1. Widening Paradigm of Lifelong Guidance in the European Union Member States
Raimo Vuorinen, ELGPN Co-ordinator
University of Jyväskylä, Finland
”From the Good to the Best” Project meeting
13 April 2011, Kokkola, Finland

2. Themes for discussions
Widening paradigm of Lifelong Guidance
Lifelong guidance in key EU policies
Actions taken in EU Member countries
Questions for further consideration

3. Integrative role of Lifelong Guidance
Guidance as Common good
- Matching skills
Supply vs. demand
Emerging competence areas
- Competetiveness
Emphasised
in Labor Market
contexts
Guidance as private good
- Empowerment
- Personal growth
- Lifelong learning
Emphasised in
Educational contexts
Integrative role
of LLG
- Welfare
Inclusion
Active citizenship
Emphasised in
Social policies

4. Definition of Lifelong Guidance?
What? Activities: e.g.information giving, advice, counselling, assessment, teaching, advocacy
For whom/With who? All citizens
When? Any age and point in their lives
Focus? Making meaningful life choices on learning and work. Empowerment to manage learning and career
Career? Individual lifepaths in learning, work and in others settings in which these capcities and competences are learned and/or used
Where? Education, training, employment, community, private
EU Council of Ministries Resolution on lifelong guidance 2004 4

5. EU Council: Invitations to Member States 21.11.2008
Encourage the lifelong acquisition of career management skills;
Facilitate access by all citizens to guidance services;
Develop the quality assurance of guidance provision;
Encourage coordination and cooperation among the various national, regional and local stakeholders.
Use the opportunities provided under the Lifelong Learning Programme and the European Structural Funds, in accordance with Member States' priorities.

6. Member states should consider (2008)
including teaching and learning activities which foster the development of career management skills in general, vocational and higher education programmes;
preparing teachers and trainers to conduct such activities and support them in this task;
encouraging parents to become involved in guidance issues;
involving civil society organisations and the social partners more closely in this area;

7. Member states should consider (2008)
facilitating access to information about training opportunities and their links to the professions, and about the skills needs anticipated in a given locality;
developing career management skills in adult training programmes;
making guidance one of the objectives of schools, VET providers and higher education establishments. Integration into working life and the operation of the local, national and European labour markets are aspects, in particular, that should be taken into account.

8. Lifelong Guidance and future EU Strategies
Smart growth, Sustainable growth, Inclusive growth
Lifelong Guidance contributions to the implementation of the strategy e.g:
E&T 2020
Europe 2020 Integraged Guidelines
Flagship initiatives

9. LLG & ET 2020 Making lifelong learning and mobility a reality
Improving quality and efficiency of education and training
Promotion of equity social cohesion and active citizenship
Enhancing creativity and innovation, including entrepreneurship at all levels of education and training

10. 7 flagship initiatives targets
Smart Growth
Sustainable Growth
Inclusive Growth
Innovation
« Innovation Union »
Climate, energy and mobility
« Resource efficient Europe »
Employment and skills
« Agenda for new skills and jobs”
Education and employment
« Youth on the move »
Competitiveness
« An industrial policy for the globalisation era »
Fighting poverty
« European platform against poverty »
Digital society
« A digital agenda for Europe »

11. LLG & Youth On the Move Promotion of CMS Promotion of mobility
Recognition of non-formal and informal learning
Promotion of entry to labour market

12. LLG & NSNJ
Conditions for modernising labour market with a view of raising employment levels and ensuring sustainability of social models
Empowering citizens through the acquisition of new skills (CMS)
Implies wider access to range of guidance services and co-ordination of various services

13. LLG & Flexicurity Communication from the Commission 2007:
Towards Common principles of Flexicurity: more and better jobs through flexibility and security
More flexible and secure contractual arrangements
Lifelong learning strategies to promote ”ongoing capacity to adapt and increase one’s employability”
Facilitation of active transitions

14. European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network, ELGPN
A member state driven network established 2007
29 members 2 observers
A tool for European co-operation
Enhancement of national solutions to meet national challenges.
ELGPN is a conclusion to meet the challenges the policy makers meet in implementing the EU 2020 strategies and the tools supporting the strategy (e.g. EQF and ECVET)

15. Co-operation with other structures
The Network and the national fora has been linked, through appropriate membership or co-operation arrangements, to other relevant networks and initiatives at European level. These include:
The Euroguidance network.
The Public Employment Services (PES) network.
Professional networks, e.g. IAEVG, FEDORA, NCDA
other international organisations, bodies (e.g. the OECD)
Other relevant stakeholder networks (e.g. social partners, parents).

16. Thematic clusters 2011-2012 Widening access
Promoting career management skills
Co-operation and co-ordination mechanisms in guidance practice and policy development
Quality assurance/Evidence-based practice and policy development
Education & Training and Employment policy analysis from Lifelong Guidance perspective

17. ELGPN Outputs 2009-2010 Reflection notes from the thematic activities
Policy briefings related to thematic activities
Additional thematic briefings: e.g. Guidance during the economic crisis
Activity report with examples of promising/good practises in lifelong guidance policy development
Database of interesting/good policy initiatives
National and international events with ELGPN member contributions

18. Changing the paradigm of ”inclusion”
Many of the moves to develop inclusion have resulted in measures and training that are specific rather than generic and, debatably, more focussed on what is ‘wrong’ with the groups to be included and how this may be 'remediated', rather than looking to systemic and holistic approaches such as anti-discrimination practices, increasing the flexibility of curricula at all levels, interactive and student-centred learning and peer support strategies.
Changing the paradigm of inclusive education is identified as the greatest challenge and obstacle to be taken into account when designing future policies and practices.
ETF 2010

19. Definition of CMS
“Career management skills refer to a whole range of competences which provide structured ways for individuals and groups to gather, analyse, synthesise and organise self, educational and occupational information, as well as the skills to make and implement decisions and transitions.”
ELGPN WP1 reflection note (Sultana 2009)

20. CMS: Ways forward
Many countries still need to develop a national CMS framework.
Many also need to articulate a clear policy regarding the place of CMS in the curriculum.
A clear training strategy is needed for those delivering CMS, as well as relevant support resources that can be used in a wide variety of contexts.
CMS programme development needs to take into account the specific needs of at-risk target groups.
Further work is needed to develop appropriate assessment strategies.
Despite the constraints, the possibility of developing a European CMS framework should be pursued.

21. Exploring learning / work participate in LLL
Filtered through:
national cultures / structures
national curricular traditions:
- encyclopaedic tradition
(content oriented)
- Humboldt tradition
(humanist, process oriented)
- Anglo-saxon tradition
(outcome oriented)
These cultures determine:
view of citizen
role of the state
style of learning / assessment
pedagogic approach
type of curriculum (de/centralised)
view of learner (tabula rasa?)
‘BLUEPRINT’?
Personal Management
positive self-image
interaction with others
change and grow
Exploring learning / work
participate in LLL
locate/use information
understand work
Life/work building
secure, create, keep work
make good decisions
life – work balance
understand life/work roles
manage life/work building process
(Sultana, R. 2009/ELGPN/WP1)

22. Clarity (and realism) about the value of Career Management Skills
(Sultana, R. 2009/ELGPN/WP1)
Enhancing ‘employability’:
Understanding (broader and deeper than knowledge)
Skills (or ‘skilful practices’, which includes deployment of skills)
Efficacy beliefs (including students’ views of themselves and personal qualities)
Metacognition (self-awareness regarding learning, and capacity to reflect on it).
Taught (or caught?) in a myriad of ways
[Gap: issue of transferability]

23. Best of both worlds? – ensures coverage – requires careful planning
Policy options for
education sector:
Shared responsibility – overall coordination – curriculum mapping – joint curriculum development – captured by system logic
Infusion model
Separate subject
Outside the curriculum
Mixed model
Responsibility delegated (no ownership) – often part of lifeskills (elbowed out) – generic or customised
Band-aid approach – often too little, too late – targeted, rather than LL
Best of both worlds? – ensures coverage – requires careful planning
Curriculum development principles:
e.g. Centralised decentralisation, school-led, partnership, holistic, integrated (vertical / horizontal), customised, progression, relevance, coherence, flexible, resourced...
(Sultana, R. 2009/ELGPN/WP1)

24. APEL
APEL is a process which enables people of all ages and backgrounds to receive recognition and formal credit for learning acquired in the past through formal study and through work and other life experiences.
The proactive approach of supporting citizens, especially those with low skills and no employment, in valuing their prior learning can be a beneficial means of widening access to guidance services and the marketing of these services.
ELGPN WP2

25. APEL & Lifelong guidance
Countries with a high degree of development have moved from the introduction of validation policies to the implementation of validation practices - schemes and methodologies are applied to most or all parts of the educational system
ELGPN WP2: the proactive approach of supporting citizens, especially those with low skills and no employment, in valuing their prior learning can be a beneficial means of widening access to guidance services and the marketing of these services.

26. APEL in EU countries
APEL is included in national lifelong learning strategies in many European countries:
Within a legal framework
The process is an integrated component of the existing formal education and training system and an accepted route to certification.
A validation system which is parallel to formal qualification system and uses some of its infrastructure such as benchmarks and standards.
The validation system may be an entirely separate system with no standards or certification links to formal system.
(A summary report on Peer Learning Activity on Validation of non-formal and informal learning. Prague, June 2009).

27. CMS CATALOGUE/INVENTORY e.g. Canadian Bluepring for Life/work design

28. WP2: Key challenges
How to develop practitioners’ competences to use ICT tools.
How to make effective use of the potential of web-based social media and mobile technologies.
How to evaluate national service-delivery resources in relation to the new lifelong guidance paradigm.
Ethical aspects.
Evaluating the relative effectiveness for different groups of different service-delivery modes.
How to allocate funding between different delivery channels in meeting the needs of different priority groups.
How legislation can define citizen entitlements to guidance and service-delivery provision.
How to better promote the availability of guidance services to citizens.

29. WP 3: Key challenges Key points
Balance between top-down and bottom-up processes
Importance of regional fora and mechanisms
Communication, co-operation and co-ordination
Explicit integrative role of ICT

30. WP4 Key points Summary of existing QA mechanisms in member countries
Proposal for potential indicators

31. ELGPN strategic goal
To deepen attention to the four themes within the 2008 Resolution;
to link this LLG perspective more closely to sectoral policy development
(in schools, VET, higher education, adult education, employment, and social inclusion)
at both national and EU levels;
and to produce concrete tools to support these processes.

32. Objectives
To deepen the work on four priorities of the 2004 and 2008 Resolutions through additional peer learning, particularly with national and EU outcomes for each in mind.
To strengthen the policy links/interface between the work of ELGPN and EU policy development for schools, VET, higher education, adult education, employment and social inclusion.
To extend the dissemination of the ELGPN’s work with concrete supports to assist national policy-makers, developers and stakeholders in their national and EU policy development.
To improve the internal efficiency of the work of ELGPN itself.

33. Conclusions
Guidance and support services must be integral part of the VET policies with emphasis in the development of lifelong career management skills as one independent competence area.
There is a need for structured continuing professional development for the recognition practitioners both in educational organisations and companies. These competence profiles and trainging processed should be developed jointly with key organisations involved in the process.
There is a need to develop an ongoing, systematic monitoring and feedback mechanism of the recognition system including cost/benefit analysis already during the implementation process. Both quantitative and qualitative methods should be encouraged.

34. Conclusions (2)
Lifelong guidance is a significant contributor to the development of human capital, as an important engine for economic growth and social cohesion
In particular, lifelong guidance services can play an important role in helping governments to:
improve labour supply;
address skills shortages and emerging competence areas
raise the level of human capital;
improve the quality of human capital
Well functioning guidance services can be described as an indicator of well functioning educational and labour market system.

35. Thank you! For further information, please contact:
Raimo Vuorinen, Senior researcher, Ph.D.
Co-ordinator of the ELGPN
Finnish Institute for Educational Research
P.O. Box 35
FI University of Jyväskylä
tel , Mobile
Fax
www:
Skype: vuorai