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priorities and circumstances within the context of European Union strategies. The following
sections offer a picture of how training for career guidance practitioners has developed
recently within the context of broader changes.

2.3. Specialised training

A key finding of the current study is that a number of countries are making significant moves
towards more specialised training. Table 1 gives an extensive (but not comprehensive) list of
examples of such training that is accredited within higher education. The table shows
considerable diversity in the level and length of training courses, and of their credit rating,
where this is known.
This diversity arises in part because developments of new specialised training courses
are the results of various initiatives: in some cases driven at government level by policy and
legislative changes; in others instigated by individual training institutions, notably within the
higher education sector; and in yet others initiated to meet the needs of specific projects,
including (but not limited to) those in receipt of EU funds.
In a number of cases, a single route to specialised training addresses the requirements of
different employment settings. In Malta, the part-time postgraduate diploma course, offered
to those already practising or wishing to enter career guidance work, is designed to meet the
needs of both the labour market and the education sectors. Within this 90 ECTS course,
there are core components for all participants, plus optional units according to the sector and
specialisation that participants are interested in.
Long-established first-cycle degree courses in the Netherlands combine study of human
resource management, job placement and career guidance in their first two years. The third
year – on practical placement – and the fourth year of study allow specialisation in career
guidance. A new master’s course in career development will shortly become available at one
university for those who wish to continue their career guidance training.
In Finland the evolution of counsellor training was integrated with the development of
guidance services in educational settings. Guidance was included in the curricula of
comprehensive education from 1970, in comprehensive secondary level from 1980, and in
secondary level vocational education in 1982. Counsellor training remained separate until
1998. Reform of national core curricula in 1994 had required cooperation between
educational institutes at secondary level. The implementation of that reform was supported
with a national in-service training project for counsellors, which also provided information for
qualitative evaluation of guidance provision nationally. One of the findings of the evaluation
study was that the separate training of practitioners was one of the reasons for separate
guidance services. Thus, the new legislation on guidance counsellor qualifications in 1998
required common core training (60 ECTS) for all practitioners working in educational settings
in Finland.
Poland developed its first specialised university curriculum in career guidance in 1997, as
part of a World Bank-funded programme. The ensuing decade has seen widespread
adoption of this course, and development of master’s programmes. These widely available
courses are accessed by people from, or intending to enter, a range of professional settings
for career guidance delivery.

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