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the PES. In Finland, there are two roles within the PES, with different entry qualifications and
training.
Some training courses have taken steps to strengthen attention to labour market issues.
In Latvia, the new master’s degree includes substantial coverage of the labour market,
occupations and the culture of employing organisations, with practical training involving both
observation and research. In both Denmark and Malta, new training and work arrangements
bring those involved with education services and the labour market closer together. In
Romania, the information and career counselling project, with World Bank funding, created
100 new occupational profiles during the period 2005-08 (though this compares, for example,
with more than 700 job profiles available online through the UK’s Learndirect careers advice
service).
Some countries, however, lack a national system for collecting and analysing information
on the labour market and occupations. Several, particularly the newer EU Member States,
report the development of classifications of occupations and trades, although this can be a
lengthy task. Both Greece and Iceland identify the lack of national systems for labour market
data collection and analysis as an inhibiting factor to any ambition that trainers might have to
introduce labour market knowledge in the training of career guidance practitioners.

3.5. Professional identity

The interrelationship of work roles and career guidance tasks was explored earlier
(Section 2.1.), where it was noted that problems can arise when career guidance is delivered
as a sub-specialism within another main work role. The main problems are: lower priority
among other work pressures; lack of visibility to potential users; and difficulty for
policy-makers in identifying and monitoring the extent and impact of career guidance
services.
Arthur (2008) also discusses the issue of professional identity. The term career guidance
practitioner may have different meanings within different guidance communities and be more
or less accepted as representative of professional identity. A major challenge in developing
standards of practice is the issue of applicability to a broad range of practitioners across a
broad range of practice settings. For example, the disparity of roles and tasks performed by
career guidance practitioners poses a challenge in defining the core components of practice;
common standards of practice need to be defined as a foundation for all practitioners. In
turn, the public can have expectations about the basic qualification standards held by
practitioners in any area of career development practice.
There are signs of change towards a more distinctive identity in a few countries. The new
Ungdommens Uddannelsesvejledning (UU) youth career guidance centres in Denmark
provide a distinctive location and staff identity for career guidance. Those who have chosen
to meet the compulsory qualification requirements to work in the UU have abandoned any
previous professional role and now typically identify themselves as career guidance
practitioners. In Malta, training routes which prepare for both public employment service and
education-based work will serve to reduce former barriers between services and strengthen
a sense of common professional identity. In Norway, reorganisation of school-based careers
education and career counselling into two specialised strands, with career guidance

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