|
|
Since 2001 the EU Member States, have at European level, been engaged in reviewing policies for education and training within the framework of the “Education and Training 2010 programme” with a view of optimising the contribution of national education and training systems to achieve the Lisbon goals. European cooperation in education and training has paid significant attention to the contribution of guidance provision. In 2002, the European Commission established an Expert Group on Lifelong Guidance to support policy development. The work of this Group has resulted in the development of three common European instruments/reference points for guidance systems. These are intended to enable Member States to benchmark and develop their existing provision for citizens within a lifelong learning policy framework with an aim to support their life paths in a knowledge based economy and society.
Education Ministers in the EU have recognised the importance of this component of lifelong learning strategies. In Dublin, April 2004, the ministers reviewed the research findings (OECD, CEDEFOP, ETF, World Bank) on policies for career guidance in Europe. In May 2004 the Council of the EU adopted a Resolution on guidance throughout life which spelled out priorities for guidance within the framework of the 'Education and Training 2010' work programme. The Resolution invited the Member States and the Commission, within their sphere of competences, to develop policies and concrete actions to improve guidance provision throughout life.
In December 2004 the Ministers reinforced need to improve guidance provision at national level as a priority in the Maastricht Communiqué and stressed that the following actions should be undertaken:
– Raise stakeholder awareness of the common instruments, references and principles developed at the European level;
– Use these common instruments to modernise policies and systems for guidance at national, regional and local levels;
– Develop and implement open learning approaches, and enable people to define individual pathways, supported by appropriate guidance and counselling.
|
Within the framework of the European Employment Strategy, the European Employment Guidelines (2003) view lifelong learning as one of the pillars of active employability policies and promote early guidance intervention for new unemployed entrants to the labour market or for recently unemployed persons as one of the key actions to prevent flows into long term unemployment. The European Network of Public Employment Services (PES), which has been operating since the introduction of the European Employment Strategy, underlined the role of guidance in PES interventions in its Joint Statement for 2002. In 2002 the PES Network’s Expert Group carried out a study on personalised services with a special focus on guidance and counselling, documenting interesting practice in six Public Employment Services. A 2005 study commissioned by DG Employment and Social affairs covering the 25 Member States and Iceland, Norway and Switzerland, examines how effective PES services are from a quality perspective and makes practical proposals to enhance services.
The European Social Partners identified guidance provision as a priority action area for workforce development in its Framework for Qualifications and Competences (2002) and within the progress report (2006) on initiatives taken from 2003 to 2005. This framework, developed in the context of strategies for lifelong learning for the workforce, was noted in the Resolution adopted by Ministers of Education (2004) mentioned above. The Resolution acknowledged the contribution of guidance to the public policy goals of labour market efficiency and efficient investment in education and training. It drew attention to the need to provide workers with access to workplace guidance services, using partnership approaches to such provision, and called for cross-sectoral collaboration and the involvement of all stakeholders in lifelong guidance policy and systems development.
|
The international reviews of policies for career guidance undertaken (2001-2003) by OECD, ETF, CEDEFOP, and World Bank have covered the fields of education, training and employment, obtaining a cross-sectoral view of the provision of guidance services within a lifelong learning policy framework. One of the outcomes was the production of the joint European Commission and OECD publication “Career Guidance: A Handbook for Policy Makers”. Additional studies on guidance provision for employment and workforce development have recently been commissioned, one by DG Employment and Social Affairs on Vocational Guidance Services in the Public Employment Services, and the other by CEDEFOP on sectoral approaches to workplace guidance. The findings from these studies will give rise to policy recommendations both within and across education and employment sectors.
|
In 2004, the European Commission’s Expert Group on Lifelong Guidance (EGLG), in which the European Social Partners, WAPES, DG EMPL, DG ENTR, and OECD were represented, discussed various options for reviewing progress in the reform of policies and systems for lifelong guidance provision at national level within the context of the Education & Training 2010 programme and in the implementation of the priorities for action, identified in the Council Resolution. One of EGLG’s recommendations was the hosting of an EU conference of key guidance stakeholders during the Finland's EU Presidency in the second half of 2006.
|
This Conference had also linkages with the EU ministerial meeting in Dublin 2004, the International Symposia on public policy and career development held in Ottawa, Canada in 1999, the second held in Vancouver, Canada, in March 2001, the third held in Sydney, Australia, in April 2006. Furthermore there were linkages to the OECD Bridging the Gap Conference, which was an international conference held in Toronto, Canada, in October 2003 that showcased the outcomes of the OECD Career Guidance Policy Review and of parallel reviews conducted by the European Commission and the World Bank.
|
|
|
