Page 4 - Euroguidance-Networks-Highlights-2017

Foreword Introduction
A warm welcome to the new publication of the Highlights of Euroguidance activity in 2017. The Eu-
roguidance Network has a pivotal and unique role in working with guidance practitioners in both the
education and employment sectors to promote international learning mobility by means of guidance
services.
Lifelong guidance is crucial for many reasons. It helps people to manage the increasingly frequent
changes that happen at various life stages: from school to vocational education and training, higher
education or employment; between jobs and professions; between further training, employment,
self-employment or indeed inactivity.
The need to better support these periods of change has been highlighted in the European Pillar of
Social Rights, which aims to deliver new and more effective rights for citizens, and which was en-
dorsed by Heads of State at the Social Summit for Fair Jobs and Growth in November 2017. One of the
Pillar principles highlights that everyone has the right to timely and tailor-made assistance to improve
their employment or self-employment prospects. One particularly vulnerable group, the long-term
unemployed, have the right to an in-depth individual assessment.
Europe needs competent advisors to enable citizens to manage these challenging moments of transi-
tion and to help to identify and fill upskilling needs. Strong professional guidance services are essential
to support job-searching and job-matching, as well as learning mobility.
The European Commission welcomes the commitment and expertise of the Euroguidance Network
which works towards these aims. We look forward to continued close collaboration and good results
in 2018.
Alison Crabb, Head of Unit Skills and Qualifications,
DG Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion, European Commission
Alison Crabb, Head of Unit Skills and Qualifications. Photo taken at the European EU Presidency
conference on Lifelong Guidance Policy and Practice. © Foundation Innove
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The Euroguidance network, co-funded through the Erasmus+ programme and
coordinated by the European Commission (DG EMPL), consists of Euroguidance © OeAD-GmbH/APA-Fotoservice/Hörmandinger
Centres in 37 European countries. Its mission is to promote the European dimension
in lifelong guidance as well as to foster international learning mobility by means of
guidance services. Its key target group is guidance practitioners in education and em-
ployment, who provide information and guidance on international mobility to end-users
seeking studying and training opportunities abroad. This publication aims at providing an
overview of the Euroguidance network’s activities and achievements in 2017.
The year was a major milestone for the Euroguidance Network as it celebrated its 25th anniversary.
This was commemorated by the setting up of a new website which is much easier to navigate than
the old one and which has received a very positive feedback from its users.
The Euroguidance Network continued to strengthen its presence across the areas of lifelong guid-
ance policy, practice, research and development, connecting key stakeholders for closer cooperation
at national and European levels, and making its European guidance and mobility expertise widely
acknowledged also outside of Europe. Two specifically important thematic focuses can be highlighted
in the Euroguidance development work in 2017:
• Digital service provision (chapter 2). The Euroguidance network was involved in debating and con-
tributing to the direction, extent and pace of the technological developments in guidance service
provision. Rapid digital advancements will change both the quantity and the quality of learning
and work and have an impact on how guidance and counselling services will be offered. This was
addressed at the European Union presidency conference on Lifelong Guidance Policy and Practice
in Tallinn, where ICT in guidance provision was the transversal theme.
• Guidance counsellors’ professional enhancement (chapter 3). Living in today’s global society and
economy puts a tremendous pressure on the individual and calls for a broad set of skills and adap-
tability to fulfil one’s potential in the dynamic international environment. To this end, the national
Euroguidance Centres continued to contribute with internationally and interculturally orientated
information and training provision to support the professional development of guidance practi-
tioners. This makes guidance counsellors better equipped to advise people on mobility-related
issues, and to cope with a culturally diverse clientele in their daily guidance practice.
Other activities that the countries dealt with were, among other things, lively cross-border exchange
of knowledge on guidance and mobility, organisation and participation of different events and co-
operation with other European networks such as Europass, the European Qualifications Framework,
Eurydice, Eures, and Eurodesk. The overview below is far from complete as each country has only
contributed some highlights from their activities rather than an extensive list.
We wish you a pleasant reading experience!