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Denmark is the only country to have a clearly stated requirement for tertiary-level
specialised training in the broad higher education sector, for appointment to posts in the
Studievalg (higher education guidance centres). The provision of progressive levels of
specialised training (University of Reading) for higher education careers advisers in the UK
and Ireland has made such qualification the norm, though it is not mandatory in either
country. In Bulgaria, about one hundred university career counsellors have received
accreditation following the global career development facilitator (GCDF) training.

2.7. Roles in other settings

Other settings for career guidance delivery are extensive and vary considerably from one
country to another: it is beyond the scope of this limited study to undertake a thorough review
of them all. In Section 1.5. we consider the delivery of career guidance through dispersed
networks. Such networks commonly exist in adult education settings, and are the subject of
deliberate strategies in some countries, such as the ‘learning regions’ programme in
Germany. Other networks have developed in response to funding opportunities or
specifically identified client needs: prime examples are a considerable number of
European-Union-funded transnational projects addressing the needs of, for example,
refugees and asylum-seekers, or older workers. Training may be developed on an ad hoc
basis to meet project needs, or may be accessed from existing providers.
There are specific issues that arise for career guidance in relation to vocational education
and training (VET). In some countries, the individual’s choice between academic and
vocational routes is overlaid by questions of status, or a perceived lack of parity of esteem
between academic and vocational routes. Legitimate considerations of esteem need to be
carefully balanced with individual inclinations and capacities, both to best support choices for
each individual and to serve national economic and skill needs. Similarly, after embarking on
a vocational route, trainees should retain access to career guidance services. They are as
likely as other learners to want to explore options for progression or changes of direction.
Contributors to the study generally worked in publicly-funded services or in the public
education sector. Coverage of the private sector, in terms of private career guidance
services and of support to employees, is therefore limited. A recent, detailed study of career
development at work (Cedefop, 2008a) contains a few examples of training routes operating
in the private sector, but most are either based on short-term project funding, or use aspects
of public training provision already covered in this chapter.

2.8. The broader context

This study, which focuses specifically on routes to training, can only report general impressions
about changes in career guidance delivery. Among the impressions gained is widespread
reporting of an increase in the overall policy interest in career guidance (see Section 1). This is
undoubtedly influenced by the development in the last two years of the European lifelong
guidance policy network, with its various meetings and work programmes. The data recording
system for this study included a section on ‘significant changes in career guidance delivery in
the last five years’. The purpose of this section was to understand the context for the changes

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