Deutscher Bildungs Server

Career Guidance and Educational Counselling Worldwide

In German, you have the very general term "Bildungsberatung" meaning literally "educational guidance / counsel(l)ing / consultancy / advice / …". As you can see, the very general term "Beratung" can be translated into different words in English. This has to be considered when looking for information on "educational guidance / counsel(l)ing / consultancy / advice / …" around the world. When trying to find some definitions that may conceptually distiguish the terms, you quickly realise that there is more than one definition for each respective term. Still, you may perceive certain differences that occur more frequently than others and upon which there seems to be a certain agreement, although there will always be exceptions and grey areas. For example, "counsel(l)ing" is often used in a psychotherapeutical or socio-psychological context. Another recurring observation is that "guidance & counsel(l)ing" often seems to be an integrated service of (educational) institutions, while you will go and visit a "consultant" in their own office/organisation and maybe pay for their service. In the context of education (& employment) you will often find a combination of terms: "career guidance (& counsel(l)ing" or also "career development".

In our section "Overview", you will hence find a multilingual glossary with terms from the field of educational and vocational guidance as well as an English glossary with explanations and definitions of terms. Moreover, our webdossier provides the following information on educational guidance worldwide:

Overview

"This report presents the findings of a scoping of state-funded school-based counselling services for children and young people in 90 countries. The scoping is based on data accessed first, via a search of peer-reviewed journal articles written in the English language; second, via correspondence with key authors; and third, via the websites of national school-based counselling [...]

Europe
This interactive map provides short information on guidance and counselling in European countries. The texts also contain links to further information on the subject of guidance in the respective country.

Euroguidance is a European network of national resource and information centres for guidance and counselling in the [...]

international
Together with the French Onisep, the International Association for Educational and Vocational Guidance (IAEVG) provides a multilingual glossary with the most important terms in educational and vocational guidance in English, German, French, and Spanish. There are four documents [...]

Associations, Networks, Centres

international
The IAEVG is an international association of institutions and organisations active in educational counselling and guidance. Its focus lies on the professional qualification of school and vocational education counsellors. The association provides a list of national organisations worldwide, the e-journal "International Journal for [...]

international
The International Association for Counselling (IAC) was created in 1966 as the "International Round Table for the Advancement of Counselling (IRTAC)". It provides a platform for communication for researchers and professionals in counselling and guidance. IAC awards certifications to education programmes and courses in [...]

international
Established in 2004, the International Centre for Career Development and Public Policy (ICCDPP) is rather a virtual network providing a forum, a virtual pinboard for all kinds of announcements and a reservoir for collecting literature, guidelines, frameworks, best practice examples, and many other documents concerning career [...]

international
NBCC International is the international branch of the US American National Board for Certified Counselors. Its main aim is the certification of counsellors and quality assurance in the couselling profession. NBCC has a focus on counselling in the health sector, but it also provides certificates for educational and career guidance [...]

Europe
EACG mainly organises training courses for career guidance counsellors at the European level, as well as an annual conference. Moreover, the website has a newsletter (last issue as of July 2016) and some information on EU projects. [Abstract: Editors of Education Worldwide]

Europe
Euroguidance is a European network of national resource and information centres for guidance and counselling in the educational and employment sector. The website provides a lot of information, fulltexts, links and tools: texts on national counselling systems in the EU, best practice examples, links to European and international [...]

Europe
The Network for Innovation in Career Guidance & Counselling in Europe (NICE) began in 2009 with two European projects and was transformed into a foundation in 2017. NICE is a "European network for the academic training of people who practice career guidance and counselling (career practitioners)". Information is provided on three [...]

Europe
The European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network (ELGPN) existed from 2007 till 2015. It was meant to support the EU member states and the European Commission in cooperating in lifelong guidance policy in education and the employment sector. In meetings, webinars and others, comprehensive material was elaborated to inform policy and [...]

Europe
The European Society for Vocational Designing and Career Counseling (ESVDC) focusses on research. It has created several awards for professors, PhD researchers and for special merits, organises conferences, provides a bibliographic list (no fulltext), a newsletter, information for members, and under "collaborations" you can find a list [...]

Asia; Pacific Rim; Australia; New Zealand; Canada; United States; China; India; Indonesia; Japan; Cambodia; Guam [...]
The Asia Pacific Career Development Association (APCDA) provides a forum for professionals working in career guidance and counselling in our about Asia and the Pacific - from early to adult education. Its website provides [...]

Latin America; Mexico
The website of the Latin American network for professionals in counselling and guidance provides the newsletter "Boletín Tiempo Latinoamericano", annoucements of events and links to journals from different Latin American countries including Spain and the network's own journal "Revista Latinoamericana de Orientación y [...]

Africa; Africa South of the Sahara
The GCYDCA aims at developping and institutionalising guidance, counseling and youth development in Africa. The centre was founded in 1994 by the education ministers of almost all African states (49 out of 54). It is located in Malawi. The website seems to have been updated in 2016 for the last time. It [...]

Research

"In a changing world, there is a need to reflect about the research basis of career guidance and counselling (CGC) as a professional practice, considering the contributions of various disciplines and research traditions. This paper outlines a possible European research agenda (ERA) to further enhance the knowledge foundation of the CGC practice. The proposed lines of research, [...]

"The main aim of this paper is to analyse the current trends and tendencies within career counselling research and theories. The author summarises existing career counselling studies as well as makes the case for using A. Giddens' theory of structuration in career counselling analysis." The article is also available in Polish. [Abstract: Author's information].

"The article explores various meanings of counselling as understood in colloquial, psychological and sociological terminologies and contexts. Starting from these definitions, the article argues strongly for research into counselling and investigation of counselling-related issues and problems. The resultant findings, compiled and synthesised in the form of hypotheses, [...]

Europe
ECADOC was created as a project of the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance & Counselling in Europe (NICE). It was supported financially by the European Union from 2003 till 2006. ECADOC is aiming at promoting exchange and communication on research in the field of career guidance and counselling at a European level, as well as [...]

international; Canada
The CRWG had a focus on evaluation and assessment of the counselling profession and guidance activities. The website provided a lot of information, fulltexts and instruments from different projects. For example, you could find tools for self-evaluation, as well for counselling professionals (e.g. assessment of [...]

Policy

international
OECD website on the policy framework for educational and vocational guidance and counselling in OECD member states. The website provides two comprehensive publications: "Career Guidance: A Handbook for Policy Makers" (fulltext in Engl. / French and summaries in several other languages) and "Career Guidance and Public Policy: [...]

The author reports on a 14-country Career Guidance Policy Review he has been working on for the OECD in 2002. First he talks about the rationale for the review and the form it is taking; second, he presents some of his and his colleague's initial tentative findings, both general and specific; and third, he makes a few comments on the UK as viewed from the perspective of the [...]

"This paper considers the spate of reviews of career guidance that have taken place since the year 2000, and which were commissioned by such supranational entities as the OECD and various agencies and directorates of the European Commission. The paper argues that this series of overlapping comparative studies - involving 55 countries in all - constitutes a powerful discursive [...]

"This handbook examines policy research on school counseling across a wide range of countries and offers guidelines for developing counseling research and practice standards worldwide. It identifies the vital role of counseling in enhancing students' educational performance and general wellbeing, and explores effective methods for conducting policy research, with practical [...]

Training, Models, Standards

"The training of highly competent professionals in career guidance and counselling (CGC) is becoming increasingly important in Europe. But what do such CGC professionals need to be able to do, in order to support individuals, organisations and communities in dealing with complex career-related challenges? And how can special degree programmes be set up for the training of such [...]

"In many European countries the training of careers guidance practitioners is not formally established and based mostly on non formal and informal learning; a comprehensive system of qualification is lacking; where existing, qualifications are not comparable between different countries. The development and implementation and adoption at European level of a framework for [...]

"Accreditation of people delivering career guidance is one of the main steps to guarantee good quality in career guidance delivery. This contribution deals with the main challenges and options we face when developing frameworks at European level for accreting people delivering career guidance. Several approached are identified and discussed. A framework accrediting the main [...]

"The aim of the International Model for School Counseling Programs is to provide a framework for encouraging and promoting best practices among international school counselors. By creating "Unity from Diversity" for international school counseling programs, the International Model will guide the formation, review, and improvement of counseling programs at schools all over the [...]

Literature: Career guidance & counselling in different regions and countries

In industrialized societies, individuals are facing major challenges that mobilize many of their psychological and social resources. The world of work is changing constantly. Adults have to adapt their technical skills and knowledge continuously. For teenagers and young adults, choosing a vocation and constructing their future career paths is becoming increasingly difficult. [...]

"Guidance in Latin America is a professional activity of recent acceptance in academic scene. The same has been characterized by a constant evolution in its eagerness to adapt to the new changes and social, political and economical transformations that occur in the Latin American continent. In this communication a general view appears about Guidance in this continent. The main [...]

"The analysis was built upon previous experience with career guidance reviews of the OECD, the European Commission, Cedefop, ETF and the World Bank, and developed further the research methodology by paying particular attention to the socio-economic and cultural context of the Mediterranean region and its impact and limitations on career guidance services. It was based on the [...]

"In many parts of the world, career centers are striving to meet the career development needs of university students faced with a fast-changing socio-economic and globalized world. The dialogues in this special issue help to advance our understanding of career guidance and counseling in higher education from an international perspective. (...) It is the aim of this special [...]

"This special issue of the Asian Journal of Counselling considers career counselling and internationalization in the context of broader revision of the discipline. Perspectives on career counselling in Australia, South Africa, India, Japan, and Taiwan are presented in the hope that converging themes may be identified. A reflection paper concludes this special issue, [...]

Russian Federation
The Russian National Research University for Information Technologies, Mechanics and Optics in Saint Petersburg (ITMO) published an article on career guidance in its online magazine. The article was written on the occasion of the publication of a study that found out that a great number of university graduates in Russia [...]

"The article raises questions about creating career guidance system in Russian school. The author has done a research of high school students (of 9 and 11 Year) concerning their professional choice. The author has stated the factors ensure readiness for self-determination of the school graduates." [Abstract: Author's information].

"This report describes how Russia organizes, manages and provides information, guidance and counseling services, and what are perceived to be the key challenges which this country is fac-ing to improve such services. (...) Using a format adapted from the OECD studies, the relevant information has been collected with the help of various policy-makers and experts, including [...]