Career Trends

As the globalization trend continues to impact our workforce, there have been many studies and explorations into the preventative strategies for employees to utilize as they continue along their career path. Due to the mass shift towards integration, many individuals have become unemployed because they lack more than one set of skills and knowledge, and do not have a repository of relevant information to rely on. This article provides a few preventative measures for those within the IT industry, but these practices can also be applied to related fields and professions, as it advocates the idea that employees must become competitive and obtain more than 1 specific talent in order to remain ahead of the crowd and stay employed.

This article explains the difference between emerging new social class "plutocrats" - which refers to the trend of wealthy individuals to become involved with social and political policies. This article helps to highlight the potential consequences of this new class, as well as the possible opportunities it may bring. This article helps to explain this phenomenon, as well as provide insight into the impacts and challenges of an ever-globalizing world.

This article provides preventative strategies for negative outcomes within virtual working environments. As the trend is currently increasing the ability of individuals to collaborate via the internet, the "killers" must also be made public, to ensure virtual organizations and employee teams can become aware and prevent the potential implications of working over the internet rather than in traditional work spaces. This enables work to continue to be innovative, rewarding, and meaningful to each employee.

This article helps to reveal the unfilled positions in the US labour market, which has serious implications on the future of American manufacturing. Traditional skills and occupations have decreased significantly in modern society, and there are fewer people interested in obtaining the experience or knowledge to do such jobs.

Redefining 'made in China': How one firm is forging a new path for manufacturers

For this weeks last posting I decided to put up something on how how technology is changing people's work lives. This article talks about changing work rules, such as working from home or virtually. It also talks about how in the future computer science and information technology will rapidly grow.

I am particularly interested in working with at risk youth. It has been identified that youth unemployment and underemployment is in fact rising and is, amazingly, higher than during the recession! This article talks about medium and large companies getting on board to help young people gain skills during high school and/or post-secondary in order to add practical experience to their resume, along with their debt-inducing education. It will be interesting to see what happens over the coming years.

I found going through the Shift Workbook very insightful and it inspired me to look around for some additional quizzes that assess your areas of interest. For me, in the past, I have always been very analytical, interested in lab testing, anything in the sciences really, and have shifted toward a more person-focused career journey. It's so interesting to me to do these little quizzes and see that my results have completely switched to the "helping" profession! It's just 15 questions and I feel it's a nice and easy quiz for the younger population. It gives results for the following categories: helping, people, administrative, creative, technical, practical.

This article provides an overview of and link to the Cumulative Earrings of Post Secondary Graduates Over 20 Years report by Statistics Canada. It looks at gender and education level as main factors.

With my keen interest in social justice, I thought this was a great article to end the year on. This article summarizes much of what I feel about poverty and social justice. Career counselling is very client focused, and poverty is a socially constructed issue, and often the barriers our clients face are external to themselves. At the end the author sites how we must work with the community to make meaningful change for our clients. This is of utmost importance to me.

This article relates to what Stanford says about the economic gender gap, at the end of Chapter 9. He mentions that poverty rates are especially high for single mothers and single female pensioners. (p.118) The article discusses some of the reasons why this poverty level exists in these two groups of women.

The Globe and Mail has sought out columns from thought leaders in Western Canada, people whose influence is shaping debate, but whose names may not be widely recognized. There's a lot of talk of the need for a new economic system - capitalism 2.0 in shorthand - based on shared values, inclusive wealth accounting and social equity.

This is a resource from the Canada Revenue Agency about the underground economy, which was a term mentioned a couple of times in this week's notes. Though this document is skewed by the fact that it is produced by a government agency, it is still useful for getting more information and specifics.

"The trend toward "people without jobs, jobs without people" poses the single biggest long-term threat to Canadian economic growth, exacerbating Canada's already lagging productivity and innovation, according to one recent report. " Chris Sorensen; March 19, 2013

TORONTO, Aug. 25, 2014 /CNW/ - Ted Opitz, Member of Parliament for Etobicoke-Centre, on behalf of the Honourable Dr. K. Kellie Leitch, Minister of Labour and Minister of Status of Women, spoke on Saturday about the importance of recruiting and advancing women in the skilled trades.

This article related to chapter 6 of the The Shift, where Gratton outlines how Gen Y-ers like John and Susan seek social engagement over personal financial success. It also discusses a recent rise in 'social entrepreneurship', where young graduates are creating their own social change start-ups as a way to fulfill both their need for employment and sense of social responsibility.