Sub-theme IV: Evidence-based practice; evidence-based policies

1. Sub-theme IV: Evidence-based practice; evidence-based policies Raimo Vuorinen ELGPN Co-ordinator International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

2. Proposalsfrom 5th International Symposium 2009 • We need to continually prove the positive impact of career development for people, and meet public policy goals including value for money. • Proving the impact of career development, skill enhancement and lifelong learning on social, education and economic goals is critical. ‘ • There is real potential for researchers, practitioners and policy developers to consolidate thinking on impact indicators and measures of success •  The 2009 Symposium encouraged countries to establish more structured links to develop and share accountability frameworks between the participating countries. • The ICCDPP was asked to follow up the activities and report them back at the 2011 Symposium. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

3. Strengths • Increased understanding of the significance of the accountability and quality frameworks; • Identification of possible strategies for developing and implementing them; • General recognition of the importance of common indicators to support evidence based practice and policy development; • Four different strategic models. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

4. Governmental bodies (Croatia, Denmark, Germany, Latvia, New Zealand) • Governmental bodies which collect evidence from different settings to feed the policy development. • The infrastructure which is developed for service provision is also used as a feedback mechanism (Croatia) • Cross-sectoral collaboration (NZ) • National databases (DK) • Integrated feedback mechanism in the implementation of new career education programmes (LV) International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

5. Allocation the task to other bodies • Annual working plans and materials for quality control (EE) • National research programmes with focus on impacts and cost-efficiency as well as indicators for lifelong guidance (HU, IR) • National Framework for the Quality Assurance in Lifelong Learning Guidance as part of national LLL strategy (GR) • In Canada the national research team (CDSWG) has systematically developed an approach which focuses on the effectiveness and outcomes of the guidance services. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

6. New national mechanisms • Norway has included the development of the routines to gather evidence base in a new National Unit for Lifelong Guidance. • Poland initiated and organization of the Career Planning and Management Olympiad both for service improvement and the development of the evidence base. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

7. Renewal of national strategies • Austria, Croatia, Russia, Serbia and Turkey informed the endorsement of new national strategies or policy initiatives with the focus on more solid evidence base for policy development across the sectors. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

8. Weaknesses • The evidence collected is splintered between universities, ministries, public employment services, schools, information centres; • Monitoring data is available internally for self-evaluation of sectorally implemented programmes; • Lack of agreed ways to collect, measure, and analyse data across the careers sector; • Lack of coherence or linking across data (different datasets and different types of data). International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

9. Weaknesses (2) • Existing research is fragmented and is largely dependent on individual researchers; • The sharing of knowledge is dependent of the professional networks of the people involved; • The collected data does not measure what is expected to measure; • A common concern is the lack of evidence on long term impact of guidance service;. • Due to financial crisis many of the organizations assigned as the administrative bodies for lifelong guidance are going to merge. International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

10. Ways forward • Structured national or international co-operation to enhance the quality assurance & evidence based practice and policy development • For example • Canadian research team is an example of a national network • The European Lifelong Guidance Policy network (2011-12 WP4) as an example of structured international co-operation International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary

11. Questions • What kind of data gathering is most useful, and why? And useful to whom? • What kinds of indicators are most needed and by whom? • What types of research are most needed and by whom? • What are the key components of an effective assessment and evaluation strategy? International Symposium 2011 Career Guidance and Public Policies 5-7 December 2011 Budapest, Hungary