Career Guidance in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine

ETF engaged into reviewing the national career development support systems in Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine. The country reports were drawn up in a participatory process using desk research, interviews and consultation and validation meetings with all the relevant national stakeholders, from ministries to members of civil society, practitioners, social partners and donors. COVID-19 restrictions limited this exchange to online meetings and interviews. Now also a regional synthesis report was developed aiming to support policy developments in the field of lifelong career guidance policies, systems and services at regional, country and sector level. Its findings and recommendations will also guide European Union (EU) programmes like EU4Youth and other stakeholder activities.

Key findings

Coordination, legislation

Legislation on career guidance has been in place in the countries concerned since the late 2000s to early 2010s. Apart from legislation, several policy papers and strategies have been adopted in the field. In Ukraine, a coordinative council was in place between 2009 and 2019; in Armenia a national career development institute was established and is still functioning.

However, based on the country reports, a coherent, clear-cut, cross-institutional action plan in the field may provide an additional boost for the development of career guidance systems and services. Such an action plan would need to address access to and quality of career guidance services in different sectors such as the school system, vocational education and training, the public employment service, higher education and social inclusion services. It would require a more even distribution of career staff and career tools among the different institutions involved, and professional training for service delivery staff. The type of coordination, either in the form of a cross-ministerial body, a forum, a memorandum of co-operation, a dedicated national institution or similar arrangement, may be less important than the mandate of such a cooperation or ensuring clear control, monitoring and evaluation of the service across various sectors. Furthermore, these synergetic policy actions, the professional identity and resilience of the institutions and staff involved and the effectiveness and efficiency of services could be reinforced.

Quality and training of professionals

Training of professionals and other staff such as social workers, employment service case managers and teachers has already started in the countries. This ongoing work could be further consolidated and standardised based on existing global and European competency frameworks for guidance professionals (NICE, 2016; IAEVG, 2003; CEDEFOP, 2009). The training of professionals, including basic standards of ethics, has a significant impact on the quality assurance of such services.

Funding

Not surprisingly, funding of career guidance services is the weakest link in the four countries covered by this report. Either the career guidance services budget is part of an institutional budget or these budgets are wrapped in project spending. This situation makes it hard to quantify the annual budget of career guidance services in these countries. Of course, these four countries are not alone in this situation, as this is very often the case among the EU countries too. A concept note and an action plan on how to map the budget of guidance services may lead to a more conscious service design. The return on investment may then be calculated for both decision makers and the wider public.

Monitoring & evaluation (M&E)

Some M&E activities were reported in the country papers, most of which are interconnected with institutional agendas, e.g. preventing early dropouts from schools or from the VET system, or monitoring jobseekers placed by state employment services. These activities are valid institutional or sectoral policy targets where career guidance has a pivotal role to play in service delivery. This information is all relevant, but the development of an M&E cross-institutional meta framework for the different career guidance services could be prioritised. This would give a general overview of the volume of career guidance services in certain countries.

It is also important to further study and analyse the available reports on the monitoring and evaluation of career guidance services. Due to the complex impact (social, educational, employment) of career guidance, monitoring and evaluation is not a simple task. It is usually embedded in other activities such as placement of jobseekers via wage subsidies or extra tutoring in school, etc.

Access to career guidance services

The four EaP countries have been constantly developing their career guidance capacities in the school system, youth services, vocational and higher education and the state/public employment services. However, based on the country reports, these capacities need to be further reinforced and restructured (for instance, by developing better targeted outreach services for NEET and for working age adults) in order to meet demand.

Integrative role of ICT in guidance

In modern societies, ICT plays an integrative role in service design and delivery. In all four countries, several ICT developments were reported, although most of them remain sectoral or project driven. The development of a national guidance website (even more applicable for relatively small countries such as Armenia and Georgia) could act as an integrator for career information, professionals and ultimately end users. It would reduce maintenance costs, improve cost efficiency and act as a good promotional and communication platform.

The national reviews and synthesis report mark a starting point for closer cooperation on this topic in the coming years with partner countries