Career Research

Basic Career Profiles and Projections

 
  • Identify the National Occupational Classification number  (NOC) for the career you are interested in.
    Example: 0513 Recreation, sports and fitness program and service directors
     
  • Search the Career Handbook (3rd edition, 2016) using that code, to find a profile including job titles, aptitudes needed, education or other employment requirements, and many other criteria
     
  • Canadian Occupational Projection System (COPS)

    Employment and Social Development Canada (ESDC) uses COPS and the NOC to develop projections of future trends in the numbers of job openings and job seekers for 292 occupational groupings at the national level, covering the entire workforce. The projections allow for identifying those occupations that may face labour shortage or labour surplus conditions over the medium term. The latest projections cover the 2015 to 2024 period.

    Users can search for summaries of projection results by occupation or industry (click on Projection Summaries below); detailed projection results by occupation or industry, including information on the factors that are expected to influence occupational labour markets, such as demographics, labour force participation rates by age group and level of education; and synthesis documents covering the major components of the projections, i.e. the economic scenario, the industrial breakdown of economic activity,  job openings by occupation, job seekers by occupation and projected labour market conditions by occupation.

  • Government of Canada - Job Bank, Workplace Standards, and more information about working in Canada generally, not just for the government

  • University Study - find which Canadian universities offer programs of study in the field you are interested in, or offer the degree credential you need as identified using the tools above
    For programs at two-year colleges as well as universities, try CanLearn

  • Careers Atlantic Canada - Labour Market Information specific to each of the Atlantic provinces and other useful tools for secondary and post-secondary students

  • Similar resources from the US Government, primarily from the US Department of Labor:

    • Occupational Outlook Handbook

    • O*Net Online - occupation info, including "Bright Outlook" occupations that are expected to grow rapidly in the next several years, will have large numbers of job openings, or are new and emerging occupations.

Books, Articles, and Reports with Useful Career information
 

  • Gale Vocation and Careers Collection -  journals and magazines that aid users in researching a vocation, has nice browse/explore topic features if you aren't really sure how to start
     
  • Gale Ebooks - various subject encyclopedias have an entry on "careers" relating to that particular topic area, e.g. "Careers in Criminal Justice: Corrections" in the Encyclopedia of Crime and Justice, "Careers in Public Health" in the Encyclopedia of Public Health, etc.; also many handbooks and encyclopedias on various aspects of business and industries may be relevant
     
  • OneSearch Lite - Use this starting search in OneSearch Lite, then change the keyword "nursing" at the start of the search box to your own field; also use the "Show More" under Limits to limit to a discipline
     
  • CBCA (Canadian Business and Current Affairs) - start your search with SU(career*) AND LOC(canada) AND   and then add your field after that in the search box to find articles specific to careers in Canada; if your field is a phrase, use quotation marks around it, eg: 
    SU(career*) AND LOC(canada) AND "human resources"
     
  • Use the Canadian Government custom search engine to search federal, provincial and municipal websites for information about careers, especially those regulated or employed by governments, like in health care, education and social services.
     

Subject Guides from Other Major Canadian Academic Libraries

Note that many of the resources listed in these guides are linked through that library's password server. Contact a UPEI librarian for help finding equivalents here.

 
This page last updated Sept 2022 by Melissa Belvadi