Publications of the NICE Network

European Competence Standards for the Academic Training of Career Practitioners. NICE Handbook Vol. II (2016) , edited by C. Schiersmann, S. Einarsdóttir, J. Katsarov, J. Lerkkanen, R. Mulvey, J. Pouyaud, K. Pukelis, & PC Weber. Opladen: Barbara Budrich (Open Access).

The citizens of Europe are facing increasingly complex challenges to their career development today. Over the span of their lifetime, they need to manage their careers, and make numerous decisions concerning education, training and employment – ​​decisions, which seriously impact their futures and their well-being. To prepare citizens for these challenges, and to support them in the progress, competent career practitioners are needed. But what kinds of career practitioners are we talking about? And what do they need to be able to do? How can the quality of your training be assured?

This handbook introduces common European competence standards for the academic training of career practitioners in Europe, together with some proposals and examples, of how to implement and establish such competence standards in practice. More than 200 experts from all across Europe have contributed to the development of these shared standards of the Network for Innovation in Career Guidance and Counseling in Europe (NICE). The standards are already being used in many countries for the development of degree programs.

Social-Emotional Competencies. Training Needs of Career Practitioners (2021) , Johannes Katsarov. Aerdenhout: NICE Foundation (Open Access).

The practice of career guidance and counseling supports people in dealing with a wide variety of challenges related to their education and training, their vocational development and employment. Career professionals support their clients in various ways, through counseling, education, assessment, and information, but also through interventions in social systems, eg, through talks with clients' parents or employers. Little empirical research has focused on the question thus far, which role social and emotional competences like the management of one's emotions play for career guidance and counseling.

With this study, the STRENGTh project, aimed at gaining some first insights into career professionals' needs for social-emotional competences in Finland, Germany, Greece, Italy, Portugal, Romania, and beyond. Focus-group interviews with practitioners in all project countries demonstrated that career professionals face a wide array of social and emotional challenges in their practice. The international survey with more than 400 participants that followed showed that the demand for social-emotional competence training is large while training interests and needs differ between countries.

In consideration of the findings, we suggest that initial and further training programs for career professionals should pay more attention to social and emotional competences in the future. Practice-oriented, empirically founded training of competences for various social and emotional challenges is needed to equip practitioners adequately. The cases presented in this report can provide educators with a good starting point for the design of teaching materials and self-assessment exercises.

The central goal of this handbook is to provide (future) managers, program leaders and lecturers with common points of reference (CPR) for setting up and developing degree programs in our field. The central focus of this handbook is the academic training of CGC professionals. 

CPR offer orientation and enable a higher degree of cooperation, while not inhibiting the autonomy of the different parties. The added value of a system of CPR is high – not only for the academic community, but also for our stakeholders. In particular, we hope to support the development of the emerging profession of career guidance and counseling through our efforts to develop our academic discipline and higher education in our subject.

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