Career Development is Nation Building

The book. The movement. An invitation to help shape what comes next.

 

Canada’s future depends on people being able to recognize their possibilities, develop their capabilities, and contribute meaningfully throughout their lives. Career development helps make that possible. Career Development is Nation Building is a new open-source book and a call to action for career development professionals. It's  a call to recognize our collective influence and do our part in making career development essential, enduring social and economic infrastructure, accessible to all citizens throughout life.

 

The Book

Based originally on Phil Jarvis's new book The Missing Bridge, Career Development is Nation Building: A Practical Guide for Career Development Professionals is a collaboration between Phil, Candy Ho, Sareena Hopkins, Dave Redekopp, and Lucy Sattler. It connects everyday career development work with the larger challenges facing our communities and country. It explores how practitioners can help people build the agency to imagine, explore, experience, reflect, choose, act, and adapt. It also considers how we can extend our impact through relationships with educators, employers, governments, families, and community organizations.

 

Aligned with CERIC’s Guiding Principles of Career Development, the book brings together evidence, Canadian lived experience, practical examples, and tools for reflection and action. It is being developed as a freely available resource to use, share, localize, and build upon.

 

The Movement

Career development professionals see every day what happens when people have support, and when they do not. That experience gives our profession both an opportunity and a responsibility to help shape stronger systems. The goal is to engage, equip, and mobilize practitioners to become catalysts for change: strengthening our own practice, building partnerships, sharing what works, and helping decision-makers understand career development’s contribution to individual well-being, community resilience, and economic prosperity.

 

Canada has created remarkable career development initiatives. Our next challenge is to connect, sustain, and renew what works so that support endures across governments, funding cycles, and life transitions. Candy, Dave, Sareena, Lucy, CERIC and I invite you to join the working dialogue at Cannexus27

 

Career Development is Nation Building: A Pan-Canadian Working Dialogue
Monday, January 25, 2027 | 9:30 a.m.–12:15 p.m.
Rogers Centre Ottawa | Room 213/215

 

Co-hosted with CERIC, this working dialogue will bring career development professionals together with leaders from education, government, employers and labour, community organizations, and research from across Canada. Together, we will identify where connections are breaking down, propose practical actions that can begin within twelve months, and explore who can contribute to a sustained, collaborative “Team Canada” effort. The aim is to turn shared concern into shared responsibility and practical commitments. Your experience, ideas, and willingness to contribute can help shape what comes next.

 

If you are registered for Cannexus27, please join us. If not, consider registering at Register.

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