It might seem counterintuitive to offer employees career planning and transition training. What if they just take these skills and get a new job? That depends on how you look at career planning and what group of employees require this training.

For example, if your company plans to downsize and offer severance packages to furloughed employees, it makes sense to include career planning to help them find another position. However, it also benefits your company to have a pool of talent with updated resumes and solid interview skills. This training makes it easier to find and promote existing employees when positions open up.

At BEVA Learning Institute, we offer several career planning and transition courses, including the following:

  • Art of Resume Development: Participants learn how to draft and customize their resumes and cover letters. This skill will be useful when they are looking for opportunities within your larger organization or group of companies, as well as if you are forced to relieve them of their duties because of structural or market-driven changes.
  • Career Planning and Goal Setting: This course gives participants the tools they need to set realistic career goals. By setting up an action plan, participants can map out a path to success. The course also covers how to assess current aptitudes, abilities, and interests.
  • Impact of Change for Managers or Employees: BEVA offers two courses, one for managers and one for employees remaining after a reorganization or downsizing event. It helps your team move on and adapt to working as a smaller unit, while saying goodbye to coworkers.
  • Interview Techniques: This course gives employees the skills they need to wow hiring managers with their experience. It’s useful for internal recruiting and transitioning purposes.

We continue to add to our course offerings, so, please check back with us frequently for updates.

Importance of Career Planning

Organizations in Ontario can benefit from building a career development program keeping two things top of mind, the business plan, and career paths for each employee. By enabling employees to set goals within your own organization, you make it less attractive for them to seek employment elsewhere.

Here are some tips to help you develop your company’s career planning and transition program:

  • Concentrate on individual employees and document gaps in knowledge as well as strengths they can work on.
  • Provide a path that allows employees to transition to other roles and departments.
  • Hire a job coach who can help employees match their strengths and interests with existing jobs. Even if it’s a lateral move, an employee might be happier performing another job role. Giving them the option to do so can prevent your company from losing a valuable employee entirely.

Dealing with a Gap in Skills

Sometimes, through no fault of their own, employees have a gap in the skills needed to perform their current job effectively. For example, when you mandate that a new software program should be used by employees in a certain department, they may not have the skills required to use it. As part of your career planning and transition strategy, it’s important to document and assess the impact of these gaps. Consider providing training to help the employee thrive in their role. However, you may determine that you need to find a better fit for the position. In that case, career planning and transition courses can help the employee find another position in your company or elsewhere.

“The only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking. Don’t settle.” — Steve Jobs

BEVA Learning Institute is the premier provider of organizational training courses in Ontario. Contact us to help your organization set up career planning and transition training for individuals, teams, or the entire company.

About the Author

As a Master Degree in Science in Project Management from the University of Québec , Richard is a dynamic bilingual professional with more than 25 years of progressively senior leadership experience in various industry sectors such as retail, construction, non-profit organizations, research and development, information technology and government. Richard holds various designation such as Project Management Professional (PMP), Certified International Project Manager (CIPM), Certified Master Project Manager (MPM) and Information Technology Infrastructure Library (ITIL). Richard is also known as a reputable and knowledgeable instructor in project management in both English and in French in class and virtual.