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competences, prominent to the client as delivered directly in communication with them; and
supporting competences, which ensure that the facilities, networks and resources needed for
service delivery are in place.
The concept of competence applies not only to career guidance practitioners but also to
the career self-management competences needed by citizens across the lifespan. Where
such competences have been defined, they provide a useful benchmark for the design of
career guidance services and of the staff competences needed to support clients’
development of their own competences.

The competence framework and its uses

The competence framework comprises six foundation competences, six client-interaction
competences and seven supporting competences. The framework has been developed at
European level to identify several common main tasks falling within each of the
client-interaction and supporting competences, but it also includes indicative statements of
‘contexts and conditions’ intended to stimulate national and sectoral customisation.
One potential use of the competence framework is to provide descriptors of common-core
elements of training. A few countries have moved towards identifying such elements, to be
supplemented by sector-specific training modules. This approach has merit in increasing
cross-sectoral understanding, dialogue and cooperation, and in increasing the opportunities
for staff mobility between sectors. The competence framework also has potential to provide a
common reference point on staff activities and competence between policy-makers,
practitioners and trainers.
The competence framework has a role in relation to the planning and further development
of national training and qualification systems. It also has potential uses in mapping staff roles
to service functions, and in defining job specifications. It can support current learning within
APEL and continuing professional development systems, and provide a basis for
self-assessment and peer learning. For policy-makers, it can provide a framework of necessary
elements of career guidance services against which they can map their existing and proposed
provision.

Conclusions and recommendations

The report concludes that there remains a considerable need to develop the training
available for career guidance staff within diverse networks, including development of a cadre
of specialised career guidance practitioners in each country who can support such networks.
It is important to study, both nationally and in a Europe-wide context, what forms of training
are effective for different career guidance functions. European networks such as the
European lifelong guidance policy network, and institutions such as Cedefop, have an
important role to play in encouraging such work at national level, and evaluating and
disseminating it in the broader European context.

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