There is a lack of discussion and research on counsellor educators in Canada. With an estimated number of 228 to 304 counsellor educators across the country, examining the transition from counsellor to counsellor educator is relevant to developing a career identity and to strengthening the field. This article explores the complex transition from practicing counsellor to counsellor educator within the Canadian context, emphasizing the importance of professional identity transformation amidst evolving regulatory and accreditation landscapes. This conceptual article highlights role differences between counsellors and counsellor educators. Additionally, it provides considerations for counsellors who are interested in becoming counsellor educators. It discusses the unique challenges faced during this shift, including managing dual roles, bridging the research-practice gap and navigating role expectations. The authors highlight the distinctions between clinical practice and educational responsibilities, underscoring the need for new skills, self-reflection, and ongoing professional development. Practical strategies, such as the REP model of Reflect, Examples, Prepare and the development of a personal teaching philosophy, are proposed to support prospective counsellor educators in their preparation process. The article concludes by emphasizing the vital role of counsellor educators in shaping culturally competent, ethically grounded future practitioners and advocates for thorough self-reflection and strategic preparation to ensure successful transitions into academia.
Moonlighting-defined as multiple job holding-has seen a significant increase, especially among young adults aged 25-34 in North America, with prevalent sectors being healthcare, social assistance, and education. The COVID-19 pandemic impacted moonlighting trends, prompting remote work popularity. Despite financial motivations, young adults engage in moonlighting for personal growth and skill acquisition. Moonlighters, however, face challenges such as poor work-life balance, role and identity conflicts, and emotional distress. To address these challenges, this article proposes career helping interventions based on happenstance learning theory and Cochran's narrative career counselling, aiming to enhance vocational well-being among young moonlighters in North America.
Workplaces everywhere, but especially in rural and remote communities, are not always welcoming to all who live within those communities. Many individuals are systemically marginalized, resulting in groups of people who are underrepresented in local employment. This article reports the findings of mixed-methods research conducted in BC, identifying 20 factors impacting the employment of underrepresented community members, with a particular focus on Indigenous Peoples and individuals living with disabling conditions. Based on insights and experiences from job seekers, employees, employers, and community service providers, recommendations are offered to support CDPs, employers, and policy makers to facilitate more equitable access to work for all.
The upward mobility of racialized lawyers within Canadian law firms continues to lag behind that of their White counterparts. While some progress has been made in recruitment, significant disparities remain in retention and promotion. This qualitative study explores how racialized lawyers experience working in Canadian law firms and how these experiences impact their career wellbeing. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 19 racialized lawyers, and the data were analyzed using reflexive thematic analysis. The themes identified were informed by existing literature on organizational dynamics and professional inequality and included tokenism processes (hypervisibility, role encapsulation and boundary heightening), bias (status expectations and homophily preferences) and organizational norms (professional and emotion), as well as several subthemes. These themes and subthemes were linked to diminished access to meaningful work, positive relationships with colleagues, career growth opportunities, perceived organizational support and autonomy-all core dimensions of career wellbeing. The findings reveal the cumulative psychological and structural burdens racialized lawyers face and underscore the need to embed equity into law firm culture in ways that meaningfully support career wellbeing, particularly amid increasing sociopolitical resistance to DEI efforts.
This paper aims to advance a better understanding of the digital transformation (DT) experience through employees building their career paths in a DT world. The study is based on a qualitative research methodology using one-on-one interviews with 44 employees of private companies in the Canadian insurance industry. Findings reveal a variety of entryways to first positions in this industry as well as gendered involvement in DT projects which can result in being either barriers or levers for career pathing. The present paper contributes to broaden the understanding of women's career paths in a DT context by making gender-related issues visible.
We are taught reading, mathematics, and driving, yet we are rarely taught how to make decisions. Consequently, many individuals struggle with career choices and seek guidance from career counsellors. When faced with multiple options-such as colleges, occupations, majors, or jobs-the decision-making process typically involves: (a) identifying promising alternatives, (b) exploring them in depth, and (c) comparing the final options to select the most suitable option. This paper focuses on individuals who have already compiled a shortlist of 3-4 viable alternatives and need guidance in choosing the best one. To address this need, we present Comparing and Choosing, an evidence-based framework that career counsellors and practitioners can use to guide clients in systematically comparing and evaluating their final alternatives. We then demonstrate how this framework can be integrated into counselling practice to enrich counselor-client dialogue. Next, we introduce Compare and Choose, a free online decision-support system that operationalizes the framework and facilitates the comparison and evaluation of alternatives. Finally, we examine how these tools may enhance counsellors' capacity to assist clients in making better career decisions and identify the conditions of their optimal use.
This paper explores non-university doctoral qualifications as an alternative doctoral pathway for scholar practitioners and industry professionals transitioning into academia. Through an autoethnographic approach, the author reflects on their personal journey pursuing a UK-based Level 8 diploma, providing an insider perspective on motivations, barriers, and perceptions encountered. The study reveals limited awareness and academic bias against these qualifications, despite their flexible, practice-oriented design that aligns well with the needs of mid-career professionals. Findings highlight the potential of non-university doctoral qualifications to support professional development, also identifying the need for greater standardisation to improve their legitimacy and comparability with traditional doctorates such as the PhD and DBA. This work contributes original insight into a rarely examined doctoral route, broadening discussions around professional doctorates and advocating for inclusive academic recognition of industry-informed expertise. By linking lived experience with broader educational structures, the study challenges dominant credential norms and calls for cultural shifts in academic perception.
In 2015, Mancini et al. validated and published the Professional Identity Status Questionnaire (PISQ-5d). This survey uses five factors to measure how an individual identifies themselves within their chosen field of profession. In recent years, the survey has been modified and adopted for use in other fields such as nursing and social work, and among students in Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics, and Pre-Medical (STEMM) programs. For this study, the PISQ-5d survey was utilized to investigate how undergraduate students at a Hispanic-serving institution identify themselves as future professionals in their field. The results of this study aim to understand further how students of different backgrounds relate to being a future professional in their field by comparing the identity statuses of the students based on a multitude of demographic and academic data including gender identity, racial and ethnic identity, admission, STEM degree program including pre-medical students (STEMM), class standing, first-generation classification, and financial need. The results of this study show multiple statistically significant differences between students of various demographics. This study also shows how this survey can be used to identify STEMM individuals who may have deficits in professional or career development as they work towards becoming future professionals in their field.
Afin de faciliter l’évaluation de l’orientation professionnelle, John L. Holland a développé la théorie vocationnelle selon un modèle hexagonal postulant que la personnalité professionnelle et les environnements de travail se subdivisent selon six types distincts dans les sociétés occidentales. En plus de ses intérêts, la personnalité de l'individu, c'est-à-dire ses caractéristiques personnelles, contribue à une meilleure compréhension du choix vocationnel. L’objectif principal de cette étude porte sur la refonte la version québécoise de l’Échelle Entrepreneure de l'Inventaire Typologique de Caractéristiques Personnelles (EE-ITCP-72-R). Pour cette étude, 308 participants franco-québécois ont été recrutés. L'EE-ITCP-72-R comprend 12 caractéristiques personnelles. L’analyse factorielle exploratoire supporte également que l’Échelle Entrepreneure du modèle RIASEC de Holland n’est pas unidimensionnelle et qu'elle peut être sous-divisée en trois dimensions. Les indices de consistance interne de chaque dimension sont également adéquats. Pour conclure, étant basé sur la théorie vocationnelle de Holland, l'EE-ITCP-72-R permet de déterminer le profil vocationnel en lien avec la personnalité professionnelle de type Entrepreneure. De plus, la présence de dimensions permet de peaufiner le profil afin d’illustrer l'individualité du répondant avec davantage de précisions et de s'assurer de la plus grande adéquation avec le domaine d'emploi recherché.
L’obtention du diplôme d’études secondaires constitue une balise importante qui conduit vers une première transition école-études-travail. Définies comme le passage entre deux périodes ou deux situations de vie et à leurs changements relatifs, les transitions soulèvent des enjeux (Lagabrielle et Croity-Belz, 2022; Masdonati et al., 2016). Chez les personnes ayant des besoins particuliers, dont les troubles spécifiques d’apprentissage, ces enjeux de transition peuvent être plus sérieux (Newman et al., 2019) en raison notamment des divers obstacles à surmonter au quotidien (Bizier et al., 2014; Statistique Canada, 2024a). Considérant la dimension subjective qu’impliquent les transitions, une période préparatoire et l’élaboration d’un plan de transition s’avèrent indispensables. Cet article s’inscrit dans le cadre d’une recherche de maitrise dont le but était de brosser un portrait de la situation des personnes ayant un trouble spécifique d’apprentissage sous l’angle de la transition école-études-travail. Quelques statistiques permettent d’abord de cerner des éléments descriptifs de cette population. Il est ensuite question de certains enjeux que comporte cette transition. Sont aussi formulées quelques pratiques gagnantes en matière d’accompagnement à cette transition, puis de certaines pistes de solution dans l’espoir de réduire les écarts entre enjeux et aspirations de carrière chez les personnes ayant un trouble spécifique d’apprentissage.
This study aims to explore the impact of talent identification practices on employees' psychological needs and to examine the mediating role of distributive justice/injustice between talent identification and psychological needs. Additionally, it investigates procedural justice/injustice as a moderating variable in this mediation. A cross-sectional sample (n=124) with clinical vignettes was used to test the hypotheses through moderated mediation analysis. The findings reveal three key insights. First, talent identification significantly correlates with psychological needs. High-potential individuals reported greater satisfaction of their needs for autonomy, competence, and relatedness compared to non-high potential employees employees, who reported higher frustration levels. Second, high potentials perceived greater distributive justice, correlating with increased psychological need satisfaction. Conversely, non-high potential employees perceived higher distributive injustice, leading to greater psychological need frustration. Third, procedural justice/injustice did not significantly moderate the mediation. However, procedural justice/injustice was significantly related to psychological needs, independent of distributive justice/injustice. Our research makes a vital addition to the human resource management (HRM) field by providing quantitative empirical analysis of talent identification where prior work has been largely conceptual or qualitative. Given the current labor market's supply-demand imbalance, these is critical.
The transition from university to the professional world marks a crucial stage, and being well-prepared for one's career is essential for success. However, existing literature indicates a gap between skills obtained through tertiary education and the realities of the world of work. Hence, this research explored the potential differences in how final-year undergraduates in Ibadan perceive their preparedness for careers, examining the impact of age and gender on career readiness skills. Employing a descriptive cross-sectional design, the study involved a sample of 320 final-year students from a public University in Ibadan, randomly selected to respond to a 35-item questionnaire. The results revealed that male students exhibited a higher degree of career readiness compared to their female counterparts. Furthermore, the study showed that age did not significantly affect career readiness. Conversely, students rated themselves highly in teamwork, professionalism, and critical thinking skills, moderately in leadership, digital technology, and communication skills, while scoring lower in global and cultural fluency as well as career management skills. These findings underscore the need for enhanced career programmes and guidance within tertiary institutions across Nigeria. Moreover, the study can offer valuable insights to policymakers for crafting strategies aimed at bolstering students' readiness for their future careers.
University students (n = 26; M = 24.7 years) attended an experientially-mediated career development intervention in small groups. Programming was psychoeducational and process-oriented (i.e., presentation of career-related information, individual career-related assessment and interpretation, hands-on learning activities). Twice during the intervention, attendees completed measures of career-related dysfunctional thinking, hope, and self-awareness. The control group (n = 22; M = 22.3 years) twice completed the same measures approximately six weeks apart. Analyses of pre-to post-scores indicated that more attendees reported increased hope-action competency for career self-management, increased career-related self-awareness, and less career confusion relative to the control group (ps < .05). Our findings underscore the value of experiential learning (EL) as a career development tool as well as the cost-effectiveness of providing a limited number of small group career sessions. Moreover, our findings help validate our conceptual model of how experiential learning can support undergraduate students to develop the core competencies necessary for workplace success (Bowering et al., 2020).
It has been well identified in the literature that having a professional designation attached to one's name has many benefits to a practitioner's self-perception as a professional, as well as identifying the individual as having a certain standard of knowledge and practice. What is less clear is whether there is a direct co-relation between improved practice and the process undertaken to achieve the designation. This paper reports on the findings of the research project, Capacity and Credentialing: The Evidence Base for Career Development Training and Certification in Nova Scotia and examines what impacts, if any, participating in a Recognition of Prior Learning (RPL)-based credentialling process and achieving the designation has on an individual's career development practice over time. The findings reveal that overall, participants felt that the certification process had a positive impact on CCDPs' self-perception, day-to-day practice, and the career development profession more broadly. While participants identified some challenges or clarity needed around aspects of the process, there was consensus around the value of certification, with several participants advocating for similar credentials to be developed for the other career services positions, such as job developers, employer engagement specialists, and employment support practitioners.
Labour Market Information (LMI) is an integral part of the professional practice of career counselors, as well as employment and career development counselors. The objective of this applied partnership-based research was to create a digital platform aimed at facilitating the use of LMI for counselors and their clients. To achieve this, we will outline the five steps that led to the design and development of this digital platform, namely: ideation and goal setting, determining the functionalities, needs, and target audiences of the digital platform, co-designing its interface, analyzing user needs, technical development of the platform, and gathering feedback from counselors. This research revealed that, in line with a study conducted by the Labour Market Information Council (LMIC, 2019), the most important characteristics of LMI for counselors are: timeliness, reliability, ease of use, comprehensiveness, and specificity. This research also found that the Digital Companion for LMI meets counselors' needs by being easy to use and cataloging a significant number of websites (75), while organizing them into different sections to aid in LMI research.
This article explores expatriate and repatriate career progress on career ladder and lattice paths through the theoretical lenses of Career Construction Theory, Chaos Theory of Careers and the Career Ladder versus Career Lattice model. The research method is an exploratory, qualitative study, using purposive sampling and snowball sampling techniques. 78 interviews were conducted with expatriates and repatriates originating from countries across the globe. Findings reveal that respondents had multidirectional global careers, shifting from linear, hierarchical career ladder paths to non-linear, unpredictable career lattice paths along which they made career progress. This paper contributes to the career development international literature by providing insight into the different meanings of expatriate and repatriate career progress on diversified, multidirectional, dynamic career paths that continually evolve across the lifespan. A limitation of this study was that it relied on self-reports of expatriates and repatriates regarding their career pathways and career progress. Future research should incorporate data triangulation by a multi-actor and a multi-source approach to gain insights into constructing customized global career paths to facilitate expatriate and repatriate career progress. Integrating individual career mastery with organizational career planning to enable career progress on multidirectional career pathways is imperative in managing expatriates and repatriates career progress.
Exiting a public safety occupation (e.g., paramedics, police, firefighters) and entering retirement is unique in many ways. There are heightened risks and demands associated with essential emergency services that involve personal sacrifices and commitment and the absence of this intense role is significant requiring an adjustment. Public safety personnel (PSP) leave their professions for various reasons including age-related retirement and forced retirement due to illness or injury and little is known about their experiences during the transition. The objective of this review is to summarize the existing body of research. The methodology for scoping reviews outlined in the five-stage framework by Arksey and O’Malley (2005) was followed. Abstract screening of 5,801 papers yielded 128 studies for full-text screening. Forty-five papers were accepted by at least two of three reviewers for data extraction and analysis. High level themes emerged including cumulative impacts, separation from identity and culture, and buffers. The study found that there is a need for planning and support for those exiting public safety professions. Financial planning is the focus of pre-planning when it exists and applied research is needed to further understand psychosocial risk and protective factors to support the development of acceptable transition strategies and resources.
