Career Development in the Mediterranean Region: Drivers for Change, Current Provision, and Policy Issues Tony Watts

Plan  Concept of career development  Relationship to drivers of change  Current range of provision  Policy issues

Definition  Career information, guidance and counselling 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

Coverage  Includes services to young people, to job- seekers, and to those already employed  May be based in schools, in universities and colleges, in public employment services, in companies, and in the voluntary and private sectors  May be on an individual or group basis  May be face-to-face or at a distance

Activities  Career information  Assessment and self-assessment tools  Counselling interviews  Group guidance programmes  Career education programmes  Work-experience programmes  Job-search skills training programmes

Distinct from:  Selection  Promotion  Induction

Contexts  Situations in which individuals are allocated to particular programmes  Situations in which they in principle have choices, but these choices tend to be determined by rigid status hierarchies – i.e. a kind of self-imposed allocation operates  Situations in which there is more genuine choice, but no formal career development services exist to support such choices: i.e. support for them is left entirely to informal sources  Situations in which choices exist, and are supported by formal career development services

Drivers for Change  Transforming the status of TVET  Qualification frameworks  Move to more active and student-centred forms of learning  Restructuring of the labour market, including reducing the public sector  Reducing the size of the informal sector  All require stronger career guidance if they are to be effective

Current Provision  Educational counselling in schools  ‘Me and My Profession’ series  Career guidance plan for grade 10 pupils  Vocational education classes: introduction to world of work  Career guidance committees  Career counselling centres in universities  Electronic Labour Exchange  Career Professional Counselling (PCC)  Some voluntary-sector activities

Policy Issues  Strengthen career information?  Strengthen attention to career development within educational counselling services?  Strengthen career education?  Broaden access to career development services?  Ensure provision takes account of socio-cultural context?  Increase number of staff and develop their competences?  Provide a focal point for strategic leadership?  Need for a professional association?