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Guiding at-risk youth through learning to work
Lessons from across Europe

AIKOS, Lithuania (www.aikos.smm.lt)

Using ESF support, the Ministry of Education and Science launched the AIKOS site in 2005; it
was relaunched in 2009.

The site contains information on education and training programmes and institutions in Lithuania,
qualifications, licences, occupations, admission rules for vocational and higher education
schools, the situation in the labour market, classifications, Europass certificate supplements. It
also includes education and labour market statistics: number of students and job opening;
current situation in education sector (number of programmes, qualifications, institutions, licences,
other; trends in education sector) new programmes, qualifications, institutions, licences, etc.

It has customised pages for specific target groups, including early school leavers. Others targets
include: pupils’ parents; career information (guidance) counsellors, policy-makers, employers,
disabled, immigrants, (ex)inmates.

Young people who have dropped out of education can find information on:

• support, advice and instructions on using the website and a starting point in choosing a
profession;
• information about various occupations, listing alphabetically, by keyword, the most important
professions according to education area and sub-area;
• information on study programmes: a search of vocational training programmes, with search
facilities defined by various criteria;
• information on schools: schools of general education, vocational schools, admission rules
and procedures;
• information on employment possibilities: numbers of pupils, vacancies and unemployed
people by education area and sub-area;
• links to organisations for professional counselling, tests on professional suitability, data on
average monthly wages by occupation and other links.

The key strengths of the AIKOS portal are:

• information is customised to very specific user needs based on the requirements of particular
target groups;
• advice and information on the portal is comprehensive and covers a wide range of potential
interests;
• the portal provides extensive links to other relevant institutions and websites. This enables
users to access detailed information on education and training programmes and various
providers of learning opportunities.

The information on the portal is based on various registers and databases from education and
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the labour market, as provided by the project’s partners ( ). The Centre of Information
Technologies of Education is responsible for the maintenance and upkeep of the AIKOS portal,
which is updated on a regular basis. All areas of the portal have a search function, enabling
users to locate specific information. This is particularly useful for users who may be less familiar
with some of the terms associated with career guidance and education.

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( ) The Ministry of Education and Science, Department of Statistics to the Government of
Lithuania, Lithuanian Youth Technical Creativity Centre, Lithuanian Labour Exchange (PES),
Lithuanian Labour Market Training Authority, and the Centre of Information Technologies of
Education.

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