Current European Developments in Lifelong Guidance

1. Current European Developments in Lifelong Guidance Kassandra Teliopoulou 15/04/05

2. The European Council engaged that (Lisbon Meeting, March 2000): • The EU should become “the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based society in the world” by the year 2010. • Lifelong learning (LLL) was one of the key ways through which such a goal could be achieved.

3. Lifelong Guidance & European Policies • Information, Guidance and Counselling (henceforth ‘guidance’) should be reinforced as one of the key components for the implementation of lifelong learning policies.

4. Overview of guidance policies & practicesin 36 countries • Career guidance is a public good as well as a private good. The public-policy goals which they expect career guidance services to address fall into three main categories:

5. Public-policy goals • Learning goals : improving the efficiency of the education and training system and managing its interface with the labour market. • Labour market goals, improving the match between supply and demand and managing adjustments to change. • Social equity goals, including supporting equal opportunities and promoting social inclusion.

6. Access to Guidance All countries increasingly recognise the need to expand access to career guidance so that it is available not just to selected groups like school leavers and the unemployed, but to everyone throughout their lives.

7. The Commission set up: A Lifelong Guidance Expert Group (LGEG) • 2002-2004 • 2004 +

8. LGEG identified 4 priority areas • Common understanding of basic concepts and underlying principles for guidance • Quality of guidance provision • European dimension of guidance • Guidance issues concerning social inclusion, access to Lifelong learning and the links between education, training and working life

9. A study of guidance quality assurance systems Five sets of criteria : • Citizen and user involvement • Practitioner competence • Service Improvement • Coherence • Coverage of sectors

10. Aims and Principles of Lifelong Guidance Provision Guidance refers to a range of activities that enables citizens of any age and at any point in their lives (lifelong): • to identify their capacities, competences and interests, • to make meaningful educational, training and occupational decisions • and to manage their individual life paths in learning, work and other settings in which these capacities and competences are learned and/or used (life-wide).

11. Guidance Aims: • Enable citizens to manage and plan their learning and work pathways • Assist educational and training institutions to have well motivated pupils • Assist enterprises and organisations to have well motivated, employable and adaptable staff

12. Guidance Aims: cont. • Provide policymakers with an important means to achieve a wide range of public policy goals • Support local, regional, national and European economies through workforce development and adaptation • Assist in the development of societies in which citizens actively contribute to their social, democratic and sustainable development.

13. Principles of Guidance Provision • Centrality of the beneficiary • Enabling citizens • Improving access • Assuring quality

14. 1. Centrality of the beneficiary • Independence • Impartiality • Confidentiality • Equal opportunities • Holistic approach

15. 2. Enabling Citizens • Active involvement • Empowerment

16. 3. Improving Access • Transparency • Friendliness and empathy • Continuity • Availability • Accessibility Responsiveness

17. 4. Assuring Quality • Appropriateness of guidance methods • Continuous improvement • Right of redress • Competent staff