5: The CDP’s Role in Using LMI with Clients
There is no shortage of formal and informal LMI. Not all of it is relevant to us, but if we are clear on our needs, are observant, proactive and creative, there is a gold mine of information waiting to be discovered. However, as we have seen throughout this course, many experience barriers to accessing and making meaningful use of LMI. How can you as a CDP best help a client leverage LMI for their own careers? What tools from your LMI toolbox can use to help them navigate informal and formal LMI?
To make informed career decisions, clients need more than access to LMI; they need a strong starting point, support organizing information effectively, and guidance to make personal sense of it.
Getting Started
Different types of LMI serve different purposes. The key question is not simply “What information exists?” but rather, “Is this information trustworthy, meaningful, and useful for this client, based on their needs right now?”
Without the strategies and skills covered in this course, it is easy to misinterpret data, rely on incomplete sources, or draw conclusions that do not reflect a client’s goals, constraints, or context.
Help clients identify their key questions to guide them to the best sources of LMI.
Formal LMI
For factual, data-driven questions on typical wages, job duties, needed training and education, personal competencies, and job prospects, turn to formal LMI sources.
Start with the most accessible sources, like those found in Job Bank or from a specific industry or sector council relevant to the client’s area of interest. If there are known limitations to the data, for example, that only approximately 15% of jobs are posted to Job Bank, draw attention to that and encourage the client to also explore additional sources.
Informal LMI
For questions that can’t be answered easily by a spreadsheet or graph, introduce the client to informal sources, such as discussion groups, news articles, and bulletin boards at local community centres and libraries.
If there are local groups focused on your area of service, identifying one or two of these as a potential starting point helps to engage the client and provides them with an immediate place to begin their own LMI search.
Starting clients out with the information that feels most immediately relevant to them helps acclimatize them to identifying and using LMI in their career decision-making. You can then introduce additional sources of LMI as the client becomes more familiar with and comfortable using information to inform their career decision-making and job search.
Guiding Clients to Make Sense of LMI
- What direction should I take?
- What paid work can I find quickly?
- Where am I most readily employable?
- What would give me stability in employment?
- What skills do I need to maximize my earning potential?
- Would this career engage and fulfil me?
As you identify needs using the Employability Dimensions for each client, introduce the most relevant and accessible LMI to them first. This is the key to engaging them where they are now. If quality LMI that is credible, reliable, and relevant is discussed but disconnected from what the client needs, it isn’t meaningful to them. If it does not make sense to them, it will not be used.
As they are exposed to different LMI, encourage them to take note of their new and emerging questions and follow up with you. This provides an anchor for clients as they explore and interpret data and information. It also provides you with opportunities to expand their thinking by identifying gaps in information, guiding them to additional sources to explore, and focusing their search on those things most immediately relevant to their needs and goals.
