From Qualification Profile to Personal Professional Development
Connecting Swiss guidance practitioners’ competencies with targeted lifelong learning opportunities.
Author: Team Euroguidance Switzerland
In 2025, Switzerland launched a new self-assessment tool linking the national qualification profile for guidance practitioners with professional development opportunities. The aim is to support lifelong learning and also align guidance practitioners’ competencies with current labour market and educational needs.
Objectives of the tool
In Switzerland, guidance practitioners must hold a recognised professional qualification, currently at Master’s level, as defined by the Vocational and Professional Education and Training Act (VPETA, Art. 50). The qualification profile, revised in 2024 by the State Secretariat for Education, Research and Innovation (SERI), integrates both professional and transversal skills to meet the evolving educational and labour market needs.
To bridge this updated qualification profile with ongoing professional training, the Swiss Service Centre for Vocational Education and Career Guidance (SDBB) developed an online self-evaluation tool. The tool is organised around seven different competencies, which are as follows:
- Counselling
- Information
- Training
- Organisation & networking
- Client & partner relations
- Self-management
- Professional practice
Guidance practitioners assess their proficiency in each area using concrete descriptors, which then generates a personalised competence overview. The results can be used for supervision, appraisals, or personal development planning. The SDBB now also structures its training programme according to these competence areas.
The shared knowledge
Two key insights emerged from the project:
- Competence-based professional development – Organising continuous training offers by competence areas ensures stronger coherence between individual needs and available learning opportunities.
- Reflective practice – The self-assessment encourages guidance practitioners to reflect on their evolving roles and skills, supporting professional identity development in a changing educational and labour market context.
The impact of the project
The tool facilitates individualised professional learning paths, particularly for counsellors trained under the previous qualification profile. It enhances the relevance of continuing education and contributes to quality assurance in the guidance profession.
Both the self-evaluation tool and the corresponding training programme are open to European guidance professionals and are available in both German and French. This allows for cross-border knowledge exchange within the Euroguidance network.
