In Ready For Change -- Career Counselling in the 90s (September 1992), the Canadian Guidance Counselling Foundation outlined the key areas that the professional preparation should cover. They are:

• counselling for career self-management,
• career development processes and special populations,
• group career counselling and career and life skills,
• career information, resources, and labour market information, and
• program planning and management.

Professional preparation should follow a core curriculum containing these elements. Opportunities should be offered to counsellors to pursue training in more specific areas or to prepare to serve the needs of specific groups, for example those of people with disabilities, as discussed above. Groups, such as the Canadian Association for Vocational Evaluation and Work Adjustment (see box, next page), are promoting the concepts of vocational evaluation and work adjustment as they relate to enhancing the employability of people with disabilities. We support such initiatives.

An extensive effort should be made to provide practicing counsellors with appropriate retraining opportunities, based on the five core areas listed above, to allow them to improve service to their clientele.

52. We recommend that professional associations and government departments develop extensive in-service training programs aimed at upgrading the career and employment counselling capabilities of counsellors