Page 102 - Professionalising-career-guidance-practitioner-competences-and-qualification-routes-in-Europe

8. Moving forward

8.1. Attention to training

The review of career guidance and public policy carried out by OECD (2004) places before
policy-makers a series of questions concerning the design and delivery of career guidance
services for national populations at all stages from compulsory education, through working
life, to retirement years. The OECD review emphasises that no single system will provide a
blueprint appropriate for all countries, and argues for policy engagement with the design of
national services to meet national needs and priorities. However, the review also concludes
that within each country’s system for the delivery of career guidance services there is a part
to be played by specialist staffing:
‘These arguments in favour of providing career guidance through separate, specialised
occupations and through specialised career guidance services are reinforced by the need …
for policy-makers to make career guidance services more transparent and visible as part of
the process of better specifying supply and demand’ (OECD, 2004, p. 146).
This report has addressed the need to identify qualifications and competences needed by
specialist staff, by those working in supporting (paraprofessional) roles and by those
undertaking career guidance tasks as part of another main professional role. In order to
provide high-quality services, it is essential to create training and qualification systems which
address the specific needs of each member of the career guidance workforce, and which
support the Bologna and Lisbon strategies in creating qualification pathways that both
promote career progression and facilitate lateral and geographical movement of staff. The
value of networked and dispersed delivery systems alongside specialist services is
recognised. Such systems place additional demands on the skills of specialist career
guidance practitioners to support and resource them, and require diverse training
opportunities to develop a diverse workforce.
The training, qualifications and competence of staff at all levels are essential to ensuring
the quality of career guidance services. In a parallel professional field, the importance of
training and qualifications for teachers has been recognised in the Common European
principles for teacher competence and qualifications (European Commission, 2005a). A
similar document for the career guidance profession would serve the same aim of giving an
impetus for developing policy. It might indeed mirror the key competences for teachers,
identified as: work with others; work with knowledge, technology and information; and work
with, and in, society. The key principles for career guidance practice should be closely
aligned to those in the Resolution on strengthening policies, systems and practices in the
field of guidance throughout life in Europe (Council of the European Union, 2004). As with
the document relating to the teaching profession, there should be clear recommendations to
national and regional policy-makers to promote implementation.
This report has noted that, in some countries, training and qualifications are the only
significant quality procedure currently in place; yet, in a number of instances, involvement
with training, particularly in-service training and continuing professional development, may be

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