Page 79 - Professionalising-career-guidance-practitioner-competences-and-qualification-routes-in-Europe

students’ learning activities’ (p. 127). A clear conceptualisation of the intended outcomes for
clients can serve as a benchmark against which to judge many of the dilemmas that arise in
defining practitioner tasks and competences. Identifying the intended consequence of
professional activity can provide useful insights into the form and the standard required for
that activity. Using such a benchmark has been helpful at this initial stage of developing the
career guidance competence framework and is likely to be equally of value to those who set
out to develop further actions based on it.

5.2.4. The structure of the competence framework
Existing frameworks frequently, but not always, include ‘core’ or compulsory elements as well
as specialised or optional ones. The distinction is rarely explained. Sometimes these
compulsory elements appear to reflect ‘core’ activities which it is assumed that all
practitioners must perform in any work setting; at other times they seem to reflect a basic
requirement that might underpin advancement to other levels of competence. Given the
diversity of settings and delivery modes that apply for career guidance practitioners across
Europe, it does not seem plausible to assume that any particular activity is an essential
component of the range of tasks which might be undertaken by any specific individual. More
credible is the idea that some competences are ‘transversal’, in that they encompass an
ability or understanding that cuts across all the specific activities through which clients might
be supported in developing and learning to manage their careers.
Further consideration of the notion leads to the proposition that transversal competences,
which should appear everywhere in general, appear nowhere in isolation. As an example,
ethical behaviour is a widely accepted ‘good’, but career guidance practitioners are not
‘ethical’ in isolation and in inactivity; they should display ethical performance in every
professional task they undertake, whether this be talking with an individual client, leading a
group session, or writing information materials for use within their service. This proposition
led to the identification of a number of such transversal competences which are termed
foundation competences, to reflect their relationship with other competences and with
professional practice. All are characterised by the fact that they are not work tasks in
themselves, but underpin and cross-cut all work tasks.
Turning attention to those elements of career guidance practice that can be seen as
distinct activities, the competence framework uses a distinction made by the EAS project
(Reid, 2007) and by Vuorinen et al. (2006). This distinction initially identifies those tasks that
are prominent or visible to users of career guidance services, in that they normally occur as
activities which directly involve one, or a group of, clients. Six such competences are
identified and are termed client-interaction competences. While these activities are
prominent to users when they occur, they are not necessarily required universally of career
guidance practitioners, though it is likely that all practitioners would undertake some of them.
Finally, the competence framework contains a number of subsidiary activities frequently
undertaken by career guidance practitioners to support and strengthen the resources and
contexts for their work with clients, depending on the exact range of tasks allocated to their
work role. These are termed supporting competences.

69