Qubec Career Counsellor: competencies profile and Inventory of the Practices

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Québec Career Counsellor competencies profile
and Inventory of the Practices

• Michel Turcotte, Vice-president, career
  counselling sector of the College of Career
  Counsellors and Psychoeducators of Québec
• mturcotte_at_sympatico.ca
• Louis Cournoyer, career counsellor et PhD
  (candidate) at the University of sherbrooke.
• Louis.cournoyer_at_usherbrooke.ca
• Canadian Counselling Association - Vancouver 2007

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Workshop agenda

• The College
• Where career counsellors work?
• Competencies profile
• Scope of practices from two surveys

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The College

• Mission Protect the public
• How
• Deliver permits
• Lifelong learning and professionnal monitoring
• Mecanism allowing the public to file a complaint
• Fields of practice
• Education (high school to University)
• Employability development
• Large organizations
• Readaptation
• Private practice

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Competencies of the c.o.

• Assume the mastery of knowledge and skills, as
  well as attitudes that may influence those
  actions and responsibilities.
• Acquire and refine such knowledge, skills and
  attitudes through initial and ongoing training,
  as well as through reflection on their
  experiences

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Scope of Competencies

• Guidance counselling deals with many types of
  problems, which may involve individuals, groups,
  or organizations, and various life stages and
  transitions, in a variety of possible settings.
• Guidance counselling may be defined as
  counselling on the dynamics between people, their
  environment and work throughout life, which takes
  into account individual, psychosocial and
  environmental factors as part of a systemic
  approach.
• As a result, guidance counsellors are called upon
  to exercise their competencies in a variety of
  settings, including education (elementary
  schools, high schools, colleges and
  universities), employability (community
  organizations and government agencies),
  rehabilitation (CSST, SAAQ), business (human
  resources, continuing education) and private
  practice.

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Fields of work of the 2200 c.o.?
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Expected Skills and Knowledge

• Assess the situation rigorously (39 credits)
• Plan guidance counselling activities (9 credits)
• Intervene directly (21 credits)
• Act as an advisor to other concerned parties (3
  credits)
• Assess the impact of action (6 credits)
• Run a rigorous, relevant practice that meets
  current standards (3 credits)
• Practicum (15 credits).

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Assess the situation rigorously

• Assess the request for help or the problem
  situation
• Assess peoples psychological functioninginterest
  s, abilities and cognitive and affective
  functionstaking into account the state of their
  mental health, including risk of suicide or
  homicide
• Differentiate between normal and pathological
  functioning, taking into account psychological,
  social and physical aspects
• Assess the issues involving people and their
  environment
• Identify resources and limitations of the
  environment
• Analyse the situation based on appropriate
  theoretical and practical knowledge
• Provide those concerned with a clear analysis of
  the situation, either orally or in writing
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  psychometrics and assessment, personal
  development, psychopathology, career development
  and job entry

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Case study
Janice
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Plan guidance counselling activities

• In light of assessment results, determine
  intervention objectives founded on rigorous
  observations, client dynamics and well-recognized
  practices
• Plan guidance counselling activities, taking into
  account theory and research on the dynamics
  between individual, environment and work
• As needed, incorporate the activities into an
  action plan that includes intermediate objectives
  or steps to structure the process required to
  achieve the objectives
• As needed, request the involvement of other
  concerned parties and specify the expected
  contribution of each
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  individual and group therapy models, approaches
  and programs, the characteristics of various
  client types, organizations and their resources

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Intervene directly

• With the clientindividual, group or
  organizationgo through a guidance counselling
  process or other type of career counselling that
  takes into account the relationship between
  individual, environment and work
• Act, taking into account the circumstances and
  characteristics of different clients, including
  those who are in crisis or mentally unbalanced
• Act, taking into account obstacles that may arise
  during the counselling process
• Monitor progress appropriately
• Counsel all parties involved with respect to the
  identified problems
• Use academic and career information in
  counselling, including knowledge of the school
  system, trades and professions, the labour
  market, socioeconomic conditions and job entry
• Ensure that the necessary concrete conditions and
  resources for the counselling are in place
• Use or adapt to the context and the clients
  needs appropriate programs to achieve objectives
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  individual and group counselling, facilitation,
  information processing, decision-making
  processes, career changes, working with difficult
  clients and computer resources.

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Act as an advisor to other concerned parties

• Act as consultant (expert, agent of change,
  educator, facilitator, etc.) in own workplace
• Work in a multidisciplinary context
• As needed, assume leadership for the development
  and implementation of career guidance or
  development projects, programs or action plans
• Act as intermediary between various concerned
  parties in relation to needs of client
  (individual, group or organization)
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  consulting approaches, project management,
  competency development models, team management
  and conflict management

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Assess the impact of action

• Establish criteria for measuring success of
  guidance counselling
• Ensure that objectives are reached and assess
  them over the longer term, as agreed with the
  client
• Analyse own work critically
• Identify the impact of own competencies and
  limitations on practice in general and
  counselling in particular
• As needed, provide timely referrals to other
  resources
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  methods of analysing practices, research methods,
  and descriptive and inferential statistics

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Run a rigorous, relevant practice that meets
current standards

• Act in accordance with legislation, standards and
  obligations governing the profession and ones
  duties,
• At all times, ensure the confidentiality of
  information obtained through ones practice,
• Exercise responsible, ethical judgment in ones
  professional practice on the whole
• Establish with each person a relationship
  respectful of his or her rights and adapted to
  his or her situation
• Give clear, complete information to people
  seeking professional services
• Write appropriate reports, records or letters,
  using precise vocabulary suited to the intended
  reader
• Set up the necessary means to minimize the impact
  and effects of own attitudes and values on ones
  professional actions
• Draw up an action plan and organize work on the
  basis of tasks to be done, time and resources
  available, as well as urgency
• As needed, determine the fair monetary, social
  and other value of services rendered
• Help advance the profession and develop guidance
  counselling services
• Refresh and upgrade knowledge and competencies in
  appropriate ways
• To do so, a guidance counsellor must have
  extensive, up-to-date knowledge, especially of
  the professional organization, ethical conduct
  and record keeping, as well as the code of ethics
  and other regulations and standards governing the
  profession

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How de we used it?

• Professional development
• Practice monitoring
• Initial undergraduate and graduate programs
• Marketing

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Two surveys

• Education system
• Employability development

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Why these surveys?

• State and scope of practices
• Differences between sectors?
• Professional development planning
• Impact on initial undergraduate and graduate
  training?
• Evidences to present to other stakeholders

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Respondents Profile (the two samples)

• 70 female
• 68 hold a Master degree
• 67 regular full time
• Close to 20 have more than 26 years of
  experience and 23 have been working in this
  occupation for more than 20 years
• 49 have less than 10 years of experience and
  close to 44 have been working in this occupation
  for less than 6 years
• 66 work in urban areas

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Respondents Profile

• Education
• 70 female
• 68 hold a master degree
• 67 work full time
• Close to 23 have more than 20 years of
  experience
• 49 have less than 10 years of experience

• Employability
• 78 female
• 88 hold a master degree
• 74 work full time
• 3 have more than 20 years of experience
• 88 have less than 10 years of experience

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Education sector

• Most guidance counsellors work in high school
  settings (72)
• Close to a third cover more than one school
• 86 of them spent more than 50 of direct
  intervention with students
• Preferred types of interventions individual
  counselling advisory role with parents and
  other members of the institution
• Ratio of 1 1000 students in high school and
  college
• Guidance counsellors are not alone to deliver
  guidance services, for 37 of them, they share
  responsibility with a career information
  specialist or career educator.

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Employability sector

• The majority of them work for non-for-profit
  organizations (78), followed by 15 in
  governement settings, and 7 in readaptation
• In close than 25, their clienteles present
• Mental health issue
• Physical handicaps
• Psychosocial issue
• Immigrant
• Preferred types of interventions individual
  counselling, followed by group counselling and
  consultation

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Education Duties

• The main three types of intervention
• Counselling
• Consultation
• Career and labour market information
• Comprehensive guidance school concept 42 said
  that they do not antything and close to 50 spend
  less than 25 of their time
• 35 indicated that they perform psychometric
  assessment for classification and selection
  purposes
• 77 of the demand for services come from the
  students

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Employability duties

• The main interventions
• Counselling
• Preparing reports
• Career and labour market information
• Bilan de compétences
• Employment counselling
• Consultation
• Educational and internship follow-ups
• Requests for services come from
• Government employment offices
• Clientele
• Educational networks or other governmental
  agencies

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Tools and Program Interventions in Education

• Intelligence and aptitudes tests Otis Lennon
  (25), GATB (46), and the TAI (11)
• Interests inventories mostly based on Holland
  typology GROP, Strong and Self-Directed Search.
• Personality inventories MBTI, 16PF
• Individuel testing (58) group testing (19)
• Program Interventions Cursus et Repères.

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Tools in Employability

• InterestsGROP, Self-Directed Search, Strong,
  Jackson
• Aptitudes GATB, TAI, CAAT
• Personality MBTI, 16PF,MMPI
• Intelligence EIHM, Raven, IPAT
• Others Épreuve groupements, TRIMA, self-esteem
  scale, anxiety scale, depression
• Mostly in individual testing
• Programs
• Repères and Choix
• Cursus
• OPTRA
• Interagir
• Websites

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EducationProfessional Collaboration

• Mostly for academic support in collaboration with
  psychologists, social workers, career information
  specialists
• Less than 25 report that they collaborate with
  teachers and school principals on issues related
  to comprehensive guidance system

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EmployabilityProfessionnal Collaboration

• Employment counsellors, readaptation counsellors
• Other career counsellors
• Occupational therapists, psychologists

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Records keeping

• 23 in education and 7 in employability spend
  less than 5 minutes in preparing a clients
  report
• 63 in education and 45 in employability spend
  between 5 and 15 minutes
• 15 in education and 47 in employability spend
  more than 15 minutes
• Most would like to allow more time
• 86 report that the time allowed to prepare
  reports is not imposed by employers.

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Main findings

• For conjuctural labour market conditions, the
  career counsellors in the employability
  development sector are younger more educated
• Counsellors in the education system perform
  interventions more institutionnalized and more
  specific to a more homogeneous clientele
• Counsellors in teh employability sector perform
  interventions in more various institutional
  settings their activities and clienteles are
  more diversified.
• The tools used in the employability sector come
  generally from more traditional education
  sector. However, more innovative programs
  emerged from this sector.
• The professional collaboration is
  mainly happening internally.
• The type of sector influence the extent and
  content of clientsreports.

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Satisfaction

• The general level of satisfaction is around 96
  in education and 89 in employability
• The whole interpersonnal and professionnal
  relations, as well as the work schedule are very
  satisfactory elements of the work.
• For 37 of counsellors in the education sector,
  the work load is not satisfaying. The ratio
  studen/counsellor is critisized.
• For the counsellors in the employability sector,
  the working conditions are the least satisfactoty
  elements.

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Where do they get their motivation?

• The most important motivational elements
  (decreasing order)
• The contact with the clientele and the assistance
  provided
• Lautonomy
• Professional diversity
• The least motivational elements
• The influence execised on the environment
• Working conditions
• The possibility to conceive and manage projects
• 12 of counsellors in the education system and
  41 in the employability sector would like to
  move to another sector of practice, a year from
  now.
• More than 93 do not wish to change occupation

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Planning or own work and evaluation of services

• 58 in education and 68 in employability have a
  work plan
• 48 in education and 74 in employability write
  activities report, which in majority content
  qualitative and quantitative data.
• In 78 in education and 48 in employability,
  there is no formal mechanism for services
  evaluation when this is done,the evaluation is
  performed by supervisors ( 72)
• When services evaluation is done,
• Satisfaction (more than 93),
• Quality of services (more than 75)
• Accessibility (more than 54)
• In more than 72 of the cases, the waiting time
  to get a first interview is less than one month

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Professional Development

• Most counsellors participated to a learning
  activity in the last year this is often a
  conference or a one day trining provided by
  employers
• More than 60 have a budget provided by the
  employer (average of 535)
• Roadblocks to participate to learning activities
  cost, limited availability and distance

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Professional Development10 areas of the practice
considered very well or well developed, by
decreasing ranking

• Counselling
• Career and labour market information
• Vocational development theories
• Team work
• Ethic, reports writing
• Career development interventions
• Psychometry and assessment
• Psychological theories
• Comprehensive guidance school concept (education)

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Professional Development10 areas of the practice
considered less developed, by decreasing ranking

• Mental health disorders and personality
  assessment
• Knowledge of immigrant clientele
• Knowledge and assessment of clientele with severe
  difficulties
• Support to learning

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Main findings

• Counsellors prefer the personnal interactive
  relationships and the possibility to be an
   helper 
• Counsellors identify some limits to their
  interventions in their work environment
• There seems to have a financial disparity
  between the two sectors.
• Many competencies acquired during their
  initial university training are continuously
  being used and developed.
• Other competencies acquired during the initial
  training are less used and become less
  developed. Refresher courses would be
  beneficial.
• The social and economical changes bring the
  development of new competencies

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Why these surveys?

• State and scope of practices
• Differences between sectors?
• Professional development planning
• Impact on initial undergraduate and graduate
  training?
• Evidences to present to other stakeholders