— Career Management Skills — Targeting specific groups

Prague – 5-7 October 2009Ronald G. Sultana

WP1 members: Austria, Czech Republic, Denmark, France, Italy, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Portugal, Sweden, Slovenia, Slovakia, UK (Scotland).

Key points: • Recalling the context• Recalling the Vilnius PLA outcomes• Building on the Vilnius PLA outcomes• From general to targeted services • Mapping some interesting practices

- the education sector- the labour market sector- the NGO sector

• Concluding reflections: Policy issues

Recalling the context: the Council Resolutions (2004, 2008)

• Refocus CG in ways that promote career management skills (WP1)

• Increase access to lifelong guidance (WP2)• Develop coordinated LLG systems (WP3)• Improve QA mechanisms (WP4)

CMS, EU Resolutions, and the KBE

- non-linear transitions - complex pathways - challenge of LLL - risk society: “flexicurity”? - social contract

- Defining CMS (what?) - Typical content of CMS- Justifying CMS (why?) - Location of CMS (where?- LLL dimension of CMS (when?) - CMS staff (who?)- Teaching & assessing CMS (how?) - Key issues for CMS

CMS: Range of competences (knowing, doing, being) providing structured ways for individuals and groups to gather, analyse, synthesise information

- about self - about education - about occupations

Aim: To develop resources in people to better manage their life course.

Vilnius

outcomes

Typical content of CMS

Decision-learning … Opportunity awareness … Transition skills … Self-awareness

Personal choices and skills: Knowing self, self-assessment, decision-making,

acting in a diverse cultural environment ... ... ...Links between education and work:Courses and job opportunities, requirements, career

exploration, learning skills ... ... ...The Labour market:Rights and duties at work, equal opportunities, values

of different lifestyles ... ... ...

Key learning points from Vilnius PLA

• Some contestation over name of CMS • Some contestation over goal: outcomes?• Not too clear if citizen wants or needs CMS training • General agreement regarding content • Little discussion of diversity among learners• Filtered through cultures, structures and national curricular traditions• Different ways of including CMS in curriculum (infusion, subject, extra-curricular, mixed model)• Different approaches re CMS in PES: enticing, enabling, empowering, enforcing. Reflection

Note

Vilnius: issues for CMS

• Multi-dimensional approach needs staff co-ordination.

• Integrate info resources, providers, systems and tools.

• Students not necessarily motivated to learn the topics.

• Training teachers to deliver CMS appropriately.

• Widening access to unreached special target groups.

• Supply is not matching the demand for CMS.

• Difficulty to insert CMS in an over-crowded curriculum.

• Develop capability in those partners and individuals who influence CMS (e.g. parents, employers, peers...)

Key challenge for Prague PLA

Persons with disability Persons at risk of social exclusion Immigrants and ethnic and cultural minorities Persons disadvantaged in education or at the labour market

for whatever reason...

Targeting CMS to groups with specific needs Research

and

resources

Mapping: general comments

• Responses by 8 countries: Czech Republic, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Portugal2, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, UK-Scotland

• ‘Special needs’ mainly associated with physical disabilities

• In some cases, other ‘minorities’ were identified (e.g. Roma, fostered children, ex-convicts...)

• Little references to targeted CMS—focus on CG & counselling

Why CMS for target groups?

• CMS not used in relation to target groups: ‘integration’, ‘reintegration’, ‘employability’ (SI, LU, SE)

• Laws (CZ) or CG strategies (e.g. LT) promote “tailored support for disadvantaged groups”

• Linked to an overall government policy to cater for citizens with special needs (e.g. SE)

• National frameworks giving a direction to CMS: e.g. Scotland’s Education (Additional Support for Learning) Act

• Enhanced awareness of multiple difficulties compounded by high unemployment (e.g. PT)

What?...definitions

•‘Special needs’ (not ‘handicapped’, ‘blind’, ‘drop-out’). Scotland prefers term ‘additional support’

•Identification of target groups for policy focus (e.g. Looked after children, Young Carers, Refugees, Ethnic minorities, Young Offenders; health disadvantage, social disadvantage)

•Some have framed this within a policy on support for employment (e.g. LT’s Law on support for employment - 2009 : disability, LTUs, over 50, ex-convicts, substance-abusers, human trafficking, children from foster homes)

•Notions of an ‘adult at social risk’ and at risk of ‘social exclusion’

Where?

• Schools—often linked to services targeting disabilities, or at-risk pupils, including those with challenging behaviours

• Some education systems: school counsellors with special responsibilities to ‘at-risk’ students

• Some specific CMS targeting particular age groups (e.g. Cz: stress management for higher education students; Career Centre for Disabled in LT)

• Through social service sector (e.g. PT) and specialised agencies for different client groups (e.g. LU)

• Some specifically promote a partnership approach (e.g. Scotland - Jobcentre Plus Disability Employment Adviser)

Who?

• In most cases, both education and LM sectors play a role

• Most staff have psychology background, others have a social work or medical background; few have specialised knowledge

• NGOs increasingly important (e.g. CZ—with Roma; SDS partnered with Save the Children to develop a Peer Education project with young Gypsy/ Travellers )

• The politics of ‘voice’ – client centred/designed systems

How?

• ‘Balance diagnostic centres’—mostly through PES

• Preventive approach: education; PES /NGOs: curative

• Beyond ‘preventive’ vs ‘curative’ dualism: embrace difference, seek out the positives

• ‘Social models’ vs ‘medical models’

• Some advanced diagnostic and delivery services, but focus tends to be more on placement than support (e.g. PT)

• NGOs tend to be less regulated by the state—use a more eclectic and broad range of approaches

How? .../ctd.

• PES in LT: specialised CMS programmes for individuals with special needs (4 – 40 hours)

• LT: Open Information, Counselling and Guidance System (AIKOS) – separate module for persons with disability.

• PT: emphasis not only on CMS, but on balance between people’s resources and life circumstances: coping skills + self-esteem + social support + personal power

Policy Issues

• Joined up policy and strategic approach – otherwise implementation can lack consistency, and suffers fragmentation

• Services to target groups are often neither guidance specific nor CMS specific

• Target groups seen to require more intensive service provision, such as advocacy and counselling, rather than CMS

• Unreached groups (e.g. some minorities, school drop-outs, rural & remote areas) - a range of access issues

• Institution-based services rather than outreach programmes that connect with where target groups are at

Policy issues /...ctd

• Lack of adequate regulatory framework for services not offered by the state

• Sustainability of projects and initiatives

• CMS development not sufficiently articulated as a goal or framework that binds services together

• Range of services limited: e.g. Target groups already in jobs, but who need skills to manage their careers; or those who develop disabilities (PT)

• Legislative and environmental frameworks that support social inclusion

Resources

Lithuania: “Career guidebook” with a separate chapter devoted to the learning opportunities for the disabled: http://www.euroguidance.lt/profesijosvadovas/gui/index.htmThe Open Information, Counselling and Guidance System (AIKOS) launched in 2008, with a separate module for persons with disabilities: www.aikos.smm.lt

Luxembourg: Action Locale Pour Jeunes: www.alj.lu

Scotland: Skills Strategy for Scotland: www.scotland.gov.uk/Resource/Doc/197204/0052752.pdf and www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2006/06/13100205/0 The Education (Additional Support for Learning) (Scotland) Act 2004: www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2004/06/19516 www.careers-scotland.org.ukImproving outcomes for looked after children www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/2008/08/29115839/0 Peer Education project with young Gypsy/ Travellers living in Scotland.Resource Guide for Parents and Carers of People with Additional Support NeedsPathways Handbook.

More resources

Slovenia: PUM (Projektnjo učenje za mlade—“Project based Learning for Young Adults”) aimed at early school leavers http://www.tin-ljubljana.si/english.html

ICTEM: Integrated Career, Training and Employment Programme (LdV project—2004). Promotes self-reliance, with additional support for persons with special needs: http://en.kadis.si/index.php?menu_item=item_10357

“Production school”: home for young people who cannot, for different reasons, live with their parents: basic lifeskills and others related to CMS: www.mdj.si/index.php?page=produkcijska-sola

Austria: CG and the hearing impairedFinland: CHOICES projectItaly: The University of Padua group (Prof Salvatore Sorresi)Malta: Euroguidance Research project on CG and DisabilityEmerging interest in ‘Culture and Career’ (immigrants, refugees, faith groups...)