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Digitalization of guidance in Estonia “Cover your Needs, Discover your Career”

To cope with the difficult times, studying and working from a distance has become a new normality and digital
services have played a crucial role. The Estonian guidance system can be characterised as flexible and open
to change when it comes to digital solutions. Our practitioners are adapting to new solutions and ways of
working in everyday life.

There have also been some new and exciting digital tools
for career development, including virtual reality
applications of occupations, e.g. medical workers, youth
workers, metal industry, virtual tours of vocational
education institutions and virtual guided tour for guidance
professionals to learn digital tools available at the newly
opened career centre.

To learn more about all the digital solutions in Estonian
guidance system visit Lifelong Guidance in Estonia 2021
publication.

“Cover your needs, discover your career” is a project, update their skills or competences because they believe
created by the Bulgarian association Public Compass that what they know and what they are able to do is
in cooperation with “Club of Intellectuals” absolutely sufficient for maintaining their jobs and
Association in Slovakia and InterMediaKT from workplaces. But because of all changes and innovations
Greece. those workers now are facing the dramatic needs to
change their working environment and to acquire new
The specific project comes to address people over the age
skills and competencies.
of 40+, as well as low-qualified and low-skilled. Workers
who have been in the same workplace and position for a In general, our tools are created for in person training, but
long period and are faced with the need to change their duo to the COVID19 situation we managed to accustom
working environment and the need to acquire new skills our work and the 3 created outputs for online usage as
and competencies. On the other hand there is a challenge well as self-learning.
Figure: Guidance websites and labour force prognosis tools
for trainers in order to align better their actions with the
needs of an adult low-skilled worker, to increase the
attractiveness and accessibility of the offered programs,
and to provide the representatives of the target group with
Euroguidance Estonia
The daily work of the career guidance practitioners is
opportunities to develop individual knowledge and skills.
intertwined with the use of various ICT solutions. The use
Teachers should actively involve adults learners in the
of ICT here is multi-faceted: practitioners are both ICT
learning process in order for them to act as intermediaries
users and the creators of new values through their use of
between them and the new knowledge, skills and
ICT solutions.
competences.
COVID-19 crisis in the world has disrupted the traditional
In Bulgaria we see even in the last 10 years one of the
face-to-face career guidance and intensified the need for
biggest problems for people in the age of 40+ the risk of
e-guidance. As the crisis progressed several changes
dropping out of the labour market due to low qualification
were made to support career development. One of the
and unsuitability to the modern technology. Bulgaria
solutions was to extend the service provision from
started developing its rigid labour market only in the last 15 The first tool is a Handbook for adult education that
distance, i.e. via virtual meeting platforms, telephone and
years. Rigid labour market means that people stay in the provides detailed information on all aspects of adult
e-mail.
same job for many years and then the educational sector education – assessment of training needs, organization of
is rather less developed. Workers don’t feel the need to training and learning initiative, evaluation of progress and �

Euroguidance Insight Magazine Issue 2021 Euroguidance Insight Magazine Issue 2021