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Calling out to Job Development Leaders
Editorial by Christian Saint Cyr
National Director / Canadian Job Development Network
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This past summer, I’ve had the pleasure of working with dozens of career development organizations coast-to-coast to organize the National Networking Day for Job Developers, which took place this past Friday September 19th and I thought it was a tremendous success!
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Back in June, we raised the idea of job developers, employer engagement professionals and co-op educators getting together to talk about what each organization is doing; opportunities for collaboration; best practices; and notable employers; with plans to carry on this discussion and work together to raise the profile of job development and inclusive employment in the community.
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We feel this discussion and collaboration will raise the profile of job development supports in the community and encourage employers to think more broadly about inclusive employment and the benefits of hiring individuals with challenges in obtaining employment.
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Fundamentally, I don’t believe job developers and career development organizations are natural competitors. They may be competing for the same contracts, funding and even for the same clients, but when it comes to getting the attention of employers, a coordinated message results in greater employment outcomes for everyone.
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You see, government contracts and clients or students are a finite resource but at present inclusive employment represents such a small percentage of the employment pie that working with employers as a team to discuss the benefits of diverting from traditional recruitment practices can result in two, three or four times the current number of employment outcomes.
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With this message, some of our most prominent career development organizations came forward to say, “yes, we agree! This sort of conversation needs to occur in our community too.”
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Based simply on the benefit of greater communication, career development organizations came together to host sessions in 16 different communities. They agreed to take on the additional cost of renting space and refreshments and dedicate the staffing resources necessary to carry the event forward.
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In fact, I want to give a shout out to these organizations for the tireless effort and commitment they’ve dedicated to this event. This event wouldn’t have gotten off the drawing board with out the support of organizations like: AKG Canada, the Eastern Ontario Training Board, EmployNext, Georgian College, the Immigrant Services Society of BC, KEYS, Milieu Family Services, HMC Connections, MOSAIC, NWT Career Services, PGNAETA, Serco Canada, Spark Employment Services, The Career Foundation, WCG Services and Youth Services Bureau of Ottawa.
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In fact, it wasn’t just our community partners who saw the value of this sort of leadership in job development. Nearly every career development professional association we approached responded quickly to say they thought this sort of event was a fantastic opportunity which was very much within their mandate. Our in-person and online sessions attracted participation from participants from every province and territory in Canada, thanks to the support of affiliate sponsors such as: ASPECT BC, CDP Ontario, the Canadian Association for Supported Employment, the Career Development Association of Alberta, CERIC, First Work, the Manitoba Association for Career Development, the Nova Scotia Career Development Association, the Provincial Employment Roundtable in Quebec, the Saskatchewan Career Development Association, and the Western Career Development Association.
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These are all organizations that recognize that great collaboration in job development and certainly in the career development sector generally leads to awareness of the work we do and thereby supports their members and other stakeholders.
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In organizing this year’s event, we were able to attract more than 600 job developers and other employer engagement professionals to our in-person and online sessions. While I’m so thankful to our community and affiliate sponsors, I also want to recognize that 185 career development organizations chose to send at least one representative to these sessions. Based on the median daily salary of a career professional, these organizations collectively made a $134,000 commitment in wages to having their staff participate in this event.
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What we’re talking about is how organizations prioritize going that step further to build awareness in the community.
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While 185 organizations saw value in this past Friday’s event, I’m certain there were dozens, if not hundreds of other organizations, that even though it was free to attend, decided, "no – I don’t think we’ll participate. We have our own job development strategy that we’re pursuing and I’m not sure I see the value in it."
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I totally respect their choice in adopting this position. But I do believe success in the job development sector takes leadership. It takes leadership in each person’s organization; leadership among employers; in the employment-services community; among funders; within the non-profit sector; among educators; and in the community at large. Success in job development and employer engagement does not occur in a vacuum.
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In the multitude of conversations, I’ve had with career development organizations over the past three years, what I’ve heard time and again is that there should be public advocacy for job development. Too often employers don’t know we exist; they have screwed understanding of what we do; and they are resistant, if not suspicious of job development supports.
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While government supported employment programming is worth $2.5 billion dollars annually, placement, search and temp services are worth $24 billion annually in Canada.
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Feepayer employment support services are being funded by Canadian employers and are promoted extensively through research and advocacy done by organizations such as Robert Half Canada and Express Employment Professionals. Not a week goes by that we don’t have new research and insights from one of these organizations that are filling the feeds of mainstream news; blogs; podcasts and social media.
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And while I don’t dispute the quality of their research, they promote traditional recruitment methods that call for bypassing unemployed individuals all together and recruiting away the top talent from employers’ competitors for a fee.
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I think we need to have this sort of advocacy for career development organizations and job development supports.
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For this reason, the Canadian Job Development Network is forming ‘Leaders in Job Development’, a group of career development organizations who will step in as validators for the benefits job development supports and inclusive employment.
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Just like Robert Half and Express Employment Professionals, we’re planning to do multiple announcements each month that will look at new research or data and draw this information back to the valuable work being done by leading career development organizations.
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In taking this on, we’re putting together a group of leading career development organizations where we can direct media outlets, influences, bloggers, podcasters, employers and employer groups to connect with. With each new press release, we will be reaching out to an initial cohort of 4,000 media outlets. As we expand our membership of Leaders, we will be growing and tailoring this to local media outlets and influencers in the communities our leading organizations are situated in.
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In gathering our Leaders in Job Development, we are ensuring that career development organizations are bringing an employer-informed focus; ongoing client/student support; and responsive communication to their promotion of inclusive employment.
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Our goal is to create a database of Leaders in Job Development that can be accessed by local, regional, provincial/territorial and national employers with contacts in every community in Canada.
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Organizing this does come at a cost but considering this sort of public relations typically costs thousands of dollars, we wanted to make this affordable to all career development organizations.
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We’re going to charge organizations we onboard as Leaders in Job Development just $49.95 per month; with discounts for those who commit to quarterly or annual memberships.
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As we’re launching this right now, every organization that commits to a ‘Charter Membership’ by October 14th, 2025, will benefit from a perpetual 25% discount on their membership and will be noted as ‘Charter Members’ for in all documentation.
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Membership as a ‘Leader in Job Development’ isn’t just a great way of utilizing your marketing dollars in an affordable manner, creating new employer relationships, demonstrating subject matter expertise and adapting to a changing labour market. This will also be a great demonstration to funders and other stakeholders about your commitment to excellence in job development.
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Rest assured, ‘Leaders in Job Development’ will in no way affect the supports currently available in the Canadian Job Development Network. Membership for professionals is going to continue to be free, as will the weekly Motivating Monday Sessions, the YouTube Videos and the podcast sessions.
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And while we hope to do a National Networking Day for Job Developers in-person in every province and territory next year, attending those sessions will also be free.
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I’ve worked in this sector for more than 25 years and frankly I’m tired of people disrespecting the tremendous supports and services we provide. And this ranges from clients who don’t want to participate because the service is free (or at least perceived to be free) to employers who believe that hiring someone with challenges to finding employment are lesser than the candidates they can hire on their own.
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Through traditional recruitment and job ads, employers routinely hire candidates who ghost them, skip shifts, leave for marginally better pay and put in little effort and commitment because they know there’s a job waiting for them somewhere else. Employers never know the value of the clients and students we provide until they hire them and I think it’s high time we shout from the rooftops about the value of inclusive hiring.
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I hope your organization will join me in this exciting new chapter in the public advocacy of job development supports. If you would like more information, go to www.jobdevelopment.org/leaders or send me an email to: csaintcyr@labourmarketsolutions.ca
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We’ll be discussing leadership in job development at our #MotivatingMondays meeting of the Canadian Job Development Network, Monday September 22nd at 8:30am Pacific; 9:30am Mountain; 10:30am Central; 11:30am Eastern; 12:30pm Atlantic and at 1pm in Newfoundland.
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On the morning of Monday September 22nd 'Click this Link' to join the session LIVE.
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'2025 Labour Market
Year-in-Review Workshops'
December 2025
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The 35% Discount for the annual Labour Market Year-in-Review workshops, taking place respectively in British Columbia and Ontario ENDS this Thursday September 25th. This is the largest discount rate you’re going to see on these workshops and typically we get close 500 participants in four sessions. To learn more:
BC Workshop Link | Nov. 28th / Dec. 1st
or
Ontario Workshop Link | Dec. 5th and 8th
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'National Job Development Survey'
INPUT ENDS THIS FRI. SEP. 26TH
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We are just wrapping up our national job development survey which we are going to share with all members of the Canadian Job Development Network but we would love to have your input too. Just go to: www.Jobdevelopment.org and click on the red survey tab. We’re closing the survey this Friday September 26th at 5pm Pacific Time; 8pm Eastern.
Complete the Survey
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