
Career Development Facilitator Certification
Customized for Job Corps Staff
Certification as a Career Development Facilitator has become the "gold standard" for staff training and capacity-building in career and workforce development. Job Corps National Director Richard Trigg, in his national strategy guidelines for "The Three R's" specifically suggested the need for staff to obtain this important credential.
WDPN.net has been providing Career Development Facilitator Certification (CDF) training to Job Corps staff for almost 2 years. Our hands-on, project-based curriculum has been specifically customized to meet the needs of Job Corps staff and allows participants to work on real-life, relevant projects that can be readily implemented within Job Corps. Participants in the course work on both team and individual projects, learning the skills and competencies they need for certification, as well as developing a more thorough understanding of youth career development needs and best practice services. They learn about:
- Assessment Basics -- Types of career assessments, appropriate use of assessment tools, how to interpret and use career assessments with students for better career planning.
- Labor Market Information -- Resources for locating labor market information, how to use labor market information for the most effective career planning, how to engage students in researching LMI for their own need.
- Career Planning Strategies -- Factors in student's lives that influence career planning and career planning readiness, strategies for engaging students in developing their own career plans, how to use career portfolios and other tools for effective career planning.
- Job Search and Career Retention and Advancement Techniques -- Effective job search practices, strategies for supporting students in retaining their jobs and advancing in their careers, strategies for engaging students in the job search and job retention process.
- Business Outreach and Services -- how to engage businesses in the Job Corps process and provide the services businesses need to support Job Corps students.
- WIA Partnerships and Collaboration -- understanding Job Corps' role in the WIA system, working effectively with WIA partners, strategies for developing and solidifying "win-win" relationships.
- Career Facilitation Techniques -- the interpersonal and case management skills necessary to fully engage students in developing and implementing their own career plans and provide the resources necessary to achieve career success.
- Program Development & Management/Continuous Quality Improvement -- customer data collection methods, data analysis, developing programs and services that meet customer needs, using data for fact-based management, understanding performance outcomes/objectives and the processes and services that support Job Corps performance requirements, budgeting & financial issues.
- Personal/Professional Development -- what it means to REALLY be a team member and ways to function effectively in a team environment, creating and implementing staff professional development plans for life-long learning and continuous personal development, individual style and performance factors that influence work performance.
Our customized course is delivered over an 8-week period. Participants meet for one week, face to face, to form their work groups, participate in the "basics" of career development facilitation and begin planning for their team and individual projects. They then spend 6-8 weeks developing their projects. They receive feedback and support from the class instructor through phone and e-mail during this time. The teams then re-convene for another week to present their projects to classmates for feedback and further instruction/development.
As of July 2002, WDPN.net has provided CDF Certification training to over 150 Job Corps staff from:
- Dynamic Educational Systems, Inc.
- ResCare
- Jackson Pierce Public Affairs
- Vinell Corporation
Here's what some of them had to say about the training:
- "I learned more in this training than I have in years! Kudos!"
- "I enjoyed the information shared by the teams. The participation was excellent and the opportunities to share were a good learning experience."
- "Went beyond what I expected to learn. Excellent!"
- "Excellent facilitator. The style and method used to facilitate the training is phenomenal."
- "It was totally work-related and enabled me to do more personally and professionally in support of a diverse community.
- "Provided me with tools and techniques that had not occurred to me."
- "There was a lot of interactivity, opportunities for collaboration and good feedback."
- "The knowledge and expertise of our instructor promoted positive learning."
- "I think that everyone can learn from this class. I think that it should have been given before because I have learned so much."
- "It forces you to look at yourself and tap into your weakness. It also gave me a wealth of knowledge to use in my daily job."
"JPPA is an organization that strives to incorporate strategies for serving youth into all areas of operations. For the past year, we have created a number of successful initiatives to change our organizational culture and bring all of our working activities in line with this vision. Despite that success, we found that the CDF training conducted by FREEdLANCE, was the most effective initiative of any activity we have done in the past. It was outstanding in that it quickly helped us to move our culture in the direction of our mission. This was a critical achievement in the life of our company. But equally important, the format of the class provided us with concrete activities that we were able to immediately implement to operationalize our vision. Our staff are now excited and self-motivated. They are now full, participatory and proactive partners in this process. For the first time, we have seen line staff step forward to drive behavior and activities and they are now working with management staff in a truly empowered way."
Edna L. Jackson
President
Jackson Pierce Public Affairs, Inc.
If you would like to explore obtaining Career Development Facilitator Certification and training, contact us at:
FREEdLANCE Group for Career & Workforce Innovations
1100 Washington Ave., Suite 213
Pittsburgh, PA 15106
TOLL FREE: 1-877-937-6638 (voice)
(412) 429-7651 (fax)
cdf@freedlance.com

Copyright 2002, The FREEdLANCE Group, All Rights Reserved