Highlights from NECA’s 2004 Annual Professional Development Workshop
The Professional Employment Counselor: An Advocate for
Jobseekers & Employers
Budgets were tight and travel was difficult
but NECA was able to attract a group of excellent speakers, who addressed a
broad variety of current topical issues for professional workforce development,
career and employment counseling members at its 38th annual
professional workshop. The evaluations from the attendees were outstanding, and
I want to share with you a brief summary of the presentations and contact
information as follows….Kay Brawley
Robert Chope--“Dancing Naked”--Dancing through the Emotional Aspects of the Career
Search. Emotions color the job search, job change, and job placement process every step of the way, often blocking
individual effectiveness. Emotions always have. But in today's
ominous "jobless recovery", emotional anxiety and discouragement are
rampant, adversely affecting both the job search as well as the process for
accruing job tenure and stability among those currently employed. The
presentation assisted counselors and consultants in helping clients become
sensitive to their own adverse emotional reactions while they learned new
strategies to keep these clients from feeling disempowered. Chope covered new developments in the career world, the
types of reactions people have to these developments, and suggestions for
eliminating inappropriate reactions to unfortunate job shifts. See an in-depth
summary of presentation elsewhere in this newsletter. Contact:
rcchope@sfsu.edu
Workshop participants learned how to help adult learners put their lives in perspective, relieving the negative self-image that often comes with unemployment so that they can begin to plan their careers with confidence. By role-playing as workers from 1900 to present day, participants got a short course in modern history, learned to appreciate that change is constant and inevitable, developed an understanding of the modern labor market and saw how skills acquired in one area of life are transferable to another. Working in teams, participants learned how to assess their situations and create realistic action plans, and where to go for help when needed. ACRNA Contact: Bridget Brown, bbrown@acrna.net
Harvey
Schmelter-Davis--Working Ahead: Global Career Development Facilitation
Instructor Training: Fast Track Course for
NECA
Training Contact: kbrawley@mindspring.com.
Franciena King, Missouri
Research Information
Center, Dept of Economic Development--Facts about how the Economic,
Demographic, Policy, & Business Workforce and Workplace are Changing.
The transition from a manufacturing to a more global service economy, where
ideas and technology, without geographical boundaries, rather than goods determine success,
has created profound changes in the workplace and workforce. The face of this
New Workforce includes a larger number of older workers, women workers, and Asian and Hispanic
immigrant workers. This New Workplace has shifted from the rigid top-down
permanent, relational organizational structure to a flattened, less connected,
less secure, and more flexible arrangement. In this
environment the employee must take control of her/his own future learning,
skills training and security.
These changes have
produced many challenges for the private sector, for government and for the
workforce professional from (i) the mismatch between
the skills of workers and skill needs of employers, (ii) the disparate
availability of technology and computers, (iii) growing language and other
barriers to employment, (iv) added stress in the
social net, and (v) growing
concern with widening earnings gaps. This
presentation provided a topical review and supporting statistics regarding
these major workforce and workplace trends and issues
affecting the nation. The detailed statistical power
point presentation is available on the NECA website. A more detailed summary is
available in this newsletter. Contact: franciena.king@ded.mo.gov.
Rita Freeborough--The Challenge of Change: Issues When Facing Job or Career Change.
The goal of the Challenge of Change is to help individuals
and students prepare for change and to make more comfortable their transition
from the known to the unknown. The striking feature of the Challenge of Change
is that it allows individuals to focus on their present situation, while it
allows facilitators to guide them in developing self-empowerment so they can
move forward. The Challenge of Change has been successfully presented to groups
as varied as high school students, college students, welfare-to-work
recipients, dislocated workers, and displaced homemakers. This session included
the development of the Challenge of Change to fit your clientele and various
activities and resources. This presentation concluded with the powerful video from
Sondra Thiederman entitled Getting Along: Words of
Encouragement . Contact for Freeborough: jobfields@aol.com
What determines effective career choice is not rational
goal-setting, nor needing more energy or time, but how we experience and manage
our energy to resolve inner conflicts. By calling upon the unconscious forces
that motivate us to make employment-related decisions, we can take control of
our decision-making ability to manage our lives more joyfully and meaningfully.
Contact: lifeworks@gelardin.net
This presentation addressed ways in which employment
counselors can prepare and service consumers with disabilities to become an
effective advocate for themselves in the workplace. Included were (1) an
instructive presentation, including various concerns and considerations in
working with this population; (2) a processing activity, including small and
whole group discussion; and (3) application techniques--"how to"
strategies designed to help consumers obtain jobs and negotiate necessary
accommodations needed for successful employment. Goals of this session were to
increase attendee awareness concerning issues and barriers for this group of
job seekers/employees, and to aid attendees in identifying tools that can be
effective interventions with such individuals. Contact:
robin.cook@wichita.edu
Scott Barstow --What’s
Happening with WIA & TANF Reauthorization; Frameworks for Performance
Measurement of Workforce Development Programs. For the latest legislative
developments, contact ACA/NECA’s Public Policy
Representative via email at ACA: Sbarstow@Counseling.Org