The importance of counselling

GACIFE Project
Grundtvig 1.1
Work package 7 - GV 3-Course
Poprad, 21.05 – 25.05.2007
Cham, 25.06 – 29.06.2007
The importance of counselling
 Benefits of counselling
 Why counselling is important?
 The European dimension of counselling
 Counselling and Life Long Learning
Widespread definition
of “Guidance and Counselling”

 The term “Guidance and Counselling” will be used

in the context of life long learning and refers
according to the definition of the Council of the
European Union:

"information, guidance and counselling services"

refers to services intended to assist individuals, of
any age and at any point throughout their lives, to
make educational, training and occupational
choices and to manage their careers
 Widespread definition
of “Guidance and Counselling”
“Guidance and Counselling” includes a wide range of activities:
 activities within schools to help students clarify career goals
and understand the world of work
 personal or group-based assistance with decisions about initial
courses of study, courses of vocational training, further
education and training, initial job choice, job change, or work
force re-entry
 computer-based or on-line services to provide information
about jobs and careers or to help individuals make career
choices; and services to produce and disseminate information
about jobs, courses of study and vocational training.

It includes services provided to those who have not yet entered

the labour force, services to job seekers, and services to those
who are employed
(Draft Resolution of the Council and of the representatives of the Member States meeting within the Council on
Strengthening Policies, Systems and Practices in the field of Guidance throughout life in Europe , p. 2).
 Benefits of counselling
 Since the Lisbon Council (2000) and Commission’s
Memorandum on Long Life Learning (LLL) there is
widespread consensus that high quality guidance
provision throughout life is a key component of
education, training and employability strategies to
attain the strategic goal of Europe becoming the
world’s most dynamic knowledge based society
by 2010
 Benefits of counselling
The aims of Guidance and Counselling in the
context of LLL can be summarized as follows:
 “Guidance helps to build confidence and to
empower individuals as well as making people
aware of new career possibilities, including civic,
leisure, learning and work opportunities and
promotes the balance of life and work
 It promotes employability and adaptability by
assisting people to make career decisions both on
entering the labour market and on moving within it
(Guidance policies in the knowledge society: trends, challenges and responses across Europe, R. G.
Sultana, Cedefop 2004, page 5).
 Why counselling is important
Guidance aims to:
 enable citizens to manage and plan their
learning and work pathways in accordance with
their life goals,
 assist educational and training institutions to
have well motivated pupils, students and
trainees who take responsibility for their own
learning and set their own goals for achievement
 assist enterprises and organisations to have
well motivated, employable and adaptable staff,
capable of accessing and benefiting from
learning opportunities both within and outside
the workplace
 Why counselling is important
Guidance aims to:
 provide policymakers with an important means to
achieve a wide range of public policy goals
 support local, regional, national and European
economies through workforce development and
adaptation to changing economic demands and social
circumstances
 assist in the development of societies, in which citizens
actively contribute to their social and democratic
development
Importance of guidance and counselling
within education system and labour market

 Guidance and counselling services are important,

both to education systems and to the labour
market

 There are analogies between the importance that

systems of information and advice play in improving
the efficiency of education systems and labour
markets, and the role that they play in improving the
efficiency of financial or other markets
 Importance of guidance and counselling
within education system
 career education has an important role to play within education in
laying the foundations for lifelong career development
 guidance and counselling are particularly important in post
compulsory education. Here, wider curriculum choice results in
more diverse and complex routes into later stages of education,
into employment, or into both
This can help to:
 reduce dropouts from and back-tracking within education
systems, and thus improve internal flows
 improve flows between different levels of education, thus raising
national levels of educational attainment
 improve transitions from education to the labour market
These outcomes help to make better use of educational
resources, and to increase both individual and social returns to
investments in education
 Importance of guidance and counselling
within labour market
Within the labour market, guidance and counselling can:
 improve the accuracy and accessibility of the information
available to individuals about short- and long-term job
opportunities. In turn this can improve individual decision
making about jobs and about job training opportunities
 Importance of guidance and
counselling
In particular, guidance and counselling can help to:
 achieve a better match between skills, interests and
qualifications on the one hand and available job
opportunities on the other
 help to improve the allocation of labour across regions,
industries and occupations in the face of labour supply and
demand fluctuations resulting from technological and
structural change
 make a key difference between the successful and
unsuccessful implementation of active labour market
programmes
 The European dimension of counselling
Over the years cooperation at European level within
education and training has come to play a significant
role in creating the future European society
 economic and social developments in Europe over the
last decade have increasingly underlined the need for
a European dimension to education, training and
counselling.
 the enlargement of European Union adds a new
dimension and a number of challenges, opportunities
and requirements to the work in the field of education,
training and counselling
 the successive development of the European
education and training programmes has been a key
factor for improving cooperation at European level
 The European dimension of counselling
 Guidance and Counselling in the Member States of the
European Union is provided through a wide diversity of
structures, delivery systems and education, training,
employment and unemployment practices in private and
community sectors. This diversity has been collected in the
Cedefop – report on Guidance policies in the knowledge
society: trends, challenges and responses across Europe
The European dimension of counselling
In addition to many European initiatives, the EU has
provided support for policy development, reflection and
exchange of experience in the field of Guidance and
Counselling through:
the creation of the Commission’s Lifelong Guidance
Expert Group
http://www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects_Networks/Guidan
c/expertgroup/
the extension of the OECD career guidance policy review
to all Member States, acceding and candidate countries
http://www.trainingvillage.gr/etv/Projects_Networks/Guidan
ce/Career_Guidance_survey/
the provision of funding for projects through a range of
Education, Employment and Social Inclusion Programmes
the establishment of the EUROGUIDANCE network
http://www.euroguidance.org.uk/
 Counselling and Lifelong Learning
 Lifelong learning and the development of employability
are the guiding principles and frameworks for the
development of policies, systems and practices for
lifelong guidance
 Policies and programmes for lifelong guidance are an
integral part of national and European Community level
social and economic development policies and
programmes
 These include policies and programmes relating to
education, training, and employment, social inclusion,
gender equity, human resource development, regional
and rural development, and improving living and working
conditions
 Counselling and Lifelong Learning
 Policies and programmes for lifelong guidance are
formulated and implemented through stakeholder
participation in mechanisms such as national forums for
guidance. Relevant stakeholders include ministries,
users, social partners, service providers, employment
services, education and training institutions, guidance
practitioners, parents, and youth
 Policies and programmes for lifelong guidance take into
account national and international economic change and
technological development
 Counselling and Lifelong Learning
 Member states co-operate with each other, with
the European Commission and with other
stakeholders in planning, elaborating and
implementing collaborative action in lifelong
guidance within the context of Community policies
and programmes for education, training and
employment
Such co-operation may include:
 bilateral or multilateral assistance to other
countries
 joint research and peer reviews to improve the
quality of the planning and implementation of
programmes
 Counselling and Lifelong Learning
Such co-operation may include:
 helping those who work in guidance to acquire knowledge, skill
and experience not available in their own countries: for example
by giving them access to facilities in other countries or by
establishing joint facilities
 the systematic exchange of information, including the results of
research and experimental programmes, by means of expert
meetings, transnational exchanges and placements, seminars,
study groups, thematic networks or exchange of publications
 the preparation and dissemination of basic guidance material,
including curricula and job specifications, to facilitate
occupational and geographical mobility
 Summary
 A common goal of Guidance and Counselling is
 to promote employability
 to support career management and personal development of
social skills
 to reduce dropout through activation, motivation and
empowerment of participants/ learners/ users
 Guidance and Counselling services should be based on a
holistic approach, i.e. guidance and counselling regarded
as a lifelong process should
 recognise all clients’ need
 focus not only on their career development and labour market
integration but
 focus also on the social and psychological needs and deal with
them in the manner appropriate to the skills, experience and
role of the counsellor and the needs and wishes of the
individual