Lifelong guidance (LLG) was the main theme of two days of events, on 31 May and 1 June, held in Stockholm, that brought together experts, stakeholders and policy-makers from northern and southern Europe.
A conference titled 'New scenes for career guidance' was co-organised by Cedefop, the Swedish Council for Higher Education, the main host, the Swedish National Agency for Education, and the Swedish Public Employment Service, in partnership with the Swedish Association of Guidance Counsellors.
Cedefop's Cynthia Harrison presented the joint IAG-Career guidance working group advocacy leaflet 'Investing in Career Guidance', while the Swedish delegation discussed on flexicurity reforms and the role of job security councils with integrated career guidance provisions. Meanwhile, the European Commission delivered a presentation on career guidance and the European Year of Skills, and the International Labour Organisation shared some outcomes of the Global Careers Month.
The half-day CareersNet meeting on 1 June gathered together 31 network experts in career development from 28 countries, who represent different sectors including academia, and work in policy and programme management and coordination, service provider management, research, teaching, and evidence-based training of career practitioners, developing methods, studies, strategies, among other roles in the field.
They discussed on-going revisions of the European Guidelines on Policies and Systems Development for Lifelong Guidance, as well as guidelines on school pupils, initial vocational education and training (IVET) and continuing VET (CVET), adult learning, higher education, workers, and unemployed, and older adults/active ageing.
The latest national developments across policy areas were also examined with a view of observing the interconnections, particularly how the policies and services can be better coordinated to meet service users’ needs across sectors and settings.
The workshop also shed light on improving the content and relevance of Cedefop’s LLG Inventory, being updated throughout 2023 (seven new country records are online), supporting lifelong guidance system capacity building, increasing awareness, and contributing to the aims of lifelong learning, learning for work, enhancing the potential of VET, skills, and qualifications, reflected in the current European Union policy framework.
