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CHAPTER 12
Guiding and counselling adults in Portugal: new opportunities for a qualification 241

qualifications system. There are four main challenges for guidance of adults
by new opportunities centres:
(a) adults tend to arrive at centres with very high expectations of RVCC
processes which can lead to resistance to accepting guidance proposals
for other qualification modalities. High expectations of RVCC processes
are particularly linked to full certifications, also leading to resistance
accepting that sometimes evidence submitted only allows for partial
certification, which should be followed by another qualification modality,
of short duration, to complete the training pathway. Negotiation practices
employed in the diagnosis and guidance stages need to be strengthened
and fine-tuned;
(b) once a suitable qualification modality for a candidateʼs profile has been
identified and agreed, centre teams sometimes have difficulty in identifying
relevant locally available training opportunities. This real difficulty
questions the multidimensional and complementary approach between
structures and systems that is assumed by the national qualifications
system. Networking in the same area is of critical importance in seeking
suitable solutions. Such work increasingly positions centres as key players
in balancing the supply and demand for qualifications among the adult
population;
(c) this is a new challenge and a new field of improvement in this national
initiative: to transform the current new opportunities centres into lifelong
learning centres, improving their quality and efficiency patterns,
strengthening their capacities of targeting individuals and employersʼ
needs and boosting their local networking;
(d) both the national qualifications systemʼs operational teams and the
stakeholders that regulate the various structures need to work together to
maintain high levels of quality in a context of significant scaling-up of the
system.
Despite these difficulties, the new opportunities initiative and its instruments
have sought to offer a response to the issues inherent in the concept of lifelong
guidance as presented here, as well as to the challenges of lifelong learning
which is so highly valued in education and training policies within the
European Union.
As regards the Portuguese experience, special mention of the fact that this
initiative ʻhas enabled construction of a diversified network of operators (in
education and training, from both public and private sectors), design of
innovative modalities tuned to the poorly-qualified segment of the adult
population and development of a set of instruments deployed and updated as