{"id":1476,"date":"2020-10-18T12:02:47","date_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:02:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/aqeips.org\/?page_id=1476"},"modified":"2023-10-18T12:25:01","modified_gmt":"2023-10-18T16:25:01","slug":"march-2020-project-update","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/aqeips.org\/en\/projects\/completed-projects\/mcwd\/march-2020-project-update\/","title":{"rendered":"March 2020 Project Update"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Supporting Mid-Career Workers with Disabilities<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

through Community-building, Education, and Career-Progression Resources (MCWD) Project<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Update \u2013 March 2020<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/div>\n\n\n\n

MCWD Project Background Information<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Challenge<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Today\u2019s changing labour market necessitates that all workers constantly adopt new roles and therefore, readily adapt in their careers. Yet to achieve such an adaptation requires a skill set that imbues an individual with career adaptive responses \u2013 i.e., the ability to see the need and know the tools needed for self-managing their career in the context of labour market volatility and changes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While undoubtedly challenging for any worker, this presents a compounding difficulty for workers with disabilities, particularly those in their mid-career. Mid-career and other workers with disabilities are faced with challenges that include underemployment and unemployment, limited opportunities and access to post-secondary education, negative attitudes and discrimination in the workplace, and displacement due to labour market conditions. Yet a dearth of tools and resources exist to support mid-career workers with disabilities (MCWD), necessitating tailored interventions to potentiate career adaptability and successful career navigation in today\u2019s labour market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What is Career Adaptability?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Career adaptability can be thought of as a set of attitudes, behaviours, and competencies that individuals use in fitting themselves to work that suits them. Research evidence demonstrates a strong relationship between developing career adaptability and positive career and employment outcomes (e.g., obtaining employment, career\/job\/life satisfaction).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Career adaptability can be conceptualized as consisting of four key dimensions: concern (planning, being planful), control (decision-making, being decisive), curiosity (exploring, being inquisitive), and confidence (problem solving, being efficacious). Each of these dimensions is associated with career adaptive responses \u2013 a set of adaptive behaviours, beliefs, and barriers to deal with career development tasks and changes in work and career conditions. Together these skills make up an individual\u2019s career adaptive responsiveness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Project Overview<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

The Supporting Mid-Career Workers with Disabilities through Community-building, Education, and Career-Progression Resources (MCWD) project is funded by the Government of Canada\u2019s Future Skills Centre. It addresses career adaptability by targeting the adaptive response skills development needs of MCWD. Through fostering and strengthening career adaptability, the project aims to potentiate other work underway to ameliorate the barriers MCWD and other disability cohorts face in the Canadian labour market.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The MCWD project consists of three phases over a two-year period that will assess MCWD needs and through a systematic development, implementation, and evaluation process, create tools and resources to develop and build upon the career adaptive response skills of MCWD.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The objectives of the project are as follows:<\/h4>\n\n\n\n
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  1. Gain insight into the experiences and needs of MCWD related to employment and career adaptability as well as, the perceptions of employers and disability organizations\/advocacy groups about tools and resources to support MCWD.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  2. Develop and launch tools and resources to support MCWD focusing in three areas: education-related services, virtual peer-to-peer networking and support, and employment-related career coaching and other resources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
  3. Conduct evaluations of user experiences with tools and resources developed and outline the impact of the interventions on the career adaptive responses of users.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n
      \n
    1. D\u00e9velopper et lancer des outils et des ressources pour soutenir les THMC en se concentrant sur trois secteurs : les services li\u00e9s \u00e0 l\u2019\u00e9ducation, le r\u00e9seautage et le soutien virtuel entre pairs et le coaching en mati\u00e8re d\u2019emploi et de carri\u00e8re et autres ressources.<\/li>\n\n\n\n
    2. Effectuer des \u00e9valuations des exp\u00e9riences des utilisateurs avec les outils et les ressources d\u00e9velopp\u00e9s et d\u00e9crire l\u2019impact des interventions sur les r\u00e9ponses adaptives dans le cadre de la carri\u00e8re des utilisateurs.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n

      Progress Update<\/h3>\n\n\n\n