Page 20 - Professionalising-career-guidance-practitioner-competences-and-qualification-routes-in-Europe

Even where comprehensive information services have been developed, it is not always
easy to make them equally available to all people. The use of ICT has undoubtedly had a
large impact on extending access to such services, but access to ICT itself is not universal;
this results from lack of hardware and equipment, or because of difficulties (sensory loss,
learning difficulties) or the personal preferences of the potential service user.

1.4. Changes and trends

The main focus of this study is the training routes through which current or intending career
guidance practitioners can develop the knowledge, skills and wider competences required for
their professional work. Training routes frequently reflect national policies and priorities, and
adjust to reflect changes in such policies. It is, therefore, an important part of the context for
this study to record some of the most significant changes, and cross-country trends in these
respects.
Most contributors reported increased policy attention to career guidance and, in many
cases, went on to detail legislation or strategic actions following from this attention. This was
not universal: a contributor from the Netherlands remarked that: ‘everyone agrees on the
necessity of good career guidance, but in practice there is not yet much progress’. However,
progress is evident in many countries, with actions falling into several domains.

1.4.1. Stronger legal foundations for careers work

Career guidance is the subject of legislative change in several countries, sometimes focused
on the schools setting.
In the Czech Republic, a decree issued in 2005 contains specifications for guidance
services in schools, outlining the services to be provided, the guidance activities required
(including for students with mental or physical disabilities), the anticipated outcomes, the
materials available and the charges allowable. The new school departments established
under this decree have specified types of staff, including educational guidance and career
guidance counsellors.
New legislation in Iceland in 2008 stipulates that educational and vocational counselling
should be accessible to all school students in lower and upper secondary education, and that
it must be provided by qualified specialists.
In other cases, legislation links school-based services to other career support. The
National Board of Education in Finland has defined new national curricula for comprehensive
and secondary-level schools, with new emphasis on the responsibility of the school to
provide guidance. This legislation requires cross-sectoral service delivery, jointly with the
Public Employment Service and with health and social services, thus impacting on the
competences needed: practitioners must be involved in designing service delivery and in
operating in networks to deliver the services.
The Guidance and Counselling System Cooperation Council was established in Latvia in
2006. Subsequently the services of the Public Employment Service and the Professional
Career Counselling Centre were merged in 2007, while the Ministry of Education took the
lead role in an ESF project (2005-08) to develop career education and counselling. Among
the project’s activities are the development of a career education model syllabus, delivery of

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