“Professional Care for Guidance Practitioners – Who Cares for Those Who

Care”Bratislava 15 – 16th April 2010, Falkensteiner

Hotel Bratislava

National SurveyProfesionalisation of Career Counselling

- Professional Care for Guidance Practitioners

Austria, Czech Republic, Germany, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia, and Slovenia

Report is not official country position – represents view of the authors

National SurveyPrepared by Euroguidance staff and/or

experts

Education (counselling at schools and counselling facilities)

Public employment services

National Survey - structureInitial training at work for beginning

counsellors and supervisionFurther training – update of knowledge

and methodsPrevention: working environment – well-

beingIntervention measures

ObjectivesComparation of the state of playGeneralization of the situation in Central

EuropeDiscussion and recommendations

SupervisionThere is no obligatory supervision set by lawSupervision as working standard: (PL PES; SL social affairs, SK social affairs)PL PES: „ A substantive support is guaranteed

by law only to those who are employed in labour offices as vocational counsellors – interns, as they perform their duties under the supervision of licensed vocational counsellor or a superior“

PL PES: „counsellors employed at the labour offices are obliged to possess a professional licence“

SupervisionSupervision as working standard:PL PES: „ counsellors are obliged to

cooperate with other experts employed at the poviat labour office at difficult cases “

PL PES: „Polish training market offers training courses on supervision“

SK Social affairs: „supervision is an obligatory part of training, i.e. during the first two years of work. In groups is carried out once a month “

SupervisionSupervision as working standard:SL Social affairs: „supervision in the social field is

legislated, so it is very common to have supervision in Centres of Social work “

SL Social affairs: „Social Chamber of Slovenia is responsible for planning, implementation and monitoring supervision of professional work in social security “

SL Social affairs: Regulation on planning, monitoring and implementation of professional work in the field of social security (Official Journal of the Republic of Slovenia 113/04)

SupervisionSupervision – testing, projects, plans:(CZ, HU, SK Edu, SL PES ans EDU, PL

Edu)PL EDU: „carried out under the programme

“Safe and Friendly School” “PL EDU: „ plan is to include supervision in

the system of teachers’ career progression“PL EDU: „ project of introducing certification

for supervisors“PL EDU: „internt forum Doradca 2000“

SupervisionSupervision – testing, projects, plans:(CZ, HU, SK Edu, SL PES ans EDU, PL Edu)CZ: „ There is the Czech Institute for

Supervision “CZ: intervision as a support of counselling is

part of a project called “What is also going on at school” - European Social Fund

HU: „ Social Renewal Operational Program in Hungary provides supervision for the 50 LLG counsellors during the program period“

SupervisionSupervision – testing, projects, plans:(CZ, HU, SK Edu, SL PES and EDU, PL Edu)SL EDU: „The Faculty of Education is teaching the

“educational and developmental” model of supervision“

SL EDU: „ A supervisor should have a degree in supervision“

Standard proposed in guidelines is that the school counsellor in schools must participate in these activities minimum 2 hours per month

SL PES: „ establishment of the Education Centre“, „ supervision will probably be introduced again, since there is a special need among counsellors “

IntervisionPreference of the intervision:(DE, AT-Edu, SK-Edu)Intervision is method supported by all

countries either as parallel method to supervision or as main measure for training at the workplace

DE PES: „ decree - (Runderlass 66/200) both supervision and coaching - was cancelled in 2008“

DE PES: „ counsellors are supported via the tool “practice-oriented counselling” which is part of the staff development“

Supervision / IntervisionConclusionsSupervision is recognised and valuable

measure but is time consuming and quite expensive

Regarding the challenging work of counsellors and client’s expectations supervision should be at least in a minimal amount included in working standards

Intervision is more effective and appropriate for LLL at the workplace. It could be successfully supported by e-tools.

Further training*Training aimed on keeping the quality of guidance services and professional level counsellors could be organised as:Obligatory for employers and/or counsellorsOptional offer / motivation measuresNot regulated at all

* Here we are focusing on specialized training of guidance practitioners and not on general training of employees

Further training*Obligatory Optional offer Not regulated

AT-Edu, PL-PES SK-Edu, PL-Edu, SL, CZ-Edu

DE PES, SK PES, CZ PES, HU

* Here we are focusing on specialized training of guidance practitioners and not on general training of employees

Further trainingExamples:AT-Edu: „ Further training and update of knowledge is organised by a working group on regional level and has to be taken at least once a year“AT-Edu: „ Responsibilities of the School Psychology Service is support of teachers as well as co-operation in the planning of their further training on regional level“PL PES: „ introduction of licences“ „ to activate and motivate to develop their competences and qualifications“PL PES: Universities offers postgraduate studies free of charge for counsellorsPL PES: „ Training courses are prepared on the basis of needs assessments carried out among counsellors employed at labour offices“

Further trainingExamples:PL-Edu: „Training leaves benefit; Master degree studies“PL-Edu: „ possibility to obtain subsequent levels of career progression“ after trainingSK-Edu: „ In education sector Act No. 317/2009 on pedagogical staff and specialists“; By law specialists and pedagogical staff have the right for 5 working days to participate in continual education courses and programmes.SK-School: „ there exists the offer of specialised study for educational counsellors – beginners lasting for 200 hours“

Further trainingExamples:SK-School: „ there exists the offer of specialised study for educational counsellors – beginners lasting for 200 hours“SL-Edu: „in-service teacher trainings that are published yearly in the Catalogue of Continuous Expert Training “CZ-Edu: e-learning training programme for educational and career counsellors called eKariéra

Further trainingConclusionsFurther training of counsellors is mostly not specific

and supported equally to other employeesProfessionalization of guidance requires systematic

monitoring of training needs and preparation of targeted training offer

Demand for quality vocational training from public sector is necessary for generation of offer on the training market

Innovation of knowledge and methods is ethical obligation of counsellor and should be part of working standard

Well-beingIt is more than obvious that attention paid to this area is smaller than elaboration of professional requirements imposed on guidance personnel Working conditions are usually the same as for other workers in the sector.Examples:DE-PES: „The Federal Employment Agency has installed an internal health management for all co-workers “

Well-beingExamples:PL-Edu: „ Activities carried out under the

project “Safe and Friendly School”... to achieve balance between their personal and professional lives“

SK-Edu, PL-Edu: „ The Act also assigns specialists and pedagogical staff the status of a protected person in order to provide them with higher security status, mainly by the means of high degree of penalty in case of the attack by potential offenders“

Intervention resourcesAre mostly organised as ad hoc seminars like „burn out prevention“.Other examples:CZ-Edu: „ The Institute of Educational and Psychological Counselling operates an anonymous counselling Helpline serving particularly the educational staff “HU: „ portal for the career guidance professionals“ – social networking

Intervetion resourcesOther examples:PL-Edu: „ informal, self-development groups as well

as psychological support groups which allow the counsellors to counteract professional burnout and contribute to their professional development operate in some psychological and pedagogical centres employing vocational counsellors“

SK-Edu: „ the headmaster provides for pedagogical staff and specialists preventive psychological counselling at least once a year and allows them to take part in trainings focused on aggressiveness prevention, self-knowledge and conflict solving“

Well-being and IntervetionConclusionsWorking environment influences client’s trust

in professionalism of offered services; It is recommended to revise current facilities according to expectation of clients.

In the first place target the focus on prevention measures

Employer and social partners should promote existing prevention and intervention measures among counsellors

“Professional Care for Guidance Practitioners – Who Cares for Those Who

Care”

EUROGUIDANCE TEAM