Introduction

WEDDLE's and Career Management Alliance are pleased to announce a pilot project to introduce and refine the Career Fitness System Accreditation Program. This project will enable a group of select career counselors and coaches to establish a professional certification in the Career Fitness System for career self-management. It will run from June-December, 2009 and at its conclusion, provide those participants who successfully complete the program with formal certification as a Career Fitness Pro (CFP).

Background

The Career Fitness System capitalizes on state-of-the-art research in adult learning and behavior change. Developed by Peter Weddle, a widely recognized employment author and columnist, it was introduced in his 2009 book, Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System. The system incorporates a powerful metaphor and set of regularly scheduled activities for career self-management.

The metaphor of practicing good career health has three important advantages:

• It distinguishes the Career Fitness System from other approaches to career selfmanagement;
• It analogizes career self-management to behavior that is widely understood and accepted; and
• It concretizes the key principles of successful career self-management so that they are more easily understood and applied in the modern workplace.

The set of regularly scheduled career strengthening activities:

• Incorporate the best of traditional and state-of-the-art career self-management and job search techniques;
• Can be effectively tailored to different individual circumstances, including the unique challenges of recent college graduates, senior managers and executives, midcareer professionals, career dead-enders, and those reentering the workforce after an extended absence; and
• Enable an individual to plan, monitor, self-correct and self-award healthy career activity and to do so as an integral component of the way they live their life.

Project Description

This pilot project is a joint and exclusive initiative of WEDDLE's and Career Management Alliance. The project's content-to include the concepts, principles, structure, activities, exercises and reports of Career Fitness- has been developed by Peter Weddle. He will deliver all of the training and oversee the participant support. Ten (10) individuals will be selected to participate in the project. Selection will be based on the expressed interest of the individual applicant, their level of commitment to the project, the nature of their counseling or consulting practice and a desire to achieve geographic and client diversity for the project. Those who apply, but are not selected for the pilot will be offered priority access to the formal certification program when it is launched in 2010.

The project will provide each participant with:

• One free copy of Work Strong: Your Personal Career Fitness System.
• Free Webinar-based training in the Career Fitness System, to include its positioning metaphor, philosophy and constituent activities. This training will be provided on a biweekly basis during the months of June-August, 2009. No travel will be required, and there will be no fees associated with accessing the Webinars.
• Free access to regularly scheduled teleconferences, providing support in the presentation and delivery of the Career Fitness System to a single, select client. These voluntary one-hour sessions will be provided on a biweekly basis from September-December, 2009.
• Permanent recognition as a Career Fitness Pro. It is anticipated that the Founding Pros will play a central (but completely voluntary) role in introducing the Career Fitness System to their colleagues in the counseling and coaching fields and to the general public.

Project Time Line

For more information, please email Liz Sumner.