Focusing on career guidance to shape change

The Global Careers Month is organised by the Inter-Agency Career Guidance Working Group, composed of Cedefop, the European Commission, the European Training Foundation (ETF), the International Labour Organization (ILO), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), UNESCO and The World Bank. It includes a series of global and regional events, in partnership with national and regional associations operating around career development for both young people and adults.

Career guidance is the services provided to individuals, groups and their families, starting with mandatory education and extending to lifelong learning. It can help open up the world of work to everyone, not excluding vulnerable groups, as well as alerting them to opportunities offered by new sectors arising from the digital and green transitions.

Career development support is a lifelong process and service so that people can obtain decent jobs, manage their learning and careers in a way that reflects their interests and goals, that also benefits economies and societies.

The evidence proves that the investment in career guidance provides positive economic, educational and social returns to both individuals and society, as efficient career guidance systems build on key elements:

• Strategies/policies
• Coordination and cooperation between all relevant stakeholders
• Appropriate and stable funding
• Quality assurance mechanisms 
• Access for all
• Use of information technology
• Qualified professionals

As Cedefop Executive Director Jürgen Siebel said, 'quality career guidance helps people to navigate change, but also to shape change and the world – to be in the driver’s seat while steering through the challenges of the labour market.'

The specific objectives of the Global Careers Month are to:

• Raise awareness about the role and importance of effective career guidance to enable access to decent work, careers, and support growth efforts during the economic recovery;
• identify shared challenges to the development of career guidance systems as well local specificities linked to local contexts;
• showcase high quality, as well as innovative solutions to promote career development support in diverse contexts and for learners at different stages in their educational and career pathways; and,
• disseminate research undertaken by the collaborating agencies on the design and delivery of effective career guidance.

The opening ceremony for this series of events, is on 8 November from 12:00 to 13:30 CET. You can see the agenda here, register here and watch the event live here.

IAG Career Guidance partner organisations

Listen to episode 10 of Cedefop's Skillset and match podcast about the first ever Global Careers Month and the crucial part career guidance is playing at the current historical juncture. Click here.