Page 151 - Guiding-at-risk-youth-through-learning-to-work-Lessons-from-across-Europe

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

Equipping young people with the capacity to appreciate their skills and
competences and allow them to understand how they need to continue to
develop throughout their working lives is a means through which lifelong learning
is embedded.
While career management is relatively new as a visible or defined concept, it
is based on sound and wellestablished principles: young people need to be able
to understand themselves, their skills, competences and aspirations and match
these to available opportunities. Developed in a soft learning environment, the
validation approaches identified in Section 6.2.4 demonstrate how career
management skills can be embedded in other activities which make their
acquisition palatable to disengaged youth and so lead to a recognised output.
The importance of such skills is necessary given the proliferation of information
sources available: young people require the critical analysis skills to identify what
information is relevant to them and when to seek additional support from
guidance professionals.
There has been a transformation and expansion of guidance delivery
mechanisms and options. These now range from multi-agency service centres,
addressing the guidance needs of young people in a holistic manner, to
sophisticated, integrated online information and communication tools. The study
showed that, while barriers to accessing Internet-based systems remain, they are
used extensively and increasingly to deliver information, advice and guidance.
Efforts to harmonise and integrate web-based information services and link them
to labour market information are improving the quality of information and making
navigation easier and career information more easily available to a wider
audience. Use of innovative online tools such as blogs, chat facilities, podcasts
and videocasts offer new and alternative methods of communicating information
about jobs and careers to existing and new target groups. While careers advice
information is sufficient for many, this is not the case for most disaffected young
people, who need to be supported in a more holistic manner and often a one-to-
one basis or in some cases through group guidance.
Validating non-formal and informal learning can enable young people to
record the types of activities they have been engaged in and help them to
consider future career options, building foundations for developing career
management skills. Validation methods can be used to support young people
from vulnerable backgrounds when they are guided by trained professionals.
Programmes, such as Ammattistartti allow young people to try different
career options and routes, visit work and training places and access professional
career guidance and other support options to explore different career and job
opportunities before selecting their study or employment route. These have the

145