6.6 Information and communication technologies in career guidance

Information and communication technologies in career guidance

In recent decades, Information and Communication Technology (ICT) has become an increasingly common element in career service provision. In this context, ICT refers to the products, infrastructure and electronic content that enhance policy and systems development for lifelong guidance and the delivery of lifelong guidance services, resources, and tools. It refers to how interactive services, resources and tools are designed and developed for citizens, how citizens use these, and how such uses in turn reshape that design. It also refers to the digital competency required to use ICT in a career development context (ELGPN, 2015b).

Source: Kettunen (2017)

According to Kettunen (2017), the use of ICT and social media in career guidance provides new opportunities for collaborative career exploration spaces. These spaces integrate self-directed materials for interactive communication with peers and practitioners, and support individual guidance, group guidance and the use of career resources – with or without the help of career practitioners. Furthermore, the emergence of social media has provided an impetus for paradigm change and reform, expanding from career guidance to co-careering, where shared expertise and meaningful co-construction of career related knowledge takes place among community members. This new communal approach challenges career guidance providers to reflect on and develop their culture, both at work and across organisations and networks.

The ELGPN guidelines for lifelong guidance systems and policy development (2015b) identify several different roles for ICT in lifelong guidance.

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. 

• 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.