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associations and trade unions; and other volunteers, including those associated with
special-need groups. It can be argued (McCarthy, 2004; Cedefop, 2008b) that the need is for
cooperation between a range of agencies and individuals, but also that one of the distinctive
roles of career guidance specialists is to support and develop such agencies and individuals
and to coordinate networks through which they are able to cooperate. The concept of
multiprofessionalism is explored by Nykänen et al. (2007), who argue that competence ‘is not
merely dependent on individuals; it is created through participation in joint activities’ (p. 11).
Such thinking is further developed by Roelefs and Sanders (2007) who propose that
competence may be present at a system or team level, as well in individuals. Regional
network projects, such as those noted in Austria and Germany (Section 1.4.), offer the
opportunity to examine the extent to which such concepts are being brought into action.
This role of coordinating provision may, however, place specific requirements on the
competence of career guidance practitioners, and this is reflected in the competence
framework within this report, where one of the ‘supporting competences’ is ‘design strategies
for career development’. This competence requires career guidance practitioner to have an
overview of the potential target population for services and to play a role in establishing aims,
objectives and delivery methods for career development activities for these target groups.
Further tasks include agreeing who will do what (including both the specialist’s own role, and
the roles of other people), and providing training and development opportunities and support
materials for those involved in delivery. This key function includes making ‘the specific
theories and specific methods of career guidance’ accessible to others, at an appropriate
level of detail and complexity, and also aligning them with the existing professional
competence frameworks of other professional groups, or with the perspectives and interests
of other groups such as employers, parents and volunteers. Depending on circumstances,
career guidance specialists may be allocated a part in delivery, or may act only in supplying
and resourcing others who directly deliver services. They may also have a role to play as the
instigator of review and evaluation activities, in the context of a quality-assurance strategy for
any devolved and dispersed delivery system.
Career guidance provision is disjointed in many countries, as is the training provision
related to it. At worst, the range and variety of training routes can lead to professional
rivalries and act as an obstacle to the development of coordinated services (a comment from
France). The challenge for career guidance practitioners is to turn the ‘wide differences in the
types of services that different agencies offer to the public’ (as reported from France) from a
divisive negative into a positive enrichment of the overall offer of career guidance services,
through networks founded on democratic dialogue and respecting place, information,
knowledge and competence (Nykänen et al., 2007). This will contribute to the ‘widespread and
target-group specific, extensive and intensive’ service, the need for which was outlined in
Section 1.3. above.

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