Holiday Greetings

Warmest holiday greetings to our LearnOnline students. It has been an exciting year for us at Life Strategies. We have a new website, newsletter, and blogs, and have added four new certificate programs and partnerships this year – Job Developer, Job Club Coach, Case Manager, and Educational and Vocational Guidance Practitioner. We’ve also welcomed several new instructors to the team – check out the “Meet the Team” section on our website. We saw a 39% increase in student registrations and the winter 2011 semester looks busy as well.

If you’re looking for free resources check out the Resources tab on our website at http://www.lifestrategies.ca/. Also, did you know that our LearnOnline community has a blog? Follow us at http://learnonline-reconnect.blogspot.com/ to stay informed of new resources, latest news, and tips and strategies for working effectively in our field.

If you’re looking for continuing professional education in 2011, we hope you’ll keep us in mind. Consider our one week e-courses, two to six week certificate programs, or speciality certificates within the Career Management Professional Program comprising 10 or 11 two-week courses. We are also always happy to customize courses for intact groups, in-person, blended, or fully online.

For those of you in our career development related programs you may be interested in an opportunity to contribute to revisions for the Canadian Standards & Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners. Attend an in-person focus group at CANNEXUS (Ottawa, ON) – Tuesday January 25, 2011. This is an invitation only event; register at http://s-and-g.eventbrite.com/. Watch for other consultations throughout the country.

If you’re planning to attend CANNEXUS, the Career Development Conference in BC, or the National Career Development Association conference in San Antonio, Texas, please look us up. It’s always lovely to connect in person!

With our best wishes for a relaxing holiday season and a new year that fulfills all your hopes and dreams.
Roberta, Deirdre, Cassie, Cheryl, and the LearnOnline team of instructors

IAEVG National Correspondents Meet in India

With the 2010 IAEVG - Jiva International Conference being held in Bangalore, India, IAEVG National Correspondents met to discuss the state of careers guidance in their part of the world. Life Strategies' own Roberta Neault was in attendance and wanted to share some highlights.

• In Canada, research/evaluation of career work within other countries is being undertaken
• In India, the Promise Foundation (http://www.thepromisefoundation.org/) is working to introduce guidance/counselling in secondary education through training teachers
• In the UK, an all-age guidance service will be introduced in 2011
• In Australia, in order to provide more professional services across the country, national career standards are being introduced
  

To learn more about IAEVG, international conferences, and the national correspondents see http://www.iaevg.org/iaevg/index.cfm?lang=2

Beyond the Basics: Real World Skills for Career Practitioners

Beyond the Basics: Real World Skills for Career Practitioners (2001) is a book by Life Strategies president, Roberta Neault. It's a helpful read for career practitioners and is also a textbook in some of our courses. One of our newest certificate programs, Job Developer, requires this as well.

It has over 100 pages of tips and techniques for working with diverse clients including individuals, groups, corporations and communities, and is linked to the Canadian National Standards and Guidelines for Career Development.

To order, see our online store - http://www.lifestrategies.ca/store/products.php?cat=14

This book is available in PDF and printed formats.

Career Developments

Career Developments is a newsletter put out by the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), a non-profit organization which strives to "advance career development and the capacity of the profession to respond with compassion and skill to all clients and stakeholders in an ever-changing work environment." (see http://www.ccdf.ca/ccdf2/cms/displayMain.asp?lang=en§ion=about for more information)

This publication "highlights current developments, innovations, and professional and policy issues in the field of career development in Canada and internationally."

See the CCDF website (http://www.ccdf.ca/ccdf2/cms/displayMain.asp?lang=en§ion=newsletter) for more details and to access copies of the newsletter.

Conversation Series on Career and Workforce Development Policies and Practice

Check out this amazing "Afternoon Tea" series sponsored by the Center on Education and Work at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.  Each of the "conversations" takes the approach of an afternoon tea with a leader in the career development field. There are plenty to choose from...have fun :-)

http://afternoontea.wceruw.org/Home.aspx/Conversations

Sunny Hansen: ILP

Finally...the correct link to Sunny Hansen's website with info about Integrative Life Planning (ILP) as well as her international research related to diversity and gender equality. http://www.sunnyhansenbornfree.com/

CanadaInfoNet

The Canadian Information and Networking Services, an online forum for immigrants offering mentoring services and helpful resources for skilled business and trade professionals, is currently in the process of enhancing their website. The new site will host an improved mentoring tool for their e-mentoring program connecting immigrants to mentees with similar interests, backgrounds, and carer goals.

For more information or to become a mentor see http://www.canadainfonet.org/

Labour Force Figures

Stephen Hill, Employment Counsellor, noted in a recent email blast that "when economists or government spokespeople or business analysts say that we have recovered almost all the jobs we lost since the start of the recession they are right; we are within 4,300 jobs of where we were in July 2008." To determine this, he compared the labour force figures from July 2008 (available at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/daily-quotidien/080808/t080808a-eng.htm) to those from September 2010 (available at http://www.statcan.gc.ca/subjects-sujets/labour-travail/lfs-epa/t101008a4-eng.htm).

Stephen highlights the importance of these figures, all available through the official StatsCan tables, to career practitioners to inform not only the status of the economy, but also to know the number of persons who may be in need.

Combating Myths About Distance Education

In his article Combating Myths About Distance Education, Todd Gilman explores the challenges that online and distance education programs, and instructors, face to show the merit of their programs. He contends that many "problems" noted in online programs can also exist within face-to-face or mixed mode delivery. In "any classroom, whether it's the face-to-face, online-only, or hybrid variety, is only as good as the people in it. If both teachers and students are prepared, responsive, and engaged, things run remarkably well."

For the full article see: http://chronicle.com/article/Combating-Myths-About-Distance/64299/

Culture-Infused Counselling

As our Understanding Diverse Clients course starts today, we'd like to share resource we've found quite helpful: Culture-Infused Counselling: Celebrating the Canadian Mosaic by Nancy Arthur and Sandra Collins (2005).

This book "attempt[s] to provide students and practitioners alike with a comprehensive resource that adds a Canadian perspective to a predominantly American body of literature." (http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_7482/is_200701/ai_n32220836/)