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arrangements exist for the initial year of practice to be supervised by the Counselling and
Career Education Service in Cyprus, so that participants achieve the full award.
Training is also accessed in other countries in some further circumstances. Where
master’s degrees are not available, as in Malta, these have sometimes been pursued by
distance study, in Malta’s case commonly through UK universities. One further cross-country
instance is the specialist training (postgraduate and master’s level) for university-based
career counsellors at the University of Reading, which is designed to cover relevant staff not
only in the UK but also in Ireland.

2.4. School-based roles

In the majority of countries, careers work in schools is delivered by those whose initial
training has been in teaching or in psychology, the latter usually with some specialised
training in educational and developmental psychology.
Specialised post-qualification courses have a long history in some countries for those
teachers who undertake educational, personal and career counselling as an adjunct to their
teaching role, or as a distinct career route.
Guidance counsellors in both Finland’s and Ireland’s schools have long been required to
undertake postgraduate training, which is provided in several universities. In recent years the
training has been diversified, to include part-time training routes, and has been extended to
allow progress to master’s level (see case study on Ireland in Section 4.4.).
• In Austria, in-service training of school counsellors is regulated by ordinance; initial
training has, in recent years, been extended in length. However, the minimum continued
training is set at the low level of two specialist seminars within five years, and a further
two seminars within 15 years, with only two of the 14 specialist seminar subjects
appearing to relate directly to careers work.
The Netherlands has four training centres which provide two-year part-time training for
teachers, and for small numbers of other staff in related work with young people. Unlike the
preceding two instances, the Netherlands has no statutory requirement regarding staff
qualifications for careers work in schools; many undertaking such work have received very
brief specialised training, or none at all.
A similar situation exists in Hungary. Several universities offer a two-year part-time
in-service course in school counselling for qualified teachers, but this is not a requirement for
those undertaking the role of school counsellor’
The Czech Republic has separate training arrangements for teachers who have qualified
recently and for those whose qualifications are more dated. It is now a normal requirement
for educational guidance counsellors to have a teaching qualification, plus a master’s degree
(with no subject specified), and then to pass a special course in educational counselling
provided at some higher education institutions. Career topics constitute only a small part of
this training.
In Greece, in-service training for teachers is university-based, but does not form part of an
accredited programme. Training is heavily focused on counselling skills, with very limited
coverage of career development or labour market topics. The absence of a system of labour
market information in Greece, combined with the lack of any first-hand experience of

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