-- For Immediate Release -- Toronto, ON

The Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE) with the proud support of Prepped, has released a pivotal snapshot of what career services for post-secondary students and new graduates look like in 2022 via its latest research report, the ‘Career Centre Services, Resources, and Metrics: A pan-Canadian benchmarking survey’.

The research, led by Dr. Christine Sjolander, Vice-Chair of Academics and Instructor in the Faculty of Business at Capilano University (North Vancouver), surveyed senior career centre leaders about their core services, the innovation and the challenges resulting from COVID-19, their staffing and budgetary realities, partnerships with employers, diversity and inclusion, how they measure success, and what they anticipate their needs to be in the future.

Now in its third release, Dr. Sjolander shares that the research, which was first undertaken in 2016, came out of a professional need of her own. “At the time, I was a Career Centre Director. I was looking for ways to increase the resources available to me to better meet the needs of the students, alumni, and employers my centre was tasked with serving.   Through my connections with CACEE, I realized other career centre directors were facing the same dilemma – how to build an effective business case with senior administrators at our institutions for the resources required to deliver the best services and support to our stakeholders.  And, from there, the idea for this research was born”.

Erin Marsden, Director of Partnerships at RBCx Ventures and President of the CACEE National Board of Directors, feels that the research has important implications for employers as well. “The research functions like a road map for understanding the services currently available on-campus and how career centres operate.  Employers can use it to inform their campus recruitment strategies, identify new opportunities for collaboration and partnership; particularly in experiential or work integrated learning, and support career centres in identifying priorities and addressing any gaps in their work with students”.

Marsden adds “It’s exciting to have this report available to employers and career educators alike.  Insights into areas such as Indigenization and Inclusion, emerging roles and programming in career centres, how career centres are approaching their relationships with employers, and experiential education on a national scale can prove invaluable in building out talent pipelines and best supporting students in their post-secondary to career transition”.

Catherine Stace, Career Services Manager at the Max Bell School of Public Policy at McGill University and Past-President of the CACEE National Board of Directors, sees the benefit of this kind of benchmarking research for both those in strategic leadership and frontline roles. “The power behind collectively benchmarking our services to stakeholders and sharing it on a broad scale is the best practices, idea generation, and ultimately innovation that result– it helps makes us better professionals!  That’s the beauty of being a part of CACEE, we benefit from our collective experience to grow and take our work with students and new graduates to the next level”.

The research also plays a critical part in shaping the priorities and work of CACEE.  Trevor Buttrum, Executive Director, explains that “the research helps shed light on to the needs of our members.  Not only can we leverage it internally to create programming, tools, and resources that are tailored to the challenges and opportunities within our professional community, but also ensure CACEE’s national voice advocates for and informs policy that will ultimately positively impact our space”.  Buttrum adds, “there are always benefits in collaboration and working together.  Our partnership with Prepped is a prime example, their support helped to make this research possible!”.

Digital copies of the Executive Summary and Full Research Report are available for download here. 

CACEE will also be hosting a webinar for senior career and campus recruitment leaders on October 27th from 11:00 am – 12:15 pm Eastern where Dr. Sjolander will be walking through the key findings of the report and providing opportunities for attendees to reflect on the data, share best practices with each other, and spark ideas that will help to shape the future of post-secondary career services in Canada!

For specific questions about the research data or methodology, please connect with:

Dr. Christine Sjolander
Vice-Chair Academics and Instructor
Faculty of Business
Capilano University
christinesjolander@capilanou.ca 

For questions or additional information about the ‘2022 Career Centre Services, Resources, and Metrics: A pan-Canadian benchmarking survey’ or the upcoming webinar on October 27th please reach out to:

Trevor Buttrum
Executive Director
Canadian Association of Career Educators and Employers (CACEE)
trevor.buttrum@cacee.com | 416.929.5156

About the Research Sponsors

Prepped - Since 2018, over 100,000 job seekers have come to Prepped for support in landing a job. Founded by HR professionals, Prepped uses technology grounded in science to help post-secondary students build skill sets empirically linked to more successful job search outcomes. In addition to interactive exercises that span topics from defining career goals to tips on successful networking and interviewing, Prepped’s digital platform also offers resume and interview feedback tools. This past year, Prepped was named a finalist in the 2022 Ed Tech Cool Tool Awards in the hiring and internship solution, as well as professional skills solution categories.

CACEE is the leading authority on the post-secondary to career transition in Canada.  The association provides a national voice, professional development, resources, and networking opportunities to career educators and employers in their work supporting the next generation of talent.