08/01/2023

NCDA’s International Growth in Training and Credentialing

By Deneen Pennington, NCDA Executive Director

The 2022-2023 NCDA fiscal year has been one of tremendous growth, internationally.  The inquiries from various organizations and government agencies, who are seeking NCDA training and credentialing, have come in from every region on the global.  NCDA leaders and members have responded to these requests and generated career development activities that will continue into the future.

Asia Pacific Outreach

NCDA’s strategic business partner, People Achievement Consulting (PAC) has expanded its operations in both China and Taiwan and is looking to further expand to Hong Kong and Macau.  An NCDA delegation, including board leaders and headquarter directors, visited Taiwan in May 2023 and hosted an International Career Education Forum and many other presentations to university staff and students, high school teachers and parents, and to many government agency personnel. NCDA signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the New Taiwan City Government’s Youth Council who help to utilize PAC’s training and credentialing in their schools throughout the city. NCDA provides the standards and industry certification for their work, and is happy to partner with them. PAC helped translate NCDA’s training in Mandarin to their colleagues in their region.

Middle East North Africa (MENA) Outreach

Also in 2023, NCDA helped co-sponsor the first ever Arabic Career Development Conference, hosted in Egypt in February. The MENA Region has implemented many new career development policies in the United Arab Emirates, Egypt, Qatar, and Jordan.  NCDA has also partnered with the King Saud University (KSU) and the Saudi Arabia-based Human Resource Development Fund (HRDF) to train over 1000 citizens working in both university and school settings in the country. NCDA is training and credentialing the KSU and HRDF staff and will also certify many new training instructors for the NCDA Facilitating Career Development Training Program, which has been translated into Arabic for their use. 

Additional New Partnerships

NCDA has trained two new instructors for the Career Practitioner Supervision Training in Singapore. We are pleased to partner with Workforce Singapore to bring training and credentialing to their country.  NCDA also continues its work, through Alternate Pathways Agreements, with Minder and iDream in India, and the Republic Polytechnic under the purview of the Singapore Ministry of Education to support their training programs and Certified Career Services Provider (CCSP) credentialing through NCDA. 

The association also partnered with the Canadian Career Development Foundation and the Canadian Education and Research Institute for Counseling (CERIC) to form the North American Network in celebrating a Global Career Development Month Social Media Campaign. This campaign was part of a global event hosted by The Inter-Agency Working Group on Career Guidance (IAG WGCG), composed of Cedefop, the European Commission, ETF, ILO, OECD, UNESCO and World Bank. Due to the success of the campaign, plans for 2024 Global Career Development Month are already in the works.

Global Resources

NCDA’s international growth has long been supported by numerous global resources and the work of leaders across the association. The NCDA website includes a page in the resources section, called Global Resources, which includes links to the Global Connections Committee, articles from international journals, and the International Practices of Career Services, Credentialing and Training a free 2017 NCDA publication. Career Convergence readers know that relevant articles may be found by searching the web magazine on the phrase, “international connection” which results in topics of international interest or written by those working outside the United States. Recent NCDA publications also include chapters on global issues and authors often have significant experience abroad.

The Future of the Global Phenomenon

Through all of these opportunities, NCDA opens membership to a wider audience. While 90% of NCDA members are based in the United States, the growth outside the region cannot be denied. The NCDA Board has been in discussion about this global phenomenon and how to best address member services to regions that are far away.  NCDA is excited to work with all colleagues, regardless of geographic location, who share NCDA’s mission of Empowering Careers and Inspiring Lives!

Deneen Pennington is the Executive Director of NCDA. She can be reached at dpennington@ncda.org