03/01/2019

Career Credentialing for Counselor Educators & Supervisors: A Tool for Advocacy Within Our Profession

By Tina Anctil

As counselor educators and supervisors who specialize in career counseling, it is imperative that we support the advancement of our specialty to future career counselors. As a founding Division of the American Counseling Association, NCDA is a leader in promoting the interests of counselors by sharing workforce policies and practices and research in the field of career development. With the establishment of competency-based credentials, we can now promote our specialty in a dynamic way to counseling students and graduates, allowing for a new generation of career counselors.

The NCDA Credentialing Commission offers six competency-based credentials across the spectrum of career services, career counseling, supervision and education. Counselor educators and supervisors of career counselors should consider becoming a Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling (CCSCC) and/or a Certified Career Counselor Educator (CCCE). In particular, these two credentials are more inward facing, providing an important marker to other professionals that we specialize in career counseling and have expertise in teaching and supervising future career counselors.

As a professional group, we agree upon the centrality of work in the lives of individuals across the global and we understand the many intersections of work to mental health, family, and community. We understand how unemployment and depression or anxiety are closely intertwined for many individuals or how underemployment can undermine someone’s sense of competence and purpose in their life. Many of us also experience a disconnection of this understanding from others in the field of counselor education. Alas, as instructors we often fight the uphill battle of helping counseling students not only understand career counseling but also enjoy the experience of guiding an individual into a career pathway that will bring satisfaction. How often do we hear a student say at the end our course, “I never knew career counseling was so important and so fun!”

Given our shared commitment to promoting and training future career counselors, it is ironic that we can become insular in our practice, forgetting to advocate for the importance of quality career services and counseling in our communities.

Consider how important our role is to the profession and the various activities we engage in support of our larger purpose. Many of us have taught career development and counseling to hundreds of future counselors across the counseling specialties. We converse with dozens of prospective graduate students eager to apply to our program and we provide clinical supervision to counselors who are pursuing their license after graduating from our programs. Despite this, there is no way for others to easily identify us as counselor educators and supervisors who specialize in career without a deeper dive into our vitae. Obtaining one or both of these credentials is an opportunity to promote career counseling in our everyday work lives. Given this, I encourage you to consider the power of adding these initials to your email signature, LinkedIn profile, or webpage as a mechanism to easily promote the field of career counseling.

Certified Clinical Supervisor of Career Counseling (CCSCC)

This credential is intended for individuals who are trained and experienced in the delivery of clinical supervision to career counselors and other practitioners who provide career services. Competency in counseling supervision is assessed through a submission of a 30-minute video of a supervisory session and an accompanying written self-evaluation of the counselor’s behaviors during the session excerpt. A list of criteria to be used for the self-evaluation is provided. All videos are scored blindly through a rubric that is aligned with both the competencies addressed in NCDA’s Career Practitioner Supervision training as well as state requirements.

Who is eligible for the CCSCC?

• Individuals who have a master’s degree in counseling or a master’s degree in a related field are eligible, AND
  Individuals who have successfully completed the National Career Development Association’s 45 Hour Clinical Supervision Training
  OR
• Individuals who have completed a 30-contact hour university course in clinical supervision at the graduate level
  OR
• Individuals who have a minimum of 3 years (900 hours) of documented experience providing clinical supervision

Certified Career Counselor Educator (CCCE)

This credential is designed to recognize faculty and other counselor educators whose primary focus is on the training of new counselors who will specialize in the field of career counseling and career development including research, publications, scholarly work and other contributions to the field of career counseling.  Competency is evaluated through a series of case study questions (completed online within a time limit) that are blind reviewed by two reviewers using valid and reliable rubrics aligned to career counseling competencies.

Who is eligible for the CCCE?

Individuals who...

• Possess a doctorate in counselor education, counseling psychology, or a closely related field.
• Have experience teaching master’s level student counselors how to do career counseling and have taught this course at least 3 times; Show evidence of having focused on career counseling through their practice, publications, research, or service activities.

More details about these credentials including fees, the application process and other FAQs can be found on NCDA’s credentialing website at www.ncdacredentialing.org

As counselor educators and supervisors who specialize in career counseling, we can use the CCSCC and the CCCE to advocate and essentially advertise our expertise in career development to our students and our graduates seeking clinical supervision. By raising awareness of career development as our specialty area of practice, we are helping to develop interest and expertise of the next generation of counselors who may choose to become Certified Career Counselors (CCC), thereby impacting untold client’s lives. In sum, these credentials are a leadership and advocacy opportunity, so please take the next step and become credentialed.

Tina Anctil, Ph.D., CRC, CCCE, LPC is a Counselor Educator at Portland State University where she also serves as the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in the Graduate School of Education. She maintains a small private practice where she provides counseling supervision to LPC Interns, career counseling to individuals with disabilities, and professional development to vocational rehabilitation counselors. She is currently serving as the NCDA Credentialing Commissioner for the CCCE and the CCSCC. She can be reached at anctil@pdx.edu.