1. Promoting Curriculum based Lifelong Career Management Competences
Raimo Vuorinen, Ph.D.
ELGPN Co-ordinator
The Finnish Institute for Educational Reseach, University of Jyväskylä, Finland
Presentation at the conference entitled: Cross Boarder Career, Lifelong learning
16 December 2010, Vilnius, Lithuania

2. 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 2

3. Career? From testing to tasting (Delgado 4.5.2010)
Individual lifepaths in learning, work and in others settings in which these capcities and competences are learned and/or used
From testing to tasting (Delgado )
Career is constructed rather than chosen
Lifelong guidance Career Management Skills a competence as such which can be learned in different settings

4. EU Council: Resolution on better integrating lifelong guidance into lifelong learning strategies
Career management skills play a decisive role in empowering people to become involved in shaping their learning, training and integration pathways and their careers. Such skills, which should be maintained throughout life, are based on key competences, in particular 'learning to learn', social and civic competences - including intercultural competences - and a sense of initiative and entrepreneurship. Career management skills include the following, particularly during periods of transition:
– learning about the economic environment, businesses and occupations;
– being able to evaluate oneself, knowing oneself and being able to describe the competences
one has acquired in formal, informal and non-formal education settings;
– understanding education, training and qualifications systems.

5. 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; –

6. 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.

7. WHY? ...Justifying CMS
General emphasis on the need to prepare for the world of work, and for entrepreneurship
Right of citizens to have transversal competences to participate in Knowledge Based Society
Part of the discourse on competence-based learning
Emphasis on self-development, and hence on self-guidance
(Sultana, R. 2009/ELGPN/WP1)

8. 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)

9. 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]

10. Outside the curriculum
Shared responsibility – overall coordination – curriculum mapping – joint curriculum development – captured by system logic
Policy options for
education sector:
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)

11. Key and Tranversal Competences Rethinking of: Lifelong Career
Management
Skills
Social
competences
Professional
competences
Personal
competences
(Soler )

12. 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)

13. CMS in curricula
Case: Finland

14. Educational and vocational guidance as change agent in Finnish school reforms
Careers education was integrated national curricula as a compulsory subject for students during school reforms in the 1970’s (comprehensive education) and in the 1980’s (secondary education)
Training of the first full time school counsellors
Support for the implementation of the new system
Interpretation of the new system to students, parents and also to other teachers
Information to the about the new opportunities in the labour market
A strong political consensus on the added value of school counselling

15. Guidance in legislation
Acts for comprehensive, upper secondary and vocational education:
Pupils and students are entitled to have educational and vocational guidance during every working day at school
RV/20/05/2010

16. Guidance in legislation (2)
Decrees for comprehensive education,
upper secondary and vocational education :
student counsellors take care of vocational and educational guidance (CE)
cooperation with working life – possibility to have time for work experience (CE)
guidance and counselling in classrooms, possibility to have personal counselling
RV/20/05/2010

17. EXAMPLE: Comprehensive Education Distribution of learning hours (2,5 hours during grades 7-9.)
Periods 1 2 3 4 5 6
7th
grade
1 in week
GC (GA)
8th
9th GC
GC = guidance counsellor GA = group adviser

18. Goals of the current curriculum guidelines
Guidance and counselling activities are to constitute a continuum lasting the duration of basic education.
It is the joint task of all teachers and a trained student counsellor
The parent or other guardian must be given opportunities to confer (discuss) about issues related to pupil’s studies and choices by meeting collectively with the teacher, study counsellor, and pupil.
In addition to preventive activities, guidance and counselling implemented at the school should especially support those pupils who have difficulties with studies or who are in danger of dropping out.

19. Goals of the curriculum guidelines
The principles and division of labour among the different players in guidance and counselling activities are to be defined in the local curriculum.
The curriculum must include a description of how cooperation with the local labour market and business community is implemented at the level of the entire school’s activity.
Classroom visits by labour market representatives, visits to workplaces, project work, the use of different sectors’ informational materials, and an introduction-to-working-life periods make up the central part of this cooperation.
The instruction in the different subjects is to include modules that connect the knowledge and skills provided the subject to the demands and possibilities of working life.

20. Basic goals of the curriculum guidelines related to CMS
support personal growth and development
promote the development of study skills and to help in learning difficulties
counsel and guide students in educational and vocational and professional orientation

21. Support on personal and social issues
Psycho-social support
- life situation and life history of the student
self knowledge and self-esteem of the student
life management experiences
student welfare services
multi-professional cooperation

22. Educational guidance learning and study process individual study plans
counselling and support when planning studies and choosing courses
learning methods and strategies
students are aware of their strengths and weaknesses as students

23. Career guidance educational and occupational plans career development
plans for the future
knowledge of working life
studying and working abroad
promote students’ skills for planning and realising life long learning
skills to use different tools to search information

24. SKILLS FOR WORKING LIFE
OBJECTIVES OF COUNSELLING (Kasurinen 2006)
EMPOWERMENT
skills in
interaction
working
in groups
self esteem
study skills
life management
skills
INDIVIDUAL
participation
surviving in
everyday life
skills to use
information
sources
skills to make
choices and
decisions
cultural
competence
communication
skills
READINESS
SKILLS FOR WORKING LIFE

25. Methods lessons individual counselling sessions
small-group counselling
ICT in counselling
distant counselling
practice in working life
visits, etc.

26. Guidance provision at universities of applied sciences
COMPREHENSIVE GUIDANCE AND COUNSELLING SYSTEM e.g. planning of studies, international exchange opportunities, student financial aid issues,
CAREER SERVICES in all universities of applied sciences offering services to students and employers
INFORMATION about careers, recruitment and job exchange at

27. Guidance provision at universities
GENERAL GUIDANCE for students at universities and for those seeking admittance to them
SPECIAL OFFICE FOR STUDENT GUIDANCE: information about studies, practical training, open university courses, …
FACULTIES/INSTITUTES: student affairs secretary, academic and other staff members responsible for tutoring and advising
CAREER AND RECRUITMENT SERVICES: meeting point for students and employers -> job opportunities after graduation
MORE INFORMATION at

28. The potential benefits of a portfolio in promoting CMS?
Support for individual learning process
Monitoring indivudual progress
Assessment and definition of individual competences and expertise
A learning process
An evaluation process
A selection process
A production process

29. Framework for guidance within the individual learning process (Auer 2006)
PSP and Curricula are ’interacting’: supply is
led by demand
Competences
PSP and ePortfolio are based on
Electronic Study Guide
Course planning and management
Discipline
PSP should be constructed ’backwards’
Professional competence profiles will be needed
Legislation
Individual learning plan
D e g r e e s
ePortfolio makes learning and
competence visible – both for the learner
him-/herself and external assessment
Portfolio
Working life
Professional requirements
Situation in life

30. Implications Design of the training provision Training of teachers
”Curriculum is a tool rather than a rule”
Training of teachers
Competences to support individual learning paths
Training of career practitioners
Competences both for service delivery and service design
Opportunity for individual learning programme which could be elaborated to a practitioner competence to support indivudal learning paths for their clients
Training of educational leaders and managers
Leadership for cross-sectora networks

31. 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