Employment Equity Career Counselling Course Outline

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COURSE DESCRIPTION

This course is designed to provide participants with a thorough understanding of, and ability to practice, employment equity career counselling. "Employment equity career counselling" is defined here as the systematic process of helping individuals with work-related and learning issues in ways that fully recognize individuals' cultures and the relationship of these cultures to work within the Federal Public Service." A developmental, process-oriented approach is emphasized for individual and group career development, an approach that is informed and modified by multi-cultural counselling competencies. The course has four main thrusts:

1. A process by which participants can continuously learn about their own cultural norms, beliefs, expectations, attitudes and behaviour patterns.

2. A process by which participants can continuously deepen their understanding of the four designated equity groups of the Federal Public Service - Aboriginal people, women, persons with disabilities and visible minorities.

3. A process by which participants can continuously learn about the Federal Public Service system as it relates to opportunities for designated group members.

4. An employment equity career counselling process by which participants can assist individuals within these equity groups with career development, especially within the Federal Public Service.

As much as possible, the course attempts to integrate these four areas into a seamless process. Through the integration of theory, personal research, personal reflection and simulated intervention practice, course participants will develop the knowledge, skills and processes to provide effective, appropriate and ethical career counselling to members of the four equity groups. Additional strategies for influencing systemic change within the federal public service (e.g., changing the approaches of management) will also be touched on.

COURSE OBJECTIVES

Upon completion of this course, participants will be able to:

1. Discuss the major economic, social and demographic trends that form the context for individual career development;

2. Research the histories of the four designated equity groups and their current patterns of advantage and disadvantage;

3. Identify the core principles of employment equity in the Federal Public Service;

4. Explain the core theoretical constructs associated with the structural, eclectic and process schools of career development theory;

5. Apply a process-based approach to career counselling that fully integrates employment equity or multi-cultural counselling competencies.

6. Explore their own cultural influences, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and behaviour patterns.

7. Develop an approach to learn how the current federal system works with respect to opportunities for designated group members and develop a network to assist in identifying those opportunities.

COURSE TOPICS, ACTIVITIES AND SEQUENCE

1. Defining Employment Equity Career Counselling

1.1 Multi-cultural counselling competencies

1.2 Career counselling competencies

1.3 Self-reflection, self -work and integration

2. Major Changes in the World of Work [overview only]

2.1 The Meaning of Work

2.2 Changes in the Meaning of Work

2.4 Alternative Work Styles

3. Special Populations: Issues and Barriers

3.1 Aboriginal Peoples

3.2 People who are Members of Visible Minority Groups

3.3 Persons with Disabilities

3.4 Women

3.5 A Process for In-Depth Research

4. Employment Equity

4.1 The Need for Employment Equity

4.2 The Principles and Legal Requirements of Employment Equity - Employment Equity Act & Canadian Human Rights Commission

4.3 What's Worked and What Hasn't in the Federal Public Service

4.4 Critical Workplace Issues Affecting Equity Group Members

5. Overview of Career Development: Issues, Terms, and Assumptions [Brief overview]

5.1 Career Counselling Theory

5.2 History of Theory Development

5.3 Modern Structural-Interactionist Theory: Holland

5.4 Developmental/Process Approaches: Super

5.5 Eclectic/Social Learning Approaches: Krumboltz

5.6 Constructivist Theory

5.7 Current theorists - Gelatt and Amundson

6. Overview of Multi-Cultural Counselling Theory

6.1 Development of Multi-Cultural Counselling Theory

6.2 Culturally-learned Assumptions

6.3 Barriers to Culture-centered counselling

6.4 Deep Personal Reflection and integraton

7. The 5 Processes of Career Counselling Integrated with Multi-Cultural Counselling Competencies: Principles and Practice [Note: These are really two streams of content and practice merged into one overall process - all of the following will be informed and modified by multi-cultural counselling competencies and considerations].

7.1 Initiation/Engagement Issues

7.1.1 Strategies for Enhancing Meaning

7.2 Exploration Issues

7.2.1 Information Sources

7.2.2 Exploration Strategies

7.3 Decision-Making Issues

7.3.1 Decision strategies

7.4 Preparation Issues

7.4.1 Preparation Strategies

7.5 Implementation Issues

7.5.1 Implementation strategies

7.6 Practical Application of Career Counselling Integrated with Multi-Cultural Counselling Competencies

7.7 Ethical Considerations

8. Systemic Change within the Federal Public Service

8.1 Managing managers

8.2 Dealing with Structural barriers

8.3 Dealing with Hidden discrimination

8.4 Dealing with Backlash to Equity Initiatives

8.5 Changing What You Can - Accepting What You Can't

9. Personal Learning Plan

9.1 Knowing the Federal System

9 9.2 Knowing Opportunities

9.3 How to Build a Network

9.4 Coaching and Mentoring

9.5 Motivating

9.6 Refining Counselling Skills