Scenarios for the future : A new way to prepare for tomorrow’s guidance
Author: Isabelle Dekeister, Euroguidance France
On the 6th of November 2025 in Paris, Euroguidance, Europass and the European Qualifications Framework (EQF) brought together by the Erasmus+ France Education Formation agency, organised an event to explore the future of guidance, training and work called “The Union of skills facing (im)possible futures”.
The event was a collaborative approach to rethinking career guidance aimed to anticipate upcoming changes and imagine new approaches to career guidance, learning pathways and preparation for the jobs in the future. The event gathered stakeholders from these fields to prepare the Union of Skills [which is a shared reference framework for shaping employment and training policies] while also supporting mobility across Europe. By using a creative method called design fiction, Euroguidance, Europass and EQF help people move between countries, get their skills recognised and grow in their careers. After working together for ten years, they have now redesigned their event, which takes place every two years, to make it even more effective.
Sharing prospective scenarios for 2040: Ramona David [expert for European Centre for the Development of Vocational Training] presented four scenarios for 2040 incorporating Artificial Intelligence. Then, three made-up future worlds — created by a group of French-speaking experts using real data — were presented: life as work, hyper-optimization, and the Enterprise-City. After learning about these worlds, participants from different fields worked in mixed groups and explored one of the worlds in depth. Their task was to find possible future challenges in jobs, training, and career guidance. Everyone brought different perspectives so the groups were able to come up with creative ideas.
An invitation to think beyond mere predictions: Although imaginary, many of the scenarios and virtual worlds presented were drawn on existing emerging trends, cutting-edge technologies and early signs of social transformation. They look at more than just basic predictions by including the impact of artificial intelligence and environmental needs, which are key parts of Europe’s digital and green changes. This group activity helped participants practice how to handle new and unexpected situations. It also encouraged useful discussions and inspired fresh, creative ideas within the career guidance community.
A stronger partnership to tackle the challenges of the future: the workshop enabled participants to actively immerse themselves and explore AI-influenced worlds. Using imagination puts everyone on equal ground. There are no right or wrong answers, everyone can add their ideas, and the group’s ideas become stronger than any one person’s ideas. When people from guidance, employment, training, and qualifications work together, their partnerships and networks grow. The activity had a positive effect on the participants. Real results came from the sessions, such as ideas for a code of ethics, creating a federation, tools to help people disconnect from digital devices, and new laws or rules to support ethical practices
A full publication is planned for the first half of 2026 so that people who did not attend the event can also learn from it and so the event’s impact lasts longer. The publication will describe the fictional worlds, the challenges found in each one and the different ideas created that link to Erasmus+ priorities
