Current issues in lifelong guidance in European Union member states

1. Current issues in lifelong guidance in European Union member states Raimo Vuorinen Researcher, PhD Institute for Educational Research University of Jyväskylä, Finland A workshop presentation in a seminar entitled: From Copenhagen to Helsinki, Best Practises Supporting European Cooperation in VET December 4, 2006, Helsinki Finland

2. Themes… • Definition of lifelong career guidance? • Which EU public policy goals does it contribute to? • What actions are taking place at European level? • Common European reference tools for lifelong guidance? • Report from the Finnish EU Presidency Conference on Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems: Building the Stepping Stones, Jyväskylä, 6-7 November 2006

3. Which EU policy goals does career guidance serve?(Handbook on Guidance Policy Development, 2004) • Efficient investment in education and training • Labour market efficiency • Lifelong learning • Social inclusion • Social equity • Economic development

4. Key Policy Drivers • Making a European Area of Lifelong Learning a Reality • Commission Communication 2001 • Future Concrete Objectives for Education and Training in Europe (2001) • Council Resolution on Lifelong Learning (2002) • Copenhagen Declaration on Enhanced European Cooperation in VET (2002)

5. Actions taken at European level • Review reports • Resolution on Lifelong Guidance by the Council of Ministers of Education (2004) • Development of common European approaches and reference tools for lifelong guidance provision • Common concepts and principles of lifelong guidance service • Career guidance and the validation of non-formal and informal learning • A Handbook on Guidance Policy Development • Strenghtening policies, systems, and practices for guidance through European collaboration • EU education and training programmes

6. The European Commission Review of Career Guidance 2001 -2004 • 3 overlapping reviews • OECD – CEDEFOP (and ETF) – World Bank • 37 countries, of which 29 in Europe • Broadly similar policy challenges • Tool to benchmark and review practices • EU synthesis report: • Sultana, R. (2004) Guidance Policies in the knowledge society • All synthesis reports and National responses are available at Cedefop guidance web pages at: • http://www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects_Networks/Guidance/

7. Key issues and challenges in the reviews (Sultana, 2004) • Develop national strategies for LLG • Improve training provision • Improve transparency / ease of access • Encourage flexibility and innovation to meet needs of diverse client groups • Strengthen social partner involvement • Stimulate voluntary and private sectors • Improve access to integrated career information

8. Key issues and challenges in the reviews (Sultana, 2004) • Strengthen the employability focus • Stimulate career management programmes • Improve evidence base • Strengthen quality assurance • Generate more dialogue via national forums (practitioners and policy makers) • Enhance international co-operation & exchange of good practice

9. Definition of Lifelong Guidance? • What? Activities: e.g.information giving, advice, counselling, assessment, teaching, advocacy • For whom? All citizens • When? Any age and point in their lives • Focus? Making meaningful life choices on learning and work. Empowerment to manage learning and career • Career? Individual lifepaths in learning, work and in others settings in which these capcities and competences are learned and/or used • Where? Education, training, employment, community, private • Resolution on lifelong guidance 2004

10. Resolution on Guidance for the Council of Ministers of Education (May, 28, 2004) • Priorities • Improving access • Improving content: refocus on skills to manage learning and work • Improving quality assurance mechanisms, especially citizen/consumer perspective • Improving structures for policy and systems development • Co-operation within Education and Training 2010 framework • Invitations for actions: Member States • Invitations for actions: Member States and the Commission • Peer Reviews  Peer Learning activities

11. Handbook on Guidance Policy Development for policy makers • Jointly developed by the Commission and the OECD as a response to the findings in the reviews • The handbook can be used for self-assessment, self-development and peer review of lifelong guidance provision at European, national, regional and local levels • The publication date was December 2004 • http://europa.eu.int/comm/dgs/education_culture/publ/educ-form_en.html#Guidance

12. Importance of Guidance confirmed in Maastricht Communiqué(14 December 2004) • In addition to noting the Resolution on guidance throughout life adopted by the Council in May 2004, the Maastricht Communiqué includes guidance as a priority at national level and stresses that: • the common instruments, references and principles developed by the European Commission Expert Group on Lifelong Guidance should be used and efforts made to raise stakeholders awareness of these instruments; • the development and implementation of open learning approaches, enabling people to define individual pathways should be supported by appropriate guidance and counselling.

13. Common European reference tools for lifelong guidance • Common aims and principles of lifelong guidance provision • Some common reference points for quality assurance systems for guidance provision in Europe (meta-criteria) • Key features of a systems model of lifelong guidance for European countries

14. Actions in process • Guidance in the new EU programmes • Joint actions (2004) European Networks of National Guidance forums • Resource development of policy and systems development: • Cedefop, ETF, World Bank, OECD, European commission http://www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects_Networks/Guidance/ • Finnish EU-presidency on lifelong guidance policies 2006

15. Finnish EU Presidency Conference on Lifelong Guidance Policies and Systems: Building the Stepping StonesJyväskylä, 6-7 November 2006

16. Conference aims: • Review progress in the development of guidance provision in Member States within the framework of Education and Training 2010; • Identify main achievements to date and key challenges remaining. • Consider ways how guidance can contribute the new EU lifelong learning programmes • To enhance co-operation at international level with relevant organisations.

17. Participants • An invitation was sent to each Member State to nominate representatives of the ministries/portfolios in charge of national lifelong guidance policies, social partners, civil society, and guidance practitioners. • The Euroguidance network was invited to send one representative per country. • An invitation was sent to relevant organisations: (European Social partners, Cedefop, ETF, OECD, IAEVG, ILO, UNESCO, ICCDPP) and to representatives of the Australian (2006) and the Scottish (2007) international symposia on career development and public policy.

18. Report from the conference workshops The following slides are bases on the report of the workshops drafted by Tony Watts

19. Preamble • Since the Communication on Lifelong Learning (2001) and the Resolution on Lifelong Guidance of the EU Council of Education Ministers (2004), much has been achieved in the member-states in improving access to guidance and the quality of guidance systems. • But much remains to be done. Many countries still have significant gaps in provision and deficits in quality. • It is important that the momentum of development within member-states be sustained. The pace and quality of such development can be significantly enhanced by continued collaboration at EU level. • The structures for such collaboration need to be reframed to build upon past experience and to include more active engagement of all member-states.

20. Suggested actions within member-states • National guidance fora can play an important role in supporting policy development within member-states • Such fora need to embrace all dimensions and sectors of guidance provision (including schools, VET, tertiary education, public employment services, community-based services) • The nature, tasks and structures of the fora should be related to the needs within each country, and are accordingly likely to vary considerably • Active involvement of policy-makers is essential

21. Suggested actions within member-states • Tasks which might be performed by national guidance fora include: • Identifying gaps in guidance provision and developing strategies for filling them. • Identifying common goals and principles to which all guidance services (including public employment services as well as education-based services) can subscribe. • Developing appropriate quality-assurance systems, preferably on a cross-sectoral basis. • Developing closer links between policy, research and practice. • Utilising the EU common principles and reference tools to review the national guidance system, and to identify needs that should be addressed.

22. Suggested actions at EU level • The work of national guidance fora could be significantly strengthened by the establishment of a European Guidance Network • The aim of the Network should be to improve guidance provision for all European citizens.

23. Suggested Wider Lifelong Guidance Policy Community OECD - Conferences every 2 years ICCDPP Peer Learning Activities LLP Projects European Stakeholders New Lifelong Guidance Network of National representative structures (e.g. national guidance fora) Research FEDORA & IAEVG Building on outcomes of: - Expert Group - Joint Actions PES Network Euroguidance Network

24. Potential objectives for the European Guidance Network • Enabling national guidance fora to learn from each other’s experience. • Promoting the use of the common principles and reference tools within member-states (including active engagement of practitioners) and reviewing their use in practice. • Developing proposals for new tools, e.g. an EU framework of career management skills, plus common principles for the development of such skills. • Identifying trends and issues which merit collaborative action at EU level (through peer-learning clusters, research activities, etc.). • Disseminating the lessons from collaborative projects, including the Leonardo Joint Actions and projects under the new Lifelong Learning Programme. • Supporting policy development at EU level, ensuring that the role of guidance is addressed within relevant European policies and instruments, across relevant Directorates-General.

25. Membership in the network • Full membership of the Network should be open to all member-states which have representative structures such as national guidance fora • Criteria should be established for membership (e.g. active involvement of key ministries), with the expectation that any country joining the Network should meet the criteria within a set period, and that participating countries would help others wishing to establish national guidance fora or other national representative structures.

26. Peer-learning clusters in the networks • The Network should identify themes for peer-learning clusters. These clusters should be open to all member-states (i.e. not confined to members of the Network). Possible themes include: • Young people at risk. • Migrants. • Use of ICT in guidance. • Training provision and qualifications for guidance practitioners. • Piloting quality initiatives. • Active involvement of users in the design of services.

27. Co-ordination of the network • The European Guidance Network should be supported by a co-ordination unit, located in one of the member-states for a set period. • This unit should convene the Network and support the implementation of its initiatives. • It should liaise closely with the European Commission and with Cedefop and the European Training Foundation. • It should also liaise with the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy and other international organisations (e.g. OECD), to ensure that European experience informs, and is informed by, experience elsewhere.

28. Co-operation with other structures • The Network and the national fora should be linked, through appropriate membership or co-operation arrangements, to other relevant networks and initiatives at European level. These include: • The Euroguidance network. • The Public Employment Services (PES) network. The strong dialogue with the PES established at this conference should be sustained, both within member-states and at EU level. • Professional networks, e.g. IAEVG, FEDORA. • Other relevant stakeholder networks (e.g. social partners, parents).

29. Future conferences? • A biennial conference should be held to bring together all guidance-related networks and initiatives within the EU, and to review progress in the development of lifelong guidance within the member-states. • This should follow the model of the present conference, but with improved representation of key bodies within country teams, and improved procedures for preparing country reports in advance of the conference. • The reporting procedures should be linked to the formal reporting processes under the Education and Training 2010 work programme.

30. Materials and video recordings of the plenary sessions are available on conference website:http://ktl.jyu.fi/ktl/guidance2006

31. Thank you! For further information, please contact: University of Jyväskylä, Institute for educational research Raimo Vuorinen, Researcher tel. +358-14-2603271 email: raimo.vuorinen@ktl.jyu.fi http://ktl.jyu.fi/