Page 4 - euroguidance-insight-newsletter-2012-autumn

The Euroguidance network was esta- Professor Tony Watts is a self-employed international policy consultant on
blished in 1992, so we celebrate the career guidance and career development. He worked as a consultant for
th
20 anniversary this year. Do you many international organisations including the Council of Europe, European
think that such a support of lifelong Commission, OECD, UNESCO and the World Bank. He is a Founding Fellow

career guidance services will be nee- and Life President of the National Institute for Careers Education and
ded in the next 20 years? Counselling, a member of the Board of the International Centre for Career
The future of the EU is looking some- Development and Public Policy, a member of the Editorial Board of the British
what uncertain at the moment, Journal of Guidance and Counselling (which he founded) and the International
linked to the financial crisis in the Journal for Educational and Vocational Guidance.
Euro zone. But if the EU survives, as I
hope it will, the Euroguidance net- He is a Visiting Professor at the University of Derby; and Visiting Professor at
work will continue to have an impor- Canterbury Christ Church University, he has lectured in more than sixty coun-
tant role to play. tries. He has carried out a number of comparative studies of career guidance

The interview was conducted by Stefan systems around the world, and published a large number of books and articles
Grajcar/Euroguidance Centre Slovakia and was on lifelong learning and guidance, as well as employment. Currently he is
published in April 2012 for the e-journal Career
Guidance in Theory and Practice (in Slovak) a consultant to the European Commission´s European Lifelong Guidance Policy
Network.

Career Management: Individuals should not rely on chance

Career management skills was the topic of this year's cross border The publications will provide readers
seminar which took place in Bled. The seminar was organised by the with an international overview regar-
Employment Service of Slovenia (Euroguidance Centre of Slovenia) in ding career management skills in par-
cooperation with the Euroguidance Centres of Austria, the Czech Republic, ticipating countries. The next cross
Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Romania, Poland, Slovakia and Switzerland. border seminar will take place in
Warsaw/Poland in spring 2013.

Valerija Čuček, a head of develop- number of different practical points Sabina Škarja MSc, Euroguidance Slovenia
mental projects at Kadis, a small Slo- of view in the workshops which were
venian HR consulting company, ad- performed by experts from participa- The cross border working group was set
dressed some of the commonly ob- ting countries. Themes such as self- up by three Euroguidance Centres (Austria,
served difficulties in career manage- marketing, empowerment, life-de- Czech Republic, Slovakia) in 2005. The main
ment. One of these is whereby indi- signing, choice theory, career and objective has been from the beginning to
viduals go through their professional personal growth, personal branding organise seminars for guidance practitioners
life without ever making fully inten- and others were presented. The and policy makers in order to initiate discuss-
tional career choices or career choi- presentations of the workshops’ ions on a wide choice of professional topics.
ces based on information. Instead relevant publications are available at: In the meantime the working group has
they rely on chance or are unable to http://english.ess.gov.si/vicc_ncc/e grown to 11 Euroguidance Centres.
take responsibility for their own ca- uroguidance_slovenia/cross_bord
reer path. er_seminar

The lecture was based on practical The organisers of the cross border se-
learning and observations. These minar also provided two publications
observations were based on labour with practical examples of good prac-
market characteristics and the ca- tice, national surveys articles written
reer guidance exposure (or non-ex- by career experts. Both publications
posure) which participants experien- are based on the responses of several
ced in their past. Career manage- national experts and are available on
ment skills were presented through a the above mentioned website.