Page 65 - Professionalising-career-guidance-practitioner-competences-and-qualification-routes-in-Europe

(d) a quality framework for guidance services;
(e) a coherent framework of organisational structures to deliver a coordinated and
comprehensive lifelong guidance service;
(f) a report on a consultation with the general public.
The first outcome resulted in a document that identifies the separate strands and stages
in individual development. In the Irish national lifelong guidance framework, it is proposed
that there will be four groups of personal outcomes, each explained through more detailed
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statements of knowledge, skills and competences ( ): emotional development; social
development; learning development; and career development.
The third outcome above resulted in a competence framework covering career guidance
and personal counselling, one of several that informed the development of the competence
framework in the present report. This framework included one main area (out of five)
covering labour market education and training, and embedded preparation for employability
in some others. Training centres had previously not always placed emphasis on labour
market knowledge, partly through the expectation that such a constantly changing area was
better covered through continuing professional development (CPD). It is now viewed as a
positive development that labour market knowledge is included in the National Guidance
Forum’s competence framework and that, in at least one case, a new module is being
introduced into a postgraduate training course. The coordinating group for the postgraduate
courses in Ireland pays attention to labour market and occupational awareness as an
important element within training courses.

4.4.4. The voice of the citizen
Ireland is unusual in having prioritised the voice of the citizen in their strategic review of
guidance services. The National Guidance Forum carried out research and consultation
among members of the general public to determine their experiences, opinions and
recommendations about guidance services. A key outcome of this research was to find a
marked similarity in how the general public and policy-makers viewed the importance of
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lifelong guidance ( ).

4.5. Latvia

4.5.1. Policy and legislative initiatives

The master’s study programme in career counselling in Latvia was developed as part of a
wider and intensive development of career education and counselling. In 2006 a White Paper
on guidance and counselling was produced by the Ministry of Welfare in collaboration with
three other ministries (the Ministry of Education and Science, Ministry of Economics, and the

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( ) See Ireland – Framework of competences for guidance practitioners: http://www.nationalguidanceforum.ie/
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( ) Details of the consultation with the general public, along with all other outcomes from the work of the National
Guidance Forum between 2004 and 2006, can be accessed at
www.nationalguidanceforum.ie/publications.htm

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