Vocational Guidance In Europe

The situation for career counselors today is particularly complex. Transformational areas such as the Corona pandemic, the climate crisis, the economic situation, and an aging population are bringing rapid changes to the demands of the labor market. This book addresses the challenges in the European labor market from the multinational perspective of career counselors. It includes multiple contributions from different countries that address the country-specific challenges that generate support and development needs for counselors. Measures, solution strategies and future forecasts are included. The contributions are based on the Academia+ project, in which a total of three online training series for career counselors from across Europe on the topics of "Counseling Migrants and Refugees," "Future Jobs," and "Demographic Change" were conducted and evaluated. The book is intended to be a guide for professionals in the vocational training field and to facilitate and support a practice-oriented initial interview from the counselor's point of view.

In industrialized societies, individuals are facing major challenges that mobilize many of their psychological and social resources. The world of work is changing constantly. Adults have to adapt their technical skills and knowledge continuously. For teenagers and young adults, choosing a vocation and constructing their future career paths is becoming increasingly difficult. The migration of people and the globalization of the workforce raise questions about social inclusion and the future of affected individuals. These examples highlight of the importance of the field of Career Counseling and Guidance to support citizens individually and collectively in building their future. The challenges our societies face demonstrate how crucial the development of research in this field is. The European Doctoral Programme in Career Guidance and Counselling (ECADOC), funded by the European Commission from 2013-2016, has brought together PhD students working on burning issues in this field, using various theoretical references and methodologies. The four parts of this book present a selection of innovative research aiming to find answers to the named challenges. Part 1 deals with key psychological processes involved in career construction of young adults. Part 2 presents research concerning transitions over the course of life. Part 3 covers research related to interventions of career guidance and counseling. Part 4 outlines perspectives for the future and proposes a European Research Agenda for our field of research. Perspectives on Current Research in Career Guidance and Counseling – Building Careers in Changing and Diverse Societies is dedicated to students, researchers and practitioners in the fields of education, career guidance, psychology, human resource management to inform them about very recent work and promote the development of innovative interventions and programmes.

A. No major gaps

This document synthesizes the findings of case studies of career guidance and advice for adults in the European Union. Section 1 examines the problems of helping the following groups: marginalized individuals in need of vocational or social (re)integration; individuals in the process of becoming marginalized, individuals who appear to be "problem free"; and groups adversely affected by the economic recession. The case study findings pertinent to the issue of facilitating adults' social, personal, and/or occupational transitions are detailed in section 2. Special attention is paid to facilitating vocational integration, encouraging self-esteem and determination, teaching adults to network, helping adults make the best use of what they have learned, and helping adults reacquire a social role and reintegrate into temporary or permanent settings. Section 3 presents the following institutional solutions to the problems of personalizing help, advice, and guidance and offering guidance for the medium- or long-term future: improving services at the individual level, preventing marginalization, developing policies at the European and national levels, adopting a multidisciplinary and holistic approach, and linking passive and active measures. Appended is information about quantitative and qualitative methods of evaluating counseling services and evaluation for cost-benefit analyses and services adapted to needs. The report contains 35 references. (MN)