National Employment Counseling Association

About This Association

The National Employment Counseling Association ("NECA") finds its historical parents in the professional vocational and career guidance movement and the U.S. Department of Labor. NECA's roots include the 1898 beginning of education and career counseling assistance for high school students and the founding of the National Vocational Guidance Association (NVGA) in 1913, which through merger, evolved into today's American Counseling Association (ACA). The federal role was defined by the 1913 creation of the Department of Labor and five years later the Public Employment Service, beginning a series of legislative mandates for employment counseling and creation of a national system of public employment offices offering these services. The thrust for a separate association for employment and workforce counselors was given major impetus in the Kennedy era with the 1962 Manpower Development and Training Act and the 1964 Economic Opportunity Act addressing problems experienced by adults excluded from the labor market, expanding employment counseling services, and the need for professional counselors to provide them. Employment services counselors, counselor educators and direct service professionals working in a variety of settings, helping people with the career development process all the way through to job placement, had long been active participants in NVGA and its successors. However, as their educational and professional competencies developed, and their objectives became more clearly defined, the need became apparent for a separate organization to address the educational, ethical, legislative and professional leadership concerns for Employment Service Counselors working in either governmental or private settings. A petition that the National Employment Counseling Association become a separate Division of APGA was accepted in 1966.

Publications

Journal of Employment Counseling, quarterly

Conventions

annual Balancing the Needs of Workforce Development - workshop

Specialties:

1. Counseling

Information Summary