Employee Assistance Program Education in Canada

Abstract Over the past few decades Employee Assistance Programming (EAP) has grown into a multi-million dollar industry in Canada, employing thousands of practitioners. With its emergence as a prominent field of practice one would have assumed a parallel development of formal post-secondary education in this area. However, a review of departments of business, psychology, social work and sociology in Canada's 56 liberal arts universities found virtually no specific academic training in Employee Assistance Programming. This is one contributing factor explaining the current lack of substantive EAP research efforts in Canada.