North America

On this page: Canada • United States

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Canada

• Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners
  http://www.career-dev-guidelines.org/, EN FR
  The Canadian Standards and Guidelines for Career Development Practitioners is a national initiative, coordinated by a volunteer multi-jurisdictional steering committee, to create and implement standards and guidelines for career development practitioners.
  The Standards and Guidelines, available on the website, are organized into ten documents and include chapters for different specializations, such as Facilitated Individual and Group Learning, Career Counselling, and Work Development. There is also other online material available, including a practical guide on applying the Standards.
• Career Circuit
  http://www.vrcdatabase.com/, EN FR
  Career Circuit is a joint initiative by The Canadian Foundation for Economic Education (CFEE), the Canadian Youth Foundation (CYF), the Canadian Career Development Foundation (CCDF), and Human Resources Development Canada (HRDC). It aims at creating a network of youth service sites and supporting them in their efforts to provide youth services in the following areas: career information and planning; training opportunities; internship activities; mentoring opportunities; employment readiness; self-employment readiness; future studies; and personal financial affairs.
  The website includes a Virtual Resource Centre to support the participating youth service agencies. This database is organized around themes, such as Career and Life/Work Exploration and Planning, Education and Training, Work Skills, Workplace Realities etc.
• Job Futures / Emploi-Avenir
  http://jobfutures.ca, EN FR
  Job Futures is a comprehensive, national career tool designed to provide Canadians with information on current and future labour market conditions to help them make informed education, skills and career planning decisions. It provides information about 226 occupational groups and describes the work experiences of recent graduates from 155 programs of study.
  In addition to this general labour market information, Job Futures provides links to a wide variety of labour market skills navigation or employability development information, including: career exploration tools, job search techniques, workers’ rights and benefits, trade union information, training and learning resources and resources for teachers and professionals.
• nextSteps.org
  http://www.nextsteps.org/
  NextSteps.org provides young Canadians step-by-step guidelines from career planning through career seeking to career maintenance.
  The resource features hundreds of career profiles, including some demonstration videos. It also has an extensive frequently asked questions site on choosing a career and finding work, as well as online discussion boards.
• Training and Careers
  http://www.jobsetc.ca, EN FR
  This is a comprehensive government website on training/learning, working and careers. The Career Exploration section offers guidance on identifying and researching career options, and making career decisions. It provides information on career counselling, employment trends, employment prospects, salary ranges and skilled trades. The website contains a job bank, a resume builder and interactive quizzes and tests on a person’s abilities, skills and professional interests.
• WORKink
  http://www.workink.com/
  WORKink is a Virtual Employment Resource Centre for persons with disabilities by the Canadian Council on Rehabilitation and Work. The resource centre caters for jobseekers, employers and career professionals by providing online articles, tools and services.
  Jobseekers are advised on finding work and on employment programs for persons with disabilities. An extensive section, YOUTHink, addresses specifically the needs of young jobseekers with disabilities.
  WORKink also offers innovative online services for jobseekers, such as an employment counsellor online (ECO) responding to questions, and a possibility to create an online profile for applying to jobs. Another online feature is Divers.I.T.ink, a recruitment tool that enables employers to post job openings to target qualified job seekers with disabilities. Divers.I.T.ink also links the employers and career practitioners who work with persons with disabilities.
• Youth.gc.ca
  http://www.youth.gc.ca, EN FR
  Youth.gc.ca is a government website aimed at young people between 15 -30 years. It has got extensive section, Jobs, providing guidelines on:
  • Looking for a job
  • Summer jobs
  • Career information
  • Working abroad
  • Getting working experience
  • Job listings, and
  • Starting a business
  The Education section contains an interactive tool, the Student Planner, to help discover occupational interests and plan one’s career.
  The website also has a Youth Employment Strategy section, which informs about this national strategy, implemented under three programmes. One of the programmes, Skills Link, is intended for young people who face more obstacles in finding work, such as the Aboriginal youth or persons with disabilities.
  There are also online publications/toolkits on career planning, self-employment etc. on the website.

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United States

• CareerOneStop Electronic Services
  www.careeronestop.org
  CareerOneStop, formerly known as America's Career Kit, is a suite of electronic tools including: America's Job Bank, America's Career InfoNet, and America's Service Locator. The tools were developed and are maintained by the U.S. Department of Labor in partnership with state workforce agencies, local workforce service delivery providers and education and training institutions and private sector organizations.
  America's Job Bank (AJB) is the largest and one of the busiest job banks on the Internet. America's Career InfoNet (ACINet) helps people make better, more informed career decisions. ACINet is ideal for job seekers, employers, human resource specialists and workforce development specialists to: learn more about typical wages and employment trends across occupations and industries; check education, knowledge, skills and abilities against requirements for most occupations; search for employer contact information nationwide; obtain cost of living data; call up state profiles with labor market conditions; and find more than 4,000 external links to the most extensive set of career resources available on the Internet. America's Service Locator (ASL) is the newest part of America's Career Kit. It helps individuals locate public service offices with information on finding a job, planning a career, locating training, dealing with job loss and recruiting employees.
• Design Your Future
  http://www.autodesk.com/dyf
  Design Your Future is based on a project hosted by Autodesk Inc software company between 1997 – 2003. The main purpose of Design Your Future is to inspire young women to get into math, science and technology-based occupations. The website introduces profiles of women working in technology-related occupations, provides information and knowledge resources on education, and includes a variety of math, science and technology links.
  DYF online toolkit (registration required) advises other interested employers or businesses on how to start similar career programs.
• EntreWorld
  http://www.entreworld.org/Channel/SYB.cfm, EN ES FR Mongolian
  This public service provided by the Kaufman Foundation has online information on starting the business (entrepreneurship as a career, assessing the idea, entry strategies, business plan, etc.), market evaluation, product/service development, finances, marketing and sales, legal and taxes and technology.
• Job Hunter’s Bible
  http://www.jobhuntersbible.com
  This site, an extension of a classic American book on career development, “What Color Is Your Parachute”, offers a Net Guide of information and resources available on the Internet. The guide is organized into:
  • tests & advice sites;
  • research and information sites;
  • contacts sites;
  • job-listings sites, and
  • resume sites.
  It also has a library consisting of brief articles written for people looking for work or changing careers.
• JobStar
  http://jobstar.org/index.cfm
  The website of this federally funded project has two sections:
  • Get ready, which gives "how to" information for job seekers: resumes, career & salary info, hidden job market etc., and
  • Get to work, which includes online job banks, job fairs, career centers, libraries etc.
• My Own Business / Mi Propio Negocio
  http://www.myownbusiness.org/, EN ES
  MOBI operates as a 501(c)(3) charity and provides online, 12-session business course for starting and operating a business:
  • Deciding on a Business
  • The Business Plan
  • Basic Computer and Communication Tools
  • Organization
  • Insurance
  • Location and Leasing
  • Forums & Chat
  • Accounting and Cash Flow
  • How to Finance Your Business
  • E-Commerce
  • Buying a Business or Franchise
  • Opening and Marketing
  • Expanding and Handling Problems
• National Career Development Association (NCDA)
  http://www.ncda.org/
  The NCDA provides service to the public and professionals involved with or interested in career development, including professional development activities, publications, research, public information, professional standards, advocacy, and recognition for achievement and service. Website has an International Career Development Library (ICDL), which is a free, online collection of full-text resources for counselors, educators, workforce development personnel, and others providing career development services, and a web magazine.
• National Collaborative on Workforce and Disability
  http://www.ncwd-youth.info/
  The NCWD/Youth website offers resources for administrators, employers, frontline workers and policymakers serving persons with disabilities and youth. It includes advice on how to facilitate the career development of young people with disabilities.
  Resources for the youth and their families include material on work-based learning programs, support services, youth development and leadership and preparatory experiences. The preparatory experiences section provides information on:
  • how to learn about one’s interests, strengths and abilities;
  • about informational interviews and their advantages;
  • types of skills needed to find and keep a job; and
  • the role of parents in helping youth prepare for their future.
  The website contains various online publications and guidelines, promising practices and success stories.
• Work4Women
  http://www.work4women.org/
  Work4Women, by Wider Opportunities for Women (WOW), caters for both women and girls, and professionals and educators. The websites offers a wide variety of tools and strategies to help women and girls enter occupational fields that are considered nontraditional for women. The resources include occupation descriptions, information on training for non-traditional occupations and finding work, and skills self-assessment tools.
  It also provides women already working in non-traditional occupations support resources on how to remain and advance in their careers. Career professionals and educators are advised on how to train, place and support women in non-traditional occupations.