Building up a new generation of guidance professionals, an Erasmus+ experience
Author: Giovanna de Mottoni, Euroguidance Centre Italy
Background
The new focus on guidance and the growing need for career quality services supporting citizens in learning choices and job transitions in post Covid Europe is the rationale behind the two-year Erasmus + Innovative European Career Guidance project, ended in October 2024.
To contribute to the development of effective services helping people to manage their careers, six organisations from Italy, Finland, Spain, France, Belgium and Ireland promoted, through a VET partnership, an innovative guidance approach for a new generation of guidance practitioners.
Main objectives
The aim of the project was to equip guidance professionals with skills supporting individuals in understanding their needs and choosing appropriate learning solutions based on 4 principles: reflect, i.e. developing self-awareness and self-consciousness by setting a direction or a purpose in life, according to the Japanese IKIGAI principle; grow, i.e. think from a lifelong learning perspective for a personal and professional growth; explore the labour market opportunities, using skills intelligence, LMI and other sources and tools; manage acquired positions, career evolution, transitions and occurring challenges.
Project activities were mainly focused on:
- training of practitioners - sessions held in Spain, Belgium and France - as European Innovators in Career Guidance, a new professional profile recognised under ECVET and EUROPASS systems
- testing of approaches, methodologies and outputs not only via partners’ peer-learning sessions, but also via stakeholders’ workshops at local level
- multipliers on and offline events
Results, available in 5 languages as Open Educational Resources - OER at https://ieucg.eu/outputs/ include:
- Report: Career Guidance in European Policies, systems and relevant cases across Europe with evidence-gathering about local and regional needs.
- Handbook: Guidance To Post-covid19 Jobs And Transitions, based on the need to build up a quality career guidance in line with the evolution of the society to be more adaptive to labour market needs and to foster the employability.
- Training Modules: Pedagogy And Psychology for Career Counselling Training of the future career guides including antifragility, mindset building, ikigai, career counselling tips and pedagogical approaches to career guidance.
- Digital Toolkit for Inclusion in Career Guidance: an open educational resource containing materials ready to be used to innovate and empower career guidance practices for inclusion and diversity.
and are ready to be used in various frameworks with the goal of contributing to the building of a European network of career counsellors.
