The pivotal role that career guidance has to play in managing the growing mismatch in expectations within the labour market was highlighted during the sixth annual meeting of CareersNet, Cedefop’s network of independent experts in lifelong career guidance and career development.
The meeting was held online on 18 and 19 October and attended by 44 participants, including core and alternate experts from 27 countries, as well as invited speakers from the Czech Republic and the European Commission.
Antonio Ranieri, Head of Cedefop's Department of vocational education and training (VET) and skills, opened the meeting marking the significance of career guidance at times of transition such as the current one, while Aline Juerges from the European Commission's Directorate General of Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion shared insights on the Individual Learning Accounts Recommendation and the forthcoming European Year of Skills 2023.
The European Training Foundation's (ETF) Florian Kadletz shared flash details on the upcoming launch on 8 November of the Global Careers Month initiated by the Inter-Agency Working Group on Career Guidance (IAG WGCG), that includes Cedefop, the ETF and the International Labour Organization (ILO).
CareersNet coordinator, Cedefop's Cynthia Harrison, introduced the plenary discussion on the country in focus, Czechia, with national experts presenting the theme ‘Continuity and discontinuity in lifelong guidance and career development policy.’
The session brought together perspectives on building career services in the country, presenting national and regional views, also from across education, training and the labour market sectors.
It was followed by small group discussions in which, drawing on the Czech presentations, participants reflected on how to support continuity for better career support policies by:
- Developing suitable outcomes-oriented monitoring and evaluation methods informed by field experts, including effectiveness studies required to plan and utilise limited public resources.
- Working towards a shared vision of career guidance across sectors especially critical to sustain systems despite changes in government.
- Activating representative fora and professional associations to represent the voices of clients and career practitioners to incorporate better these perspectives in policy.
- Balancing needs and expectations among decision-makers, clients, and other stakeholders for a better fit within the labour market context.
The network members also discussed their work on the EU+ Inventory of lifelong guidance systems and practices 2022 edition, scheduled to go online later in 2022 and during the first quarter of 2023. The experts shared new experiences in bringing together key guidance stakeholders to work on the Inventory, while Cedefop presented the records' added value, for example, for working papers and to illustrate trends, and to monitor Inventory progress.
An intensive feedback session was also held for core experts and a network working group tasked with proposing targeted updates on the 2015 European systems and policy guidelines for lifelong guidance.
For more on the sixth annual meeting of Cedefop's CareersNet, click here.
