Exploratory research: success factors for E-Guidance

Author: Robbin Bosch, Euroguidance Netherlands 

As society and the labour market become increasingly digitalised, the demand for accessible career support is growing. Physical career service points cannot always meet this need, but E-guidance offers a valuable alternative by using digital tools to support career development. In December 2024, Euroguidance Netherlands published exploratory research on the success factors of E-guidance (available in Dutch). The key findings are now summarised in an infographic available in English, providing practical insights for professionals and policymakers across Europe. 

The central aim of the exploratory research was to explore what makes E-guidance both effective and sustainable in a society that increasingly relies on digital solutions. While many countries already experiment with online tools and platforms for career support, the integration and quality of these tools vary widely. By gathering experiences and identifying success factors across Europe, Euroguidance Netherlands aimed to help career professionals and policymakers strengthen E-guidance as part of lifelong guidance strategies. The study looked at initiatives such as eVejledning in Denmark and Karriereveiledning in Norway.  

The success factors 

The infographic highlights four key success factors that have been identified as important for the successful implementation of E-guidance: 

• Integration of E-guidance: offer E-guidance as part of the broad career support offering, not as a separate service.  

• Quality of E-guidance: use a quality standard that allows for variation in experience per channel, while maintaining consistent quality. 

• Support for career counsellors: strengthen the digital skills of career counsellors and develop their didactic approach to online guidance. 
• Findability and accessibility via a national platform: develop a user-friendly platform that guides users to the right services based on their needs. 

These identified success factors provide practical guidance for the future development of E-guidance in the Netherlands and other European countries. The exploratory research highlighted that E-guidance is most effective when used as complementary to face-to-face career guidance. In Norway and Denmark, E-guidance is integrated with physical career services rather than offered in isolation, and it is recognised as a fully valid form of career coaching. 

 
Would you like to read more about the success factors of E-guidance, download the infographic here.