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Section 2: Work Package reports

2.3 Work Package 3 developments in member countries is provided in
(Co-operation and Co-ordination) Annex 4 of this report.

Participating countries: AT; CY; EL; ES; HR; IT; MT; 2.3.2 Key conclusions
NO; PL; TR; RO
Lead country: AT With a view to improve co-ordination, co-operation,
Consultant: Professor Peter Plant and, indeed, coherence in policies and systems for
lifelong guidance provision, most European coun-
tries face the challenge of fragmentation and sectoris-
2.3.1 Activities ing. Various career guidance and career development
services have their own history, aims, methods, and
The focus of WP3 is on co-operation and co-ordi- budgets: they tend to work in structural silos. None-
nation mechanisms in guidance practice and policy theless, they are responsible for providing parts of
development. WP3 aims at providing opportunities guidance in a lifelong perspective, which ideally
for: would imply a seamless and coherent lifelong guid-
ance system. At present, this is a vision for the future,
○ countries with existing fora or similar mecha- rather than a reality, in most countries.
nisms to improve co-operation and co-oper- National, regional or local forums can serve as
ation in concrete areas of lifelong guidance, vehicles for improving coherence and avoid overlaps
WP3
orientated to European policies as well as in lifelong guidance systems. It seems fair to con-
national priorities; clude that:
○ countries with emerging fora or similar mecha-
nisms to compare, to improve and to imple- • National forums benefit from linking with and
ment effective mechanisms with the support of building on similar regional structures in a
countries which have experience in adequate two-way process.
policies and processes; • Highly different conditions prevail in the vari-
○ countries without existing fora or similar mech- ous countries in terms of forming and main-
anisms to find appropriate policies, processes taining national (and regional) guidance
and persons for a successful start and a sustain- forums.
able strategy. • Decisive factors include: centralisation/decen-
tralisation; top-down/bottom-up approaches;
WP3 has conducted three study visits (Cyprus, May level of professionalism; and policy interests.
2011; Norway, November 2011; Denmark, Febru- • Some basic difficulties still exist in convincing
ary 2012); and also a twinning/coaching event in different ministries with different portfolios to
early 2011 between Greece/Cyprus and Germany, co-operate, let alone to co-ordinate their efforts
based on sharing German experiences in forming a in a cross-sectoral manner.
National Forum. The main focus of all these events
has been on establishing and maintaining national But such forums may have different ambitions in
and regional forums as appropriate mechanisms to terms of the ambition of commitments. Thus, with a
enhance co-operation and co-ordination. The out- view to operationalise forums on a practical level, the
comes of discussions and presentations are avail- intensity in terms of the levels of linkages has been
able on the ELPGN website, along with the related defined at an earlier stage of WP3 as follows:
briefing and reflection notes. A summary of current

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