6.7 Skills to use information: Focus on practitioners’ skills

Skills to use information: Focus on practitioners’ skills

The training and competence of career professionals make an essential contribution to the development of high-quality career guidance services.  In 2005, EU Member States agreed that the professionalism and qualifications of service providers constitute one of the five quality meta-criteria for national guidance systems (ELGPN 2015b).

Career professionals vary considerably in their experience of using technology in practice. Some practitioners are not convinced of the relevance of technology in delivering career services, and others lack the skills or confidence to be able to do this effectively. However, a consensus has emerged that both the practitioners and ICT have an important role to play in the design and delivery of career development services via the Internet (e.g. Vuorinen, 2006). In order to consider the usefulness and the potential of existing and emerging technologies, career professionals need to understand the general goals of career services and must be able to identify the targets of career guidance and counselling and conclude how theoretical frameworks are used in existing career related ICT services, or how theoretical frameworks can be embedded in the design of ICT services.

A successful integration of technology in guidance and counselling is dependent on practitioners’ willingness to accept the changes a new technology may bring to service delivery. One of the main goals in integrating ICT in the design, implementation and management of academic training programmes for career professionals is that the students learn to use ICT in practice, and convert this experience to their own explicit competence to support their clients in the use of technology.

Implementing ICT and LMI in the training of career professionals is neither about only using ICT-based methods, nor about giving extra ICT and/or LMI classes. It is about mainstreaming the use of modern technology and expanding understanding of ICT and LMI in study programmes. This in turn will serve to develop awareness of the complex nature of combining ICT in guidance and counselling with the modernisation of services.

The goal should be to socialize the effective and reflected use of modern technology for various purposes – in combination with ‘traditional’ methods. Training should help practitioners become aware of variations in the part that technology plays in the career field. It should also help them to reflect on the differences between their current understanding and a more advanced understanding of ICT that they may be, or may need to be, moving towards. In other words, practitioners should be exposed to situations where they are challenged to see and reflect on the potential of technology in the context of career services. Thought should be given to the competences which practitioners need to develop regarding modern technology and ICT, and which should be integrated into the design of training modules or individual courses.

However, ICT skills and competences are often considered secondary, and remain underdeveloped in initial and continuing training (Cedefop, 2009; European Commission, 2014). An evidence-based foundation for the design of pre-service and in-service training within a coherent framework of career practice (Kettunen, 2017) emphasises a developmental approach to capacity building. The derived conceptual framework (Figure below) has already been successfully applied to curriculum development in the international summer course for ICT in guidance and counselling, and offers a basis for further development of the wider training curriculum.

Source: Kettunen, 2017, p. 48

Specific practitioner competencies address proficiency in locating, evaluating and using online content; being a versatile and thoughtful writer; being able to generate and sustain engaging and constructive online discussion; and creating a visible and trusted online presence (Kettunen, 2017). Emphasis is also placed on interventions that foster collaborative learning among peer group members (Kettunen et al., 2015).

Further reading:

• ELGPN [European Lifelong Guidance Policy Network]. (2015b). The Guidelines for Policies and Systems Development for Lifelong Guidance: A Reference Framework for the EU and for the Commission. ELGPN Tools No. 6. Saarijärvi, Finland.

• Arnkil, R., Spangar, T., & Vuorinen, R. (2017). Practitioner's toolkit for PES building career guidance and lifelong learning. European Union. doi:10.2767/776182

• Cedefop. (2009). Professionalising career guidance: Practitioner competences and  qualification routes in Europe. Cedefop panorama series 164. Luxembourg: Office of the European Union.

• Kettunen, J. (2017). Career practitioners´ conceptions of social media and competency for social media in career services. Jyväskylä, Finland: University of Jyväskylä, Finnish Institute for Educational Research. Studies, 32. Dissertation.