2007

My first experience providing training in another country was an eye-opener. As coinstructor of the Career Development Facilitator training in Istanbul, I only had time to present half of the presentation material due to language barriers and technology challenges. When I asked participants what their hesitations and fears were about the training, they responded that often presenters from other countries don't respect their prior experience and knowledge. "That won't happen in this training," I assured them. As usual, I learned more from my participants than they did from me.

 What inspired me to present a workshop at the NCDA 07 Conference and to offer this paper on "Adapting Career Resources from One Culture To Another" is that my Global Career Development Facilitator (GCDF) Istanbul training participants had made such compelling multicultural presentations that I wanted to share them with a larger group of career practitioners.

Since my Turkish colleagues were not able to join me in the workshop presentation on teaching career competencies across cultures through the use of multi-sensory tools at the 2007 NCDA Conference, I feel very fortunate to share their perspectives through VISTAS Online. As it turned out, I also had the good fortune to connect with additional creative colleagues in the U.S. and abroad who graciously agreed to contribute their wealth of experience to the paper and/or the workshop. All are Career Development Facilitators or CDF Instructors (and one Master Trainer); most are counselor educators.