views expressed by our authors are personal opinions and do not necessarily reflect the views of the CCPA