European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network Database, ELGPN Database

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Internet portal www.planet-beruf.de as leading instrument to support career choice and access to career guidance

Country

Germany

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

This information portal “planet-beruf.de ” is a combination of different online media supporting young people, teachers and parents in all issues of career choice and also to find the regional service for career guidance and placement into apprenticeships. This combination of online media is accompanied by the yearly updated print and CD media distributed to students, teachers and parents.

The internet portal is provided by the Federal Employment Agency (BA) which has the legal task to provide career guidance for young people and adults. According to § 33 Social Code III this includes the provision of career information and orientation as part of the service. The portal and the assisting print and other media are part of the realisation of the legal task for the target groups. They are also used within the career education classes which are provided co-operatively within schools by teachers and career counsellors according to the Agreement between the BA and the Standing Conference of the Education Ministers of the Laender (KMK) on the Framework of Cooperation between Career Service and Schools (2004).

This example aims at widening access (policy priority of the EU Resolution 2008) to guidance which assists young people to prepare their choice of career and training in a well informed and systematic way. This modern ICT tool also helps users to make an appointment for a face-to-face guidance session if necessary. In addition it is an outstanding example for a concrete co-operation across the two sectors –education and employment (policy priorityEU Resolution 2008).

The online portal www.planet-beruf.de is developed, financed, edited and permanently updated by the Federal Employment Agency considering the changes in schools, training and further training and the labour market.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The media combination consists of the online portal “planet-beruf.de” (planet profession), a self-exploration programme “Berufe-Universum” (Universe of Professions), a training programme “How to apply for a training or job” and assisting print and CDs media. The self-exploration programme contains a questionnaire to assess interests, strengths, occupational behaviour and school marks to compare this information with job requirements leading to proposals of professions which fit to the user´s profile (you can land on your fitting planets respectively professions). The universe of professions shows the professional profiles and gives further detailed information including videos and films about the related profession or training and on the online portal. It also informs the user whether training opportunities/apprenticeships are available in the region. The online portal is linked to the nationwide databases of all professions (BERUFENET) and the database for all further training facilities including HE (KURSNET)) as well as to the Online Job Market (JOBBOERSE). Besides this online approach comprehensive information and exploration facilities are provided in the local Career Information Centres BIZ.

The aims of the online portal are complex and vary according to the target group. Students of lower secondary schools are the main target group. Planet profession aims to support their choice of a career, to assist their application process and to find a suitable training or apprenticeship. Teachers receive stimulations and suggestions for the career education classes and parents get advice how to support the career choice of their children. But also guidance practitioners, social workers and other partners make use of this offer.

Following a comprehensive approach the detailed media combination covers all relevant aspects of the career choice process. Therefore all media are structured along the process “informing – deciding – applying” and can be used in a flexible way in the classroom, at home or during the counselling session. The class room teaching in career education becomes more vivid and activity oriented. Teachers receive practical ideas for the exploration of strengths and interests as well as for career choice support and application needs. Students are activated through discovering learning and interactive elements and become more self conscious.
The concept, update and elaboration of the media is accompanied and monitored by an editorial board of teachers representatives, social partners and of teachers training institutions.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

The portal is located within the overall webpage of the Federal Employment Agency (www.arbeitsagentur.de) but can also be accessed separately (www.planet-beruf.de). The online portal is assisted by print and CD media which are distributed to more than 11 000 schools and are used in the career classes to increase the use of the portal. Parts of the content can also be used as teaching material during lessons. The online portal is linked to other career initiatives like the Girl´s Day or the Career Choice Passport. All initiatives are implemented nationwide regardless the different school systems of the Laender. Regional agreements on the cooperation of schools with the career service recommend the use of the media of the BA.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

Monthly statistics count the number of users and the calls of pages. Proposals of the customer’s reaction management are welcome and considered for the further development and updating. In 2010 an online user satisfaction survey is planned.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Since the start of the portal in autumn 2008 nearly 6 million visitors were counted with about 60 million calls/clicks of pages (March 2010).

Economic aspects of effectiveness are given through the comprehensive use of the portal by students, teachers, counsellors and parents according to their different needs and in increasing the level of information and the self and career awareness of the target groups.
Additionally, the other media (prints, CDs) and the class room teaching of teachers and counsellors become more effective. The face-to-face counselling sessions are more solidly prepared and therefore more effective.

The planet-beruf portal is financed by the regular budget of the Federal Employment Agency (by contributions of employers and employees) in the frame of its legal tasks.

The possibility to integrate all related aspects of information in a comprehensive way reinforce career activities of students, teachers and parents by the use of modern technology. More over the ICT tool allows students to “play” and navigate around the issues of career in a way youth nowadays are familiar with. Youngsters with poor ICT skills can get more competences in using them and thus become more self conscious. In addition new opportunities for teachers are offered by the portal to make their teaching more attractive and authentic in activating students by ICT tools. There are also chat room meetings (dates announced right in advance) where special issues can be discussed or relevant actual information is given by experts.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

The online portal and related print media are linked to each other and both deepen the career reflections of all involved. Therefore, it is necessary to look after comprehensive networking with the contents of the portal in all future print media. This networking is also supposed to include the self exploration programme Berufe-Universum (universe of professions): For the proposed professions according to the strengths and interests of the user more detailed information like profiles of professions, daily schedules of job holders, authentic reports on the reality of the professions and videos and films are offered. Within the interactive portal public stars (like famous soccer players, actors, musicians or others) appear as door openers for questions of career choice by telling their personal (success) stories.

Other persons or institutions working also in the field of career orientation co-operate with the portal planet-beruf.de or use elements of the portal for their work. This means stimulation for co-operation in the guidance field.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

The strength of this example is without doubt the modern form of ICT approach and the structure and design of the online portal which makes it interesting and attractive for young users. Furthermore, the combination of different tools with related databases makes the complex portal a valuable and flexible support for the task of career guidance and widens access to the offers of the guidance services as a whole.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

On June 25th, 2010 the Federal Employment Agency was awarded the Comenius multimedia award 2010 for the internet portal www.planet-beruf.de. It received the Comenius-EduMedia-medal for outstanding examples of multimedia products. The award acknowledges the portal’s pedagogical concept, its content and design and underlines that it is particularly suitable for young people.

The Comenius-EduMedia-medal has been awarded for the 15th time by the Society for Pedagogy and Information (Gesellschaft für Paedagogik und Information, GPI). The Comenius awards are the most significant prizes for ICT-based education media.

Additional information

Name of contact

Dieter Romann

Role (in policy initiative)

Organization name

Bundesagentur für Arbeit, Zentrale Team SP III 21 Beratung/Orientierung/Information/U-25 (Federal Employment Agency)

Address

Phone

+49 (0)911 179 1365

Fax

+49 (0)911/179 1333

E-mail

Dieter.Romann@arbeitsagentur.de

Website address

http://www.planet-beruf.de

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

http://www.planet-beruf.de

This information was provided/updated by:

Dr. Bernhard Jenschke, bernhard@jenschke.de

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, access, best practice, career guidance services, career counselling, career education, career guidance, career information, career planning, collaboration, communication, public employment service, Germany, young people, internet, provision, services, information technology, job seeking, lifelong guidance, online, placement, school curriculum, teaching, teaching curriculum, teaching materials, vocational guidance, youth education

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Quality in Career Guidance – open process of coordination for quality development and its results

Country

Germany

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

According to the federal structure in Germany responsibilities for career guidance and counselling are split up between federal, regional and local authorities and the PES Federal Employment Agency (BA). There is also a large variety of training providers, non-profit organisations, private and semi-private institutions as well as private career counsellors, who offer guidance services. Since the abolishment of the state monopoly for career guidance and counselling (“Berufsberatung”) in 1998 which since 1927 was assigned to the PES the field of career guidance services became increasingly heterogeneous and intransparent. With the exception of the regulations for career guidance of the PES there are no common legal requirements for service provision, qualification of staff or quality standards in the guidance sector. This is why more and more professionals as well as representatives of users claim compulsory quality standards.
Beside the PES which still is the largest and most important provider for career guidance in Germany the Federal Ministry of Education and Research has launched initiatives and funding programmes under the “Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013” to improve guidance services (e.g. the “Local Learning”-Programme and the conception for a telephone service and an educational guidance portal,). Many regional governments (Länder) have also set up programmes for educational guidance. All these publicly funded initiatives could be supported by agreed quality standards for guidance services.
Further, European and international developments towards quality in career guidance, especially the EU Council Resolutions and the work in the ELGPN, influenced the growing discussions for a coherent strategy for quality development in Germany. The open method of coordination has been used in the European Union as a soft-law mechanism for policy development where no official regulations are in place. It has been used to manage bottom-up processes and therefore proved suitability for the process of quality development in Germany. The German National Guidance Forum (nfb), a network of actors and stakeholders in career guidance, has committed itself to further develop quality and professionalism of career guidance in Germany. With funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research (FMER) and in collaboration with the University of Heidelberg the nfb initiated and coordinates tan open process of coordination for the development of quality framework and instruments from October 2009 to January 2012.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

Aims: The overall aim of the project is to initiate an open process of coordination among the most important actors and stakeholders in the field of career guidance, to agree on
o a common understanding of career guidance,
o a catalogue of indispensable quality criteria for career guidance delivery as base for developing standards,
o a competence profile for career guidance practitioners,
o a Quality Development Framework to support service providers in their quality management systems including a set of tools and guidelines for implementation and a pilot testing in 19 services,
o recommendations for a sustainable, long term implementation strategy for quality development and establishing standards.

Target groups: guidance professionals, service providers; policy makers, funding bodies and users

Methods: “Open process of coordination”:
o Two parallel task groups (ca. 15 members each representing experts from the various guidance sectors) worked on the items outlined above (“aims and targets”) with scientific support by researchers from Heidelberg University.
o An intermediate peer learning meeting in October 2010 with practitioners from various guidance sectors evaluated the process and the first results of both Working Groups before they continued working
o A high level Advisory Board representing policy makers and stakeholders on federal and regional level accompanied the project, evaluated results and gave advice for implementation in the various guidance sectors.
o The German National Guidance Forum as project coordinator disseminates information and results via website, newsletter, press releases, presentations at conferences etc.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

The project developed quality criteria, a competence profile, and a Quality Development Framework in career guidance. A first piloting phase evaluated the usability, feasibility and acceptability of these commonly agreed criteria and of the Quality Development Framework. The experts in the working groups and the stakeholders in the Advisory Board also formulated recommendations for implementation. But the implementation itself – either the adoption or the adaptation to already existing standards and quality assurance systems is not a task of the project. This is up to the responsibility of the multiple actors and providers in the guidance field, i.e. policy makers in the federal, the regional and local governments, as well as the large number of service providers and funding institutions. In order to support the implementation and to further develop and validate the criteria, competence framework and the quality development framework through further testing and policy debates on standardization a second project has been initiated. This project “Quality in Guidance - Implementation strategies and scientific foundation” (02/2012 – 07/2014) will also look at the effects quality measures have to strengthen the evidence base.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

An evaluation of the outcomes has been part of the project and has accompanied the development process: The catalogue of quality criteria and the Quality Development Framework have been piloted in 19 guidance institutions. This piloting phase was supported and evaluated by the University of Heidelberg. A further evaluation looks at the open process of coordination as such and its impact on subsequent implementation. This evaluation - realized by the University of Heidelberg – showed evidence that the developed quality criteria and the instruments are valued tools for quality development processes.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

The results of the project are presented to the public in January 2012 in a nationwide conference. and additionally in a number of publications. Preliminary results and the work in progress are described in a brochure (Qualitätsmerkmale guter Beratung – erste Ergebnisse aus dem offenen Koordinierungsprozess zur Qualitätsentwicklung”), a newsletter and the website have accompanied the process and provided transparency for the public. In January 2012 all the results will be dissiminated in a folder including short and long versions of the quality tools as well as in upcoming scientific publications and the website.

Specific results:
o a common understanding of career guidance and a definition of the field of guidance in education, career and employment
o a catalogue of quality criteria for career guidance delivery,
o a competence profile for career guidance practitioners,
o a Quality Development Framework to support service providers in their quality management systems including a set of tools and guidelines for implementation,
o recommendations for a sustainable, long term implementation strategy for quality standards and the Quality Development Framework.

Cost effectiveness: It is expected that the increase in service quality will require more investment in the service delivery (staff training etc.). On the other hand increased quality in service delivery will avoid the individual and societal costs of wrong career decisions, low skilled labour, mismatch in the labour market, unemployment benefits etc.
• The project has been funded by the Federal Ministry of Education and Research for 29 month (01.10. 2009 –31.01.2012) with a grant.

Innovative aspects:
o For the first time a catalogue of commonly agreed quality criteria for career guidance and counselling is available in Germany
o The catalogue of 19 common quality criteria is applicable for all kinds of career development interventions and in all sub-fields (though certain adaptations may be necessary). The criteria are operationalized through indicators refering to the 3 actors responsible for the quality of CG: Practitioners, Organisations/providers, Policy makers and are assembled on 5 levels following a theoretic systemic context model
o The competence profile and the quality criteria are based on scientific research and follow the systemic context model of career guidance (developed at the University of Heidelberg).
o The competence profile defines the competences of guidance practitioners and thereby helps to strengthen the profession.
o The quality development framework supports the implementation of the quality criteria
as part of a coherent quality strategy for CG providers: it is applicable in all kinds of CG providers, adaptable to other already existing QM strategies and includes a compendium of materials with tools and guidelines for implementation.
o The open process of coordination initiated by an NGO (nfb) and funded by the Federal Government is in itself an innovative initiative combining strategic (policy) development and civil society needs. It was able to create a movement for quality in the field and initiated a respective ongoing professional debate.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

- A large number of actors and stakeholders from different and relevant guidance sectors whose expertise is accepted by the field of guidance in education, career and employment participated. .
- Strong commitment and motivation and engagement for the common aim of enhancing quality and professionalism of guidance in Germany which led to a kind of movement towards quality and professionalism among experts but also among providers and practitioners.
- A longer preparatory process in which key actors and stakeholders have been involved and which gave all players an opportunity to shape the process. This also ensured legitimization of the project partners and the process itself.
- Constant consultation and communication with different actors and stakeholders created a culture of openness to deal with resentments and fears.
- Scientific foundation of process and results and evaluation of the outcomes fosters legitimization and validation.

Unintended impacts:
- More networking and closer ties in the career guidance community which led to a movement for strengthening quality and professionalism in the field and to an ongoing dialogue about quality and professionalism in career guidance.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

Strengths refer to the strong need expressed by professionals and users as well as by government officials to establish commonly agreed quality criteria in career guidance. By now some providers and practitioners associations have set up their own standards and their own accreditation system with the consequence of some confusion and missing transparency on the various certificates and accreditations that exist.
(see success factors above)

Weaknesses: The project is not be able to alter the diverse responsibilities for career guidance and counselling in Germany or legislation in this field. Thus a joint procedure to establish commonly agreed standards will rely on the voluntary self commitment of service providers or funding authorities, as well as stakeholders.
The quality criteria are only descriptive and do not include any standardizations which would have certain reliability. This will need further development through continuous consensus-oriented negotiation. The Quality Development Framework and particularly the competence profile are prototypical and need further piloting, validation and development.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

The project has of course manifold roots, but a strong link to the European Lisbon Process and its follow-up activities on Lifelong Learning Strategies and Lifelong Guidance, in particular the two EU Council Resolutions on Lifelong Guidance (2004 and 2008) and the work of the European Commission’s Expert Group Lifelong Guidance as well as the foundation of and successful cooperation in the ELGPN. The previous OECD/World Bank/EU-Studies on Career Guidance and Public Policy (2001 – 2004) contributed much to the increasing awareness of the important role career guidance systems and services have to play in achieving major policy goals in education, employment, and labour market as well as in social inclusion.
The Federal Ministry of Education and Research started already in 2000 with the programme “Learning Regions” (2001 – 2007) funding regional networks for learning and work including also career guidance activities. In 2006 the Minister established a high level expert group to design recommendations for innovative lifelong learning strategies (“Innovationskreis Weiterbildung”). Results of this exert group (www.bmbf.bund.de) recommended a follow-up programme to the “Learning Regions” (“Local Learning”), the development of a telephone service and a guidance online portal to enhance transparency and better access to guidance, a funding programme with grants (“Bildungspraemie”) for further training of employed persons, and improvements in the quality of educational guidance services.
According to their responsibilities in educational and labour market policies several of the German Federal States (Laender) developed a variety of regional initiatives and funding programmes to establish Lifelong Learning Strategies and skills improvement programmes within their territories, which are complementary to the funding of the Federal Government (e.g. consulting and funding for SME who want to skill up their staff, further training for employed persons or for persons with no entitlement to unemployment benefits – always including some guidance activities for the beneficiaries).
The issue of quality standards for guidance delivery and staff qualification is crucial to all these publicly funded programmes. The project presented here is a result of the joint venture of an NGO activity in the field of career guidance and counselling (German National Guidance Forum – nfb) and manifold policy interventions on national and regional level to enhance Lifelong Learning.
Project Course:
After an initial phase in which the experts for the working groups and the stakeholders for the advisory board were found the groups started discussing the scientifically based drafts presented by the University of Heidelberg. Before the development of the criteria, the competence profile and the Quality Development Framework the experts agreed on a common definition of career guidance and of quality in career guidance. They also defined the field (guidance in education, career and employment) to which the results would apply. On the basis of this the criteria, competence profile and the Quality Development Framework could be developed. The results from the piloting and from the consultations with the wider career guidance community were used for the further debates in the working groups. And, the results were reflected in the Advisory Council. At last recommendations for implementations were discussed and agreed upon in the working groups and within a final common workshop with the piloting institutions.
Results:
The quality criteria provide a framework for orientation for what is good career guidance . In this they are supported by the competence profile and the QDF.
All the 19 quality criteria are operationalised through indicators referring to the 3 actors responsible for guidance in education, career and employment: practitioners, organizations and policy makers. The criteria are organized on 5 levels following the systemic context model. Overarching are the basic criteria which are basic for career guidance as a professional and communicative service. The quality criteria from a process perspective refer to those aspects which are evidently elements for the design of career guidance as an interactive process. The quality criteria from a consellor perspective describe the necessity for competences and continuous professional development. And quality criteria from the organizational perspective name the needs for a professional environment. The quality criteria from the societal context describe the relevant societal aims and focus on what needs to be reflected in the career guidance process to contribute to these aims.
The competence profile for guidance practitioners aims to strengthen professionalism in the field via the consensus on the necessary competences of guidance practitioners. It is set up parallel to the quality criteria with 20 competences which are in itself clearly defined. There are again basic competences, competences for the counseling process, competences and knowledge concerning the client, competences for professional self-reflection of the guidance practitioner, competences to act within the organization and competences and knowledge on the societal context.
The Quality Development Framework (QDF) supports the implementation of the quality criteria and the competences and increases transparency for a coherent quality strategy of a career guidance provider. It connects the criteria to quality management and evaluation and thus supports sustainable quality development. It is flexible as it may be applied in different career guidance institutions and can be adapted to existing quality management systems. Generally, the QDF follows a basic action circle with commitment to this quality process, an analysis of the status against the quality criteria, planning and implementation of measures and a further analysis of the outcomes.
With these results the open process of coordination has been successful in developing quality criteria, a competence profile and a QDF for career guidance in such a heterogeneous context as it is found in Germany. However, to date the criteria, competence profile and the QDF remain to be prototypical and need further development, implementation and validation. The criteria must become standards which will need another negotiation process. At the same time the criteria and competences and the QDF need to be continuously implemented in order to reach a dynamic, flexible, transparent and non-bureaucratic quality model.

Additional information

Name of contact

Karen Schober; Dr. Bernhard Jenschke

Role (in policy initiative)

President and Vice President of German National Guidance Forum in Education, Career and Employment ( nfb)

Organization name

National Guidance Forum in Education, Career and Employment (Nationales Forum Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung e.V., nfb)

Address

Nationales Forum Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung e.V., Kurfürstenstr. 131, 10785 Berlin, Germany

Phone

+493025793741

Fax

+4930263980999

E-mail

bernhard@jenschke.de; info@forum-beratung.de

Website address

http://www.forum-beratung.de; http://www.beratungsqualitaet.net

Documents and publications

- Nationales Forum Beratung; Forschungsgruppe Beratungsqualität am Institut für Bildungswissenschaft der Universität Heidelberg (2011). Qualitätsmerkmale guter Beratung – erste Ergebnisse aus dem Offenen Koordinierungsprozess zur Qualitätsentwicklung“. Bielefeld, Berlin, wbv.
- Nationales Forum Beratung; Forschungsgruppe Beratungsqualität am Institut für Bildungswissenschaft der Universität Heidelberg (2012). Ergebnisse des Offenen Koordinierungsprozesses zur Qualitätsentwicklung 2009–2011. Bielefeld, Berlin, wbv.
- Nationales Forum Beratung; Forschungsgruppe Beratungsqualität am Institut für Bildungswissenschaft der Universität Heidelberg (2012). Kompetenzprofil für Beratende. Ergebnis des Offenen Koordinierungsprozesses zur Qualitätsentwicklung 2009–2011. Bielefeld, Berlin, wbv.

Attached files

Links

http://www.beratungsqualitaet.net

This information was provided/updated by:

Karen Schober; Dr. Bernhard Jenschke

No comments by users.

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Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

The Hungarian LLG Council and LLG System development

Country

Hungary

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

In Hungary there is no official central ownership of guidance issues. While guidance activities and development are overseen by the Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour (Szociális és Munkaügyi Minisztérium), the Ministry of Education and Culture (Oktatási és Kulturális Minisztérium) is also a key actor in the field. However, the two ministries do not have a long term strategic agreement on the issue. On the other hand, neither the citizens, nor the employers have a clear idea of the aims, methods or the benefits of guidance, counselling and vocational orientation.

Since the establishment of the European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) at EU level, national developments have pushed ahead. The Hungarian LLG Council (Nemzeti Pályaorientációs Tanács, NPT) was founded in January 2008 and in September of the same year a new national programme was launched in the framework of the Social Renewal Operational Programme (Társadalmi Megújulás Operatív Programja, TÁMOP) of the New Hungary Development Plan (Új Magyarország Fejlesztési Terv, ÚMFT) 2007-2013 which includes the development of a new national LL guidance network.

The national LLL strategy (2005) as well as the National Reform Programme (2008-2010) also specifies the development of some elements of career guidance activities but a policy document was elaborated by the new Hungarian LLG Council.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The main aim of the national council is to develop and promote a framework for lifelong guidance policy. The work of the council is strongly related with the national development programme for LLG System in Hungary. According the Hungarian Government decision (2007) this programme was designed for the 7 years period of the NSRF (2007-2013) and cover 22,6 millions EUR total. Within this main aim the subtasks are the followings:
1. unifying the meaning of career guidance within the educational and employment, social regulations in national level
2. re-establish and also reinterpretat policy mechanism in the field of career guidance after the 70’s
3. develop an unified regulation for career guidance and also develop the financing mechanism
4. develop a cross-sectoral common understanding in the field of lifelong guidance/ carrier education and career counselling
5. develop a web-based unified cadastre for career counselling professionals and for other professionals whose are working in related fields (i.e. teachers, social workers etc.)
6. develop unified guidelines for career counselling professionals
7. upskilling professionals for LLG
7a. offering in-service trainings at two different levels:
- for career counselling professionals
- and for professionals in the related fields
7b. develop tools for all age guidance
7c. publishing a new review (Életpálya Tanácsadás) for the professional community
7d. widening access for career guidance services as a common project of different stakeholders

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

SROP 2.2.2. under the professional supervision of the NPT implementing a numerous new features in the field of career guidance. The main items within the first 2 year-long period are:
- Development a new toolkit for career guidance professional (questioners for all-age services, web based databank)
- Get together the professionals and the related professionals of career guidance
- Provide in-service training for 2000 people whose working in related professions
- Provide 2 year-long post-graduate diploma for career guidance professionals as widening the network of trained professionals
- Develop a national and regional network of the professionals

The programme SROP 2.2.2 supports development in the areas of IT and methodology. In the area of IT development, the development of a new national guidance portal is envisaged, targeting the youth, adults and professionals/experts, with the aim of providing integrated, up to date, and user friendly information related to education and the labour market. The webpage would also offer a portal for the career guidance professionals, where they could reach all the information and tools regarding the project. It has four main functions:
- Social networking
- Knowledgebase
- Special functions: online storage of counselling case diaries, nameless statistical treatment of their facts, tools that make possible to analyse the offline questionnaires

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

The first round of monitoring will be carried out in 2010 before than end of the first phase. Internal evaluation is must of the Hungarian Development Agency (NDA) and the National Agency of European Social Fund. Four internal evaluations are compulsory within these 2 years:
- May 2009
- October 2009
- May 2010
- December 2010

NDA and ESA Agency are monitoring the programme outcomes. The Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour will get a professional summery before the second programme proposal will be submitted to the National Development Agency Human Resources Managing Authority till June 2010.

Two independent external evaluations are also planed within this period.
- one in policy context,
- another for measuring the performance of the 50 career counsellors’ activates working in the programme

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Project indicators and their status:
- Number of clients receiving guidance services - base: 30 000 persons/year, aim: 40 000 persons/year, status: achieved (2009)
- Trained persons (from the fields related to guidance) - base: 0, aim: 2000 persons, status: in progress
- Number of persons who successfully finished trainings - base: 0, aim: 1900 persons, status: in progress
- User satisfaction of clients included in guidance activities - base: N/A, aim: + 20%, status: in progress
- Persons attended in post-gradual trainings - base: 0, aim: 50 persons, status: achieved
- Newly developed occupation folders - base: 202, aim: 302, status: in progress
- Updated occupation folders - base: 172, aim: 222, status: in progress
- Newly developed training materials (and courses) - base: 0, aim: 10, status: achieved
- Newly developed occupation films - base: 344, aim: 364, status: in progress
- Unique visitors of the newly developed national guidance portal - base: 223 200 visitor/year, aim: 268 000 visitor/year, status: achieved (2009)

Budget: 2,08 Bn HUF - 7,8 M EUR - is to be used in the first 2 years.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

A strong professional view of the programme management and the international developments (ie. EU Resolutions 2004, 2008, EU-OECD 2004. ILO 2006. UNESCO 2002 publications etc.) help in the implementation period.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

Lack of evidence of the real economic impact of career guidance and a very segmented human resources development system make the ongoing development and further implementation very fragile. Lack of national resources for the maintaining of the ESA founded development is also an important issue, especially after 2013/2014 for the next development period (2014-2020) of the EU. A national level and cross-sectoral unfiled re-regulation of this field is essential for the success and the marinating of the developments.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Borbély-Pecze, Tibor Bors, NPT

Role (in policy initiative)

Secretary of NPT

Organization name

Nemzeti Pályaorientációs Tanács

Address

Nemzeti Pályaorientációs Tanács Titkársága Foglalkoztatási és Szociális Hivatal (Borbély-Pecze Tibor Bors, titkár) Budapest Kálvária tér 7. 1089 Hungary

Phone

+36.30.216.0095

Fax

+36.1.459.2099

E-mail

beneiv@lab.hu; borbelytibor@lab.hu

Website address

http://internet.afsz.hu/engine.aspx?page=full_kulfoldi_palyaor_eu_magyar_llg_tanacs

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

http://internet.afsz.hu/resource.aspx?resourceid=full_kulfoldi_palyaor_eu_magyar_llg_szakpol_ang

This information was provided/updated by:

BORBÉLY-PECZE Tibor Bors

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ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, national development, LLG system development, cadastre, career guidance counsellor, ICT, effectiveness, national standard development, education policy, PES, cross policy coordination, training of the guidance professionals, access, quality, co-operation, co-ordination, guidance in schools, unemployed, employed, older adults, career information, qualifications, Hungary

Subject of the Policy document

EUROPE 2020: A strategy for smart, sustainable and inclusive growth

Reference data

Adopted/Released by European Commission

Year of adoption 2010

Reference number COM(2010) 2020 final

Available at http:// http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/documents/related-document-type/index_en.htm

Available in English at http:// http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=COM:2010:2020:FIN:EN:PDF

1. Additional narrative description of the reference to Lifelong Guidance

While the strategy makes no explicit reference to lifelong guidance, the paper and its flagship initiatives (Youth on the Move, The Agenda for New Skills and Jobs, Innovation Union, and A European Platform against Poverty and Social Exclusion) emphasise the active role of citizens' acquisition of lifelong career management skills.

Attached files

This information was provided/updated by:

Outi Ruusuvirta

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ELGPN, legislation, policy, access, adult education, ageing population, career guidance, co-operation, communication, drop-out, early childhood education, higher education, informal learning, non-formal learning, schools, strategy, tertiary education, VET, vocational education, mobility, modernisation, European union, career management skills, co-operation and co-ordination, quality assurance and evidence-base, employment, social inclusion

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Development and Pilot Operation of National Database of educational opportunities - PLOIGOS

Country

GREECE

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

Ploigos gives valid information about Learning opportunities and training possibilities available in Greece in all educational levels and all types of education.

The decisions of EU councils of Lisbon and Stockholm called for the creation of unified information systems on education and training opportunities in Europe. The first phase (2002-2008) of such an information system was completed with the development of PLOTEUS I (Portal on Learning Opportunities throughout the European Space), a European internet portal which aimed to help students, job seekers, parents, guidance counsellors and teachers to find out information about studying in Europe. The development of Ploteus I was assigned by DG Education and Culture to Euroguidance Network. EKEP as the Greek Euroguidance center provided Ploteus I with links to web sites of universities and higher education institutions, databases of schools and vocational training and adult education courses in Greece. The second phase of a European Internet portal on learning opportunities PLOTEUS II (2009-today) does not provide links to websites of education institutions, instead it gives the actual information – details of each educational opportunity. Necessary prerequisite for this was the creation from every EU country of a national database of learning opportunities and the connection of these datasources on the basis of a common protocol. The development of the Greek National Database on Learning Opportunities "Ploigos" was assigned by the Greek Ministry of Education to EKEP.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

Objective: The development of the first national database on educational opportunities in Greece

Target group: students of all education levels, their parents, graduates interested for post graduate studies, teachers, counsellors, european citizens interested for studying in Greece

Method: Cooperation with education opportunity providers for the collection of information - Field Study.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

Implementation:
1. First we communicated with supervising ministries asking for their support in order to secure the cooperation of the departments, services and organizations within their competence, to define all the sources of educational opportunities within their competence and to assign a representative responsible for the co-ordination of the relevant departments, services and supervised organizations
2. As a result relevant ministerial decrees were issued
3. We created the tool for gathering information, a questionnaire in excel form with the 21 fields - elements (in 4 data sheets) comprising each educational opportunity according to the common protocol of Ploteus II
4. The blank queries were sent by e-mail to the contact person of each educational institution together with detailed instructions for filling
5. The contact persons filled the queries and returned them to EKEP in electronic form (either by e-mail or by regular mail – cds) before a certain deadline
6. EKEP’s team checked the queries for right filling and sent them to contractor for translating in English and insertion to the data base

Level of Implementation: National

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

Ploigos is already accessible trough the website of EKEP. In order to safeguard the smooth operation, monitoring and evaluation of the database a "team for support and renewal of Ploigos" has been established. In particular this team is responsible for: administration of the database, communication with Ploteus II as well as with national education opportunities providers, enrichment and renewal of the contents of Ploigos (insertion - modification - deletion of educational opportunities), promotion of national educational opportunities database
The following steps have been taken:
1. The contractor (ICT company that developed the Greek national database "Ploigos") has offered EKEP a 5 years warranty for good operation and technical support
2. Since Ploigos will be a permanent national database, EKEP conducted a viability study in order to define the technical, financial and organizational factors that will permit the smooth operation of the database. The system’s architecture permits the enrichment of the content of the database e.g. the entry of new or the change of existing educational opportunities. This can be done either by the institutions themselves with the use of specific passwords or by EKEP’s ploigos team
3. In order to strengthen the dissemination of Ploigos there are plans to promote it by brochures, articles, advertisements in newspapers-TV-radio, presentations in conferences e.t.c. A promotional booklet in Greek and English has allready been handed out to students and guidance counsellors.
The actors involved are:
1. EKEP's "team for support and renewal of Ploigos"
2. ICT company CYBERCE (The company that developed the Greek National Database Ploigos)
3. ICT company EUROPEAN DYNAMICS (The company responsible for the provision of technical assistance to the Commission, in order to ensure the smooth running of Ploteus II portal) and from January 2010 onwards "Intrasoft International"
4. National Educational Opportunities Providers (Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning and Religious Affairs, Ministry of Labour and Social Security etc)

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

"Ploigos" is the first official database of educational opportunities in Greece.
It gives valid information to a broad target group about learning opportunities and training possibilities available in Greece in all educational levels and all types of education. It so promotes the mobility of European citizens within the European space and offers them equal access to educational opportunities

The cost effectiveness is high since Ploigos is the first and only such database in Greece. The information it contains helps students, graduates etc in their educational and career decisions and functions as a multiplier of their opportunities in today's labour market.

The project was financed by the Operational Program “Education and Initial Vocational Training” (EPEAEK II) of the Ministry of Education - Action 2.4.1.a.: “Strengthening of the Counselling & Vocational Guidance structures” - “Support of the EKEP” (European Social Fund program). The development of the database was undertaken by the private ICT company “Cyberce” after the conduct of an international open competition announced by EKEP. The overall budget of the project was 143.266,48 Euros. The development of the system started in 10-9-2007 and finished in 15-5-2009

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

The support we had from the supervising ministries e.g. the Ministry of National Education , Lifelong learning and Religious affairs, helped us very much in the process of communication and collection of educational opportunities of schools, initial vocational training institutions etc. However in the cases of educational opportunities providers that were somewhat independent e.g. higher education institutions, it proved more difficult to collect all the educational opportunities on time. Another lesson learnt is that the value of a good ICT company is very important for the successful completion of the project. Good project managing was also a very important factor as well as good cooperation – coordination of all participating parties.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

We can learn lessons about the use of an electronic tool (database) in order to promote access to educational opportunities and education information. Other areas are: The interconnection of such tools in European level into a bigger portal (Ploteus II) which supports european mobility. The cooperation between so many different actors (educational opportunities providers, ICT companies, Ploteus II central authority etc)

The challenge is the continuous renewal and upgrade of both the contents and systems of Ploigos in order for it to be technically modern and uptodate in terms of its contents

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Dr. Dimitrios Gaitanis

Role (in policy initiative)

Project Manager of "Ploigos" National Database of Educational Opportunities

Organization name

EKEP (National Resource Center for Vocational Guidance)

Address

1 Parassiou str. & 99 Aharnon str.

Phone

+30 210 8233669

Fax

+30 210 8233772

E-mail

dimitrisgaitanis@ekep.gr

Website address

www.ekep.gr

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

http://ploigos.ekep.gr/ekep/external/index.html

This information was provided/updated by:

 

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, adult education, career information, career management, career planning, education planning, education provision, Greece, guidance in schools, schools and training, student counselling, vocational adult education and training (VET), career management skills, access, quality

Subject of the Policy document

Towards Common Principles of Flexicurity - Draft Council Conclusions

Reference data

Adopted/Released by Council of the European Union

Year of adoption 2007

Reference number 15497/07

Available at http:// http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=102&langId=en

Available in English at http://

1. Additional narrative description of the reference to Lifelong Guidance

Draft Council conclusion, which sets out the key principles of flexicurity. While the document makes no direct reference to lifelong guidance, it is an underlying assumption in one of the four policy components of flexicurity, Comprehensive lifelong learning strategies.

Please also see the Commission Communication (Towards Common Principles of Flexicurity) and the Council Secretariat's Report by the "flexicurity" mission on the implementation of the flexicurity, both availabe in this database.

Attached files

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ELGPN, legislation, policy, adult education, advisory services, career management skills, companies, employment, labour force, labour market, labour market policy, PES, public employment service, transition, unemployed, flexibility, security, flexicurity, support measures, European union, Conclusion, social inclusion

Subject of the Policy document

Towards Common Principles of Flexicurity: More and better jobs through flexibility and security

Reference data

Adopted/Released by European Commission

Year of adoption 2007

Reference number COM(2007) 359 final

Available at http:// http://ec.europa.eu/social/main.jsp?catId=102&langId=en

Available in English at http://

1. Additional narrative description of the reference to Lifelong Guidance

Commission communication, which sets out the key principles of flexicurity. While the document makes no direct reference to lifelong guidance, it is an underlying assumption in one of the four policy components of flexicurity, Comprehensive lifelong learning strategies.

Please also see the Council Conclusions (Towards Common Principles of Flexicurity) and the Council Secretariat's Report by the "flexicurity" mission on the implementation of the flexicurity, both availabe in this database.

Attached files

This information was provided/updated by:

Outi Ruusuvirta

No comments by users.

ELGPN, legislation, policy, adult education, advisory services, career management skills, companies, employment, labour force, labour market, labour market policy, PES, public employment service, transition, unemployed, flexibility, security, flexicurity, support measures, European union, communication, strategy, social inclusion

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Workplace Guidance

Country

Denmark

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

•The motivation of the initiative
The Workplace Guidance (WG) project consisted of two consecutive WG 1 and WG 2 Leonardo da Vinci projects. The first one was a mapping and interview-based project; the second one focused on extending guidance and counselling practices to low-paid workers. The WG project developed, therefore, a number of educational materials and a training course targeted at vocational guidance counsellors, trade union activists and employers, in order to update their skills/competence in relation to the identified target group (low-paid workers) and to enhance access of low-paid workers to lifelong learning.

* Linkages with LLG policy initiatives
These overall aims respond to several objectives of the Copenhagen process and the Maastricht communiqué: to increase the skills and competence of low-qualified workers and enhance their motivation to enter in a lifelong learning process; to provide workers with lifelong learning guidance; to increase the attractiveness of vocational training and education.

•Participants
The partnership included partners from 10 European countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom. Among these participants, the policy impact of WG was most significant in IS & DK. Thus, this report concentrates on these two countries as examples.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

•Objectives of the initiative
The aim of the project was to assist lowpaid workers into lifelong learning through the provision of vocational guidance that is easy for them to access, i.e. at the workplace. Hence the project highlighted good practice, and also gave 100 hours training to vocational guidance counsellors, human resource workers and trade union activists in order to highlight the value of, and assist with, the provision of guidance to lower-paid workers.

•Target group
Low paid workers: the fact that the low-paid workers can receive guidance and counselling on-hand at the workplace increased their learning opportunities and enhanced their motivation to enhance their competence through acquiring new skills. Enhancing the skills of lower-paid workers in Europe is urgently needed to meet both new technological innovations and competition from other countries and continents.

•Methods
The project delivered an online course on workplace guidance that included a wide range of materials on the website through which it was delivered. The project website contains all the education materials in 11 languages, as well as the online course.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

Outreach Workplace Guidance was an experimental and somewhat fragmented practice in Denmark, initiated by trade unions. Subsequently components of the Workplace Guidance project were transformed into mainstream national guidance policies, especially in Iceland and Denmark, as mentioned below in Section 3

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Policy impact
The outreach guidance components of the Workplace Guidance project were transformed into mainstream national guidance policies. Thus, the concepts of Learning Advisors and of Guidance Corners were transferred to Iceland on the basis of the Danish experiences with guidance in the actual workplace, thus incorporating the concept of Workplace Guidance into the 9 Lifelong Learning/Lifelong Guidance Centres all over Iceland (see http://www.frae.is). This guidance provision coverage is remarkable, considering that Iceland is a country with only 300.00 inhabitants. The outreach workplace guidance activities are supported partly by the education funds, which were already in place as part of industrial agreements between employers and trade unions.
In both the case of Denmark and of Iceland, the Workplace Guidance project played an active role in contributing and influencing current adult learning and adult guidance policies. As in the other Nordic countries, in an attempt to improve the skills and qualifications of the workforce, various learning policies have stressed the importance of reaching out the workers with low pay and low formal qualification. In Sweden, for instance, a national ‘Competence and knowledge’ campaigns (Kunskapslyft) stressed the dual purpose of adult learning: (1) the global competitiveness aspect in creating a knowledge-based society; (2) the aspects of social inclusion and democratisation.
In the Danish context, the economic competitiveness has been brought to the forefront, and guidance plays a pivotal role here. In a governmental white paper on the challenges of Globalisation, a whole chapter dealt with guidance, and of 333 concrete proposals, 30 were specifically on guidance, many of which focused on lifelong, and, in particular, adult guidance (see Fremgang, fornyelse og tryghed. Strategi for Danmark i den globale økonomi. København: Regeringen, 2006. 165 pages. Online: Fremgang, fornyelse og tryghed). In this policy-forming process, the Workplace Guidance project was presented by the Danish WG project member to the Danish Ministry of Education, both formally and informally, and explained in some detail to an inter-ministerial policy-making group, which took a special interest in the low-cost aspects of outreach workplace-based guidance, and of the potential synergy between formal and non-formal (peer-based: learning advisors/educational ambassadors). The ensuing political discussions lead, among other things, to a Parliamentary decision on a temporary Adult Guidance Reform, which alotted EUR 17 Mill over two years (2008-2009) to develop workplace guidance (in 22 regional networks), and a further decision to follow this by research into the effects of different approaches (see http://www.uvm.dk/Uddannelse/Vejledning/Vejledningsordninger/Voksenvejledning.aspx). A new National Council on Adult Guidance was also established. On this basis, after a tender, a National Centre for Competence Development was established, with the brief to produce research results to underpin further policy developments in the adult guidance and adult learning field (see www.ncfk.dk). This approach was to be an example of truly evidence-based policy making. Ironically, this plan was overtaken by other policy decisions, whereby the mentioned 22 adult guidance networks were replaced by 13 new, regional adult learning centers (VEU-Centre, 2009), even before the evaluation of the trial period had come to an end.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

•Lessons learnt
In both countries (IS & DK) the WG project was in line with current national policy-making, as described above. This gave momentum to the policy impact. Moreover, as an example of cross-national impact of an EU-project, WG had the good fortune to have project members who were themselves centrally placed in guidance policy-making.

•Unexpected outcomes
The Workplace Guidance project was awarded the EU 2006 Helsinki Award as an innovative Leonardo da Vinci project (see http://www.minedu.fi/vet2006/Helsinki_Award.html ), and it was subsequently chosen as one of the outstanding LdV projects with policy transfer potential at the conference in Ljubljana, May 2007 on The voice of Users in Guidance (see http://www.lmvet.net/page/tg1_usersvoice ).

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Project No
2003/ISL/03/B/F/PP-164 001

Project title
Vocational guidance for low-paid workers (Workplace Guidance)

Project promoter
Starfsafl Educational Fund

Contact details
Name Starfsafl Educational Fund
Address Sætún 1
105 Reykjavík
E-mail starfsafl@starfsafl.is

Partnership
The partnership included partners from 10 European countries: Czech Republic, Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Italy, Luxembourg, Norway, Spain, Sweden, United Kingdom.

Website
http://www.gla.ac.uk/wg
Project duration
Start date: 13.10.2003 / End date: 31.3.2006

Additional information

Name of contact

Peter Plant

Role (in policy initiative)

Expert

Organization name

Danmarks Pædagogiske Universitetsskole/Forskningsenhed i Vejledning / Guidance Research Unit

Address

Tuborgvej 164 DK-2400 København NV

Phone

+ 45 88 88 94 07

Fax

+ 45 88 88 97 08

E-mail

pepl@dpu.dk

Website address

http://www.gla.ac.uk/wg/

Documents and publications

Clayton, P (2007). The potential of workplace guidance in the development of lower-paid workers in Europe. In: Lorenz Lassnigg, Helen Burzlaff, Maria A. Davia Rodriguez, Morten Lassen (Eds.), Lifelong Learning: Building Bridges Through Transitional Labour Markets, Amsterdam: Het Spinhuis

Plant, P. & Turner, R. (2005). Getting closer: workplace guidance for lifelong learning. International Journal of Lifelong Education, 24:2, 123-135

Plant, P. (2008). On the shopfloor: guidance in the workplace. In: Athanasou, J. & Esbroeck, R.V. (eds) (2008). International Handbook of Career Guidance. London: Springer

Attached files

Links

http://www.gla.ac.uk/wg/

This information was provided/updated by:

Peter Plant

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ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, workplace guidance, vocational education, access, employed, Denmark

Subject of the Policy document

Council Resolution on better integrating lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies

Reference data

Adopted/Released by Council of the European Union

Year of adoption 2008

Reference number 2008/C 319/02

Available at http:// http://www.consilium.europa.eu/ueDocs/cms_Data/docs/pressData/en/educ/104236.pdf

Available in English at http:// http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:C:2008:319:0004:0007:EN:PDF

1. Additional narrative description of the reference to Lifelong Guidance

This is one of the key policy documents relating to lifelong guidance. The Resolution identifies the four priority areas (encouraging the lifelong acquisition of career management skills; facilitating access by all citizens to guidance services; developing quality assurance in guidance; and encouraging coordination and cooperation among national, regional and local stakeholders in guidance), around which the ELGPN work packages are built. The document also recognises role of the ELGPN as, inter alia, a means to share information and examples of best practice among the Member States.

Attached files

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policy, access, career management skills, Cedefop, cooperation, coordination, disadvantaged groups, ELGPN, employment, European Qualifications Framework, guidance practitioner, guidance system, key competencies, lifelong guidance, lifelong learning, quality assurance, social inclusion, European union, resolution, co-operation and co-ordination, quality assurance and evidence-base, schools, VET, higher education, adult education

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Greek model system for quality assurance in guidance services

Country

GREECE

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

This is the first system for quality assurance of guidance services in Greece aiming at the initial and continuous evaluation of public and private guidance services of both the education and employment sector. It was developed by EKEP (National Center for Vocational Orientation), National Euroguidance Center, executive body of System 6 of ESSEEKA “System of Counseling, Vocational Guidance and Connection with the Labour Market” (Law 3191/2003) and member of ELGPN network. The Greek model system for quality assurance in guidance services is a top-down model based on the British matrix standard and consists of 6 groups of benchmarks: 1. Leadership 2. Organizing – planning 3. Guidance practitioners – human resources 4. Client satisfaction 5. Delivery of services 6. Premises and equipment
Leadership group connects with the Policy development level, Organizing – planning, Guidance practitioners- human resources and Premises and Equipment connect with the organizational level, while Client satisfaction and Delivery of Services consist the Practice level. The system coincides fully with the theory of the quality circle of Deming et al.
• The motivation of the initiative
The diversity of guidance services in Greece, both public and private and the absence of a legal framework as far as the requirements that these services should fulfill, made necessary the creation of a system for quality assurance of guidance services in Greece.

• Linkages with LLG policy priorities
The Resolution of the Education Council on “Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices in the field of Guidance throughout life in Europe” (May 2004) identified 3 priorities among them:
1. Developing high quality, broadly accessible guidance provision
2. Improving quality assurance mechanisms for guidance provision
Also the 2008 EU Council Resolution on better integrating lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies invited the Member States within their respective competences to develop the quality assurance of guidance provision.

• Participants
The participants of the initiative were: EKEP, IEKEP (the company that developed the system), the Greek Ministry of Education, Lifelong Learning & Religious Affairs – Directorate of Vocational Guidance and Educational Activities (SEPED) and the Greek Manpower Employment Organization (OAED), the official public authority responsible for the provision of Counselling and Vocational Guidance services in the employment sector which operates the Centres for Promotion to Employment (KPAs), that provide vocational guidance services to the unemployed at local level.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

• Objectives of the initiative
1. Set common quality standards in guidance provision in both public and private sector in Greece.
2. Develop know-how in quality assurance for guidance services in Greece
3. Create the necessary legal framework for monitoring and evaluation of Guidance services
4. Raise the quality of guidance provision in Greece for the sake of its citizens and protect them from low quality uncertified guidance services

• Target group
1. Public guidance services of
all levels of the education sector (primary –secondary and tertiary)
all types of VET sector (initial and continuous)
Employment sector
2. Private guidance services
3. Local government services

• Methods applied to reach the objective
1. Bibliographical research.
2. Development of benchmarks, quality indicators and documents of proof by a scientific committee of guidance counsellors
3. Pilot application in public guidance services of Greece
4. Gathering feedback from the services themselves
5. Revision of benchmarks and indicators
6. Consultation with ministries and responsible bodies (e.g. national guidance forum) (future action)

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

Firstly EKEP conducted a study “International systems for quality assurance in Guidance services” which: 1. referred to the most important international quality management systems like ISO 9000etc 2. described the most well known quality assurance systems for career guidance like the Matrix quality standard for information advice and guidance services and the Canadian Blueprint for life/work Designs 3. presented the systems developed for the quality assurance of various public sector services in Greece e.g. the system for the evaluation of the continuous education and training centers of the Ministry of Employment. The fourth part of the study proposed a model system suitable for quality assurance in guidance services of Greece. The system describes the values, the quality indicators and the documents of proof according to the theory of the quality circle. All indicators produce indications for quality development. The values produce indicators, the indicators produce indications and the indications produce Evidence or measuring tools according to the theory.
The next phase was Pilot application in public guidance services e.g. the University of Piraeus Career Office, a Counseling and Guidance Center (KESYP) of Piraeus and a Centre for Promotion to Employment (KPA). The aim of pilot application was to inform the services about the system for quality assurance and to get their feedback concerning the values and quality indicators of the system.

• Level of implementation
National

• Implementation
The procedure for initial evaluation or continuous monitoring of a guidance service is the following:
1. The service submits a portfolio which contains all the elements that prove the implementation of t he quality system.
2. A team of external evaluators visits the service and conducts the evaluation on the spot following a specific written form
3. The evaluators are asking to see specific evidence and documentation which proves the observance of each criterion
4. A quality certificate of conformity is awarded to each service reaching the desired marking
5. Data of certified services are entered in a special register
6. An electronic platform supports the whole procedure from applications to results of each evaluation

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

There was a Pilot application phase aiming at gathering feedback from services themselves. Actors involved were public guidance services of the education and employment sector (KESYPs, KPAs and Career Offices). This phase is still continuing. EKEP plans to have further consultations with ministries and responsible bodies (e.g. national guidance forum)

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

• Specific results
The first system for quality assurance of guidance services in Greece

• Cost effectiveness
The cost effectiveness is high since raising the quality of guidance provision in Greece will ultimately result in lower unemployment rates, higher mobility of citizens, better access to information and career opportunities

• Budget
The project was co financed by the Ministry of Education and the European Social Fund program). The overall budget was 40.000 Euros.

• Innovative aspects
The system includes values like: “The Service investigates client satisfaction by the services provided and the staff and makes use of the findings” and uses a mechanism for making use of client feedback. The mechanism which includes client satisfaction surveys, follow up activities, etc. researches citizens’ expectations and the level of their satisfaction by the services and the staff. The description of the mechanism includes the methodology used and the way the Service is making use of clients’ feedback for improving its services.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

• Lessons learnt

Unintended impacts
Evaluation is a delicate matter. Sometimes services were suspicious of the system. They thought that they are being criticized and were afraid that the evaluation will reveal drawbacks and negative points of their functioning.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

Receiving feedback from guidance services at the development phase of the quality assurance system is a major strength of the system.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Dimitrios Gaitanis PhD

Role (in policy initiative)

Member of the scientific committee that developed the system. Author of the English translation and the english revised version.

Organization name

EKEP

Address

1 Parasiou & 99 Aharnon street

Phone

+30 210 8233669

Fax

+30 210 8233772

E-mail

dmitrogaitanis@hotmail.com, info@ekep.gr

Website address

www.ekep.gr

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

http://www.ekep.gr/library/ekdoseis/odigoi/Diethni_Sys_Poiotitas.pdf

This information was provided/updated by:

Dimitrios Gaitanis PhD

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, assessment, career guidance services, competence assessment, customer satisfaction, evaluation, criteria, guideline, outcome, evidence-based, practice, Greece, guidance in schools, process, provision, system, human resource management, quality assurance, quality assurance system, quality evaluation, registers, quality, evidence-based policy

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

The German National Guidance Forum – a bottom-up approach

Country

Germany

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

The German National Forum Guidance in Education, Career and Employment nfb was created following the OECD country review and the 2004 EU Resolution on Lifelong Guidance. The initiative for the Forum was set up alongside a national conference on the “Future of Guidance for Education, Career and Employment – Shaping and Networking” organised in 2004 by the Ministries for Education and Research, Economy and Labour, the Federal Employment Agency and the National Federal Training Institute (BiBB) as well as the German Leonardo da Vinci Office . A steering committee for the continuous development of the Forum managed to secure the support of most of the stakeholders and actors in the guidance field including the ideal support of ministerial authorities. Meanwhile two EU projects within the Joint Action programme (2004 – 2006) were set up by the European Commission to support the establishment of national guidance coordination and cooperation mechanisms. In this context through the exchange with other countries and partners the drafting and final agreement of a Mission Statement was crucial for the common understanding and approach of the German Guidance Forum. After this intensive bottom-up process involving all actors and stakeholders the National Guidance Forum was officially founded as a legal identity in 2006 by 21 members, amongst them, professional associations and guidance experts, the Federal Training Institute and organisations for further education, agencies and unions, research institutes and the Ministry of Labour as a supportive member.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The general aim of the National Guidance Forum is to promote the professionalism and quality delivery of guidance in education, initial and further vocational training and in the employment sector in Germany. It aims to stimulate the (further) development of a coherent guidance system which meets the different needs of the users and to draft guidelines for quality and quality assurance which are accepted and recognized by all actors and stakeholders. The work of the Forum is guided by the definition of guidance of the European Union and takes account of internationally accepted ethical standards and competences for practitioners while respecting the specific profiles of services and institutions in the different sectors. Further, the Forum intends to signal the importance of guidance for the development of individual skills and competences as well as for the competitiveness of the economy and promotes the equality within society. Through its activities the Forum aims to support policy development on national and regional level according their respective responsibilities. Thereby, the Forum stands for the preservation of plurality and competition within the guidance scene. To guarantee transparency of and easy access to guidance services the Forum considers that better networking and coordination among actors in the different areas of guidance is indispensable.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

The National Guidance Forum offers a platform to exchange knowledge and experience for all actors and stakeholders, practitioners, policy makers and researchers in the field through workshops and conferences, its website and through participation in projects and events. It takes action in networking, cooperation and coordination between the different actors in the fields of guidance and education. Though expert’s reports and statements as well as proposals the National Guidance Forum takes part in policy development, for instance 2009 through a Discussion Policy Paper on necessary reforms in the guidance sector. In addition, international cooperation and networking is used to exchange knowledge and experiences for the development of educational and career guidance in Germany. The Forum was appointed by the Federal Ministry of Education to be part of the German delegation in the ELGPN. Hence, it cooperates and supports the Ministry for Education in guidance matters and in the ELGPN. The National Guidance Forum implements projects to develop quality and professionalism in guidance and identifies needs for research and evaluation. With the funding of the Ministry of Education the Forum started a joint project with the Institute for Education and Research of the University of Heidelberg to develop quality standards and a quality development framework for guidance institutions.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

Being an incorporated legal association according to German Civil Law the National Guidance Forum has standing rules of procedures which make sure that decisions are made democratically and that all members accept the goals of the Forum. Through this structure it keeps its impartiality and independence of interests. The Forum is constituted by 3 bodies. The member’s general assembly elects the Board of Directors. A Board of Trustees (Kuratorium), which is assigned by the Board of Directors, monitors and accompanies the work of the Forum professionally, particularly in relation to policy development. The members of the Board of Trustees provide the link to the policy makers and give advice the Forum how best to realize its aims. Members of the Board of Trustees are representatives of the Federal Education and Labour Ministries, the Federal Employment Agency, a Member of Parliament, representatives of the social partners and the Federal States and the Permanent Conference of Education Ministers of the Lander. The General Assembly meets at least once a year and evaluate the progress and success of the Forum in relation to its aims and purposes.
The Board provides an annual report to the Member's General Assembly on the activities which can be discussed and monitored by all members. Throughout the year there are Newsletters to the Members. The use of the public webpage is another instrument to monitor the public interest in the Forum’s activities.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Specific results:
- The Forum took part in the Federal Minister’s Innovation Committee and stimulated recommendations concerning guidance policy development and a research study on guidance quality and professionalism.
- The National Forum is a member of the German ELGPN delegation.
- It organised 3 workshops and a European Peer Learning event on guidance quality within the ELGPN. A documentation booklet with statements of all stakeholders was published in 2008.
- A joint project – involving all relevant actors and supported by the Federal Ministry of Education - for the development of common agreed quality standards and counsellor competence profiles has been initiated.
- The website is a permanently updated professional communication platform which contains European and international documents.
- In 2009 the Forum published a White Paper “Corner stones of a sustainable and future-oriented guidance system in Germany” in which it calls for a coherent guidance system and proposes relevant reforms.

Cost effectiveness and Budget:
The members and the board are working voluntarily. The running costs are covered by the member fees, donations and by project based allowances by the Ministry of Education and Research. This kind of financing guarantees the cost effectiveness of the work and sustainability regardless of changing governments. Despite its low budget the National Guidance Forum successfully expanded and was able to set up an office in Berlin in 2009.

Innovative aspects:
The cooperation of many different actors and stakeholders in the field of guidance is quite innovative in Germany where guidance provisions are still fragmented. Thus, the Forum was able to start a number of initiatives for a coherent guidance system and for quality. The bottom-up approach secures involvement of all actors and also consideration of different professional and user interests.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

The successful start of the National Guidance Forum could only be achieved through consistent networking with the key actors in the field. Particularly, the active engagement and personal commitment of nationally and internationally recognised key players in the guidance scene laid the basis for all activities in relation to the Forum. Professional personal leadership is one of the success factors. The support of many participating experts and the stimulation of the EU Guidance Resolution 2004 and the Joint Action Project facilitated the foundation of the Forum. Through the European communications and networking on the importance of Career Guidance, the engagement of policy makers and key players in guidance policy development has been increased. The structural link to policy makers within the Board of Trustees is also crucial.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

After having consolidated itself in its first 3 years, the National Guidance Forum now aims to continue and intensify its work towards more quality in guidance in Germany. In the next two years the Forum will coordinate a joint project with the University of Heidelberg on quality development in Guidance. Together with many partners from policy and practice it will agree quality guidelines following the European developments. The project will also set up a Quality Development Frame for guidance institutions with tools supporting its implementation. The development of sustainable structures for quality assurance and evidence-based policy in Germany will be a great challenge. The Forum will continue to contribute to lifelong guidance policy development, and to initiate relevant research, especially on the impacts of guidance for Lifelong Learning, the economy and the society. Weaknesses are the restricted resources which limits activities.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

The German National Forum Guidance in Education, Career and Employment (nfb) is an independent network in which all institutions and organisations, relevant research and training institutions for guidance practitioners, governmental authorities and non-governmental agencies dealing with, offering or financing guidance and counselling as well as organisations of guidance users and consumers can collaborate.
The Forum deals with guidance provided for individuals in education, vocational training and employment sectors. Psychotherapeutic and business consultancy of companies or organisations do not belong to the area of activity of the National Forum. The Forum understands itself as a platform of all stakeholders and actors in the field of career guidance providing an opportunity for exchange of knowledge and experience across all institutional sectors, for the discussion of common concerns and projects, and for the achievement of common aims. The interesting difference in comparison to other co-operation mechanisms is the bottom-up approach of the German guidance community. Instead of a top-down model which is launched and lead by governmental activities as in other European countries, the Forum is a combination of professional expertise and independence and co-operation with governmental authorities through the Board of Trustees (Kuratorium).
Founded in 2006 the Forum currently has 51 members (25 organisations, 25 individual experts and one sustaining member, the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs) who support the mission and the aims.
The general aim of the National Forum is to promote the professional delivery of guidance in education, vocational training and employment sectors in Germany, to stimulate the (further) development of guidance services which meet the different needs of the users, to draft guidelines for quality and quality assurance, and to motivate all partners to accept and recognise them. Based on the EU Council Resolution 2004 on guidance and with reference to the results of the various studies of the OECD, EU and the World Bank (2001-2004) the Forum intends to contribute with its activities to the professional development of the guidance field in Germany. The work of the National Forum is based on the definition of guidance of the European Union and takes account of internationally accepted ethical standards and competences for practitioners while respecting the specific profiles of services and institutions in the different sectors. It intends to signal the importance of educational and vocational guidance for the development of skills and competences of the individual as well as for the human capital of the society. Modern societies and the global economy depend for their well-being on the mobilisation of the talents and strengths of their members. Guidance assists in discovering and developing these talents and strengths and thus contributes to the improvement of competitiveness, of economic wealth and social integration.
The National Forum promotes all developments and activities integral to good and comprehensive guidance to enhance autonomous initiative, responsibility of the self and the competence of an individual to manage its own education and career; to promote and increase the educational potential of individuals and their abilities to participate in social life and labour market; to maintain and improve the employability of individuals; to support citizens in using their basic legal rights according the constitution of the Federal Republic of Germany, especially the right of free development of the individual, of free choice of a career and employment, and to stimulate equal opportunities.
Through its activities the Forum intends to support the responsible authorities in the Federation and the Federal States and in other public bodies in achieving these tasks. Thereby, the Forum stands for the preservation of plurality and competition within the guidance scene. However, to guarantee transparency of and easy access to guidance services the Forum considers that better networking and coordination among actors in the different areas of guidance is indispensable. In Germany guidance is in general only offered at points of transition (at the choice of initial training, education and studies, during unemployment and for decisions to further training). But the implementation of a strategy of lifelong learning needs a continuous and coordinated system of guidance services.
In the past the National Guidance Forum has been very active in the field of public relations and communication for the issue of guidance. As part of the Innovation Committee for Further Education by the Ministry of Education and Research the Forum supported the articulation of targets for the extension and improvement of guidance in Germany. Since 2008 the Forum supports and advises the Ministry of Education and Research concerning its cooperation in the ELGPN. On the basis of international developments and as consequence of a series of workshops and events the National Guidance Forum started the “Process of open coordination for quality development and professionalization in educational, vocational and career guidance” in October 2009. In order to carry out the project, the National Guidance Forum cooperates with the Institute for Education and Research (ibw) of the Ruprecht-Karls University of Heidelberg as joint project partners. The joint project is supported by government grants from the Federal Ministry for Education and Research during the time of 27 month (1.09.2009 – 31.11.2011). The joint project aims to develop and implement guidelines for quality and professionalism in guidance in education, career and employment in Germany which, if possible, should be supported by all relevant actors. Furthermore, the project will develop and test tools for lasting quality assurance. For this purpose active cooperation of the many different stakeholders from the distinct areas of guidance is encouraged.
In addition, the Forum will further strive to improve the quality and transparency of guidance in Germany through the encouragement of cross-sectoral cooperation of all actors and stakeholders in the field of educational, vocational and career guidance. It also will contribute to a strategy of Lifelong Learning in which a coherent system of lifelong guidance is an integral component.

Additional information

Name of contact

Dr. Bernhard Jenschke, nfb

Role (in policy initiative)

Vice President of German National Guidance Forum

Organization name

Nationales Forum Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung e.V.

Address

Nationales Forum Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung e.V., Kurfürstenstr. 131, 10785 Berlin, Germany

Phone

+49 30 263 980 993

Fax

+49 30 263 980 999

E-mail

bernhard@jenschke.de; info@forum-beratung.de

Website address

http://www.forum-beratung.de

Documents and publications

- Nationales Forum Beratung, „Eckpunkte für ein zeitgemäßes und zukunftsfähiges Beratungsangebot in Deutschland“ (2009) (White Paper on Reforms)
- Nationales Forum Beratung,“Dokumentation Qualitätsentwicklung und Professionalität in der Beratung in Bildung, Beruf und Beschäftigung“ (2009)
- Nationales Forum Beratung, Mission Statement of National Guidance Forum
- Jenschke, Bernhard, “The Development of the National Guidance Forum in Germany” in:Lifelong Guidance for Lifelong Learning, ed.Peter Härtel et.al., Krakow, 2007

Attached files

Links

http://www.forum-beratung.de

This information was provided/updated by:

Dr. Bernhard Jenschke

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, best practice, career counselling, career guidance, co-operation, co-ordination, collaboration, communication, context of guidance, cross-sectoral, education policy, effectiveness, evaluation, expert, expert body, Germany, provision, system, lifelong guidance, network development, project, quality, vocational guidance, leadership

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

National Quality System for Guidance Provision - Portugal

Country

Portugal

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

The present initiative stands as the first articulated attempt to create a fully comprehensive system of quality assurance for guidance activity in Portugal.
Although previous measures existed, providing the quality of instruments and methods used in PES-supplied guidance, as well as basic training for professionals, there was a clear need for a more integrated instrument, with adequate monitoring tools.
Given its institutional mission of assuring the adaptability and adequacy of guidance provision, the national public employment service, IEFP, has taken initiative in establishing a national standard, which will also account for the visions of an advisory network of relevant participants.
Other entities will be enrolled in the project to guarantee diffusion and improvement of standards, namely: the Portuguese Ministry of Education; Universities with research on guidance; professional/scientific associations; inter-national structures.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The objectives of the initiative can be resumed in three main points:

- Gaining efficacy and efficiency in guidance provision through implementation and constant check of clear standards, measures and practises
- Increasing autonomy of citizens in establishing critical learning and labour pathways, both by competence building and ease of access
- Sponsoring innovation through systematic research on critical factors in guidance for employability and job stability/success

The end target of the system is the guidance user, although we can also consider both guidance professionals and employment/educational service managers as being targeted by the measures undertaken.
The system is implemented by understanding guidance activity as part of a value chain and acting upon the phases of that chain, considering inputs, process and outputs. Primarily is considered the intervention of the PES and its creation of public value and economic spillovers.
Up-date of instruments, improvement of registry tools, accessibility, competence-assessment and of management information supports and fluxes are part of the methodology, affecting all aspects of guidance provision (materials, contents, technology).

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

The system has a national scope and is sustained in an incremental and progressive logic. Firstly, its scope is the operation of the PES services with a test run in some of its main job and training centres. Secondly, the initiative should be generalised to the full PES network. A third step should enable the adjusted diffusion of the system to different sectors and networks, namely education and private operators. As early as step two, the standard is to be shared and discussed in a advisory forum of external participants.
Common standards and information tools are already under development.
Some key measures to undertake are:
- Set periodic updates and testing of diagnosis tools, guidance methodologies, information supports, on-line contents/tools
- Improvement of registry and information transitions that allows for interchangibility of user information while guarantying users' rights
- Improvement of accessibility by development of comprehensive e-guidance tools and the improvement of information to disabled people (paper and online) and immigrant users
- Set evaluation and update of guidance professionals' competencies, with strict standards and ethical conduct
- Development of adequate tools for the follow-up of guidance users
- Balanced score-cards for guidance management and multi-level modelling of supervised

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

Monitoring and evaluation is primarily undertaken by the Guidance Directorate of IEFP in articulation with other network participants.
A monitoring mechanism has been established, measuring the efficacy of the planned measures affecting inputs and process as well as a system of indicators aimed at measuring impact variables.
Input variables are monitored through direct control of measures and by user enquiring.
Process/organisation variables are monitored by tools' assessment, management enquiring and technical staff enquiring.
Outputs are monitored by follow-up of PES users (with and without guidance), defining samples that have as basic statistical unit the job/training centres. Follow-up focus on job stability/success, job mobility, autonomy assessment (labour and education), educational success, labour market queuing, entrepreneurship capacities.
A balanced scorecard has been defined with all the assessment dimensions deemed relevant.
A statistical modelling process is being developed to enable research-based adjustments to guidance policy, using as a methodology multi-level analysis.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Specific results: only planning and tools have been developed
Cost effectiveness: progressive implementation and thigh instrument control should allow for low costs of project and improvement of present cost-result ratio in provision
Innovative aspects: Research-based approach

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Pedro Moreno da Fonseca

Role (in policy initiative)

Organization name

IEFP

Address

Phone

Fax

E-mail

pedro.fonseca@iefp.pt

Website address

No links specified.

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

No links specified.

This information was provided/updated by:

Pedro Moreno da Fonseca PhD

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, career management skills, access, quality, evidence-based policy, co-operation, guidance in schools, people at risk, unemployed, employed, disadvantaged groups, career information, qualifications, effectiveness, Portugal

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Co-operation and Co-ordination Mechanisms in Guidance on policy level

Country

Slovenia

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

Working group on lifelong career guidance (National Forum) was nominated by Ministry of Education and Sport on December 2008. This was the second attempt to have established national forum on career guidance . First national forum was established in 2005 and worked until 2006. At that time forum prepared a proposal how to place career guidance into Operational plan 2007-2013. That proposal was sent to the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour. Ministry of Education devoted some funds to operate information counselling centres for adults. Ministry of Labour has allocated funds for a study review on career guidance in Slovenia.

Linkages with LLG policy priorities
• Lifelong Learning Programme 2007-2013
• Operational Plan 2007-2013

Participants
Working group is strongly related to ELGPN. Three members of Slovenian ELGPN team are members of the group. Slovenian ELGPN members function as a transmission between the network and the group. Chair of the group is from University of Ljubljana. Other members come from: Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs, Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology, Ministry of Education and Sport, Centre for Adult Education, Centre for Vocational Education and Training, Employment Service Slovenia, Euroguidance Centre Slovenia, Government Office for Local Self-Government and Regional Policy, School for Headteachers.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

Aims and targets
Main aims are as follows:
• To coordinate the policy of ministries and other national organizations
• To deal with the development of common national guidance terminology
• To develop common plan for implementation national lifelong guidance strategy
• To develop national coordination point for the concept of comprehensive national lifelong guidance strategy.

Target groups
All the ministries responsible for career guidance, policy makers, guidance professionals, service providers, funding bodies and users.

Measures adopted to reach the objectives
• Development of the plan for implementation national lifelong guidance strategy .
• Preparation of the key documents for different sectors responsible for career guidance.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

Implementation
Strategy and actions
• As a basis for development of the common plan for implementation national guidance strategy an expert Sasa Niklanovic did expertise to build a systematic approach on lifelong guidance. The results of the study was presented to policy makers and practitioners at the conference in September 2009 where were attended more than 100 people. Participants came from different sectors and different levels.
• Working group has prepared a document on lifelong guidance strategy to be incorporated in a new White Book . This document has been sent to the National Coordination Group and sub groups preparing White paper.
• Ministry of Higher Education, Science and Technology prepares documents to establish career centres on university level. Working group on lifelong career guidance will be asked to approve this particular document.
• Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs has prepared a document for establishing national coordination point for career guidance. The project proposal was presented to the Working group. Members were asked to give comments and approval of the project. National coordination point will act as administrative support for Working group in the future.
• Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs is now preparing new labour market law. Working group has reviewed the proposal and expressed ideas and make suggestions.
• In conjuction with ELGPN members l Working group is going to organise national conference on career guidance for practitioners and decision makers in September this year.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

Once a year the group has to report what has been done to the Ministry of Education and Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Outcomes
• Lifelong guidance is recognised as an important issue at the level of the Ministry of Labour, Family and Social Affairs. The Ministry approved the project of national coordination point for career guidance which will be implemented in the period of 2010 - 2015 using ESF funds. National coordination point will serve as a support for Working group and it will disseminate and implement the decisions made by the group.
• Working group would like to reach an agreement regarding the aims of the initiative by policy makers and other social partners in next years.
• A commonly agreed quality standards in lifelong career guidance in various sectors and by different providers.
• Policy and professional support for development of a coherent model of career education at the general, vocational and higher sectors.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

It is assumed that the efforts to involve a large number of stakeholders from different sectors will be one of the success factors. It is important that the group reaches cooperative spirit. It means to build mutual trust, good personal relationships and good cooperation. It needs to be continous group membership in order to ensure the aims are realized.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

It is a good example for co-ordination and collaboration on policy level between different sectors.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Brigita Rupar

Role (in policy initiative)

Head of Ljubljana Regional Unit

Organization name

National Education Institute

Address

Poljanska 28, 1000 Ljubljana, Slovenia

Phone

+386 1 2363 100

Fax

+ 386 1 2363 150

E-mail

brigita.rupar@zrss.si

Website address

No links specified.

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

No links specified.

This information was provided/updated by:

Brigita Rupar

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, co-ordination, co-operation, collaboration, lifelong guidance, Slovenia

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

MEMORANDUM OF UNDERSTANDING FOR THE CAREER INFORMATION, GUIDANCE AND COUNSELING SERVICES IN TURKEY

Country

Turkey

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

The “Career Information, Guidance and Counseling Services Cooperation Protocol” was signed and came into force on 26th October, 2004 with participation of all related stakeholders including public authorities, social partners, and NGO’s to provide coordination and cooperation on career information, guidance and counseling services. A Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) was signed in 2009 with participation of the organizations in the protocol in order to update the tasks and roles defined in the protocol and define the responsibilities for the National Career Information System (CIS). The MOU has been a significant effort and outcome to enhance the communication, coordination and collaboration of all the stakeholders.
It has links with all four LLG policy priorities:
Encourage the lifelong acquisition of career management skills,
Faciliate access by all citizens to guidance services,
Develop quality assurance in guidance provision,
Encourage coordination and cooperation among the various stakeholders
Participants are:
The Ministry of National Education, PES in the Ministry of Labor and Social Security , the Undersecretariat of the State Planning Agency, The Turkish Institute of Statistics the Higher Education Council, National Qualifications Authority, the Agency for Development and Support of Small and Middle Scale Industry, the National Productivity Center, the Turkey Union of Chambers and Stock Exchanges, the Confederation of Turkish Employers Unions, the Confederation Turkish of Tradesman and Artisans and the Confederation of Turkish Workers Unions

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The main aim of the MOU is to define and contribute to the development of the roles and responsibilities of all the the related stakeholders, government, social partners, universities and non-governmental organizations in the national web based CIS. Moreover, to also support an integrative approach to all the services in Turkey.
The target group includes individuals from every age and a wide range of groups such as students, youth adults, unemployed, employment seekers, people want to change career, retired, disabled, women, dropouts etc.
Methods applied to reach the objective are face-face interviews ,meetings, workshops and the process of writing the country reports (2003,2006)

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

All the stakeholders will provide updated data periodically to the national web-based system.
Career guidance services will be carried out in a coordinated way
The stakeholders will share the materials and documents they develop.
The MOU covers the guidelines for the actions to be carried out by the stakeholders on lifelong career information, guidance and counseling services at national, local and international levels (Euroguidance, PLOTEUS etc.) and on the national web-based system to be coordinated by the Ministry of National Education. Moreover, the MOU has guidelines on how to carry on the services at the local level.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

At governmental level, monitoring and evaluation will be carried out by the Career Guidance Services Development Unit established under the General Directorate for Special Education Guidance and Counseling Services of the Turkish Ministry of National Education (MONE) and by Occupation Information Commission, MEDAK) under the Turkey Employment Agency; and
At local level, by Guidance and Research Centers and Provincial Directorships of the Turkey Employment Agency
The strategic plan is in the process of development by all the stakeholders has outcome indicators to be used, ie. number of personnel trained for ICT skills, number of students who used web based self-assessment tools, etc.)

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

Inter-agency cooperation.
Cooperation, coordination and collaboration at the national level.
Effective use of human resources and finances.
Sustainability of the national web-based information system.
Awareness on guidance services
Increase in the quality of the services
Right to use of career guidance services
Leading to the development of the strategic plan as a joint effort of the stakeholders
Each institution will finance its own activities itself.
Although career guidance services have been provided mostly in educational institutions previously, hereafter individuals from every part of the society will have opportunity to have information about these services and benefit from them.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

The cooperation, coordination and collaboration of all stakeholders are a major success factor. Twelve public authorities, social partners and NGO’s came together and they undertook some tasks and responsibilities for providing career information, guidance and counseling services.
Lessons learnt are:
Team work
Importance of cooperation
Effective use of the resources
Use of stocked information

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

There are organizations providing career guidance services at local level. Also, structured and institutionalized career guidance providers are available. The MOU is an opportunity to further cooperation, coordination and collaboration among all the related the stakeholders. A web-based career information system has been established. A strategic plan for the career guidance services in Turkey is in the process of development.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Ruhi KILIÇ, PhD

Role (in policy initiative)

Director General for Special Education Guidance and Counseling Services of the Turkish Ministry of National Education and also National Coordinator for Turkey for ELGPN

Organization name

Directorate General for Special Education Guidance and Counseling Services of the Turkish Ministry of National Education

Address

MEB Kampusu A Blok Beşevler/ANKARA/TÜRKİYE

Phone

+90 312 212 76 14-15

Fax

+90 312 213 13 56

E-mail

ruhikilic@meb.gov.tr, orgm@meb.gov.tr

Website address

http://orgm.meb.gov.tr

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

No links specified.

This information was provided/updated by:

Seza Karaman, ELGPN National Representative for Turkey and the Career Guidance Services Development Unit in MONE

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, career management skills, access, quality, co-operation, co-ordination, career information, Turkey

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Learning & Working

Country

The Netherlands

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

The project directorate Learning & Working has developed a method to successfully translate EU- and national-level goals with regards to adult learning to concrete local-level actions. Stimulating and facilitating regional cooperation between local and regional governments, public employment services like the Centre for Work and Income (CWI) and the Social Security Agency (UWV), educational institutions, employers and employees is the heart of the project and has proven to be the key to it’s success.

• The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

The interdepartemental project directorate Learning & Working is a joint project of the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment with the involvement of the Ministry of Agriculture, Nature Management and Food Quality. It was started in 2005 to take concrete steps forward to advance adult learning.

• Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other policies or documents)

Obviously the activities of the project directorate Learning & Working are closely connected to (the national implementation of) the Lisbon objectives on training and education, specifically the following:
- 20% of the Dutch between the ages of 25 and 64 should be following a course or educational programme in 2010. The Lisbon objectives state that 12,5% of the adult population should participate in education and training. In 2000 the Dutch percentage already exceeded this with a score of 15,6%. Therefore a more ambitious national goal was formulated for 2010.
- 50% of the working population should be highly educated in 2020.
- 80% of the Dutch working population should have a basic qualification (MBO level 2) in 2010.

• Participants

Adults in broadest sense

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The intention of the project directorate was to take concrete actions. This was implemented and stimulated by formulating concrete objectives that were to be reached at the end of the project period, initially planned at the start of 2008. The goals and objectives from the 2005 action programme related to the intended regional infrastructure for adult learning were the following:
- Ensuring that more young people and adults combine their job or job-seeking efforts with training and education that will lead them to acquiring a vocational and educational training qualification.
- Employers and employees, education providers and local governments in the region conclude collaboration agreements (at least ten in 2005) concerning the creation of work based learning in the region.
- These collaboration agreements will result in a total of 15,000 work-based learning programmes being realized before the start of 2008. This concerns learning-working programmes aimed at integration into the labour process or at earning an occupational qualification, possibly in combination with learning the Dutch language.
- The interdepartmental project directorate for Learning & Working has resolved to realize 20,000 APL procedures (Accreditation of Prior Learning) before the start of 2008.
- Setting up easily accessible and independent contact desks for learning and working in the region is to provide employed people, job-seekers and employers with low-threshold access to career advice, assessment of competencies acquired and education opportunities.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

When the project directorate Learning & Working was set up, it was decided that an unorthodox and dynamic approach was needed to achieve progress with adult learning. In the years before, there had been plenty of discussions, expert meetings had taken place and many policy documents were written, but very little action had been undertaken. The establishment of an interdepartemental and temporary project directorate was a change in approach. A pro-active, almost activistic, mentality focused on regional cooperation was chosen.

In the first phase of setting up an infrastructure many parties in the region (employers, employees, education providers and local governments) were consulted concerning concrete objectives. They were asked to establish these objectives in regional collaboration agreements. It started with establishing contacts with regional partners in four regions with regard to setting up such an infrastructure for APL, including career advice and services on educational opportunities. Based on the experiences gained in these four regions, similar initiatives were launched in other regions.

• Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)
Regional implementation , national driven

• Implementation (description)
Several actions were taken to encourage and involve more regional parties. Among others these steps were:
- Conduct discussions with interested parties to explore their interest in collaboration.
- Analyse existing initiatives in order to gain greater insight into the opportunities and possible bottlenecks in the process of launching extra work-based learning programmes in the region.
- Organize account management in order to support parties in finding partners and closing deals.
- Provide temporary financial contributions (subsidies) in order to stimulate and support the organizational capacity of parties.
- With regards to the project plans the account manager from the project directorate Learning & Working played various roles in the implementation ranging from support, steering and feedback up to evaluation.
- Gain more insight into and increase access to financial resources such as subsidies from the European Social Fund.
- Organize a national communication campaign in order to get individuals and employers to invest more in training and to support regional projects, make funds available to them for communication.
- Organise interactive meetings, workshops and work conferences for regional partners.
- Trace any (institutional) bottlenecks and, if possible, solve them or have them solved.
- Monitor, both quantitative and qualitative, results to distinguish successful (and unsuccessful) projects, so other projects may learn from their experiences.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

An adult learning infrastructure was created virtually covering the whole country. Today there are over 40 partnerships. With the number of parties involved in each of these ranging from five to sometimes fifteen, there are literally hundreds of local organizations taking part in our effort to take adult learning in the Netherlands to the next level.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

• Specific results
See above
• Cost effectiveness
Every two years the Ministry of Education, Culture and Science carries out a big research about the external valuation of directorates. This research evaluates directorates in six areas: Transparency, understandability of communication, quality of policy, quality of employees, customer driven and consistency. On all levels the project directorate Learning & Working scores better than other directorates

• Budget
Participating monitoring is used in combination with more formal monitoring by independent agencies. In other projects or subsidies, where government officials are far more monitoring from a distance, less FTE is necessary. The way account management is designed in this project, is more expensive.

• Innovative aspects
The approach of the project directorate Learning & Working is innovative in four different ways. First, the role of national government as both partner in the region and subsidiser. Second, both on the local as the national level a break with traditional structures. Third, as a result of more cooperation between regional and national level, difficulties are made explicit far more quickly. Fourth, partner selection is based on innovative criteria, which strengthens the progress of the regional projects.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success? Up to 200 words)
Using a whole new approach compared to the years before, the target number of work-based trajectories was easily surpassed. In terms of network, infrastructure and innovation, much more was achieved than anticipated. Only APL lagged behind, though the number of trajectories completed tripled in comparison to the years before 2005.
• Lessons learnt
Even though an important push has been given, the project directorate’s activities in relation to the whole Dutch society remain modest. External spin-off effects and as mentioned in the previous paragraph further concept-development and implementation of our experiences into new policies are all needed to give this ‘big push’ in adult learning in the Netherlands.

Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative? Up to 100
words)
On top of the structural challenges we will have to deal with the impact of an economic crisis whose full scope remains to be grasped. The full package of actions by the Dutch government is still being discussed at the time of writing. It is very likely that the project directorate Learning & Working and it’s regional projects will be involved in the realisation of these actions.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

In the Learning & Working project, no blue print was used to force the partner selection; an open intake was made possible. This bottom-up process formed the basis for composition of new partnerships in the region. Beside this innovative approach to forming new partnerships, it is obliged to involve employers or employer representatives. This enhances the sustainability for following years, when there will be no financial stimulus on cooperation. This way, companies themselves are involved in the project, which means more focus on human resource management and development.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Amnon Owed

Role (in policy initiative)

Project Advisor

Organization name

Ministry of Social Affairs and Employment

Address

Anna van Hannoverstraat 4, 2595BJ The Hague

Phone

+31 70 333 5413

Fax

+31 70 3334318

E-mail

aowed@minszw.nl

Website address

http://www.leren-werken.nl

Documents and publications

- Carrying on with Learning & Working: Plan of approach 2008-2011
- Reinforcing Learning & Working: Action programme 2005-2007

Attached files

Links

No links specified.

This information was provided/updated by:

Peter van Deursen

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, career management skills, access, co-operation, employed, The Netherlands

Name of the good/interesting practice/initiative/policy

Quality Assurance in the Danish Guidance System in the educational sector

Country

Denmark

I am proposing that this example will be published also in the KSLLL database

1. Background

What makes this an example of good/interesting practice/initiative/policy?

- The motivation of the initiative (What is the history/background of the policy?)

- Linkages with LLG policy priorities (Please add references to other national/EU policies or documents)

- Participants

The background of a national quality assurance system dates back to April 2003, when the Danish parliament adopted a new act on guidance, which aimed to establish a more efficient guidance system with an improved quality assurance system. On August 1st 2004, a simpler and more transparent guidance system was launched. The quality assurance system should be seen in this light as one method to facilitate a transparent, accountable guidance system. Quality assurance requirements have been part of the act on guidance since the adoption of the act. Part of the background for this is the 2004-resolution, which identified the need for quality assurance as one area that should be the focus of a prioritised effort. The quality assurance requirements have been extended gradually to include more indicators and areas of guidance.

The Ministry of Education is the main stakeholder of the quality assurance system in the educational sector on a national level, as well as the main organisations for managers and guidance counsellors. The guidance centres and the educational institutions are the main stakeholders on a local level and are required to establish a quality assurance system, which can be used to document activities, quality and effect on clients and society.

Aims and targets

- Objectives of the initiative (What did the policy set out to achieve?)

- Target group

- Methods applied to reach the objective (technological and /or pedagogical)

The aim of the system is to ensure that the contents of guidance services meet high quality standards so that the guidance provided is of greatest possible benefit to the clients. The quality assurance system should contribute to achievement of the aims of the guidance reform and establish a feedback loop, which provides information to decision makers on the scope, results and effects of guidance. This serves as foundation for further development and the collected data will provide an evidence-base for evaluating the guidance centres and for improving their services.

The main target group are the guidance centres and the educational institutions, who are required to establish a quality assurance system, which can be used to document activities, quality and effect on clients and society. It will give the centres and institutions a comprehensive view of their guidance services and serve as a foundation for further development.

The main intention behind the method of quality assurance is to apply common guidelines and methods for quality assurance in order to create a basis for comparability between similar units (i.e. the guidance centres and the educational institutions) and a view over time about performance of guidance. By applying common guidelines a systematic approach and method for the guidance centres and the educational institutions in their developing and measuring quality is introduced.

The Ministry of Education provides the guidance centres with a set of quality assurance tools to support that they reach the act’s main targets through continuous evaluation of their activities. This includes tools to report quality level, results and effects of the activities. Several indicators are included in the quality assurance system. When fully implemented, the quality assurance system will include data on indicators, which are comparable between different guidance and educational institutions and, consequently, allow the main stakeholders to compare institutions on a national as well as a local level.

Among the indicators are user surveys, based on nationally representative samples of pupils and students, responding on the same questionnaire. The user surveys are designed to provide information on user benefit of guidance in order to create the basis for a user-driven development. Based on inputs from guidance counsellors, the user surveys make it possible to compare and evaluate the user benefit of different types of guidance activities. Nationwide indicators based on data available from the administrative systems of the guidance and educational institutions as well as data from Statistics Denmark are also included in order to be able to evaluate the guidance provided, see below.

2. Implementation

Strategy and actions (Please describe the approach adopted to make the reform work and any actions taken.)

- Level of implementation (national, regional etc.)

- Implementation (description)

Development of the national quality assurance system has taken place in cooperation between the Ministry of Education and the interested parties and main stakeholders such as manager and guidance counsellor organisations. Different work groups with representatives from the Ministry as well as the guidance counsellors and managers have been set up in order to draft manuals on how to introduce quality assurance systems.

Generally, the work related to quality assurance is a task for each of the municipal or regional centres. However, annual reports and developments will be discussed at yearly reviews with the municipal councils and the Ministry respectively. The Ministry of Education has implemented the statistical indicators of the quality assurance system. Furthermore, the Ministry provided the technical set-up for the surveys in 2009.

Monitoring and evaluation

- What has been put in place for monitoring and evaluation?

- What actors are involved?

The quality assurance system contains a monitoring clause in order to ensure that the guidance services meet the main objectives of the new act and lead to the expected results. The system is designed to create a comprehensive view on the guidance provided as possible. The evaluation process is to a high extent a task for the practitioners, due to their hands-on knowledge of the actual content of the guidance provided.

3. Outcomes

Achievements (Please describe the main outcomes/results according to the following headings. Each option can be answered - up to 50 words)

- Specific results

- Cost effectiveness

- Budget

- Innovative aspects

The quality assurance system has resulted in an increase of valid data available on guidance. This includes user surveys with more than 45.000 respondents from all level of education. Additionally, the statistical material available on guidance has increased. Through data from Statistics Denmark the ministry produces statistics on completion and transition rates that can be used by the centres and institutions. This has generated a gradual increase in sharing of good experiences/good practice among practitioners. This development is still in process.

Success factors (What key success factors have led to or prevented success?)

- Lessons learnt

- Unintended impacts (Have there been any unintended impacts? Positive or negative?)

Developing a quality assurance system on a complex area such as guidance has been a learning process, which will continue in the years to come. Other factors than guidance influence young people’s pathway through the education system. An unambiguous connection can hardly be established between guidance services and the effect measured, such as, for instance, quick completion of an education. Moreover, the purpose of guidance is to make the young people self-reliant, which make the direct effect of guidance difficult to measure. On the other hand, it is possible to determine probable connections and establish indicators on guidance’s input to the total effect.

Strengths and weaknesses

- What areas of the policy can we learn lessons from?

- Are there still challenges ahead?

A new political agreement aims at increasing the use of results-based management in the guidance centers. This is to be supported by a new database, which includes data from all relevant sources.

4. Additional narrative description of the policy/practice/initiative

Additional information

Name of contact

Jeppe Christiansen

Role (in policy initiative)

Organization name

Ministry of Education

Address

Vester Voldgade 123, 1552 Koebenhavn V, Denmark

Phone

(+45) 3392 5017

Fax

E-mail

jeppe.christiansen@uvm.dk

Website address

No links specified.

Documents and publications

Attached files

Links

No links specified.

This information was provided/updated by:

Jeppe Christiansen

No comments by users.

ELGPN, good practice, initiative, interesting practice, policy, quality, evidence-based policy, Denmark