1 European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network Work Package 1 – Career Management Skills Synthesis Meeting NATIONAL PROGRAMME FOR CAREER GUIDANCE Aleksandra Sokolova Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania Novy Smakovec, Slovakia February 2010

2 Career guidance system refers to the following services: career information career counselling career education

3 The key guidance documents: The Law on Education of the Republic of Lithuania (2003) (information and counselling) The Law on Vocational Education and Training of the Republic of Lithuania (2007) (vocational guidance) The Career Guidance Strategy (2003) (information, counselling and career education) The description of requirements for provision of career information and counselling services (2005) (information and counselling) A description of the career guidance implementation procedure (draft 2009) (information, counselling and career education)

4 Programme period : Guidance and lifelong learning defined as priorities of the General guidelines for the use of EU structural funding (2004). National projects Main objective – implementation of National career guidance strategy: “Development and Implementation of the Career Guidance System” Implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Lithuanian Youth Information and Technical Creativity Centre, Lithuanian Labour Market Training Authority “Development and Elaboration of the Open Information, Counselling and Guidance System (AIKOS)” Implemented by the Ministry of Education and Science together with the Centre of Information Technologies of Education

5 Other projects: “Modernisation of the career guidance, information and counselling services by implementation of the unified model for development of career competencies at university and colleges” Implemented by the Vilnius university, Alytus college, Siauliai university, Vilnius cooperative college and other partners. “Effective career designing” Implemented by the Lithuania university of agriculture. „Innovative models of career counselling for successful integration into the labour market” Implemented by the College of Social Sciences.

6 Programme period : Guidance defined as priority in the of the National Programme for Career Guidance in the Educational System Main objectives: further development of the career guidance system improving areas of management, infrastructure and contents of guidance (career education and career monitoring, training of specialists, methodiology and guidance tools, development of AIKOS system) The process of the implementation of the Programme parallels and stimulates the preparation of amendments to the National career guidance strategy

7 Current situation: Applications for the contract: Project “Development of the career education model for students of secondary and VET schools” Submission by the Lithuanian youth technical creativity palace (February 2010) Project “Development of the career education model for students of higher schools” Submission by the Vilnius university together with 26 partners (higher education institutions) (January 2010) Project “Further development of the Open information, guidance and counselling system (AIKOS)” Submission by the Centre of Information Technologies of Education (end of February 2010)

8 Main project activities: Development and of the career education model for all types of schools (secondary, VET and higher education): strategy and tactics, scope of activities, methodology, content and tools, training for key service providers, monitoring of service quality and students career services, other Implementation of the model

9 Detailed structure of career education provision: Defining student’s career management competencies (criteria and performance indicators) Key areas: Self exploration Learning and work exploration Career planning/management

10 Secondary and VET schools level: Integration of the career management competencies into the curriculum Extra-currricular activities for development of career management competencies Linking guidance to other forms of services – psychological and social Higher education schools level: Organisation of career management skills through separate course and service provision (career centre, career portal)

11 Both projects will be complemented with infrastructural projects: office equipment, ICT tools, renovation, other (first cycle of implementation) (second cycle of implementation)

12 Example of Interesting Practice Development of the National framework of career management Background Development of the National framework of career management by examining the career development frameworks, designed and successfully implemented in other countries (e.g. Blueprint for Work/Life design in Canada, The National Career Development Guidelines in USA).

13 The motivation of the initiative National Career guidance strategy (2003): need to develop the National framework of career management which would describe the competencies that should be acquired in educational system (general education, VET, HE), and ensure successful planning, implementation and evaluation of the individual career. to define the outcomes of the developmental process in terms of competencies, which could be measured by the set of indicators.

14 Linkages with LLG policy priorities National Career Guidance Strategy (2004) National Lifelong Learning Strategy Implementation Programme (2004) National Lisbon Strategy Implementation Programme (2005)

15 Participants Ministry of Education and Science Experts and practitioners from Lithuanian Youth Technical Creativity Palace (Career Planning Centre), University career centre, general education school career unit, vocational school.

16 Aims and targets The main aim – development of the National framework of career management. Tasks: Description of the student’s career management competencies (their criteria and performance indicators) Description of the basic principles and organization of career education Description of the main activities and services Description of the career education methodology and tools Description of the training for the career educators and service providers Other

17 Objectives of the initiative - support of the development of student’s career management competencies. Target group - students and specialits in general education, vocational and higher schools. Methods applied to reach the objective - development of a concept of career education and development of the career management competencies by working group of experts.

18 Strategy and actions National framework of career management was planned to be implemented on national level in all levels of educational system: general, vocational and higher education schools. As a basis for development of the National framework of career management the working group of experts took for examination several examples of the analogous frameworks successfully implemented in other countries (USA and Canada). The draft of the National framework of career management was produced (2007).

19 The final version of the National framework wasn’t approved due to disagreement on the final description of the competencies content and indicators as well as methods of career education service delivery on different educational levels. The already-existing frameworks for career development reflect different curriculum tradition, have language and cultural nuances. Higher education institutions seem to be more ready and flexible in implementation of the already-existing frameworks.

20 The National framework that was initially planned to develop had a range of aims which turned to be quite ambitious since it had to describe much more than the concept, philosophy and methodology of the career education, but also clearly structured content (hierarchy of competencies, criteria and indicators), principles of the career education programme and service provision, training of the counsellors, etc.

21 This experience revealed some of the important aspects (needs): the need for common conceptual understating the need to ground the development of National framework on comprehensive research reflecting: specific of the educational tradition national context curriculum development administration of services links between each component of the educational system (general, vocational and higher) results of the comparative analysis of the analogous frameworks successfully applied in other countries as well as the context in which they were developed.

22 Outcomes Career education (and it’s lifelong dimension) was recognized as an important issue on the level of the Ministry of Education and Science. Approval of National programme for career guidance in the educational system. One of the priorities - development of the coherent model of career education at the general, vocational and higher schools. Preparing the amendments to the National career guidance strategy and developing new plan of strategy implementation aiming to highlight the role of career education had become a part of the Government programme for 2010.

23 Thank you for your attention! Ms Aleksandra Sokolova Ministry of Education and Science of the Republic of Lithuania Department of General Education and Vocational Training Senior specialist of the Vocational Education and Guidance Division A. Volano str. 2/7, LT Vilnius, Lithuania Tel