Professionalising and qualifying

It has been said that career development in Aotearoa is an “inchoate occupation”, lacking clarity as a ‘profession’ (Douglas, 2009, 2010, p. 25; Furbish, 2012; O’Reilly, 2018). Ouch. This is because our practice here has been - and is continuing to be - diversely defined by very diverse practitioners with a huge range of specialisations including: career counselling; working with those with disabilities; career development programme design and delivery; research; policy development; professional supervision; and organisational career development (CDANZ, 2018).

So if we think about how we are educated, what does that show? Well, realistically, pretty much nothing. Our professional organisations - CDANZ and CATE - may only take note of what practitioners have learned while they are members. We lack discoverable information about what qualifications practitioners came into the career development field with.

Entry into career practice in Aotearoa has been said to be “undermined by [a] preponderance of inadequate [career-specific] qualifications” (Douglas, 2009, p. 3, citing the OECD, 2004). Some New Zealand researchers have noted an apparent practitioner reluctance to gaining career-specific qualifications (Douglas, 2009, 2010; Furbish, 2004, 2012; Laurenson-Elder, 2022; O’Reilly, 2018; O’Reilly et al., 2020), though self-reported 2021 survey results show that 78% of CDANZ and CATE respondents have non-career-specific graduate or post-graduate qualifications (Young, 2022), and 63% of respondents hold undergraduate diplomas or certificates, with 29% also holding graduate or post-graduate qualifications (NB: respondents may hold multiple qualifications; Young, 2022). When it comes to plans to gain career-specific qualifications, 77% reported professional development plans in progress or about to start (Young, 2022). It seems that three quarters of respondents may not be as resistant to gaining career-specific qualifications as other researchers propose.

And sure, that means that almost a quarter of career practitioners don't yet have a degree OR have career-specific qualifications. So there is some work to do yet.

Only CDANZ requires a career-specific postgraduate qualification for “professional” membership, or an undergraduate or graduate qualification for “full” membership (CDANZ, 2022); and are are currently aiming to harmonise their professional membership qualification requirements with that of the Career Development Association of Australia (CDAA) (Smidt & Bailey, 2019), which requires a CICA-endorsed postgraduate qualification (Brown et al., 2019). It is possible that at some point a postgraduate career-specific qualification will also become a “full” CDANZ membership requirement.

However, CATE currently has no career-specific qualification membership requirement (Furbish, 2011), although this will not affect their members until there is enough will to want to professionalise.

Hopefully that will come. It will be good for the entire sector, too, when it does.

Sam

References:

Brown, J. L., Healy, M., McCredie, T., & McIlveen, P. (2019). Career services in Australian higher education: Aligning the training of practitioners to contemporary practice. Journal of Higher Education Policy and Management, 41(5), 518-533. https://doi.org/10.1080/1360080X.2019.1646380

CDANZ. (2018). Career Development Association of New Zealand Competency Framework. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1p4je3cbcuCk659W116_YlQxWIKQmkJ4v/view

CDANZ. (2022). Membership Types & Fees. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://cdanz.org.nz/membership/membershiptypesandfees

Douglas, F. (2009). Anyone Can Do Guidance...: Losing and finding professional identity in a complex chain of services. In IAEVG International Conference 2013. https://jyx.jyu.fi/bitstream/handle/123456789/22908/Douglas.pdf?sequence=1

Douglas, F. (2010). Sustaining the Self: Implications for the Development of Career Practitioners' Professional Identity. Australian Journal of Career Development, 19(3), 24-32. https://doi.org/10.1177/103841621001900305

Furbish, D. S. (2004). Professionalisation for New Zealand Career Practice: Lessons to Learn, Challenges to Meet. New Zealand Journal of Counselling, 25(2), 44-53.

Furbish, D. S. (2011). The Influence of Professional Standards on New Zealand Career Development Practice. Australian Journal of Career Development, 20(3), 10-17. https://doi.org/10.1177/103841621102000303

Furbish, D. S. (2012). An Overview of New Zealand Career Development Services. Australian Journal of Career Development, 21(2), 14-24. https://doi.org/10.1177/103841621202100203

Laurenson-Elder, R. C. (2022). What Works at Work? A comparative study of counselling and coaching in the workplace. [Unpublished Doctoral Thesis, University of Auckland].

O'Reilly, V. N. (2018). Professional standards and professional identity: Perspectives of career development practitioners in Australia and New Zealand. [Doctoral thesis: University of Queensland]. https://espace.library.uq.edu.au/data/UQ_4c26854/s42789538_final_thesis.pdf?

O’Reilly, V. N., McMahon, M., & Parker, P. (2020). Career development: Profession or not?. Australian Journal of Career Development, 29(2). 79-86. https://doi.org/10.1177/1038416219898548

Smidt, A., & Bailey, R. (2019). Entry-level Qualifications and Member Pathways: Discussion Document for CDANZ members. Career Development Association of New Zealand. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1YNaZkSBOAI8YxP7WUGCdswhgPKCPFVl/view

Young, S. (2022). A snapshot of Aotearoa NZ career practitioners [Manuscript submitted for publication]. Social Sciences, NMIT/Te Pūkenga.