Professional development courses

Mental Health Strategies will provide CDPs with concrete strategies to support clients with mental health challenges. It will also provide strategic tools for CDPs to use for their own mental health while working with clients.

Participants in this workshop will leave with solid foundational information about mental health. If participants have already taken the Mental Health First Aid Kit training, this training will build on some of those fundamentals specifically within the Career Development context.

Course Topics covered:

• neurobiology and mental health
• strategies to support mental health
• working with suicide ideation
• making appropriate referrals
• handling mental health conversations

This training is offered over two-days and can be delivered either in-person or virtually. It is also offered in-house or can be customized for your setting. We may also offer this as a three-week asynchronous training in the fall of 2025.

CFCC 1200 - Mental Health Strategies for CDPs                                                                                           

While the rest of the Career Development Advanced Program is under program review, this elective is available to all students - no prerequisites required. 

This course is designed to introduce the key aspects of Indigenous employment in Canada and the historical and contemporary factors that influence choices for today’s Indigenous job seeker.

Topics included in this course will be:

• Indigenous employment history
• Impacts of systemic barriers
• Identifying labour market opportunities
• Leveraging unique strengths within Indigenous communities to increase job retention

CDPP 500 - Indigenous Topics in Employment

In this interactive workshop participants will develop an understanding of self-care and self-compassion and how these relate to the workplace. It offers career development professionals strategies to support their well-being at work in ways that are trauma-informed, consider the social determinants of mental health, and recognize that the workplace is relational. It acknowledges that our work happens in a broader set of systems which means that taking care of you isn’t all on you as an individual, rather it also necessitates organizational considerations.

Topics covered:

• Define self-care and self-compassion
• Explore the intersection of vicarious trauma, burnout, compassion fatigue and well-being at work
• Identify strategies to support your mental health and well-being at work
• Identify organizational contributions to care and psychological safety at work

CFCC 1300 - Self Care for CDPs and Clients

This course is designed to provide CDPs with enhanced self-awareness and self-understanding while providing information on the counsellor-client relationship and effective helping skills.  Biases, values and beliefs, as they impact the CDP interaction, will also be explored.

• Increased self-awareness and self understanding, with emphasis on exploring one’s assumptions, beliefs, values, and biases in the context of helping relationships
• Acquisition of tools for understanding your clients as diverse and holistic beings
• Understanding the counsellor-client relationship and how to develop a therapeutic alliance
• Introduction of a helping/counselling model (Relating, Understanding, Changing)
• Foundation skills for effective helping: Listening and communication skills

COUN 401 - Basic Counselling Skills

CFCC 1080 - Advanced Trauma Informed Career Development Practice (new course)

CFCC 1090 -Trauma Informed Organization 

CDGI 600 – Talking About Careers

Talking about careers will focus on understanding a variety of career-related terminology, the importance of conversations with students, parents, and other interested partners, and successfully moving career conversations into interactive career-related learning.

CDGI 610 – Skills Development

Skills training will allow educators to increase their understanding of the importance of skills development, the Government of Canada’s Skills for Success Framework, and how skills are required for both scholarly learning and applied learning.

CDGI 630 – Valuing All Pathways

Valuing all pathways is designed for educators to increase their understanding of the many diverse ways that students may visualize their career, that all pathways’ students might take are important, and that students will navigate these in unique and individual ways.

CDGI 640 – Career Related Programming in Schools

Career Related Programming in Schools will help educators to facilitate career-related learning through curriculum enhancement and co-curricular programming and activities that complement the mainstream courses students are taking.