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Career Skills Project of the tools to the benefit of career guidance industry “It is very interesting. It will serve the public very well
experts, practitioners and end users. and will immediately show the results that interest
them”
Some of the feedback which is most pertinent and useful
In January 2020, the Erasmus+ Key Action 3 project, Career Skills Project was launched with the aim of
for the consortium is summarised below. “There will be an exchange of practices, which is very
organically growing into a unique Europe one-stop-shop that will help individuals understand, assess and
interesting, as one will be able to learn from the other
develop their career management skills through a series of innovative tools. The Career Skills Project will
“Given that there is no unified communication network
produce 5 key products which will help the consortium to achieve its goal of becoming the go-to place where and evolve”
for career counsellors at the national level, I believe
jobseekers can manage their career skills and support themselves towards gaining employment; and where Many of these positive comments and feedback have not
that this network can meet the needs of practitioners in
career guidance experts, practitioners and centres can provide bespoke, up to date information about the ever- only supported our initiative but have also given the
changing European career landscape. the field.”
project partners an insight into the thoughts and opinions
“It is very valuable for sharing experiences and good
of the intended end users and allowed us to adapt the
practices.”
nuances of the career skills project’s innovative tools to
“It will facilitate communication between professionals the specific comments and feedback of the field research.
and create a living and working network of career
The pertinence of the Career Skills platform and tools in
skills.”
the era of Covid-19, economic downturns and the surge in
“Video productions will facilitate the appropriation of demand for career guidance is amplified greatly. The next
MOOC for those who are furthest from employment. A steps of the Career Skills project will be the development
tutorial on how to use MOOC will also facilitate its use.” of the 75-hour MOOC module content, which the
consortium expect to be finished by May 2021.
“I would like to get more information to be able to
assess those points. Generally, I find the catalogue
useful for self-reflection and raising awareness of own
Andrew Stapleton
competences.”
Euroguidance UK

Between September and November 2020, the project level policy makers, co-ordinators of career services
consortium carried out field research and gathered input administrations and heads of career services in
and feedback from 110 career guidance experts, universities and VET centres were contacted. The
experienced practitioners and specialist career guidance respondents in France included training managers,
centres from across Europe. Each of the project partners counsellors, research staff and the head of the Local
contacted 20 career guidance experts and practitioners Economic Development Office in a public authority. In
from their own countries, and also gathered data from an Germany, we engaged with career and education
additional 10 external respondents from outside the counsellors and management staff of adult education
project consortium countries. centres.

The profiles of the 110 experts were broadly defined based Across the field research, the feedback was generally very
on the type of input and feedback the field research positive, regarding all aspects of the Career Skills platform
intended to generate, and the decisions it informed within and project outputs. The overall consensus from the
the project activities and development of the Career Skills participants was that the Career Skills project provides a
tools. Each of the respondents was asked to complete a comprehensive set of tools which complement each other
questionnaire well and address a growing need within the European
career guidance sector. The feedback received from the
The broad selection of respondents included experts from
experts and career guidance practitioners was both
NAVET and a CEDEFOP expert group, as well as career
approving and constructive, with many of the comments
guidance professors, trainers and practitioners with more
which supported the multiple-choice feedback expanding
than 20 years of practical experience in the field from a on how the project consortium could improve some areas�
range of diverse areas. In Finland, national and regional

Euroguidance Insight Magazine Issue 2021 Euroguidance Insight Magazine Issue 2021