September 14, 2023 - Written By Markle | Blog Archive
Career coaches play a crucial role in workforce development by providing guidance, support, and expertise to individuals seeking to access new opportunities, navigate career transitions, and achieve their professional goals. The role of career coaches becomes even more vital as technology and artificial intelligence continue to disrupt the world of work. As industries are reshaped by automation, career coaches help individuals identify new opportunities, provide personalized guidance, help job seekers find training where they will learn the skills needed to thrive, and give strategic advice that helps individuals navigate the evolving job market. Despite the pivotal role career coaching professionals hold within the workforce system, they frequently find themselves lacking the necessary support and resources to excel further in their roles. As this Aspen Institute piece puts it, ‘The cobbler’s children have no shoes.’
At Markle, we recognize the critical role of career coaches and the importance of providing support and resources to help guide their clients and flourish in their own careers. That’s why we want to highlight the great work career coaches do and share our free Foundational Career Coach Skills Training during Workforce Development Month.
The Foundational Career Coach Skills Training was developed by the Markle Foundation and partners in the Rework America Alliance, to support career coaches as they help job seekers find good jobs in today’s economy. It is a robust suite of online self-paced modules that cover a wide range of topics including, how to use new data sources available to career coaches, how to identify barriers and biases job seekers may be facing during their job search, and how skills-based practices can help highlight their value to employers. Career coaches can customize their learning experience by taking the courses and modules in the order that best meets their needs.
The tools have helped our Career Coaches access information that they may otherwise not have had and in turn share that information with job seekers to help them discover new career pathways and also better understand the amount of work and milestones that may be necessary for them to achieve their career goals.
SER JOBS –
Since the launch of the Foundational Career Coach Skills Training in 2021, we’ve received positive feedback from many individuals and organizations, including many that work with job seekers on a daily basis. This includes Rework America Alliance member UnidosUS affiliates such as, SER JOBS in Houston TX, Concilio in Philadelphia, PA, SWES Detroit in Detroit MI, and others who have shared how the training has helped their staff guide job seekers as they discover new career pathways and gain the confidence they need to better serve people without degrees.
This Alliance partnership gives our career coaches the confidence, knowledge and organizational skills to better serve people without degrees. It also gives the career coaches an opportunity to show employers an innovative way to reduce time, money and energy when seeking people to fulfill job openings.
Concilio –
Helping job seekers to identify in-demand skills they’ve gained from their past experience, and how to articulate those skills to employers, can lead to new job opportunities. Combined with a human-centered approach, this can lead to more successful outcomes and long-term success for job seekers.
“The coaching process has been instrumental as well as the practices specific to Human Centered Design and Trauma-informed care. This is critical in working with our participants who have barriers when entering our programs. Being empathetic, listening to their story and helping them find their strengths to better themselves have been uplifting for our participants and our team.”
SWES Detroit –
Learn more about the Foundational Career Coach Skills Training and get a course overview by visiting https://markle.org/career-coach-skills-training/
