In March 2006 the Task Group for Counsellor Regulation in British Columbia published a generic, entry-to-practice competency profile that the Task Group felt was applicable to a very broad range of counselling-related professions. (A competency profile is a listing of workplace competencies – job skills – that define the knowledge, abilities and attributes necessary for safe and effective practice). The competency profile was subsequently validated in BC through consultation with practicing counsellors and psychotherapists; it is now being proposed as the entry-to-practice standard as that province moves toward statutory regulation.
In September 2006 the New Brunswick Professional Counsellors Association, the Nova Scotia Association of Professional Counsellors and the Prince Edward Island Counselling Association undertook a validation survey of their memberships in order to determine the extent to which the competency profile is applicable. The result strongly endorsed the profile as a suitable entry-to-practice standard for counsellors in those provinces.
