We want the vibrant community of career development professionals to have the training and resources they need to support their vital work with students and clients.
We create and deliver tailored online and face-to-face training courses for a wide range of individuals, organizations and academic institutions to elevate and standardize the field of career development across Canada. We also develop career resources,programs and workshops to meet the specific needs of end-users.
Our VOCO Training Centre offers online, self-directed, competency-based courses for educators and career development professionals.
PRIME is a data/client management software that supports quality career/employment services and a more robust evaluation of the impact of services.
We also offer a series of free tools and programs that we’ve developed for a range of end-users.
All of our training for career development professionals integrates the competencies outlines in the Pan-Canadian Competency Framework for Career Development Professionals.
We develop training for provincial governments, organizations, schools and school-boards. For over three decades, we have developed courses and curriculum to support a range of learners. From supporting youth in transition to helping the profession develop the competencies they need in a much more complex and uncertain labour market, our work addresses priority needs. Our training have been informed and enhanced by working closely with Indigenous and Northern populations.
CCDF has an extensive list of its training programs. Contact us to learn more about working with us on creating tailored training strategies that meet the unique needs of your organization.
Our VOCO Training Centre offers educators and career development professionals a series of accessible, self-paced courses to learn new skills,access innovative new approaches and tools, connect with fellow professionals and fulfill course requirements for certification as Career Development Professionals (CDPs). VOCO’s courses meet the Canadian Career Development Standards and Guidelines Competencies and the requirements of provincial certification bodies. VOCO courses are offered online through our easy-to-use learning portal where the pace and approach to learning is up to you.
Built from the front-line stories and experiences of career development professionals and educators like yourself, we designed VOCO’s courses to allow you to work towards certification that easily fits with your schedule.
Click here to get started, or check out the course overviews available below.
Work Search
This course prepares Career Development Professionals to help students/clients transition into jobs, find/create meaningful work, and develop personalized plans for effective work search.
Career Development Theories
No matter what side of the “I like or don’t like theory” continuum you stand, we’ve developed an interactive and engaging course that supports you in integrating current thinking to your own theoretical approach to practice.
Career Development Process
This course builds the core skills and specialized techniques needed to effectively build a working alliance with clients and deliver career services. It supports learners in practicing the skills underpinning the working alliance and client engagement in the context of the career service delivery model. The course explores key contributors to client self-management, enhance their capacity to deal with reluctant clients, identify success indicators and monitor progress. This course will also provide an opportunity for career development professionals to refine their personal approaches to practice.
Engage: Dynamic Ways of Connecting
Developed and Delivered by Norm Amundson and Andrea Frühling
Explore the career development process from an actively engaged perspective. Combining ideas from Norm Amundson’s award-winning career development book “Active Engagement” and Andrea Fruhling’s creative career coaching approach, learners will gain a deeper understanding of a more creative, client-centered career development process from start to finish.
Using Labour Market Information in Career Services
This course prepares participants to better access, understand and apply labour market information (LMI) in their work with clients. Integrating both formal and informal LMI, this course teaches strategies to find, make sense of and apply LMI in meaningful ways to support better career development with students and clients.
Career Development Foundations
This course provides participants with an introduction to career development, exploring what it is and presenting a process (the 4M model) that highlights the key elements of it. The course will include hands-on experience with a range of practical and creative career development interventions targeted to major career development issues faced by youth, young adults and not so young adults!
Ethics in Career Development Practice
Available Now
This course provides participants with opportunities to explore their ethical responsibilities as a Career Development Practitioner, to work through a variety of ethical dilemmas using an ethical decision-making model; and to build confidence in their capacity for ethical interventions and decision-making at work.
Create
Learn about harnessing the power of creativity and imagination as a way to gain new perspectives and support clients in new, more impactful ways. Combining ideas from Norm Amundson’s award-winning career development book “Active Engagement” and Andrea Fruhling’s creative career coaching approach, learners will gain a deeper understanding of a more creative, client-centered career development process from start to finish.
Enhance service delivery and demonstrate its impact
Developed with career development professionals in mind, PRIME offers a simple way to evaluate short- and long-term success in your organization, region, or province.
PRIME collects and analyzes a much richer, wider range of client outcome and progress indicator data. PRIME mirror the process of service delivery, so it coaches and supports quality service while also collecting and analyzing valuable data to inform clients, practitioners, managers and funders.
Built on the technical platform of ARMS, PRIME serves as a model for using evaluation as an underpinning to support quality service and stronger service outcomes.
Book your PRIME demo and get started today.
Below are state-of-the-art resources that CCDF has developed. These materials are made freely available for you to enjoy!
- All Tools (10)
- Career Decision Making (1)
- Career Development Professionals (CDP) (3)
- Children & Youth (5)
- Job Search (1)
- Parents and Guides (4)
- Workbook (2)
Job Search Workbook
If you’re ready to find a job, this guide is for you. Through a step-by-step effective and proven job search process, this workbook will help you:
- Find work that it a right fit for you and your skills,
- Help you develop the tools you need to be ready for work search, including a good resume, references and a career pitch,
- Support you in identifying potential jobs, use your networks, tailor your work search tools and present yourself well at job interviews, and
- Provide tips on accepting a job offer, agreeing on terms of employment and accepting a position in a professional manner.
Tools, resources and materials available from the project:
Career Decision-Making Workbook
If you are unsure what you want to do after school or throughout your career, this guide is for you. Figuring out the next steps of your career journey may seem overwhelming. This guide will take you step-by-step to get clear about what you want and how to get there.
Tools, resources and materials available from the project:
A Career Development Resource for Parents: Helping Parents Explore the Role of Coach and Ally
This guide helps parents explore the role of coach and ally as they help their adolescent children decide on their future careers. Building on research that shows parents are the most important influence on their children, the guide provides suggestions on career planning, how to talk to teens about career choices and how to find an ally who can help prepare young people for entry into the workforce.
Available in French and English.
Tools, resources and materials available from the project:
Your Child’s Career – A Family Affair
A 3-hour workshop for parents of children (grades 5-8). This session helps parents to understand the elements of career planning and career development which are important as children progress through intermediate school towards the transition to secondary school.
Available in English only. Disponible en anglais seulement.
Tools, resources and materials available from the project:
Oh, the Places You’ll Go!
A 2-hour workshop for parents of children (kindergarten to grade 4) to introduce them to thinking expansively about the idea of career development for their children and to suggest age-appropriate and fun ways that they can engage in career-related learning activities with their children.
Available in English only. Disponible en anglais seulement.
Tools, resources and materials available from the project:
We love to hear about your experience with our training programs.
Elsie Kasudluak, Youth Employment Counsellor
"Being new to the field, I treasure my trainings with CCDF. It allows me to help my clients the best that I can!"
News
Our perspective on the latest in the career development field
Join Us in Building a Home for Canadian Career Development Professionals
Keynote: CICA Summit 21 – The Future of Career Development Practice
