Introduction and Course Overview

Land Acknowledgement

The Canadian Career Development Foundation is located in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada on the traditional land and territory of the Algonquin Anishnaabeg, who have been the guardians and stewards of this land since time immemorial.

We are grateful for the opportunity to live, work, and learn on this land.

Words Matter

The words we choose to use matter.

In our sector, the word ‘client’ has been widely used to describe the people who access our services.

You’ll see that we are still using this word in this course, but we’re actively exploring alternatives that better reflect the collaborative, human-centred work we do.

We encourage you to join us in this reflection and consider your words and their impact.

Overview

This course equips Career Development Professionals (CDPs) with the confidence and skill to access, interpret, and meaningfully apply labour market information (LMI) in their work with clients. By demystifying LMI and grounding it in everyday practice, the course reframes it as a practical, human, and essential part of career development rather than a technical tool reserved for specialists. Participants will explore how LMI becomes most powerful when connected to client needs, integrated throughout the career development process, and approached with curiosity, context, and critical thinking. This course will strengthen your knowledge of key LMI resources, help you to recognize and assess credible local and national sources, and equip you to confidently weave both formal and informal LMI into your professional practice.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this course, you will be able to:

  • Understand, assess and anticipate how labour market forces and trends impact supply and demand
  • Assess the accuracy and currency of basic LMI data
  • Develop an essential toolkit of LMI resources and strategies that are relevant to client needs
  • Use a range of strategies to support clients in making effective use of LMI

Course Structure

There are 6 modules in this course:

Module 1: Understanding the Labour Market demystifies the labour market, challenging the idea that it is an obscure system understood only by economists. Learners explore the labour market as a dynamic, shared system that directly affects their lives and the clients they support. Using the 8 Forces Shaping the Labour Market framework, the module highlights how population trends, technology, policy, culture, health, skills, the structure of work, and environmental factors interact to shape opportunities.

Module 2: The Role of Information in Decision Making explores why people often invest more effort in researching the purchase of a cell phone than in researching their career path. While product decisions feel concrete and straightforward, career decisions can seem overwhelming, abstract, or harder to research. We examine how information plays a vital role in supporting informed career decision-making.

Module 3: The Role of Labour Market Information in Career Development expands on the role of information to connect information to career decision-making. It explores how labour market information (LMI) fits into the broader career development process. Using the Employability Dimensions, we explore how client needs guide the selection and use of LMI. It introduces the major types of LMI – formal and informal – and how the relevance of the information to the client transforms it from neutral information to personal LMI.

Module 4: Formal Labour Market Information introduces key sources of formal LMI, including the National Occupational Classification, Job Bank and its career tools, sector councils, industry associations, and the Labour Market Information Council’s (LMIC’s) dashboards and research. Learners explore how these resources provide structured, reliable data to support career development. The module also highlights LMIC’s recommended sources along with their practical “tips and traps,” helping guide the use of formal LMI with greater confidence, accuracy, and impact.

Module 5: Informal Labour Market Information explores how informal LMI surrounds us and is accessible through observations, conversations, networks, media, and lived experience. It introduces the 3Ps (Print, People, and Places) to help categorize informal information into understandable and useable groupings. It explores how these inputs provide valuable information when we can notice patterns and signals in communities and workplaces by developing skills in intentional observation and sense-making.

Module 6: Integrating Labour Market Information to Engage Clients explores effective integration of LMI into practice. It provides activities and strategies to expand clients’ understanding of the many sources of LMI and supports you in helping clients make practical use of LMI as they pursue their preferred career futures.

You will then complete a final demonstration of learning, consisting of a 15-question multiple choice assessment. You must get 80% on the assessment to pass the course. You can try the assessment as many times as needed.

Click the Mark Complete button to continue.

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