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“Guidance Crossing Borders” - Review of the European
cross-border seminar of educational and vocational guidance

centres

As Europe grows closer together, the field of guidance is also extending its reach beyond borders. The tenth Eu-
roguidance Cross Border Seminar was held from June 9th -10th in Retz/Lower Austria in keeping with the motto
“Guidance Crossing Borders” and dedicated itself to the manifold ways in which educational and vocational guid-
ance counselling in Europe is crossing various traditional boundaries.

Presentations by two keynote
speakers from Sweden and Hungary
started off the seminar on June 9
in Retz, providing insights into the
opportunities and challenges for
educational guidance counselling as
a consequence of crossing borders.

Hidden competences
Employers usually only perceive a
small fraction of competences that
people acquire while working and
studying abroad. The presentation by
Nina Ahlroos (Euroguidance Sweden)
was based on the Nordic/Baltic pub-
lication “Open the Door to the World
- views on mobility guidance from up
north”. On the basis of a finnish ar-
ticle in the publication, she directed Productivity, in terms of significantly guidance expert Tibor Bors Borbe-
the audience’s attention to further, increased problem-solving abilities, ly-Pecze, senior consultant at ELGPN
so-called “hidden competences”. is another skill that applicants with (European Lifelong Guidance Policy
international experience bring to the Network), illuminated the various
According to a study of the Finnish table. People returning from stays contexts in which professional ca-
Centre for International Mobili- abroad have shown to be very resil- reers progressed on both sides of
ty, CIMO, employers usually only ient in professional situations since the Iron Curtain. Socialist systems
perceive improved language skills, they are able to better evaluate their predominantly assigned career paths
increased intercultural experiences own abilities and limitations and pur- and professional activities to indi-
and an enhanced ability to work with sue their goals with perseverance. viduals. Occupational choices were
different people and in different set- limited in the extreme; the space for
tings among applicants with interna- Nina Ahlroos pointed out that edu- making independent career decisions
tional experience. cational guidance counsellors with was very narrow.
an expanded understanding of the
It is often overlooked that appli- benefits of stays abroad can support Eastern European states, just as
cants, during their stays abroad, their clients even better in present- the entire Central European region,
also strengthen other competences ing their abilities in the application underwent a developmental change
that are especially important for the process. within the Post-Fordism of recent
future professional environment. The decades: Employers increasingly
most prominent of these is curiosity: “Career” concepts developed into entrepreneurs with
In times of rapid economic change, The second keynote speech at the strongly individualised qualification
curiosity is proving to be an essential seminar established a historic cor- profiles and internalised control
characteristic for searching out pro- relation between mobility activities mechanisms, reaching a state of
spective developments and poten- and career paths. The Hungarian self-exploitation while concurrently
tially achieving significant competi- being confronted with unreliable
tive advantages for companies. social security systems.

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