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good provision of a range of training modules (unaccredited) has been reduced in recent
years.
Recruitment of PES staff in Greece, Spain and Romania is from a wider range of
academic disciplines including social science, economics and law as well as psychology. In
Romania, any discipline can be considered. While in-service training is offered in these
countries, there is less evidence of structured induction training at the point of entry.
Slovakia lacks any formal training in career guidance. The staff in its public employment
service hold remarkably diverse qualifications: a survey in late 2007 found that its 269
counsellors (spread across 46 labour offices) held 95 different qualifications, none of them in
career guidance and counselling. Those working as career counsellors are indirectly required
to hold a master’s qualification, in that certain activities with longer-term unemployed people
can only be undertaken by those with this level of qualification. However, the academic
discipline is not specified.

2.5.2. Generic training
Many countries require graduate-level entry for professional-level roles within their public
employment service. Acceptable qualifications and subsequent in-service training vary
considerably. In-service training may, in some instances, be well-structured, systematic and
addressed to induction needs. In Portugal, for example, the public employment service
recruits people with a psychology or sociology degree, and provides a six-month induction
training programme designed to develop the necessary competences for work in this sector.
In Austria, the public employment service (AMS) provides basic training at induction to
fulfil three purposes: to develop basic specialist expertise for work tasks; to provide coverage
of essential guidelines, principles and objectives of the organisation; and to verify the future
staff member’s suitability for their work function (effectively an extension of the selection
process). Training is tailored to the individual’s work role. It includes basic training over 15.5
days, and an extended period of further development over 40 weeks (or 52 weeks if
teletraining delivery mode is used: see Section 3.2.). The basic training is assessed through
a final examination.
Luxembourg, the Netherlands and Sweden are examples of countries which recruit at
school-leaver and vocational training levels as well as from universities. Selection in
Luxembourg is based on a civil service written test and interview; while occasional in-service
training is offered, further training is, to a considerable extent, left to the initiative of the
individual member of staff.

2.6. Higher education roles

The OECD review (2004) commented that requirements for qualification are, paradoxically,
rare in higher education, despite this being the setting where much of the training for the field
is designed and delivered. The present study has identified a number of references to new
requirements for higher education institutions to deliver career guidance services, either for
their own students or for potential entrants. There are, however, no references to
requirements for specific qualifications for people entering newly created posts in this sector.

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