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information. Accordingly, the first priorities for policy-makers should be systems that develop
skills and systems that provide information. Policies should not be based on the assumption
that everybody needs intensive personal advice and guidance, but should seek to match
levels of personal help, from brief to intensive, to personal needs and circumstances’
(p. 139).
Those countries that have considered the career management competences required by
individual citizens have taken an important step in defining the outcomes of career guidance
in terms of the individual person; this adds a significant extra dimension alongside the
measurement of service success in terms of client destinations (entry to employment,
training, etc.). Such statements of client competences provide an important building block for
a system for gathering evidence that matches input in terms of activities, resources, and staff
training and competence, to the achievement of outputs in terms of clients’ competence in
managing their own career processes.
Increased understanding of the career management skills needed by individual citizens, at
whatever age or stage, permits a move towards a purposeful design of diverse types of
service and methods of delivery to meet varied individual needs. Such diverse delivery
systems require diverse staff structures. Matching the training needed to the staff role to be
delivered should be based on evidence from studies of the effectiveness of service
personnel, taking into account their initial and continuing training and the competence they
have demonstrated. Many countries have several different forms of training, and there is
considerable diversity of training across the whole range of EU Member States. This could
provide the basis for both national and European studies measuring and comparing the
effectiveness of career guidance delivery against the staff training inputs received.
Over time, evidence can be amassed on the most effective training methods for achieving
the level and form of competence required for various roles within the diverse staffing
structure. This report has considered a number of training traditions and patterns
(Section 2.2.) and the use of various teaching methods, including distance and e-learning,
practicum, and exposure to labour market and occupational knowledge (Section 3); each of
these may have a different value for different staff roles and in different training contexts.

8.4. The competence framework and national qualifications

Diverse training delivery needs to be related to common-core elements, which will allow
career guidance practitioners to create individual but integrated learning pathways to support
their own career progression. There is considerable scope in almost every country to
develop frameworks encompassing the learning pathways available for career guidance
tasks at all levels. Such frameworks need to meet the principles of the Bologna and
Copenhagen strategies in identifying progression routes for staff and trainees, both vertically
and laterally, and should be in accord with the country’s own national qualifications
framework; under the Bologna process, this should be in place by 2010. As an initial step,
the learning outcomes of existing training provision can be mapped against an agreed
competence framework, showing which areas of competence are addressed in which
modules of training. Preferably, such mapping should be acknowledged at a national level,
using the proposed European competence framework contained within this report. The

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