25.2 – Build Strategic Partnerships

Purpose & Context

Career Development Professionals (CDPs) establish strategic partnerships with community-based organizations, third party providers and agencies who share common values and goals. The partnerships provide opportunities to share specialized capabilities and resources to address challenges the organization may not have the capacity to address on its own.

Effective Performance

Competent career development professionals must be able to:

P1. Identify opportunities to improve organizational outcomes through use of partnerships, e.g. increase outreachcapacity
P2. Identify potential community-based organizations with whom partnership would be beneficial, e.g. settlementagencies, associations that support employment of people with disabilities
P3. Meet potential partners, e.g. community-based organizations, agencies
- Confirm interest in establishing partnership
- Clarify shared goals and objectives
- Identify opportunities to work together, e.g. shared services, shared resources
- Identify requirements, e.g. work schedule, financial mechanism, reporting, measurement of success
- Develop action plan to achieve partnership goals
P4. Develop partnership agreements, considering:
- Purpose
- Governance
- Strategic goals
- Services and resources
- Funding agreement
- Communications
- Key performance indicators
- Reporting mechanism
P5. Maintain partnership engagement, for example:
- Schedule regular reviews to assess partnership progress and challenges
- Establish communication processes
- Hold collaborative planning meetings, as needed, e.g. weekly, bi-weekly, monthly

Knowledge & Understanding

Competent career development professionals must know and understand:

K1. Types of partnerships, e.g. community, government, education, faith-based
K2. Community resources, e.g. physical assets, economic assets, knowledge, networks, local institutions
K3. Current partnerships, e.g. effectiveness of relationship, delineation of roles and responsibilities
K4. Organizational readiness for partnering

Contextual Variables

Competent career development professionals must be able to perform this competency in the following range of contexts:

Reasons for establishing partnerships are numerous, including to eliminate duplication of effort, pool resources, address social issues, create long-term social change, and deliver services.

Types of partnerships will vary, e.g. informal or formal agreements

Glossary & Key References

Terms

Industry-specific terms contained in the standard defined here, where applicable.

Partnership: organizations who work together to achieve a common goal.

Information Sources and Resources for Consideration

John Snow, Inc. (JSI). Engaging your community: a toolkit for partnership, collaboration and action. 2012. https://publications.jsi.com/JSIInternet/Inc/Common/_download_pub.cfm?id=14333&lid=3

Context Rating Scales

Criticality

Q: What is the consequence of a professional being unable to perform this skill according to the standard?

Minimal risk: SOMEWHAT CRITICAL

Frequency

Q: How frequent and under what conditions is this skill performed?

Circumstantially, e.g. per project, when a specific event arises

Level of Difficulty

Q: Under routine circumstances, how would you rate the level of difficulty in performing this skill?

Moderate difficulty or complexity

Time Required to Gain Proficiency

Q: What is the average length of time or number of repeated events that are minimally necessary for an individual to become proficient in performing the skill to the standard?

A career development professional requires the experience of developing at least 5 partnership agreements, representing a broad range of stakeholders.

Autonomy

Practitioners typically perform this competency without supervision, and alone.

Automation

It is unlikely that this competency will automate.

Requisite Work Aids, Tools, Equipment or Materials

None