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a short training course (72 hours) to nearly 5 400 teachers, and the development of a new
two-year master’s study programme entitled career counsellor (see case study on Latvia in
Section 4.5.).
Other legislation embraces a wider range of services. In Lithuania, a 2003 career
guidance strategy sought to establish a coherent career guidance system starting in schools,
continuing through transitional periods and accessible throughout adult working life. Since
that date, seven hundred career information points have been established by the Ministry of
Education and Science in general education and vocational education schools, educational
centres, libraries, labour exchange offices, and other institutions. Guidance counsellors at
seven territorial labour market training and counselling services (TLMTCS) provide career
counselling services to unemployed people, job seekers and disadvantaged groups of
clients. TLMTCS is part of the Ministry of Social Security and Labour which also works with
students of general education schools and out-of-school young people
In Poland, a series of ordinances relating to work within the remit of the Ministries of
Labour and of Education have established standards for career counselling and career
information in schools and elsewhere. Specialised training has developed within both
first- and second-cycle higher education. As the numbers of qualified staff increase, such
qualifications are becoming the requirement for progression within the career guidance
profession (see case study on Poland in Section 4.6.).
In April 2007, the Slovak government approved a policy on lifelong learning and lifelong
guidance, prepared by the Ministry of Education. Despite considerable earlier changes in the
Public Employment Service (merging labour offices with the district offices of the Ministry for
Social Affairs and the Family and extending their services, particularly for those facing
disadvantage in the labour market), cooperation between the two key ministries remains a
challenge in implementing the new policy.

1.4.2. Merger of service delivery points
Several countries have developed merged services to provide more straightforward access
for the public.
In Denmark, guidance services for schools, along with outreach youth guidance services,
have been merged into 46 cross-municipal guidance units, known as Ungdommens
Uddannelsesvejledning; HE-related guidance units have similarly been merged into seven
regional guidance units, known as Studievalg. The former Public Employment Service,
including its career guidance services, is now part of approximately 100 municipal
jobcentres. All these units work under public-authority guidelines, with targets that support
broad policy goals, such as increasing participation in youth education (to 95 %) and higher
education (to 50 %) (see case study on Denmark in Section 4.3.).
In Norway, delivery of public employment services has been merged with social security
systems since 2006. New regional partnerships are encouraging closer liaison between PES,
the education sector and employers. One result is growing emphasis on the
professionalisation of career guidance counsellors; increasingly PES staff are joining their
education-based colleagues on the university-based training courses for career guidance
counsellors.

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