CANADIAN STANDARDS AND GUIDELINES for Career Development Practitioners

The Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners is a voluntary code of conduct for those in the field. They were developed to:

• Define career development as a legitimate specialization

• Provide a foundation for designing career development-practitioner training

• Provide quality assurance to the public

• Recognize and validate the diverse skill sets of practitioners working in the field

• Create a common voice and vocabulary for career development

The Standards & Guidelines outline a specific set of competencies required for Career Development Practitioners based upon job practices. The three competency clusters are:

1. Core Competencies: Professional behaviors, interpersonal competence, career development knowledge, and needs assessment and referral

2. Areas of Specialization: Assessment, facilitated individual and group learning, career counseling, information and resource management, work development, and community capacity-building

3. Common Skills and Knowledge: Work search strategies and group facilitation

 The full S&Gs are available here.