Page 18 - Professionalising-career-guidance-practitioner-competences-and-qualification-routes-in-Europe

1. Introduction

1.1. The study

This Cedefop report is based on a study that comprised two principal components: a review
of current training and qualification routes for career guidance practitioners, including an
analysis of trends and changes; and development of a competence framework for career
guidance professionals.
The study has as its context several earlier studies and policy initiatives relating to career
guidance, carried out by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development
(OECD, 2004), the World Bank (Watts and Fretwell, 2004), the European Centre for the
Development of Vocational Training (Cedefop, Sultana, 2004) and the European Training
Foundation (ETF) (Sultana and Watts, 2007; Sweet, 2007). Its distinctive contribution to
evolving work in this field is its detailed focus on staff competence, and how training can best
contribute both to practitioner competence and to the overall quality of career guidance
services. These subjects received attention in the preceding reports, but as one among a
wide range of policy issues. Here they are positioned centre-stage.
The remainder of this introductory section aims to provide a context for the study. It
draws, where appropriate, on the data collected from participating countries (see Annex 1),
particularly relating to trends and changes, as well as on other contextual material.

1.2. Career guidance in the context of EU strategies

The European Union’s Lisbon strategy, with its overall intentions to make the European
Union (EU) the most competitive economy in the world and achieve full employment by 2010,
requires widespread action to optimise the capabilities and potential of all citizens (European
Commission, Gelauff and Lejour, 2006). For individuals to secure their employability does
not simply mean a constant updating of skills, but acquiring completely new skills to cope
with changing occupational profiles and skill requirements resulting from rapid technological
and economic developments.
The recent forecast published by Cedefop (2008c) reveals that there will be a relatively
high labour market need for people with a solid vocational education in Europe in the future.
Almost 55 million of a total of 105 million job openings during 2006-20 (including
replacements and new jobs), will require medium level qualifications. By comparison about
41 million jobs will require high qualification levels, whereas for the remaining 10 million jobs
low levels of qualifications will suffice.
Labour market policies, reforms and trends influence the development of individual work
roles, accompanied for many by the acquisition of higher or more relevant skills. Such
changes rely on the myriad individual decisions of citizens, who need the confidence to make
personal changes and take on new challenges, plus the support to do so in a well-informed

and considered way. For some, this is the way out of unemployment or other forms of
marginalisation; for many more, it is moving ‘one step up’ (to borrow the phrase that

12