Description

What We Don’t Know May Hurt Someone Else: Ethically Supporting Diverse Clients

Roberta Neault, PhD, CCC, CCDP, GCDF-i, is an award-winning leader in the career development sector, in Canada and internationally, served on the board for the Career Counsellors Chapter of CCPA, and is an active member of the board of the Asia Pacific Career Development Association. President of Life Strategies Ltd. and Associate Dean, Faculty of Behavioural Sciences, at Yorkville University, Roberta is a counsellor-educator, career practitioner, and corporate consultant who brings a holistic perspective to individual and organizational career development challenges. She has worked with diverse groups in more than 60 countries. She has certifications in e-learning and career development. Her work has been heralded by many organizations who have honored her with many awards.

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION: Although ethical practice for career development facilitators and counselors requires that we not work beyond our level of competency, many who practice within the career development sector acknowledge limited skills and knowledge related to diversity. In our rapidly changing and increasingly interconnected global workplace, it’s not uncommon to find ourselves encountering clients from diverse groups that we’ve never been trained to serve. However, it’s not until we stumble or have gaps in our knowledge, skills, or attitudes pointed out, that we move into the “conscious incompetence” zone – an uncomfortable and sometimes embarrassing place to be. Awareness is the first step to change.

Diversity awareness initiatives are offered in many organizations and at most career development conferences there are workshops and presentations on diversity-related topics. However, many who could benefit from such training fall within the “unconscious incompetence” stage (i.e., they don’t yet recognize their skill gaps so they don’t see these sessions as personally relevant).

In this session, learn about the diversity-related skills disconnects amongst career practitioners that were identified in recent research. Also learn what recent immigrants reported about the career development professionals they encountered in their quest for recognition of their foreign credentials. Brief examples of recent initiatives to build welcoming workplaces for diverse employees and to equip newcomers to re-establish their careers will also be shared.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

Participants will learn to:

• Recognize and acknowledge gaps in their cultural competency to provide effective career development support
• Navigate the 4 stages of learning, to  strategically build cultural competencies
• Provide ethical and appropriate career services to more effectively serve diverse clients