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Transnational cooperation in guidance through

counselling training

In September 2021. Euroguidance Romania organised an E-Academia training course to offer insight
into the career guidance and counselling services offered by Romanian institutions within the Brașov re-
gion. The training took place virtually. Eight practitioners were chosen from the Euroguidance Network to
participate, amongst these were colleagues from Malta.

a tablet to all those students who were in need. Also, a
helpline was specifically created so that students, to-
gether with their guardians, could access these services
and seek help where needed.

Fostering a mindful practice

An effective shared practice was the mindfulness session
and tool used within certain Australian schools. The first
part entailed starting a group intervention with students
by using a guided mindfulness technique to ground the
students to ease their unpleasant emotions that were
brought about by these uncertain times. The second
part consisted of providing students with a weekly sur-
A platform for guidance practitioners
vey to self-assess their sleep, their emotions, their level
The main aim of the training course was to serve as of physical activity, and so on. This allowed practitioners
a platform for transnational cooperation in guidance to check-in with students during the pandemic and to
to inspire and share good practices. All participants identify among students who needed further support.
were encouraged to implement the good practices we
shared during the training, within our local context. The After the training, Maltese counsellors adopted this
following are the salient points which emerged from the tool. In fact, some of these counsellors adopted such a
training course, and which affected, directly or indirectly, technique with their students to manage their case load.
our practice in our local context. Some career advisors built on the idea of the survey
and focused it more on career learning and develop-
IT Tools - strengthening connectivity ment to identify the students who needed further career
in the face of adversity guidance.

With most educational institutions having to resort to Developing competences
online methods as their primary way of teaching, Career
Guidance practitioners at the institutions had to follow This training course was a learning opportunity to de-
the same path. This transition, from face-to-face com- velop the competences of career guidance practitioners.
munication to a service which heavily relied on online Again, participants were encouraged to implement
technology, created numerous opportunities, as well as this within the Maltese context, and in doing so we
challenges. Certain challenges were prevalent, such as enlarged the transnational community of practice. We
the inclusion of students who are not computer literate, also adopted the mindfulness amongst the psychosocial
internet access, and internet safety. team members during team meetings. A truly worthwhile
participation.
This was also the case in Malta, where Maltese schools
made many similar efforts. Due to the shift to virtual
schooling, the psychosocial teams advocated for the
students who were not at parr with others. Thus, all state Jessica Borg and Thomas Camilleri,
schools decided to cater for these students by providing Career Advisors, Euroguidance Malta

Euroguidance Insight Magazine Issue 2/2022