Training Career Practitioners: Opportunities and Challenges

Abstract

This chapter addresses career practitioner training from an international perspective. The pervasive presence of career issues and the growing need for career practitioners are acknowledged. Challenges workers experience today require career practitioners in every work setting whether it is to help adult workers address the career concerns they are experiencing or to prepare students to transition to work effectively. To engage their clients competently, career practitioners must be trained effectively to provide services that include career assessment, career counseling, career and/or educational planning, job-search skill training, and career coaching.

Likewise, those involved in training career practitioners must be knowledgeable of the factors influencing career development and the challenges these factors present to individuals attempting to manage their careers effectively. Training experiences provided to current and future career practitioners must constantly be updated and adjusted so that trainees have relevant knowledge, awareness, and skills to provide effective career interventions.

Factors influencing career practitioner training are identified in the chapter. Specifically, the following factors are reviewed: the need for stronger public policies addressing career development, the need for greater competency standardization, the need to create innovative training programs, and the need to demonstrate evidence-based practices. Evidence-based practices are discussed with regard to: the need to address research questions that are relevant to stakeholders including potential clients, employers, policymakers, and legislators; the need for rigor in using research study designs that pose important return-on-investment questions and examining these questions by using psychometrically sound measures and appropriate statistical methods; the need to engage in more longitudinal research; and the need for researchers to disseminate their research results extensively so that policymakers and the general public become aware of the value-added impact of career services. Finally, the requirement for training, research, and practice to be embedded in and sensitive to cultural contexts is emphasized.

New directions are also discussed within the context of both cultural relevance and globalization: If career practitioners wish to make a mark, they must be cognizant of the importance of demonstrating the efficacy of their work. They must gather data to demonstrate that their work is good in the sense that the outcomes of their interventions result in a positive impact upon the individual and society. Therefore, those involved in career practitioner training must integrate best practices in their training, equip their trainees to not only provide individual and group-based interventions but also instill in their trainees the importance of gathering and disseminating data to support the efficacy of their work, and engaging in advocacy to effectively communicate the value of career services to stakeholders.